I had a beautiful drive today up through Mississippi and western Alabama, listening to Leonard Cohen sing, "I ache in the places where I used to play." I'm still a bit achey myself, but Tiny Chicken Disease will not keep me from your questions.

Q. Why YA?

A. I just find the audience more interesting than I find other audiences.


Q. Any advice for those who want to start a vlog?

A. Well, on some level my advice for vloggers is akin to my advice for writers. Watch a lot of vlogs; try to figure out what works for you as a viewer and why. And then, when making videos, try to remember that you aren't making them for yourself (or at least not only for yourself), and that you have a responsibility to engage your audience.

Also, I think it serves you well if you're not trying to get famous but are instead trying to reach out to people whom you respect and treat as peers. (I've stated this before, but will happily state again that wanting to be famous--while totally understandable--is a huge waste of time, and that it will never give you what you want, which is to fill up the empty spaces inside of you.)


Q. Why are all of your main characters only-children?

A. Well, all three of my novels so far have centered on peer relationships more than families. That's why.


Q. I have a friend who is a great writer and wants to be an author, but she says she doesn't want to major in creative writing in college because "so many great writers end up getting ruined by a bad professor." I think she's dead wrong. What do you think?

A. This reminded me of a great Flannery O'Connor story. Flannery was asked whether she felt that creative writing classes discouraged too many young writers. She replied, "I don't think they discourage enough of them."

Your friend will not be ruined by a bad professor. In my experience, professors are almost always right about a writers' weaknesses. (And if a writer thinks she has no weaknesses, she is mistaken.) I don't know of any writer ever who's been 'ruined' by a professor--frankly, I think that gives too much credit to professors.

That said, I don't think it's absolutely necessary to major in creative writing or anything. (I didn't, for instance.) Writing isn't like engineering: You don't have to present a degree in order to get work. Kurt Vonnegut studied mechanical engineering; William Carlos Williams studied medicine; David Foster Wallace double-majored in English and Philosophy; Eudora Welty went to business school. I think studying broadly is always good. (For more on this topic, read my favorite speech.)


Q. Nobody smokes to die. People smoke because of the immediate effect smoking has on their bodies.

A. I disagree, at least personally. I smoked for ten years, and in all that time I never once enjoyed the immediate effect that smoking has on the body. I suppose it's mildly physically pleasurable (slightly less than a cup of coffee, I'd say). Once you're addicted, there's a certain feeling of relaxation associated with smoking a cigarette, but the 'buzz' doesn't feel good so much as different (hence the analogy to coffee).

The questioner goes on to note that "Long term goals or effects are not nearly as strongly motivating as immediate goals or effects." This is true, of course, but there are plenty of bad short-term effects of smoking: it makes you cough, costs a lot of money, and (if you're a teenager) it's illegal.

If smokers are only interested in the feeling of a nicotine buzz, why didn't nicotine patches instantaneously end the smoking epidemic? They give you the exact same buzz, after all.


Q. Question: I'm currently working on query letters. Tips?

A. Don't go for cleverness. Just be straightforward and professional and make sure you're spelling the addressee's name correctly.


Q. I do have to say I disagree with your evaluation of the author being (almost!) irrelevant. Over the course of this year in school, I've learned that absolutely nothing an author does is unintentional.

A. Well, I'm not saying that metaphor is unintentional. I'm saying it doesn't matter whether it's unintentional.