Natasha Friend Guest Blog!

I have an awesome author here for my first Author Guest Blog! Natasha Friend is the author of three YA books, Perfect, Lush, and Bounce. She has agreed to do an awesome guest blog for me. I have read her two latest books Lush and Bounce but I still haven't gotten my hands on her debut novel, Perfect, yet. But I cannot wait! Please visit Natasha at her website: http://www.natashafriend.com/

~~~

Readers often ask me, 'When did you know you wanted to be a writer?' and I tell them 'As soon as I was old enough to read.' I remember--at the age of six or so--sitting on my father's lap and dictating stories to him which he would type up (these were the ancient days before computers). "Princess Puini and the Mud Dilemma" was my first story, about a princess who loved to make mud pies. In fact, there was a whole series of stories about princesses, and poor orphan girls finding treasure in the woods and then be-friending princesses. Great literature? Definitely not. But the writing bug had bitten.

The next sign that perhaps I was fated to become a writer--or at least an English teacher--came in seventh grade, when a boy named Biff (name changed to protect the innocent) passed me a love poem in the hall, and after I read it I was compelled to correct it for grammar, spelling, and rhyme scheme. I still have that poem. In fact, I still have every note passed to me in junior high. Maybe that's why I feel so comfortable writing about 13 year-olds; a part of me still remembers, viscerally, that mortifying, humiliating, exhilerating time of my life. So, thanks, inner-13 year-old girl, for all the story material. And please, keep it coming.

Natasha

~~~

Thanks so much Natasha! I wait for your future books! And if you haven't read them yet, you really should. They're fabulous!