Micki Bare

About a year ago, I began writing a new middle-grade novel. The last book in my Zahra of the Uwharries series will be published this summer. I needed a new project, which led me on a hunt through my notes to dig out an idea. Once I settled on which idea to pursue, I wrote a couple of chapters. The chapters were difficult to write. First, the opening was too dark and depressing. Then it was too confusing. Then I paused and worked on a few picture book manuscripts that had been nagging at my...

Setting: A library-based author event earlier this year. Time: The latter portion of "set up" time, prior to the doors opening to the public. An author who said she writes young adult novels walked up to my booth and picked up my display copy of Society of the Sentinelia. She read the back cover. Her face lit up.

Ask any writer who has sat behind a table of neatly arranged books, swag, and themed decor, and they will have a story or two about the...