YA Outside the Lines

This month at YA Outside the Lines, we're talking about our first freedoms ... and how they help us write about adventure in our novels. I'm all about adventure, so this isn't exactly difficult. When our kids were little, and not quite so little, I often said, "Hey, let's have an adventure!" The books I write feature a lot of adventures, and my life — even with my kids now in their 20s — remains filled with adventure. Since this is a blog mostly for YA (young adult) authors, librarians, and readers, I'm sure I'm supposed to write about high school adventures, but the truth is that (although I had them) my high school life was mostly about sports, sports, sports and other activities. My life of freedom began the summer after high school, when I lived and went to school in Guadalajara, Mexico. It was the first time my parents simply weren't around. I spoke an entirely different language most of the time (although I was pretty fluent), navigat...