Lurlene McDaniel
Lurlene McDaniel
Lurlene McDanielis an American author who has written more than 70 young adult books. She is well known for writing about young adults struggling with mortality and chronic illness, a career that began as a therapeutic way to deal with the trauma when her son, then 3, was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. Her characters have grappled with cancer, diabetes, organ failure, and the deaths of loved ones through disease or suicide. She is a graduate of the University of South...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionYoung Adult Author
Date of Birth5 April 1944
CityPhiladelphia, PA
CountryUnited States of America
I have always been amazed guys read these books and seem to enjoy them. Because I've raised boys, I like to think I can get inside a guy's mind. I try and make the boys talk like guys, sound like guys and react like guys.
I wrote the book Don't Die, My Love as I was going through radiation, so it certainly has an air of authenticity about it because I was there. I think all of my books took on kind of a deeper tone when the lady who wrote about cancer all of a sudden had cancer. I'm doing well. I went through it all and they said, 'You're fine."
You know not every book has to have a happy ending, but it has to have a satisfying ending.
What really grabs me is when a reader writes to express her personal story and how a book helped her situation, or her acceptance of a situation she can't change. I read some sad cases in my snail and electronic mail. I respond to all I can, affirming that they are the true heroes of life because they are fighting through adversity and surviving.
Well, in Angel of Hope, Amber ends up going in her sister's stead. The focus of that book and the next one coming out, Angel of Love, is how she finds her way out of her sister's shadow and into herself. That's really what those two novels are based on.
So this is always the key: you have to write the book you love, the book that's alive in your heart. That's the one you have to write.
I am very privileged and honored when someone chooses to read a book, especially a book of mine.
I can be around kids if I need to be.
I created a character whose motives were pure and good and she was going to go out and save the whole world. But the truth is, you can't save the whole world, but you can save one. And that was the whole thrust of the novel - to save just one.
I wanted to show what it's really like for 98 percent of the world's population [in the third world]. Plus, I also see there are an awful lot of young people out there doing good things, and I wanted to give them a platform.
hanging out the window, Amber blew her a kiss. a lump the size of a fist clogged Heather's throat, while a breeze from th sea pushed her thick hair away from her face. tears trickled unchecked down her cheeks.
I think that hurting gives us a way to measure being happy. How can you know one without knowing the other.
Forgiving's a choice you make—a gift you give to somebody even if they don't deserve it. It costs nothing, but it makes you feel rich for giving it away.
I have been through a lot of medical trauma. I was diagnosed with breast cancer .