Book Recommendation: Subject to Change by Karen Nesbitt

I'm excited to tell you about my friend Karen Nesbitt's upcoming YA novel, Subject to Change. I got an ARC (that stands for Advance Reading Copy) from Orca Book Publishers so I had a chance to read the novel before it comes out in stores at the end of February. LIt was a great read. Tough at first because the main character, Declan, faces so much hardship -- but well worth reading because of everything Declan discovers about others and himself.

Tonight, I had a chance to catch up with Karen by telephone. We met in 2010 when Karen was in a Quebec Writer's Federation course that I co-taught with YA author Lori Weber. That was also when I first met Declan -- and he's a character who felt real to me from the first time I read about him.

Karen also had the good fortune to work with another Montreal-based YA author, Raquel Rivera, through the QWF's mentorship program. Karen says that Raquel really helped her to get her manuscript into shape -- and to get deeper into her characters.

Karen, who works as a guidance counselor at Westwood Senior School as well as at an alternative school called Horizon, told me that she based Declan on a young man she worked with. "His situation was similar to my protagonist's. He discovered that his dad was gay," said Karen.

Leah, another important character in the book, was inspired im part by Karen's niece. "She hiphop dances and she has beatiful hair," Karen told me. "But Leah is a composite of lots of kids I know," she added.

I asked Karen whether she had writing advice to share with you, dear blog reader. Here's what she told me: "Entertain your own fancy. Write what you want to write. Your own ideas will result in more interesting stories because you're more attached to them."

Karen also credits a writers' group for helping her to complete the manuscript that became Subject to Change. She actually met two of the other members of her writing group in the class she took with Lori and me. I've never been part of a writing group myself, but I wanted to learn why it helped Karen so much. She said the feedback she got from the group helped her improve her manuscript: "They were tough. They forced me to look at what I wrote critically. You have to hear it when people say, 'This is what I feel like when I read it.'"

I know how I felt when I read Subject to Change -- lucky. I hope you'll read it too!