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In the wake of every successful project—by which I mean anything seen through to completion and eventually released out into the world—there are dozens of failures, slowly amassing in the sea of my life like some sort of shameful garbage island of ruined possibilities. For the most part, I don’t like to look at it. I don’t like to think about it. But...

WARNING! This post contains some adult language and themes! The world is a tumbling, fumbling mess. I’m walking through the playground on the first day of seventh-grade and thinking of you as I duck my way through the huddled masses of kids; lonely islands adrift on an asphalt sea, none of which belong to you. These islands are unruly. Seething masses...

“Never give up on your dreams” isn’t terrible advice, necessarily. It’s schmaltzy, sure, but it’s heart seems to be in the right place. Too often though, I’ve seen creators internalize the concept in a way that’s not only unhelpful but actually destructive and inhibitive to the creative process. I’ve given up on writing far more books than I’ve finished...

When I sat down to write the second book in the Thisby series—a mid-grade fantasy series about a girl who takes care of the monsters in a Dungeons & Dragons-style dungeon—I pretty much had the story already worked out in my head. I knew who the bad guys were, I knew the general thrust of the plot, I even had what I thought was a pretty cool title,...