Author Interviews

Interview with Aliza Layne, Author of Beetle & the Hollowbones!

By JROSEN on August 5, 2020 / Author Interviews

Hello Mixed-Up Filers!

Today, I am pleased to welcome to our site, Aliza Layne, author of the Graphic Novel, Beetle & the Hollowbones, from Simon & Schuster which came out on August 4^th.

JR: Hi, Aliza and thanks for joining us today!

AL: Thanks so much for chatting with me!

JR: First off, for those who don’t know about the book, can you tell us a little bit about Beetle & the Hollowbones and where the idea for this story came from?

AL: Beetle is a story about a young witch whose routine of bumming around at the mall with her best friend is shaken up when she realizes that Blob Ghost not only is a kid living by themselves in a mall, but is actually trapped there by a wall of necro-energy. So when the mall is about to be torn down, the only thing to do is get B.G. out of there. Beetle has a lot on her plate with this and it doesn’t help that her crush might be evil! It’s a story about unforgivable birds, rowdy grandmothers and trying not to be awful at magic. The idea started with the characters, I made up some Halloween kids who had great chemistry and just figured everything else out from there!

JR: The crush is always evil! I learned that in high school. This started as a web comics, which you do a lot of as well, such as the popular Demon Street. What are the pros and cons of doing a web comic as opposed to a more traditional format?

AL: Webcomics are really incredible! Almost anybody can do one if they have an internet connection, a camera or a scanner, and a pen and paper. You find a place to put it up and you put it up! The problem with webcomics is, not to get too down to brass tax, that you don’t make very much money at it, usually. You also don’t have as much access to collaboration and editors so it’s difficult to put something out that’s super slick. And because people are generally not being paid enough for their time, most of them are passion projects that take a really long time to finish, because you have to focus on other stuff! But when it comes to showing everybody your raw talent, they can’t be beat. I see things being done in webcomics that are raw and weird and brilliant all the time and I wouldn’t trade my time in webcomics for anything!

JR: Much of the action takes place at a mall, which right there had me hooked. Malls were a huge part of my childhood. So much so, that I made it an important in one of my books, as well. What is it about a mall that appealed to you and also made you think it made for a good story?

AL: There’s this thing that’s happening to malls around the country that is SO spooky, where they are becoming the kind of gothic that’s really funny, because we DID used to have mall goths. For the benefit of your readers who might not know, in the late 1700s the genre of romanticism in literature gave way to the genre of gothic; that is to say, there was (I’m kind of paraphrasing here) a loosely-defined era where art dominated that had this focus on beauty and prosperity, followed by an era where a genre showed up in response to that. Beautiful castles and manors became spooky, crumbing ruins. Poetic heroes got twisted became wicked, bizarre creeps, and sometimes people who were the wicked, bizarre creeps of the story became poetic heroes! It was really cool! For people who grew up hanging out in malls, they used to have these pretty palace-like facades where you were supposed to spend money and forget what time it is, but in a lot of rural areas (and other places) they’re just kind of being abandoned and left to rot. So I think there’s so much room for a weird new kind of gothic there! What’s left to get all crumbling and nasty after the mall isn’t cool anymore? I also find the idea of treating this so seriously to be super funny.

JR: You used to work in a mall. What store, and did any of your experiences influence anything in this story?

AL: I used to work at a bookstore! The pumpkinhead person in chapter one is just me. At some point while I was working there, some teens upended a puck of yellow dinosaur slime onto the carpet in the back and it hardened into amber, I tried to chip it off the floor with a sticker scraper but I couldn’t even get the dinosaur out of it, let alone the whole dried puck. It’s STILL back there. I go back and visit the store sometimes if one of my friends is working there. They tried to hide the dinosaur slime puck, but I know where it is.

JR: Now I need to go search for dinosaur slime puck! I also read on your website, https://beetlebones.net/ that you’re known for your Halloween costumes. What are some of your better costumes, and what goes into making a great Halloween costume?

AL: The main thing about Halloween costumes is passion and it also helps to go with the classics. Last year I was a wizard, I made a big yellow and orange and pink beard out of needlefelt fiber and wore a pink wig and kids got a kick out of it! But a couple of years I have been a pumpkinhead, and THAT always gets em. I made the pumpkinhead costume myself out of half a carvable fake craft pumpkin carved into a jack-o-lantern face and full of those little electric tealights so it’d look like it was lit up, and I put some plastic netting inside so you couldn’t see in.

JR: That’s an awesome costume! Can you tell us a little bit about your writing journey getting to this point?

AL: I cold-emailed for agents to represent my pitch for Beetle for about a year before I connected with Susan Graham, who I instantly bonded with over our shared love for illustrated novels. Susan was representing some of my friends, so I was happy to get to know them too! At that point it was a very traditional search for the right editor and the right publisher. We were lucky to connect with some really lovely people along the way! But before Beetle was ever a book, it was actually a cartoon pitch! You can still read my storyboards for it on my website.

JR: What’s your writing process like?

AL: I always start with the seed of an idea (or a character) and then go from there, keeping in mind a couple of things: the themes I want to touch on with the story (which make themselves known as I’m writing it) and how I can make it as satisfying as possible. I like to create stories that feel like they’re coming from the heart, so a good compass is whether the story I’m writing can evoke the same emotions in me as I mean for it to do in the reader. I pay attention to what makes me cry or pine or laugh or feel joy, and if I’m writing a scene that is meant to make me feel a strong emotion and it doesn’t, I need to find out why!

JR: What’s your favorite book from childhood?

AL: That’s such a difficult question! I think I’d be lying, though, if I said it wasn’t the first two Abarat books, by Clive Barker. They were exactly the books I needed the most when I was 12 years old, and the lush oil paintings that came in the illustrated edition of the book are still an artistic influence for me.

JR: What’s your favorite childhood movie?

Another super tough one! The first thing that comes to mind is Mirrormask, which is a movie I still love a lot, and another really big visual influence for me. I really respect the purity of the feelings in that movie, it was another one that felt like it had been made for me when I was 12/13. I love weird art about earnest feelings and I really respect the intense way that kids feel things, even when people don’t think they do, or aren’t paying attention to the fact that they do.

JR: I think that’s the first time we’ve got either of those answers, so it’s nice to be exposed to new things to check out. Something people would be surprised to learn about you?

AL: I’m a self-taught cartoonist! I got to learn a lot of disciplines going to college locally, but I learned all the cartooning I know from seeing things I liked and figuring out what worked about them. I’m really glad I got to learn watercolor and collage and sculpting and pottery, on top of being useful when I apply what I learned to the art I do for work, they’re all fun and fulfilling!

JR: That’s amazing that you’ve taught yourself! What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve received and is there any advice you can give to writers looking to break in?

AL: Telling a story and writing for your job is only hard because life around it makes it hard. The pressure of trying to survive while you’re writing make a lot of people have to give up, and they don’t deserve to have to compromise that to stay alive. So if anyone reading is looking for advice: if you have to give up on writing for a while to survive, just understand that that’s because of the pressures of the world, not because you weren’t good enough. I’m lucky to be where I am, even when I’m struggling. Everything else about it is just working and making it happen.

JR: That’s great advice! What are you working on next?

AL: That’s a secret for now, but I’m excited and I hope readers will stick around!

JR: Can’t wait to find out! How can people follow you on social media?

AL: I have a website for kids at beetlebones.net and twitter at @alizabees!

JR: Thanks again to Aliza Layne and make sure you go out and get Beetle & the Hollowbones!

A PLACE AT THE TABLE: FOOD AND FRIENDSHIP

By Jennifer Swanson on July 29, 2020 / Articles, Author Interviews

I am so excited to talk about A PLACE AT THE TABLE (Clarion Books) today! I mean, who am I kidding, I always love to talk books … however, A PLACE AT THE TABLE is close to my heart. I’ve been friends with and admired authors Laura Shovan and Saadia Faruqi for years now, and Saadia is actually a former contributing author here at Mixed-Up Files, so getting to be a small part of their celebration for this work is exciting to me.

This collaboration between Saadia and Laura is simply lovely. A PLACE AT THE TABLE is a story of friendship, food, and fitting in, of family, connections, and trust. 6th graders Sara and Elizabeth are struggling to fit in at their middle school. Sara just transferred from the Islamic school she’d always gone to, and Elizabeth is facing a changing landscape of friends she’s always known. They wind up in the same cooking class together, one taught by Sara’s mother, and after a shaky start, wind up as cooking partners. The story of their growing friendship, the things they have in common and the things they learn about each other, is peppered with recipes from Sara’s Pakistani culture and Elizabeth’s Jewish culture.

And guess what? Saadia and Laura shared one of those recipes with us! Woohoo! You’ll get a chance to make your own Sufganiyot as well as appreciate the lovely artwork by Anoosha Syed on the recipe card.

And now that you’re salivating, let’s meet Saadia Faruqi (L) and Laura Shovan (R):

Interview: A Place at the Table

Origin Story and Writing Process

Laura: I had a loose idea for a novel based on my own childhood: a girl helps her immigrant mother through the citizenship process. But when my agent suggested working on a co-authored middle-grade story, something clicked. If this mother/daughter story were told by two girls from two culturally different families, the book could give a broader picture of what it means to be first-generation American. I admired Saadia’s writing and she’d shared with me that she’d recently gotten her U.S. citizenship. It was so exciting when she said yes to this project.

Saadia: It really was this moment of serendipity! Laura and I knew each other through the kidlit world, and she’d kindly helped me with a previous novel critique, but that was the extent of our relationship. Then she had the idea of a novel about immigration, and I jumped at the chance to discuss my very strong feelings on the subject in book form!

HMC: What was your writing process?

Laura: We are very grateful for Google Docs! Since this is a collaborative novel, we had to create an outline first. We planned which scenes and chapters would be told in Sara’s point of view, and which ones belonged to Elizabeth. From there, Saadia and I alternated writing the chapters. We always read each other’s work and shared comments and questions before moving on to the next chapter.

Saadia: It was very interesting to write a book with someone else, that’s for sure! For myself, I can tell you it was a struggle initially to be patient and learn, rather than lead all the time, which are two of my biggest faults. Once I understood that this experience was not only going to be different but also wholly worthwhile to me as a writer, I relaxed a little bit. The process has been great thanks to the internet, and conference calls and so much brainstorming. I remember sometimes even writing together while on the phone with Laura, one person dictating and the other typing. It really made for a wonderful experience!

Friendship and Food

HMC: Cooking is what brings your main characters, Sara and Elizabeth, together—it’s also how they bond. Since the two of you don’t live near each other, did you do any virtual cooking together?

Saadia: We didn’t do any cooking together, only because I’m never a willing cook for anybody! While food is definitely a major part of this story, it’s not a major part of my life. But since we’d chosen Pakistani food as the backdrop of this book, it fell on my shoulders to at least participate in the cooking aspects as much as I could. So I’d find YouTube videos of each dish we wanted Sara and Elizabeth to prepare, and then Laura would cook it on her own to test it out. Often she’d share pictures on social media, and I’d wonder – like Sara – how anyone outside my community could enjoy the dishes of my ancestors. It’s been an eye-opening experience for sure, and I know Laura’s family has enjoyed being introduced to Pakistani food!

Fitting In

HMC: Mrs. Hameed’s cooking class centered on South Asian food is also a part of how you explored some of your themes of bias and racism. Food is such an important part of culture and religion—and sometimes people can be mean about food unfamiliar to them. What do you hope your readers will think about as they read the cooking scenes?

Laura: My hope is that readers will become more adventurous eaters after spending time with our book. I loved learning from South Asian YouTube chefs and trying out their recipes while researching A Place at the Table. As our editor said, food is often our first experience when we learn about a new culture.

Saadia: Which first-generation kid hasn’t been laughed at for bringing their stinky or weird lunch to school? It’s a heartbreaking part of immigrant life, and really the first step into disassociating with your culture in a new environment, especially for kids who just want to fit in. My hope with this book is that readers will learn to appreciate the food of other cultures, and understand that it’s something that can bring people together rather than make them stand out.

HMC: NOTE TO OUR READERS … don’t forget … at the end of this post, we’ve got a treat for you … Elizabeth’s Bubbe’s Sufganiyot recipe. It’s a jelly-filled donut. YUM.

What Sara and Elizabeth Express

HMC: What was the most important thing for your character to express?

Laura: The most important thing Elizabeth expresses in A Place at the Table is speaking up when you know someone is hurting. She learns this from Sara, who makes it clear that being a friend means standing up for each other. Elizabeth is able to take that lesson and apply it to her home life, by advocating for her mother.

Saadia: I wrote this book to showcase my own children’s struggles with being first-generation kids, especially my son’s, who was in middle school when we started writing. So I wanted to express all the hurt and confusion that comes from that, but also give readers some insight into how to move past these challenges and have a positive middle school experience.

HMC: What is the most personally meaningful part of each character’s journey?

Laura: Elizabeth’s story overlaps with my own childhood experience in many ways. Unfortunately, my mother didn’t have a close female friend to share the joys and challenges of being an immigrant with. It was especially meaningful to me to give Elizabeth’s mom a special friend in Mrs. Hameed.

Saadia: Personally, Sara’s journey towards more kindness and understanding of her own culture, and of her parents, is the most meaningful. We see her start out as a person who emotionally shuts herself away so she doesn’t have to deal with the drama at school, but she’s also hurting because there’s such a huge gap between herself and her parents culturally. It’s a common thing for first-generation kids to go through. To have Sara work through these conflicts was very important to me, because I hope my own children can do the same as they grow older.

Coping with Stress

HMC: Elizabeth and Sara are coping with some pretty scary issues for children, including depression and financial worries, not to mention whether their mothers will pass the citizenship test. What do you hope readers will take from the way the girls coped with these stresses?

Laura: Saadia and I were part of a panel at NCTE 2019 focused on first-generation stories. One of the resources we shared was an education article that outlined several specific stressors that children in immigrant families cope with. These included mental health, finances, and loss of culture. Though A Place at the Table is a work of fiction, our aim was to accurately portray the challenges that first-generation kids experience. My hope is that readers, whether they are adults or children, will have a deeper understanding of those challenges and how they affect their students and peers.

Personal Connections

HMC: Laura, what about Elizabeth is most like you? And least like you?

I was tall and awkward (and into Doctor Who) as a sixth grader, but Elizabeth is much more brash and outgoing than I am.

((Like reading this interview with Laura Shovan? Click HERE to read another interview — from the Mixed-up Files archives.))

HMC: Saadia, what about Sara is most like you? And least like you?

I was very grumpy and prickly in middle school, just like Sara! But her artistic talents are something I could never emulate.

((Like reading this interview with Saadia Faruqi? Click HERE to read another interview — from the Mixed-Up Files archives.))

HMC: Maddy is a challenging character. Was it difficult/painful to write her voice?

Laura: It was easy to tap into the shifting friendship story, because it’s one I experienced in middle school. The hardest part was showing why Elizabeth remained so attached to Maddy. Her view of Maddy had to change gradually through the book as Elizabeth developed a more mature view of what friendship means.

Saadia: Maddy is, on the surface, every POC child’s nightmare! Someone who is popular and outgoing, but has loud, negative opinions about people who are different. However, we never wanted any of our characters to be cookie cutter ones, so it was important for us to explore Maddy’s motivations and give her some redemption.

Open Mic

HMC: Open Mic Question – what else would you like us to know about Sara and Elizabeth or about A Place at the Table?

Laura: I would like you to know that I actually own Elizabeth’s TARDIS (from Doctor Who) high tops.

Saadia: I’d like you to know that Mrs. Hameed is a lot like me, except the cooking thing!

HMC: I absolutely love that you have those high tops, Laura. Coolest thing ever! And Saadia, I loved Mrs. Hameed’s calm, loving energy so much. Thank you both so much for doing this interview with me, and best of luck to you!

Laura Shovan

Laura Shovan – Author

Laura Shovan’s debut middle grade novel, The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary, won several awards, including NCTE 2017 Notable Verse. Her novel Takedown was selected by Junior Library Guild and PJ Our Way, and was on the ALA’s Amelia Bloomer list of feminist books. A Place at the Table, co-written with author/activist Saadia Faruqi, publishes on August 11 (Clarion/HMH). Laura is a longtime poet-in-the-schools in Maryland. She likes to knit, bake bread, and doodle robots.

Saadia Faruqi

Saadia Faruqi is a Pakistani American author, essayist and interfaith activist. She writes the children’s early reader series “Yasmin” published by Capstone and other books for children, including middle grade novels “A Place At The Table” (HMH/Clarion 2020) co-written with Laura Shovan, and “A Thousand Questions” (Harper Collins 2020). Saadia is editor-in-chief of Blue Minaret, a magazine for Muslim art, poetry and prose, and was featured in Oprah Magazine in 2017 as a woman making a difference in her community. She resides in Houston, TX with her husband and children.

Launch Events and Finding A PLACE AT THE TABLE

A PLACE AT THE TABLE is available here:

You can also attend these virtual launch events:

Houston: Brazos Books, 8/8 at 3 pm Central Time
Baltimore: The Ivy Bookshop, 8/11 at 6:30 pm Eastern Time

Anyone doing curbside pickup at the Ivy will receive some book swag.

Bubbe’s Sufganiyot Recipe

And now … at long last … the piece de resistance … the recipe for Elizabeth’s Bubbe’s Sufganiyot, featuring the artwork of Anoosha Syed.

Author Spotlight: Beth McMullen

By Melissa Roske on July 27, 2020 / Author Interviews

Today I’m thrilled to interview fellow Mixed-Up Files member Beth McMullen, author of the best-selling middle-grade adventure series, Mrs. Smith’s Spy School for Girls. Her latest book, Lola Benko, Treasure Hunter—the first in a series—is out from Aladdin on August 25, and I was lucky enough to snag a copy. (Spoiler alert: It’s really good.) Here’s a brief summary:

“Having a world-traversing archaeologist dad means twelve-year-old Lola Benko is used to moving around not putting down roots anywhere. But then her father disappears. The official story is that he was caught in a flash flood, but Lola’s research shows the day in question was perfectly pleasant. And it will take more than empty reassurances from suspect strangers for Lola to give up on her dad. She has a feeling his disappearance has to do with a mythical stone he was studying—a stone so powerful, it could control the world. But in the wrong hands, it could end it, too…”

And now, without further ado… heeeere’s Beth McMullen!

MR: Beth! I have so many questions for you. May I start with a confession?

BMcM: Haha! Of course!

MR: I loved Mrs. Smith’s Spy School for Girls and wish I’d written it myself. Kidding aside (okay, I wasn’t really joking), how did you come up with the concept? A 12-year girl who’s drafted into an elite spy ring at a fancy-schmancy Connecticut boarding school is an entirely original idea.

BMcM: I went to boarding school as a kid and always wanted to use the setting because….come on…who thought putting 600 teenagers together day and night with minimal adult supervision was a good idea?? It felt ripe for ridiculous adventures! At the time, I was writing mysteries for adults and made a few attempts to work in the boarding school angle but…no go. I just couldn’t get it to snap. I even tired a young adult version but that, too, felt flat (like, pancake flat). It wasn’t until I landed on Abby Hunter, twelve years old, that it started to come together. The spy idea just naturally followed as I always suspected the school I went to was up to something other than attempting to educate us. Plus, I love spy stories and can’t seem to stop writing them.

MR: Mrs. Smith’s plucky protagonist, Abby Hunter, has a delightfully distinctive voice. In fact, you could teach a master class on MG voice using Abby as an example. What’s the secret?

BMcM: I didn’t want Abby to be a superhero. I wanted her to be real, to be scared of things but walk through them anyway, to rise to the challenges as they appeared even when the result was messy or awkward. Part of the reason I wrote this series in first person present is so I could show the dialog in Abby’s head, how she convinces herself to do something that might otherwise feel overwhelming. To show a girl being brave despite uncertainty was appealing to me on so many levels.

When I’m writing, I keep a list of the main character’s defining traits and keep that close at hand. And then I start working out the details and fine tuning as I move through the plot points. It always takes me about fifty pages to find the ‘voice’ but when it clicks I know it. The key to Abby was her dry sense of humor and sardonic leaning take on the world. Once I figured that out, I was in.

MR: Another secret I’m dying to know: What’s it like to write a series? Did you have the plots for all three books planned out in advance—or did you wing it? Also, how do you keep the enthusiasm going from book #1 to book #3?

BMcM: Oh boy. Series!! I am never prepared! It took me a long time to show Mrs. Smith’s #1 to my agent (I didn’t write for kids and was pretty sure it was a complete disaster) but when I did, she said we had to pitch it as a series. Well…great! Right?! So I went back and rewrote the last quarter to give it series potential but that was the extent of my thought. When the offer to write three Smith’s books came, well..again…great! The panic didn’t set in until I sat down at my laptop to a blank page and thought, so what is book two about anyway??

The great thing about writing a series is that you’ve done a lot of the hard character work already. On the flip side, you are locked into things that maybe you’d have done differently if you’d known where you were going. I’m hugely envious of authors who plot out an entire series arc before writing a single word. However, I am not one of those people. So I start with plot and additional secondary characters and a destination that hopefully lets the characters learn something new and different about themselves along the way. And I keep my fingers crossed it works. 🙂

MR: Lola Benko, Treasure Hunter is your second series with a plucky preteen protagonist. How is Lola similar to Abby? How is she different? Also, how did you ensure that Lola’s voice was entirely different from Abby’s? Considering that you’ve had Abby’s voice in your head for so many years, it couldn’t have been easy.

BMcM: That is a great question! Both characters are single minded in their determination and discover that good friends and a team make a world of difference in reaching goals. But Lola is a bit more cavalier, a little more likely to step over the line, very comfortable justifying the means with the end. She believes need is the mother of invention so is constantly tinkering and creating things that will help her in her quest to find her missing father. Lola is worldly in many ways but also clueless about a lot of regular things, like how to make friends. I really enjoyed watching her realize how nice it was to no longer be so alone.

MR: In terms of your writing routine, how has it changed since the pandemic? What have been the biggest obstacles you’ve had to face? Any unexpected positives?

BMcM: This pandemic…wow…didn’t see that one coming. It’s hard to write fiction when real life is so unbelievable, isn’t it? When the shelter in place order came in California I was just finishing up Lola #2 and suddenly I could no longer go to my office and the only reason I have an office is because I am terrible at working from home. TERRIBLE. I had to really discipline myself to finish the draft and also keep it from going too dark because I was absorbing all the horror that was happening in the world. That was pretty tough. And as soon as I turned in that draft in May, I had to launch right into my third series for Simon & Schuster, a more fantasy oriented story which is due in December. That was brutal. But I returned to my office two weeks ago and I’m pleased to say things are improving. Pandemic positives? Working in my bunny slippers, no question.

MR: Finally, Beth, you’ve extremely prolific, having written novels for both children and adults. Not to be repetitive, but what’s your secret? Also, what advice would you give to aspiring writers?

BMcM: I spend a lot of time noodling ideas before I put anything down on paper. Like, years. (And if an idea can survive years in my head, I like to think it has staying power.) This means by the time I sit down to actually write, I’ve worked out quite a bit of what a character is like already. For example, right now I have a middle grade idea that first occurred to me last summer. I keep coming back to it in idle moments. I keep adding things to it, pushing out the edges, and I know at some point I’ll start writing it, if only to free up the space in my head for something new.

The advice I always give to aspiring authors is that you just can’t quit. If you do, you are absolutely guaranteed that nothing will happen. But if you keep at it, keep pushing, who knows where things will go? I’m a firm believer in possibilities. They are limitless.

MR: Oh, one more thing. As you know, no MUF interview is complete without a lightning round, so…

Preferred writing snack? Anything with sugar! Lots of sugar! So much sugar! (Sorry, clearly I’m unhinged.)

Coffee or tea? Coffee. If I could hook up an IV, I would.

Cat or dog? Cat!

Favorite song? Oh boy. This is hard! “Vienna” by Billy Joel

Zombie apocalypse: Yea or nay? Definitely. It’s 2020. Expect it any minute now.

Superpower? If I drink caffeine I can stay awake forever.

Favorite place on Earth? New Zealand

Hidden talent? I’m a total Type A but no one knows it.

If you were stranded on a desert island with only three things, what would they be? Three tubes of chapstick.

James Bond or Harriet the Spy? (Okay, this was a setup. 🙂 ) I feel like I exist to blend (shaken not stirred) those two together and put them on the page.

MR: Thank you for chatting, Beth—and congratulations on the upcoming publication of Lola Benko, Treasure Hunter! I really enjoyed it, and I know MUF readers will too!

BETH McMULLEN is best known for the Mrs. Smith’s Spy School for Girls trilogy (Aladdin/S&S), middle-grade spy thrillers, packed with action, adventure and humor. She is also the author of the forthcoming Lola Benko, Treasure Hunter series (Aladdin/S&S) about a globetrotting 12-year-old searching for her father, a famous archeologist who has gone missing. And in March 2022, look for Cats & Dragons (Aladdin/S&S), a middle-grade action/adventure series packed with friendship, fantasy, whiskers and wings. Beth lives in Northern California with her husband, kids, cats and a very tolerant parakeet named Zeus. Visit her website and follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Author Interviews

Interview with Aliza Layne, Author of Beetle & the Hollowbones!

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A PLACE AT THE TABLE: FOOD AND FRIENDSHIP