Meagan Spooner, author of LARK ASCENDING (out Oct. 1!), the final installment of the Skylark Trilogy, and is co-author of the Starbound Trilogy with Amie Kaufman. Meagan is bright, cheery and welcoming, with the self-assuredness of a girl who has crossed the globe more than once. We talk about her roots in the theater, how fairy tales are the OG fanfic, and that one time her house burned down.

Meagan Spooner Show Notes

STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND by Robert A. Heinlein

CONTACT by Carl Sagan

THE GIVER by Lois Lowry

THE DRAGON RIDERS OF PERN by Anne McCaffrey

Odyssey writing workshops

Claire Legrand (listen to her podcast interview here!)

Shel Silverstein

SIDEWAYS STORIES FROM WAYSIDE SCHOOL by Louis Sachar and Adam McCauley

IN A DARK, DARK ROOM by Alvin Schwartz and Dirk Zimmer

Delia Sherman and Ellen Kushner

The Tolkien quote about the "leaf-mould of the mind"

Sarah Maas, Susan Dennard, Amie Kaufman, Erin Bowman

Rachel Fershleiser Show Notes

Housing Works Bookstore Cafe in NY

Eat Your Feelings: Stories of Food, Jews & Your Mom, with Jami Attenberg and friends

Booksmith, Book People, and Tattered Cover (bookstores)

Stock Tips zine Kickstarter

Tumblr's Reblog Book Club

ELEANOR AND PARK and FANGIRL by Rainbow Rowell

Gingerhaze on Tumblr (Noelle Stevenson)

Simini Blocker on Tumblr

Ampersand from YadyKates on Etsy

YA Highway on Tumblr

WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign

GoBookYourself

I, Too, Am Harvard

Planned Parenthood Saved Me

Emily Schultz, author of JOYLAND, Spending Stephen King’s Money

Maureen Johnson, Coverflip

 SO MUCH PRETTY by Cara Hoffman

President Obama Tumblr Q&A

YA author Leigh Bardugo

Hot Key Books Young Writers competition, previous winner Katie Coyle

Bookstalker

Last Night’s Reading

Emily Books

Emily Hughes, who runs Random House’s Tumblr

Veronica Roth

THE MAN OF MY DREAMS by Curtis Sittenfeld

Nick Harkaway

Jennifer Close

Tana French, Gillian Flynn, Megan Abbott, Laura Lippman

THE UNKNOWNS by Gabriel Roth

CALIFORNIA by Edan Lepucki

NOBODY IS EVER MISSING by Catherine Lacey

HIGH AS THE HORSES' BRIDLES by Scott Cheshire

Emily Gould, author and co-owner of Emily Books

Celeste Ng, author

Gretchen McNeil, author of YA books POSSESS, TEN, 3:59, and GET EVEN (out this week, from Baltzer + Bray!) welcomed me to her home in L.A. for a great conversation about the pros and cons of fast drafting, grassroots marketing, and how to balance being a writer and an extrovert. And her adorable puppy Wolfgang makes an appearance, too!

Gretchen McNeil Show Notes

The 24 Italian Opera songs

TITHE by Holly Black

WICKED LOVELY by Melissa Marr

Stanislavski acting questions

Nosferatu

Boris Karloff

Amy Lukavics

T.S. Ferguson (Amy's editor at Harlequin TEEN)

Stephanie Perkins

Leigh Bardugo

RT = Romantic Times Book Lover's Convention

ALA = American Library Association

Cindy Pon

Diane Setterfield, THE THIRTEENTH TALE

Heidi Schulz Show Notes

Australorp breed of chickens

J.M. Barrie, author of PETER PAN and PETER PAN AND WENDY

Peter Pan (2003 film)

Brooks Sherman, Heidi’s agent

John Hendrix, illustrator for HOOK’S REVENGE

Heidi’s drawing of a sad robot being launched into space 

Claire Legrand, MG author

Emma Trevayne, MG author

KidLit authors Beverly Cleary, Diana Wynne Jones, and Judy Blume

Authors of creeptastic things, Stephen King and V. C. Andrews