Justine Macauley Books

Hello, there!

I write young adult fantasy and speculative fiction.

 

Read a thing at LitCrawl last night and it was magical and sassy and I’m so grateful for the opportunity to feel myself blush hot red when I said the word “dragon” in front of a Very Serious Audience. Much appreciation for the Brown Handler Residency and @friendssfpl for this sweet night! I wish I was the kind of writer who could work on a couple things at a time instead of one thing taking over my brain every minute and asking me questions like “Should it be their cousin instead?” and “Are they really old enough to be doing this?” and “Wait, didn’t they have a dog?” On second thought, maybe one set of inane questions is fine for now. The high points, the culminating action, the reward, the pieces coming together - they never get easier. They come slowly as I constantly remind myself that it’s a draft, things will change, and that once, a story ended with an exploding helicopter. Something had to be there. The next draft revealed a much more subtle and beautiful way to end the story, and at least in that one, any trace of an explosion is long gone. But right now, I’m at my exploding helicopter moment with this thing. Anything goes.