Lauren Myracle

Lauren Myracle
Lauren Myracleis an American writer of young-adult fiction. She was born in Brevard, North Carolina, and is the oldest of three sisters and has three older brothers. She grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, where she attended Trinity School and The Westminster Schools. Myracle earned a BA in English and Psychology from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. After that, she worked for some time as a middle-school teacher in Gwinnett County,...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionYoung Adult Author
Date of Birth15 May 1969
CityBrevard, NC
CountryUnited States of America
I keep what I know about Sarah Lynn and Lawrence to myself. I also remind myself that even if Sarah Lynn does have a scary strict father, that doesn't release her from the responsibility of treating others with respect. Abuse of power is wrong, no matter the context, no matter the history. What is "power" anyway? Power is an ego trip. Power is a way to rise yourself up by lowering others, and I want nothing of it.
Also, as an author, character has always been what I'm most interested in - much more so than plot or setting, although those are good things too.
So as a seventh grader, no, you weren't friends with people you didn't like. But sometimes you also weren't friends with people you did like, which was complicated, and which didn't make any sense if you tried to explain it. Sometimes things just changed. That's where the sadness came in.
There's something strange about this big pink bunny...
But you have to live in the present. You have to take the old and make it new -- that's my point.
You know, this technology that we have, and the Internet and Twitter and Facebook - I get so many of those emails that talk about hard times that kids have gone through, how books have helped them, but also happy times.
Even so, I was proud of myself for taking action at all. I didn't hide or run away or pretend the ugliness didn't happen. I stood up and said something that was true. I said it out loud, and by doing so, I was standing up for lots of people, not just me.
If you breathed deep and set your mind to it, you could rise above your anger.
Being an author of banned books is cool, I've decided.
I've written a lot of novels for teens and tweens ... but I'd never really tackled the North Carolina side of me. And it's so strong and so important, and yet I hadn't acknowledged it. And so one of the things I wanted to do in "Shine" is take that on.
Curse false-hand-holding boys!
Just because you're into Kate...well, it doesn't necessarily mean you're gay. Although it's okay if you are. But if that's what's worrying you...' Ariel sighed. 'God. It shouldn't be so hard to talk about this stuff. All I'm saying is maybe you're gay and maybe you're not. Maybe you're bi. Or maybe it's totally a Kate thing. Maybe you'd want to be with her whether she was a girl or a boy.' I blinked. I didn't know if what she said made things better or worse.
I didn't like being alone. Being alone was slightly better than having to deal with people, that's all. Or so I'd convinced myself.
I'm a southern girl, and I grew up with this slightly schizophrenic upbringing where I bounced back and forth between Atlanta, Georgia, and a tiny mountain town called Brevard, North Carolina. My parents were divorced, and my two lives were very different because of socioeconomic reasons.