Today is the official publication date for my latest novel, Sunshine.  And I’m delighted that it is being greeted with such enthusiasm.

It’s never easy for me to write about my own work, even in celebration. I seem to use up all the juice a story has for me in the writing itself.  But I have been honored to be asked to blog about Sunshine on several sites, and on Imagination Soup I took on the important topic of “dark” novels for young people.

Too dark?

Here’s how I began.  I hope you’ll click through to see the rest of what I had to say.

It’s a complaint I’ve heard often. Contemporary novels for kids are too dark!

And it’s one I understand even as I send another “dark” story into the world.

Kirkus Reviews said of Sunshine, my latest novel, “Richly character-driven, immersive, evocative, and painfully sad.” (Emphasis mine.)

Reading that review, I’ll admit I flinched a bit, even though I knew “painfully sad” wasn’t meant as a criticism.  After all, Kirkus gave Sunshine a star. But “painfully sad” hadn’t been the destination I’d been reaching for, though it was certainly the one I had found. It’s a place my stories often take me.

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