In a sea of dystopian Young Adult fiction, love tends to stand out. Becca Fitzpatrick’s 16-year-old Nora whose life is changed when she meets Patch, a mysterious boy with a dark seller is never short on romance and suspense and will keep you reading until the final book
series, Becca’s upcoming book and her surprising encounter with fugitives while backpacking in Teton Range, Wyoming. The book is expected to be released in October
Taking time out from her book signing tour in Manila and Cebu, Becca sits down to talk about writing
, life-changing books, and writing at an
I liked to write stories and writing plays for my classes and the teachers would let us perform it. But I didn’t get serious about writing until I was 24 and that was because my husband enrolled me in a writing class. It was in that class that I and I was looking
Yeah! I tell people that. When I meet teens at my signing and they say, “Oh, I wanna be a writer,” I always encourage people to get started as soon as they can. Don’t wait. It is a
That’s a good question. Maybe when I started reading Sandra Brown’s romantic-sus pense. They have had a huge influence on my writing. Just finding a way to tease the reader and not let them know exactly what’s going on while also weaving romance into the story. Our teacher gave us an assignment to write a scene showing humiliation. When he an nounced that assignment, I was struck by a memory back in high school. I was 16, I was sitting in biology class and we duction because I remember my teacher calling me out in front of the class and saying, “Becca, why don’t you tell the class the characteristics you one was laughing and I sat next to a really cute boy and he was poking me in the side saying, “Becca, tell us what you want but there was a scene in the book where Nora was asked the exact same thing by her biology teach er. That was the first scene I wrote. It just kind of sprout ed from there, from my own experiences as a teenager. So LD Entertainment already optioned the film
I used to think of Steven Strait. He was the guy I had in mind for Patch but it’s been so many years and obvi ously, he’s aged, so I don’t know who I would choose now. And I kinda don’t want to say if I had someone be cause then fans would think about that person and I love
Absolutely. I would say even if you can’t find a writ ing class, find a critique group. Just find people you can share your story with. Learn from their feedback. I think that’s really important. I really recommend reading. The more you read, the more you learn how to shape a story. And just be persistent. I received over a hundred rejec before it was accepted for pub lication. So you kind of have to develop a thick skin and accept that rejection would come.