Opening the Mailbag with Tahereh Mafi

First Draft Episode #221: Tahereh Mafi and Sarah Enni open
the mailbag!

Tahereh Mafi is the New York Times bestselling and National Book
Award nominated author of the Shatter Me series, as well as A
Very Large Expanse of Sea. The final book in her Shatter Me
series, IMAGINE ME, hits shelves March 31, 2020.


Watch this episode as a video on the First Draft podcast IGTV
channel on Instagram!


Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode




I mention the previous mailbag episode (check out the podcast
version here), which featured Zan Romanoff, author of A Song
to Take the World Apart, Grace and the Fever, and the
forthcoming Look (listen to her episode of First Draft here).




I cite Morgan Matson as my hero for writing lengthy
contemporary young adult novels, like the New York Times
bestselling The Unexpected Everything and Save the Date
(listen to Morgan’s First Draft interviews here and here)!




I positively could not keep myself from mentioning The Four
Tendencies again, Gretchen Rubin’s metric for analyzing how
you (or others in your life) respond to expectations.
Seriously, take the quiz already!




Maurene Goo used Rilo Kiley lyrics before The Way You Make Me
Feel in the epigraph because she got permission from the band




A brief primer on how the Walt Disney Company has impacted IP
law — though in 2024 that may be up, and Mickey Mouse could
be in the public domain for the first time.




Tahereh’s husband, Ransom Riggs—New York Times bestselling
author of the Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
series (listen to his First Draft episode here - and heads up
that the newest book in the series, The Conference of the
Birds, is coming out January 14!)—has a very different
writing style than she does. A marathon runner, rather than a
sprinter.




I reference one of the most famous phrases in the entire
history of Supreme Court opinions: "I know it when I see it."
The phrase appears in Justice Potter Stewart's concurring
opinion in Jacobellis v. Ohio, a pornography case decided by
the Court in 1964.




Room by Emma Donoghue features a child narrator, but is
decidedly not a children’s book.




When Tahereh wrote Furthermore, she was shocked to learn from
her editor that she had actually written a middle grade
novel, rather than a young adult novel




Suzanne Collins is returning to fiction in the spring with a
new Hunger Games novel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.




The Fault in Our Stars by John Green brought on a surge of
contemporary YA fiction




Microsoft Word, Scrivener, and Highland 2 are all great
options for writing software


 




I want to hear from you!


Have a question about writing or creativity for Sarah Enni or her
guests to answer? To leave a voicemail, call (818) 533-1998.


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Every Tuesday, I speak to storytellers like Veronica Roth, author
of Divergent; Linda Holmes, author and host of NPR’s Pop Culture
Happy Hour podcast; Jonny Sun, internet superstar, illustrator of
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Gmorning, Gnight! and author and illustrator
of Everyone’s an Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too;  Michael
Dante  DiMartino, co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender;
John August, screenwriter of Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, and
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; or Rhett Miller, musician and
frontman for The Old 97s. Together, we take deep dives on their
careers and creative works.


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