Books I Wish I'd Written

by Tracy Barrett

When the group decided on the topic of “Books I Wish I’d Written” for this month’s posts, I was excited. There are so many books I love, admire, have learned from—this will be a piece of cake, I thought.

But then when I started to narrow down the list, I realized that it wasn’t as easy as it seemed. Did I wish I’d written Code Name Verity (Elizabeth Wein), my favorite recent YA novel? Well, no, because to do write a meticulously-researched book about young women caught up in the Second World War I’d have to spend lots of time learning about an era that I don’t know much about. It would have taken me years and years!

How about Twilight? I wouldn’t have to worry about paying bills, after all. But then I’d have to admit  to people that I liked populating a world with sparkly boys and vapid girls.

And so on. As it turns out, I can’t separate the writing of a book from the life that has to be led in order to write it, and in order to write anything other than what I do I’d have to turn myself into an entirely different person. Not that this doesn’t appeal sometimes (who wouldn’t like to try out someone else’s life?), but I think I’ll be content with doing the best that I can with who I am and what I create.

p.s. While I’m here—my twentieth (!) book for young readers, The Stepsister’s Tale, will be released in just over a month. It’s garnered its first review, which was a starred one from Kirkus, and there’s a giveaway over on Goodreads. I’ll be doing a blog tour and some other events. Check my Facebook page for details as I have them.