Holly Schindler's Blog
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Apr.07.2013
In honor of April being our "cruelest month," I'll admit, I've been pretty cruel to my characters in the past. I gave Aura, the MC of my debut YA, a schizophrenic mother (who is, as the book opens, in the midst of a downward spiral into the darkness of her illness), and I gave Chelsea,...
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Feb.13.2013
I began my full-time pursuit of publication in the spring of ’01, just after receiving my master’s. I was convinced I’d get published quickly…I’d already placed short fiction, poetry, and literary critique in a few journals while I was still a student, I’d consistently been referred to as one...
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Jan.25.2013
When I got my master’s, my mom invited me to stay home and devote full-time attention to my writing. It was my lifelong dream, after all—she offered me a roof, rent-free, and all the time I needed to get started. (Very ROOM OF ONE’S OWN, I know…)
I cleaned out the guest bedroom, turning...
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Dec.05.2012
I dig Christmas. I love the smell of pine and little white lights and decorating the house and wrapping gifts. I love carols and stockings and made-for-TV holiday flicks and carving the roast beast.
If Thanksgiving is the holiday to pause and let yourself truly feel all that you...
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Oct.22.2012
I’ve long insisted that Halloween is my all-time favorite holiday. “The wax lips!” I always say. “The candy corn! The plastic hatchets!”
But my Halloween love is actually about far more than that. Just as my love of ghost / scary stories is about far more...
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Sep.26.2012
As other bloggers have discussed at my MG blog, Smack Dab in the Middle, creative work is really tough to measure. Sure, when you finish a book—or better yet, when a book is on the shelves of a library or B&N—and you’ve got something physical to point to as you say, “This is what I’ve...
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Aug.03.2012
If I’m to define “independence” in the same way that I think many teens view the term—as a word interchangeable with “adulthood”—I’d have to say that I actually thrust independence on the main characters of both my published YAs.
Take Aura, the MC from my debut, A BLUE SO DARK. Her mother,...
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May.31.2012
You might expect me to cringe at the idea of my books hitting a used bookstore. When copies move from the shelves of second-hand stores, I won’t see a dime, after all. You might even expect me to cringe a bit at the idea of my books being housed in a library, where a single copy can be...
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Apr.18.2012
Virginia Woolf once famously insisted that in order to write fiction, a woman needed money and a room of her own.
Eleven years ago this May, that’s exactly what I got: a room of my own.
I’d just completed my master’s, and in the midst of all my fellow classmates making plans to move on to PhD...
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Mar.07.2012
We all use that word often, as writers—luck. We use it because so much is out of our hands. Because it always feels—especially during the submission process—that it takes a certain amount of luck to get a writing career off the ground.
I suppose, if anyone was ever going to say they were unlucky,...
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Jan.22.2012
While many of the firsts in my own life carried with them a swirl of different emotions—excitement and joy and uncertainty and confusion and elation—one first has the power, even as I think back on it today, to bring back only one emotion: pure, 100% terror.
The first day of junior high.
Sure, it...
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Nov.22.2011
This year, I'm just really into the Thanksgiving vibe. For those of you who follow my MG and YA author blogs, you know that both are featuring "gratitude" as the theme of the month.
Gratitude, it seems, is a little like these flowers I just found in my front yard—at this time of year, my yard's a...
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Oct.12.2011
Most writers would agree that conflict—or confrontation—can often be the most fun part of writing a book. On the page, conflict is where the story really takes off.
But because I’ve been hard at work, all month, on the revisions for my forthcoming debut MG, THE JUNCTION OF SUNSHINE AND LUCKY, I’m...
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Aug.17.2011
For an idea junkie (like myself) who owns stacks upon stacks of spiral-bound notebooks filled with scenarios for new books, nothing is more exciting—or even really as satisfying—as starting a new novel. I’m not sure even endings are quite as satisfying as sinking my teeth into a brand-new...
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Jul.07.2011
I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t writing, and I can’t think of a moment growing up when I didn’t dream of being a full-time author. I just always imagined myself making money doing the one thing I loved more than any…
But I never imagined, in all those years of dreaming, that I’d ever have...
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How many times can I say it? Holly Schindler knows how to write a perfect novel.”
—Brent at The Naughty Book Kitties
About Holly
After obtaining my master's degree in '01, I decided to nix the idea of a full-time job in order to pursue a writing career (my lifelong dream). A mere (ahem) nine years (and half a dozen worn-out computer keyboards later), I released my debut YA novel...
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Holly’s Favorite Books
I'm the Ultimate Reader...I consume quirky, edgy YA, romances that wring my heart out, picture books, poetry, clever cereal boxes, horror that sends me...