 Photo by Lillian Warga We are thrilled to interview Jasmine Warga on our blog today! Read more about her writing process and upcoming middle grade book. What’s the one thing you want children to take away from your book? I want kids to know that they deserve to be loved exactly as they are. One of the threads that runs through all my books is the power of self-acceptance, and learning how to embrace the parts of yourself that might make you feel different. I always share with kids that the things I was most insecure about myself as a kid are now some of my favorite things about adult me. I also hope that The Unlikely Tale of Chase and Finnegan specifically makes kids understand that if they are struggling with anxiety, they aren't alone. And, of course, I hope it makes them curious about the beauty of the natural world and feel inspired to want to take good care of the Earth and all of its creatures. Do you have any tips for pre-published authors? Stay curious! Stay wondrous! Don't worry so much about trends. What excites you? That is what is going to excite your future readers. Writing is a magic trick. You have to believe in it to get anyone else to, and the best way to do that is to be fully in love and obsessed with the stories you are telling. Write like you won't ever be published. And strangely enough, I feel like that's the kind of writing that gets published. For anyone who is reading this that is pre-published, I can't wait to read your story! Is there anything you want readers to know about you or your book(s)? I'm interested in expanding our definition of what a "diverse" book is. I want to uplift books and stories told by creators of all backgrounds, and understand that their backgrounds inform their writing even if they aren't directly writing about their identity. I always say that all of my books, at their core, are about home and finding belonging. This is because of my own family's history. And this is true whether I'm writing about a refugee girl from Syria, a Mars rover, or a cheetah. And lastly, I'd just like to say I'm so grateful to anyone who reads my books. I always think of stories as a shared dream between a writer and reader, and I'm beyond grateful when people decide to share in that dream with me. Jasmine Warga is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Unlikely Tale of Chase and Finnegan, A Rover’s Story, The Shape of Thunder, and A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall. Her book Other Words for Home received a Newbery Honor and Walter Honor, among numerous other awards. Here We Are Now and My Heart and Other Black Holes, her novels for teens, have been translated into over twenty-five languages. She lives in the Chicago area with her family. 
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 If you missed the webinar, So You Want to Write Children's Books: The 4-Essential Steps to Getting Started, we have the key takeaways below. To view the slides and webinar, please fill out this form.  (4)- Essential Steps to Writing Children's Books 1. Read 100+ children's books 2. Invest in classes and books on craft 3. Join or build YOUR own kidlit community 4. Keep Writing Special thanks to our presenters, Tonya Abari and Kirstie Myvett. You can connect with them on Instagram at @iamtabari and @kirstiemyauthor.  KidLit in Color will host several FREE writing webinars in 2026. You'll find more information and how to sign up in our newsletters.
Thank you and keep writing! The Kidlit in Color Team  We are thrilled to have NYT bestselling author Neal Shusterman on our blog again! Read the interview below about his new book, Mindworks. KLiC: What was your inspiration for Mindworks? NS: MindWorks itself is more a collection of past, polished works (with some new polish and additions) that went out of print but feel more relevant than ever. MindWorks is a collection of (almost) all my short fiction. Originally many of these stories came out in smaller collections: MindBenders, MindTwisters, MindQuakes, and MindStorms–as well as individual stories that appeared in other multi-author anthologies. But many of those came out near the beginning of my career and much has changed since then. Technology has grown, culture has shifted–and I’ve changed, both personally and as a writer! When my publisher approached me about making a full compendium of all those short stories as well as adding new ones, I was excited. Writers often look back on their older work and wish they could make changes, polish it one last time. It’s usually a fantasy, but this time, I actually get to live that fantasy! KLiC: Please tell us about your writing process. How long did it take you to write and sell this book? NS: My “writing” process for this was really different since most of the stories were already written. It was nostalgic combing back through the stories from my past–some things are so different and yet others are exactly the same. Culture shifts, people change, advancements are made, but the cautionary tales often scream the same warnings about humanity. In fact, the hardest part of revising the stories was including technological changes that are present today but didn’t exist when the stories were first written: the commonality of cellphones, the wider use of a larger, more immediate internet, etc. Those changes often made real plot points moot or inconceivable, or I’d have to make up an in-world rules or character limitations to negate the effects those changes might have on the plot. I wanted to tell the same stories, but through the lens of present day. KLiC: What’s the one thing you want children to take away from your book? NS: Ask questions. You won’t always find the answers. But keep asking questions, keep probing deeper. If something is off or uncanny, dissect it. Find out what it’s made of, what makes it tick, how and why it’s taken the shape that it has. How does it affect you, others, and the world around you? How has the world made it come to be? Just because something is uncomfortable doesn’t mean it isn’t worth exploring. KLiC: Do you have any tips for pre-published authors? NS: Write the next story. Not just the next “big” story, but every story you can conceive. Don’t get bogged down with rejections, with changes in the industry, with self doubt. Just keep going. Keep learning. Keep reading. And always, always keep writing! Even if it’s on napkins, in the margins of your notes, or in the drafts folder of your inbox. KLiC: What’s next for you? NS: The Scythe prequel! Revisiting the Scythedom has come with its own set of challenges–I’ve written myself into a few corners when it comes to the lore. But I see it like a puzzle box, and I enjoy building characters, complexities, and new concepts around those immovable obstacles that have been set in stone by the publication process of the past. KLiC: Is there anything you want readers to know about you or your book(s)? NS: As I said, I like readers to ask questions. It goes both ways–it’s what I try to do as well. That’s what my favorite books I’ve written have been inspired by: asking a question. It’s what I do as an author: I ask questions. It doesn’t mean I have the answers. But the questions are still worth asking. -- Neal Shusterman is the New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty award-winning books for children, teens, and adults, including the Unwind dystology, the Skinjacker trilogy, Downsiders, and Challenger Deep, which won the National Book Award. Scythe, the first book in his series Arc of a Scythe is a Michael L. Printz Honor Book. He also writes screenplays for motion pictures and television shows. Neal is the father of four, all of whom are talented writers and artists themselves. Visit Neal at StoryMan.com and Facebook.com/NealShusterman.  Photo by Gaby Gerster  KLiC: What was your inspiration for Abdullah's Bear Needs a Name? YH: The inspiration for the book title came from the story behind the book. During the pandemic, I started working with a primary school in the west of Scotland. About 90% of the school’s pupils at that time were from an ethnic minority background but the pupils didn’t see themselves as the main character in books and didn’t use their own names in creating stories in class. Names, which were from their own culture, community, religion, or heritage. I remember one of the teachers telling me that the children had been putting together a list of teddy bear names for a raffle and had chosen predominantly European names like Jack, Alan and Sarah. Not one of those children had picked a name like their own such as Anum, Omar or Fauzia. This anecdote became crucial to the school developing a project called ‘We Can Be Heroes’ where myself and two other writers worked with the pupils to help create stories where those children saw themselves in the books they read and were the heroes of those stories. My time at the school was also the inspiration for both the story and title of my book, Abdullah’s Bear Needs A Name!, about a boy called Abdullah who gets gifted a teddy bear passed down through generations, but he can’t find the right name for the bear until one day he hears an old story about his Dadaji (granddad).  KLIC: What are your favorite illustrations in the book? YH: I can’t praise Sophie Benmouyal, who is the illustrator of the book enough! She’s done such a terrific job and really brought the story to life more than I could have imagined. There are so many favourite illustrations to pick from! I think every spread where Abdullah is holding the bear you can see the love on his face. I really valued the collaborative process with my publishers in terms of the illustrations where I was asked for my opinion and feedback which was then given to Sophie who would then go ahead and do the illustrations based on that. I think this makes the book more authentic and richer in cultural experience and really goes that extra mile. For example, the detail on the shalwar kameez (clothes that the characters are wearing), the Pakistani food, the shops on the street, etc. But one of my favourite illustrations is where Abdullah asks his Abba to tell him a bedtime story. The details are wonderfully done and this was based on my own experience visiting Pakistan. A fun fact, Sophie started to research into her own Moroccan heritage for the book’s illustrations, so the book really is a piece of so many people’s heart – their experiences, stories, culture and histories. KLIC: What's the one thing you want children to take away from your book? YH: I want children to believe that they are worthy of being the central character in books. I want them to develop confidence and believe in themselves. For a long time growing up, I believed that only those who looked a certain way were worth reading about. I hope Abdullah’s Bear Needs A Name! will help change that perception and encourage all children to believe that they are important and worth reading and writing about, no matter who they are. Abdullah's Bear Needs a Name! releases in February 2026, but you can learn more or pre-order here.  Yasmin Hanif is a British-Pakistani author, poet and educator from a Muslim background. She worked on the 'We Can Be Heroes' project, which tackled the lack of diversity in children's literature and won several UK awards. Yasmin's debut picture book Abdullah's Bear Needs a Name! is inspired by this project. She lives in the west of Scotland, UK.
 We are so excited to host debut picture book author Moniza Hossain! Her picture book, Street Puppy, Masjid Cat releases on October 7th. It is illustrated by Wastana Haikal. Read more below: What was your inspiration for Street Puppy, Masjid Cat? I was looking after my sister’s dog when I wrote this book. Every evening, we would go for a walk past our neighborhood mosque, and the dog was absolutely obsessed with the cat that lived in the mosque. He would sit at the gate and cry while the cat glared out at him. Needless to say, his love was not reciprocated. I decided to write him a happier ending in my book, where a dog and a cat find common ground in an unlikely friendship. I love the fact that cats often live in mosques and I’ve always thought that a picture book about this unique cultural phenomenon would be cute and sweet. Serendipitously, the universe threw a mosque cat story in my lap. I think this was a story that was always meant to be written. There are so many misconceptions about Islam and Muslims, and this story gave me the perfect opportunity to shed some light on the importance of kindness in my religion. Please tell us about your writing process. How long did it take you to write and sell this book? I tend to write my picture books very quickly. Once inspiration strikes, I can usually have the story drafted in about three days. The first few lines of this book (which have not changed since I wrote them) came to me while I was walking the dog. I took my phone out and dashed the lines out in the notes app. I built on those lines once I got back home and then shared the draft with my critique partners. I did a few more rounds of edits and then sent the manuscript off to my agent. I don’t remember how long it took for the book to sell, but my editor came back with a R&R fairly quickly. She wanted me to flesh out the friendship arc within the story a little bit more. Once I did that, she took the manuscript to acquisition, and the book sold. What are your favorite illustrations in the book? It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that I love every page of this book. I had the honor of working on this story with Wastana Haikal, who is a brilliant Indonesian artist, and he brought the story to such vivid life with his exuberant, colorful art that it took my breath away when I first saw it. My favorite page is probably the page that introduces the two main characters, because their distinct personalities leap off the page so charmingly. The dog is sweet, the cat a little naughty. You get a peek at the setting of the story; the Southeast Asian city the stray dog roams about in and the beautiful mosque the cat lives in. The book is rife with cultural details that add to the beauty of the tale. -- Moniza Hossain is a Singaporean author of Bengali descent who writes children’s books inspired by her heritage. Her debut picture book, Street Puppy Masjid Cat, is coming out in October of 2025 with Little Bee Books, and her sophomore picture book, Ritu In The Sun, will be published by Random House Children’s Books in 2026. She also writes books for middle-grade readers. Her middle-grade debut, The Fear Factory, will be published by Holiday House Books in 2026. She has a short story in the award winning anthology Being Ace, and another in an anthology entitled The Beasts Beneath the Winds, that will be published in the fall of 2025 with Abrams. When she’s not busy writing, she teaches English literature and paints dragons. Follow her at: Twitter: @moniza_hossain Instagram: @monizahossain   We are thrilled to interview YA author, Liselle Sambury today! Her book, A Mastery of Monsters releases on July 29th. Read more about her and her book below. Kidlit in Color: What was your inspiration for A Mastery of Monsters? Liselle Sambury: I actually came up with the titles for all the books in the trilogy at the same time. Though we’ve yet to confirm whether we’ll use the one for the third title officially. I do wish that I had a better origin story, but A Mastery of Monsters just came to me in the moment. I like alliterative titles in general and given that the novel is focused on academia and monsters, it felt like something that fit well. As you read the book, you come to see the different layers in the titles and the way it also speaks to the power dynamics in the secret society. It also appealed to me that it followed some of the conventions around fantasy book titles while feeling still like something fresh and different. KLiC: Please tell us about your writing process. How long did it take you to write and sell this book? LS: I finished writing the first draft of the novel in November of 2022 after two months of writing and about a month and a half of plotting the book. After I completed it, I thought it was so bad that I ended up moving onto another project. I didn’t go back to read over it until May of 2023, and when I did, I was shocked because it was so good. I admit that I am often my harshest critic and realized just how much in that moment because I couldn’t believe that this was the same book that I thought was so terrible a few months ago. I had originally pitched a YA horror project to my publisher as a proposal which they wanted to buy, but I wondered if I would get more enthusiasm for a fantasy project instead. So, in a week, I went back to my first draft, polished the first six chapters, wrote a synopsis and pitch, and we sent that into my publisher instead, which sold in June of 2023. It was honestly an ideal outcome because this was the project that I had originally wanted to publish next, and I had only pitched the other project first because I felt insecure about my first draft. I’m truly so happy that this is the book series that we’re publishing. KLiC: What are your favorite moments in the book? LS: I have so many moments in the novel that I love, but I’m a big fan of the first two chapters. The opening chapter is from a character in the novel who isn’t the main POV character, but an important one, and it helps set the scene and tone. It’s action packed, a little scary, a little gruesome, but there’s also a lot of heart and personality in the voice. Then that second chapter from the main character, August, mirrors a lot of what happens in the initial chapter which creates an innate tension. I love it because it’s a great showcase of who August is as a character: funny, flawed, and badass. She goes from dancing in a club, to throwing a knife at a guy, to mocking the love interest, and it’s just the best. KLiC: What’s the one thing you want children or teens to take away from your book? LS: A lot of A Mastery of Monsters is about external pressure put on teens around both personal and academic excellence, and the ways in which this can be detrimental. I even wrote a dedication about how overachievers should allow themselves more grace when it comes to knowing what they want for their futures or encountering failure. I hope that readers can come away from the novel understanding that it’s okay if something doesn’t work out. That, I think, was the toughest lesson for me to learn during my time in university. I felt that everything that happened within those four years would define the rest of my life, and that just isn’t true. KLiC: Do you have any tips for pre-published authors? LS: Write what you’re passionate about regardless of if it aligns with trends or seems “sellable,” and focus on completing your projects to the best of your ability before getting caught up in pursuits of publication. I sometimes find that writers striving to be published let the pressure of that dream overshadow the craft of writing itself, when that’s the thing that gets you to that publication milestone. There’s no time limit on publishing a book. But you can absolutely come to regret putting out something you aren’t passionate about or that you rushed. KLiC: What’s next for you? LS: There are two more books in the Mastery series to be published, and so I’m hard at work on those. The second novel has been exciting for me to work on as it increases the stakes of the first, adds a new POV character, has an even bigger and deadlier competition, and sets up for the final book in the series. I’m also in the process of pursuing the publication of an adult project, and hope that I’ll have a novel in that age category to share one day. KLiC: Is there anything you want readers to know about you or your book(s)? LS: A Mastery of Monsters will be my sixth published novel, and so I hope that readers will take a look at the other books I’ve put out which include fantasy, sci-fi, thriller, and horror novels for young adults. They can also find me online at YouTube and Instagram under @lisellesambury. My YouTube channel is especially great for writers as I share a lot of behind-the-scenes of my life as a full-time author, writing and publishing advice, and offer a transparent look at my writing process. Liselle Sambury is a Trinidadian Canadian author and Governor General’s Literary Awards Finalist. She has a love for stories with dark themes, complicated families, and edges of hope. In her free time, she shares helpful tips for upcoming writers and details of her publishing journey through a YouTube channel dedicated to demystifying the sometimes-complicated business of being an author.   We are excited to feature Nadia Salomon on the blog today to discuss her newest picture book, A Rakhi For Rakesh, published July 8, 2025 with HarperCollins (Versify), illustrations by Nabi H. Ali. KLiC: What was your inspiration for A RAKHI FOR RAKESH? NS: I wrote A RAKHI FOR RAKESH after celebrating Raksha Bandhan with my big brother, Superman. We used to exchange rakhis via mail. But as we got older, we realized the power of siblinghood. Once our parents are gone, we’ll only have each other. In 2018, Superman happened to visit during Raksha Bandhan weekend. We performed the rakhi ceremony. We choked up, there were tears, and I thought...I would love to write about this emotional experience for littles. KLiC: What are your favorite illustrations in the book? NS: I love all the illustrations in the whole book - Nabi's art is incredible. He created the images in a new style that I'm incredibly thankful for. After having read our book and flipped through the pages - my favorite illustrations are:
They capture emotion and joy beautifully.  KLiC: Please tell us about your writing process. How long did it take you to write and sell this book? NS: I use a cheat sheet to draft story ideas. While some stories write themselves, others are 'hot'. Some of my stories require a lot of revision, research, and additional brainstorming. I apply craft tools I learned along the way to write better stories. I wrote A RAKHI FOR RAKESH in 2017. I revised and polished it for a year. At the time I was unagented. I shopped it around myself and a small press offered publication in March of 2018. I was thrilled. This happened right around the same time I accepted literary representation. Sadly, I lost the book deal during the process. I was devastated, but my agent assured me we would find it a home. I set the story aside for several months. We revised A RAKHI FOR RAKESH then took it out on sub in early 2021. It sold to Editor, Elizabeth Agyemang, who fell in love with it and offered publication in August of 2021.  KLiC: What’s the one thing you want children to take away from your book? NS: I want children to takeaway, that love is a complicated emotion filled with conflicting feelings. KLiC: Do you have any tips for pre-published authors? Giving up is easy. Staying the course is hard, but so worth it in the end. Set goals. Follow through to complete them. Put the effort in and don't expect others to do the work for you. If something isn't working the way you expect, try something different. Querying wasn't working for me, I entered pitch events and landed my agent that way. I didn't get here alone. I'm thankful for every single person who helped me along the way. It took lots of hands and support from so many wonderful creatives who cheered me on, showed me how to write, and to believe in my words. They were shoulders for me to cry on, and were always standing by to help me reframe when I couldn't see through the forest. I'm a firm believer in paying it forward. Always give something back to the community that raised you. Knowledge is a gift and power. Be responsible with it.  Nadia Salomon is an award-winning journalist. She is the author of Goodnight Ganesha, a Bank Street Best Children’s Book and an ALSC Día Selection. A Voice of Hope is her acclaimed release. It received the 2025 BCALA, SLJ Children and Youth Literary Award, a 2025 Notable Social Studies Trade Book award, a Bank Street Best Children's Book award, and earned two starred reviews from SLJ and The Horn Book. Nadia's title, A Rakhi for Rakesh, released with HarperCollins (Versify) in July 2025. It's about a pair of siblings who must overcome big emotions to celebrate the sibling holiday, Raksha Badhan. She works closely with SCBWI, 12x12 Challenge, Kids Comics Unite, and Storyteller Academy. When Nadia’s not spinning yarns, you’ll find her blogging about her favorite reads at Nadia’s Nook.
You can find her online on her website and on Instagram @nadiasalomon.author.  We are thrilled to host Justin Colón on our blog today! Read more about his upcoming picture book, THE ZOMBEES. KLiC: What was your inspiration for THE ZOMBEES? JC: I had an existing contract with Simon & Schuster in which I needed to provide a follow-up book to The Quacken. They wanted something that featured another punny creature, humor, spookiness, and some sort of chase sequence. With those parameters in mind, I researched portmanteau creatures and worked from there. I'm also a Halloween buff and beekeeper, so I'm sure that played heavily into it as well. KLiC: Please tell us about your writing process. How long did it take you to write and sell THE ZOMBEES? JC: From pitch to acquisition, the process took about eleven months. I pitched the title and character concept of The Zombees, during a February Zoom call with my editor, Kendra Levin. She loved it, and I got to writing. By mid-March I submitted the manuscript, and by mid-April I received a request for a significant 'revise and resubmit'. I submitted it in June, and by July I was informed by the editorial team that they were passing. They asked if I would be open to keeping the concept but writing an entirely new story, one that wasn't so dark and featured a message of bee positivity. Fast forward to January, after I had put the manuscript to rest for several months, and an entirely new story, told in rhyme, came to me while showering. I was able to produce a full draft, almost identical to the one being published, within two days. Normally my manuscripts take months (even years). I attribute this quickness to working on the story for so long and exploring all other options beforehand. I think what's far more interesting, though, is how quickly Kaly Quarles illustrated the book. From the time she was hired, Kaly delivered final art in just three months. She rocked under pressure, and that's what allowed us to stick to our original publication date of 2025. KLiC: What are your favorite illustrations in THE ZOMBEES? JC: This book feels like the essence of Halloween. It's spooky, festive fun. Each time I sit down with it I discover something new that I love and hadn't noticed before. As a spread, my favorite illustration is of the silhouetted zombees leaving the graveyard behind as they fly into the moonlit sky. Some of my favorite individual elements are the worm that appears on each page. The cat re-enacting the zombees in the library. And all the delicious looking candies and desserts Kaly crafted. I wish I could snatch them out of the page and eat them. KLiC: What’s the one thing you want children to take away from THE ZOMBEES? JC: As a beekeeper, I often work to educate the public about honeybees and how they're intelligent, hardworking creatures that generally don't attack unless provoked. But that's not my objective here. All I hope is that this story proves a fun read-aloud for the Halloween season. I love when I receive messages from families and educators that the little ones in their lives ask to read my stories on repeat. It's an incredible feeling to know your story has enthralled a child. KLiC: Do you have any tips for pre-published authors? JC: Aside from the usual advice, I encourage you to think about your story's theme and takeaway. If you had to sum up your story in one word, what would that word be? What is your story really about at its core? What is its point? What do you hope readers will gain and take away from the experience? Also, I would love to help you on your publication journey. I provide query and manuscript critiques, consultations, classes, and mentorship through my website: justincolonbooks.com/editorial-services KLiC: What’s next for you? JC: Beginning in autumn, I'll be traveling the country to do events and school visits for The Quacken and Impossible Possums. And in spring of 2026, my next picture book, Vampurr (illustrated by Lenny Wen) publishes with FSG/Macmillan. KLiC: Is there anything you want readers to know about you or your book(s)? JC: I will be doing spooky Halloween-themed school visits for The Zombees during late September through October. If you're interested in me visiting your school, feel free to contact me through my school visits page: justincolonbooks.com/school-visits Justin Colón (he/him/his) is a professional actor and children's book author. His previous picture books include The Quacken (illustrated by Pablo Pino) and Impossible Possums, (illustrated by James Rey Sanchez). A lover of Halloween and zombie movies, Justin is also a backyard beekeeper. Though his bees sometimes frighten the neighbors, they’ve never tried to eat their brains— something Justin takes great pride in. He lives in New York, but you can visit him at JustinColonBooks.com.  Photo by Sal Peretti  Photo by: Kariba Jack Photography We are ecstatic to have YA author Brittney Morris on our blog today! Read more about her upcoming young adult book, THIS BOOK MIGHT BE ABOUT ZINNIA. KLiC: What was your inspiration for THIS BOOK MIGHT BE ABOUT ZINNIA? Brittney Morris: As a gentle parent breaking cycles of trauma in my own family, I’ve done a lot of unlearning what I’ve was taught as a daughter—that parents should get their way because they’re bigger and stronger (and in my case, louder) than you, that unconditional love means abandoning your own boundaries no matter the cost, and that biological family is the only family you need. I’ve been teaching my son that he owes me nothing, that no one is entitled to a breach of his boundaries (family or not), and that found family is sometimes the strongest bond one can find in the known universe. Any of these things could’ve inspired a book in me, but somehow they all came together to inspire just one. KLiC: Please tell us about your writing process. How long did it take you to write and sell this book? BM: I like to keep my writing process simple and straightforward: Swift drafting, slow editing. I take about 24 hours to outline the entire book on one page, using a bullet point for each chapter. Then I write the first draft faster than my inner editor can keep up. I can’t hit the backspace button if I don’t give myself time to. Once I get notes back on my first draft, that’s when the slow, methodical, increasingly precise dissection happens. That’s the hardest part for me. I sold this book on option, so it sold in a matter of weeks. KLiC: What kind of research did you do for THIS BOOK MIGHT BE ABOUT ZINNIA? What’s the one thing you want teens to take away from your book? BM: Well for one, I watched both Mamma Mia and The Godfather 1, 2, and 3, none of which I’d seen before. For Tuesday’s POV, I listened to a lot of early 2000s pop-punk and top 40 music and really tried to immerse myself in my own childhood—remembering how driving directions were printed, how we would rush home from school to catch our favorite shows before streaming existed, and how we didn’t have the language to articulate or even recognize gaslighting, stonewalling, or narcissistic behavior in general, especially in our own parents. Zinnia’s POV is much more enlightened about such behaviors, thanks to the prolificness of search engines, social media, and widespread access to and endorsement of therapy and self-care. But they also cause her distress. I think with so many overwhelming reminders that we could be improving our lives with therapy, self-care, emotional maturity, and striving to be a better human, there’s pressure on teens today like never before. If there’s one thing to take away, it’s that it’s okay to pursue quiet. Ease. Simplicity. The average life. It’s okay to be just okay at something—at everything, really. No matter how much social media would have you believe you’re being graded on this stuff, the grading system is mostly made up, and your happiness is what matters most. KLiC: Do you have any tips for pre-published authors? BM: “Write what you love” is a cliche for a reason. Don’t worry about writing what sells. Worry about what lights you up. When your passion shows up on the page, the market will meet you. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Brittney Morris is the author of SLAY, The Cost of Knowing, and The Jump, and has written video game narrative for Insomniac Games’s Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 for PlayStation 5, Unknown Worlds’s Subnautica: Below Zero, and Soma Games’s The Lost Legends of Redwall. She is the founder and former president of the Boston University Creative Writing Club. She holds a BA in economics. You can find her online at AuthorBrittneyMorris.com and on X or Instagram. Find out more about This Book Might be About Zinnia here.   KLiC: What was your inspiration for YOU'RE OUT OF LUCK, ALINA BUTT? ABH: You’re Out of Luck Alina Butt is largely inspired by my own childhood. Since a big part of this book takes place in Pakistan with Alina’s family, my summer trips back home were a huge inspiration - along with all the colourful and warm memories I made there with my grandparents and cousins. I wanted to show a real version of Pakistan - not what is always shown in the media, rather Pakistan and the two very different worlds of the rich and the struggling that exist there, alongside the beauty and love which the country exudes. KLiC: Please tell us about your writing process. How long did it take you to write and sell this book? ABH: My writing process starts with a lot of thinking. I take time to think about my story for quite a while - what I want it to be, where I want my characters to go, what I want them to discover, before I start officially planning. Every time I get a great idea, no matter where I am, I jot it down. Then I begin planning the story - the beginning, middle, end, and some but not all of the details in between. I don’t spend too long on this part, as I like to give myself some freedom to be creative and change things up as I write. I go back and forth between my outline and story, being flexible about adding and removing parts. You’re Out of Luck, Alina Butt was sold very quickly as it was the second part to the Alina Butt series. My publisher was very interested in continuing on with Alina’s journey! KLiC: What Kind of research did you do? ABH: Even though I am from Pakistan, and I have visited there many times, I had to research the different sites Alina explores in the city of Lahore. I wanted to make sure I did the country justice and didn’t get anything wrong, in terms of the names of sites, accurate descriptions of places/ buildings/ traditions. I had lots of fun doing it! KLiC: What’s the one thing you want children to take away from your book? ABH: I hope this book helps kids focus on the blessings in their lives, and helps them to learn to always look for the bright side in every situation, establishing a positive/ growth mindset. KLiC: Do you have any tips for pre-published authors? ABH: Just start writing - do not wait for the perfect time, because there is none! And once you start, don’t stop! Keep at it! Please don’t worry about making it perfect, because you will have plenty of time to do that (during the hundreds of edits you do after you finish). Let your creativity flow, and get those thoughts that turn into words onto that Google doc! KLiC: What’s next for you? ABH: I am currently working on the third part of the Alina Butt series!  Ambreen Butt-Hussain is the author of the middle-grade Alina Butt series, which consists of the books, The Unlovable Alina Butt and You’re Out of Luck, Alina Butt. Ambreen was born in Pakistan but lived in England and Scotland before finally settling in Canada for many years. She has a bachelor of science from the University of Toronto and a master of education from Queen’s University. She continues to move around and has recently made Princeton, New Jersey her new home, with her husband and two sons. She teaches middle schoolers by day and writes for them by night! Ambreen is currently working on the third part of her series.
You’re Out of Luck, Alina Butt Book cover: Julie McLaughlin |
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