KEYNOTE: Carolyn Mackler--For Richer or Poorer: Writing Through Good Times or Bad

Carolyn Mackler recieved a Printz Award for her novel THE EARTH, MY BUTT, AND OTHER BIG ROUND THINGS. She's currently working on her sixth YA novel. Her lastest book is TANGLED.

Carolyn said she spent her teen years tyring to blend in. ("If I were a J. Crew color, I would be ecru.") And the feeling never subsided that she had to blend in. This year, she decided she wanted to be "hot."

Marital vows, she said, are simialr to making the committment to be a writer. You have to stick with it even through the more difficult times.

As a teen, writing in her jounral and reading helped her from feeling alone or like a misfit.

After college she interned at Ms. Magazine, and did whatever she could to make money writing.

For her first book, she tapped into her own life and finished a draft of her first novel. She got an agent at age 25 and got her first book published.