Writing

(TITLE TO COME) is about a little girl who wanted to be a hero and the world that turned her into a tragedy. Her name is Liz Emerson, and she has decided to put an end to her short and catastrophic attempt at life. Narrated by Liz's childhood imaginary friend and told through countdowns, regrets, and Newton's Laws of Motion, it tells not only Liz's story, but the stories of those who taught her that every move, every word, and every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
STATUS: scheduled fall 2014 publication from Greenwillow/HarperCollins

MEMENTO MORI is about Mori Lee Monroe, who a) writes letters to dead people, b) is spectacularly unlucky, and c) is dying of AIDS. Told in Mori's letters to the dead, the story follows Mori and her (also soon-to-be-dead) friend, Finch, as she risks her life to take a final road trip in search of immortality (and to visit everything on her list of Places to Eat Before I Die). Their route ends at her meticulously chosen cemetary plot, because Mori knows that in doing something spectacular enough for her name to live forever, eating her weight in chocolate-covered bacon, and (maybe) falling in love, she will probably lose her life.
STATUS: drafting

THE STORYWEAVER is a fantasy about a castle on a waterfall, where Speire is apprenticed to Storyweaver, the only man in the land who knows how to change the world with words. The price of magic, however, is steep: to change the future, she must sacrifice the past. But in her kingdom of wars and fractures, assassinations and plotting lords, Speire knows that the meager remainder of her memories isn't nearly enough secure her own tomorrow, much less the survival of an entire nation.
STATUS: outlining

BENEATH THE DISQUIET STAR is a story of falling stars and monsters. Of wolves that won’t eat you unless you fear them, and the consequences of winning a fight you should have lost. Of a girl who hasn’t heard her name spoken aloud in three years, and a boy who should be dead. Also, hot chocolate.
STATUS: revising (kind of)

WILDFLOWER is the YA fantasy that got me my wonderful, wonderful agent. It’s about a girl who watched her parents die, a boy who happens to be the son of the man who killed them, and the pointless annual Wars that bring them together. It has since been trunked, but it's still listed here because it's, y'know, my baby.
STATUS: trunked