A Journey To The Darker Side of Other People's Lives: Meet Chris Macfarlane

Ladies and gents! You got a chance to meet yours truly on the blog last week, so it is now my pleasure to introduce you to one of my most beloved MA colleagues and fellow Where the Wild Words Are author, Chris Macfarlane.  Last year I had the pleasure of sharing a workshop group with Chris, and I was always struck both by her unparalleled sense of story both in her own writing and in her feedback to others.  I'm thrilled that she decided to develop her piece, A Girl Called Harry, into a full manuscript.  It's a book for teens with a strong moral compass and I'm getting excited right now imagining this novel finding its way into the hands of its intended readership! So, without further ado, I'll let the woman speak for herself.  Dear readers, I give you Chris Macfarlane!

Demons, Daim Bars and Good Advice: The long-awaited interview with Sarah Rees Brennan...

Yael and I met Sarah Rees Brennan on Blackfriars Bridge, one late July evening.

Like all stories, the beginning comes a little before that point.

I’ve been a fan of Sarah since before she was published, back when she blogged about her road through publication and kept livejournal rolling in the aisles with regular updates of wit (sidenote: this still happens), and repeatedly threw her books at Yael until she agreed to read them.

[Yael: You will now go read them too, if you know what’s good for you.]

Sarah Rees Brennan is the author of the Demon's Lexicon trilogy and the Lynburn Legacy trilogy. She's also collaborated with other big name YA authors, such as Cassandra Clare and Justine Larbalestier, is vocal about diversity in YA*, and feeds on the tears of her readers. Inevitably, we had to meet her, and we had to interview her for the blog. 

A Strange Moment

In which I had a dream last night featuring an Indian girl called Nashira who, in addition to being powerful in some way, kept goats.
I figured she wanted to be put into this story I started a couple of weeks ago, but I was particularly interested in her name and where it came from - was it Nashira or Nasheera? It sounded Hindi, but when I checked out babynamesworld.com nothing came back. Then I typed "Nashira" into google, hit the first link and here's what came back:

Gamma Capricorni (γ Cap, γ Capricorni) is a giant star in the constellation Capricornus. It has the traditional name Nashira, which comes from the Arabic سعد ناشرة - sa'd nashirah for "the lucky one" or "bearer of good news".

I swear I have never seen this page in my life.

Am now somewhat freaked out and marvelling the divinous and mysterious ways of characters and how they occasionally invade your sleep to get noticed.