Alisa Libby Visits...

As a from of The King's Rose tour for Traveling to Teens, I have a guest blog from Alisa Libby.

Experiences from a Teen Writer

Some of my experiences as a teen writer – scary! I think I was considered the “weird poet girl” of my year in high school. It's a title I'm pretty proud of now, but it's not always an easy road. I was teased (and rightly so) for using the word “verisimilitude” in a rhyming poem about vampires for English class. I was also working on an epic vampire poem entitled “Requiem” that involved a castle and wolves.

In the midst of all of this gothic poetry writing (most of it quite horrible, I assure you) I read about Countess Bathory, this creepy 16th century Countess who believed that bathing in the blood of virgins would keep her beautiful for eternity. I was completely riveted by this story—and utterly horrified. I was a wimp at heart; by the time I finished reading I wanted to physically hide from that book, as if it may open it's covers and bite me in my sleep. 

The thought did not occur to me then: this will be my first novel, The Blood Confession, and I will write it in the point of view of the blood-bathing countess, and I will write it for teenagers. But I think that the things that frighten us leave their impression—especially if it's something we experience as a teenager. I remember feeling things very deeply at that time. This is probably why I find young adult characters so fascinating to write, and why it's such a wonderful, receptive audience.