I get my writing work done in the early morning these days, and then I’m corralling my two “wildren” children for the rest of the day (hence the butts). Lots of clutter, coffee, and naked butts-hahaha. If someone were to follow you around for 24 hours, what would they see? It wasn’t until after I graduated college that I … oh gosh, forgive the pun, I gave it the old college try. Because books were that magical to me, I imagined that ordinary people or ordinary kids couldn’t possibly be the ones coming up with them. I guess the idea to me at that age was that being an author was too incredible, too sacred for us mere mortals. I had lots of career aspirations as a kid-a doctor, a musician, a music journalist-but I always loved stories, and I was writing little stories for myself when I was young.

I think the answer is more that I never really knew I could be an author. So, I learned to be more open-minded, but I also learned you can’t take that kind of open-mindedness for granted.ĭid you always want to be an author, or did that come later? You know the little guys who always go “ooooooo.” Anyway, it’s fitting that I’m answering this in such a fraught election cycle because the rest of my family is from small towns in Texas, so I got this big city upbringing but also spent holidays and summers in small Texas towns.

I grew up right here in Austin, TX! Born and raised, which I didn’t realize was a *thing* until I went to college at UT Austin and everybody would make those little “Toy Story” alien guys noises whenever I said where I was from. Where did you grow up, and how did that place (or those places) shape your work? She is represented by Elizabeth Bewley of Sterling Lord Literistic.

Her debut novel, HOOD, about the daughter of Robin Hood and Maid Marien, was released from Disney/Hyperion in the spring of 2020. This month, we welcome young adult fiction author Jenny Elder Moke to our interview series.

Hood by Jenny Elder Moke