“I have a little metal pebble with the word ‘success’ on it that I slip into my bra (left side) when I go to a literary event, embark on a new novel, or start a new chapter. I always forget about it and at the end of the day it clunks onto the floor as I change into my pajamas,

like a bullet that didn’t kill me. I write for teenagers and what that means is I write for the teenager in all of us. On the surface I am an adult. I am married. I have two kids. I have bills and difficult parents and the number 11 wrinkled between my eyes but underneath all that the sixteen-year-old romantic smartass in me always has something to say. I think of her as my true self, my best voice and I access her through music from my post-punk youth, lots of coffee, and fearless passionate remembering.”
—Arlaina Tibensky, author of And Then Things Fall Apart (Simon Pulse, 2011)