Christine
Hurley Deriso
Hi,
readers. Thanks for checking out my website. And thanks for reading my
books! I’ve wanted to be a writer since … forever. As long as I can
remember, I’ve wanted to take the random thoughts bouncing around in my
imagination and put them on paper so they wouldn’t disappear. My mom still
has the first “novel” I ever wrote. It’s called “The Happy Family” and
it’s two pages long, including illustrations. Okay, so I wasn’t exactly
exhibiting signs of brilliance at age six, but I was plugging away, and
that’s what writing is all about. The more you do it, the better you get.
I’ve written all kinds of things: newspaper articles, magazine features,
poems … even restaurant reviews. But nothing is as much fun as writing
about tweens. Tweenhood is such an interesting time of life: a time when
you’re trying on different personalities, figuring out where you fit in
and making lots of mistakes along the way. And just as you’re trying to
decide where you should sit in the cafeteria or why your BFF is suddenly
blowing you off, you find your hips expanding … or your voice croaking …
or your face breaking out. And it’s not like your goof-ups are exactly
subtle. Fellow tweens are uncanny at detecting your
most
embarrassing moments with laser-like precision, then practically
plastering them on billboards. (Or YouTube!) No pressure there, right?
So the tween years can be pretty excruciating … but they can be pretty
awesome, too. Sure, you’re trying to figure out the best place to part
your hair, or the kind of jeans that look best on you. But you’re also
starting to get a glimpse of what makes you unique. There’s so much about
you that other people just don’t get. They have no clue, as you’re
slogging through your science project together, that you’re going to win a
Grammy one day, or invent a time-travel machine, or cure a disease.
You probably feel pretty shaky about yourself most of the time, but deep
down, you sense that your potential is downright awesome. You know why?
Because it is. I don’t know what the future holds for you, but I know that
the more you listen to that inner voice reminding
you that you’re special, the bigger your world will be.
You’re the kind of kid I write about. There’s Elsa in Do-Over, who gets
the magical ability to rewind time to redo her most embarrassing moments.
There are the Right-Unders in The Right-Under Club, five girls who meet in
a tree house once a week to take turns sharing a problem and letting the
others help solve it. There’s Talia in Talia Talk, who’s trying to decide
whether to stay loyal to her smart, funny (but annoying) BFF, Bridget, or
whether to cut her loose and cozy up to the popular crowd.
Read my books and let me know what you think … or give me a suggestion for
what to write about next. I want my books to offer a sneak
preview
of your inner fabulousness—the gifts and talents you’ll share with the
world just as soon as you’ve nailed your biology final. Keep reading!
Contact:
Christine Hurley Deriso