Pen Friends,
Meet Dana Black! She’s our newest Staff Contributor and will be our Book Review Guru! If you’ve got a YA book you want to share with the world, send your review to Dana through our contact page!
WE give you….
If you ask kids what they’re most afraid of, I’d bet a lot of them would say, “the dark.” This isn’t an uncommon theme—the dark is a constant we must face on a daily basis, and it can be quite scary when we aren’t prepared for it.
Continue reading
It’s the first Monday of June, and for many of us in the Northern Hemisphere, things are starting to feel like summer. Hopefully, that also means vacation is on the horizon. And what’s a vacation without a good book (or twelve)?
Since I happen to be a fan of speculative fiction (Science Fiction, Fantasy, and everything in between), that’s where I tend to default when making reading recommendations. But, say you don’t care for “spec fic,” or you haven’t found the right place to dip your toe into the pool with the rest of us quirky folks. If that’s you, you’ve come to the right place, friend!
I’d like to present to you A Tourist’s Guide to Speculative Fiction.
There are about a thousand different genres and subgenres under the speculative umbrella, but four of the most popular (and in my opinion, accessible to general audiences) are fantasy, fairy tales, science fiction, and dystopian. I’ll highlight some recommendations for each.
Names. They’re usually the first piece of personal information you learn about a person. And they have so much power. As parents, the names we give our children (real or hypothetical) shape an essential part of who they ultimately become. It could ruin their lives.
Is that a slightly dramatic assessment? Maybe. But I’m a writer. And a theater nerd. Being dramatic is part of my DNA. Continue reading
Hey Pen Friends! Today’s feature is an aspiring Young Adult author.
SP: Who are you?
My name is Dana Black, and I live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. I’ve had a love of story for as long as I can remember, but I’ve been seriously pursuing fiction writing for the last four years. In my spare time, I enjoy photography and baking, and a few times over the years I considered going to pastry school or film school. Writing ended up winning out, and it continues to do so. But I make it a point of including food and baking in my stories as often as possible, and I dream of adapting my novels into screenplays.
SP: What do you write?
After trying out a few different genres, I have found a home writing young adult speculative novels, and I focus on fantasy. I’ve also got a time travel series in the works as well as a dystopian/fantasy waiting to be written.
The Spinning Pen 