Hi everyone! I recently had the privilege of speaking on a panel with fellow young adult authors E.C. Myers and Ellen Jensen Abbott. We volunteered our time to speak at Haverford High School as part of the PA Authors Speak Up for Libraries campaign.
Happily, the school taped our talk for their cable station, and I’m giving you all the link here because the panel covers so many interesting points about the writing process, the writing life, and I also answered questions about what I’m looking for as an agent when it comes to young adult submissions. Plus we each read a bit from one of our own novels — in my case, I read an excerpt from my YA novel DRAWN. The bright audience of high school creative writing students asked some very smart questions. I hope you all enjoy watching this talk. Just click here for the link.
Marie Lamba, author 
Hi Marie Wonderful panel discussion at Haverford! I wish they had creative writing classes when I went to high school. Thanks so much for passing it along. I really enjoyed it and I’m sure you’ve influenced young writers, as you did older writers, like myself! (Not old, just older). Ha!
By the way, you briefly touched on two other books during your introduction comments (I assume they were by two of your clients). One title included horse or horses. Sounded intriguing. But I remember that you didn’t want query letters from anyone whose book included horses. Just sayin’. 🙂
Take care. Hope to see you soon. Gerri
Gerri George
Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device
Hi Gerri!
Yes, you are right about the horse book. 🙂 I’m not a horsey person, so in general I’m not the agent for an “I’ve always dreamed of riding horses, horses are my life” sort of a book.
However, M.P. Barker’s MENDING HORSES is more of a family-friendly WATER FOR ELEPHANTS, centered around the old circuses and entirely focused on amazing characters. The writing is beyond elegant, and reviewers have said “…Barker skillfully evokes the realities of class, racial, and gender oppression in the nineteenth century through a rich cast, lifelike setting, and complex, compelling plot.” (Starred review, BOOKLIST). And the starred Kirkus review said, “Fluid writing and a true sense of history—including fascinating insights into early circuses—raise this well above the usual. Barker’s characters are nuanced, difficult, and real, and so is her sense of horses. An absorbing look into a patch of past not often examined.”
So not really a “horsey” book after all. Thanks so much for checking in!
🙂