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Lyn Fairchild Hawks

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13 Going on 14

Lyn Hawks · January 4, 2023 · Leave a Comment

I feel like I’m 13 anytime a book of mine is coming out. @nervesofsteel is no different.

(More about the book and its release April 2023, here.)

What I want to talk about now is why this book came to be. When you’re 13 going on 14, a whole lot of things are going on.

Minerva Mae Christopoulos knows. She just started high school, praying it will be far better than middle school. Will her nickname, Minerda, follow her forever?

Minerda, a graphic novel written by Lyn Fairchild Hawks and illustrated by Robin Follet.
Minerda, graphic novella and prequel to @nervesofsteel.

Minerva also knows

Names are negotiable. Whether nicknames or first names, surnames, or handles, or IDs: one thing is true. We can always rename ourselves. As Minerva likes to say, “I defy labels.”

Friends are rocks and shifting sand. Every day. And social media is the rough, sharp shoreline on which we discover this truth and get pounded by the daily tides.

There are gods and Goddesses, demigoddesses, and Gods. And many amorphous spirits in between. What do you worship, today? Why? At thirteen, we often ask these sorts of questions.

Everything’s liminal. The past (middle school) can affect the present (high school) and the present moment slides back and forth between child and teen, teen and adult, and child and adult. Sometimes you feel like a nut; sometimes you don’t.

And when we’re in liminal spaces, we have low tolerance for the big lie: the one saying that life is full of boxes and we must be stuck inside them.

Also:

What’s breaking news isn’t always news.

Hometown heroes ain’t always ones.

The real heroines, they sometimes have to be unearthed from history.

So thank God for good journalism.

Oh, and

Impulse is your muse.

Impulse is also your Beelzebub/Frenemy/Worst Temptation Ever.

And every day, there’s one more chance to fall in love.

You might have a crush on a girl on your basketball team and a senior guy, all in the same year.

Me, 13

Because Love Is Love Is Love.

Big Star knew, when Alex Chilton and Chris Bell wrote “Thirteen.” (Greg Hawks covers this song really well, btw. I’m gonna make him cover it at a book signing soon.)

Book lovers, librarians, readers, teachers know: books for ages 13-14 matter.

Why not celebrate and honor this time some more?

Where are my books starring characters that are 13-15?? I'm not even talking about content at this point, but just the MC. Why have we deserted the younger MCs?

— Andrea (@ArtsyDrea2) April 9, 2019

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Filed Under: Young Adult Books Tagged With: @nervesofsteel, YA, young adult literature

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(Photo by My Friend Teresa Studios)

Could I live without words, writing, story? Probably not. I love telling stories. I love teaching stories. I love helping other people find theirs. That’s my story. [READ MORE...]

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From Instagram

It’s so wild to read this developing news when I It’s so wild to read this developing news when I knew in my gut back in 2012 and 2013 that something toxic this way comes… In other words, the relatively new obsession back then with phones was not only toxic to teen mental health, but also dramatically altered my conversations and daily interactions. I remember being made fun of because I didn’t have an iPhone in 2016. In my most recent young adult novel, Minerva struggles to keep up with social media, and feels horribly inadequate looking at the way some peers use it. She feels horrified at the bullying, but she can’t look away. She feels conflicted because someone who wants to be a journalist needs to pay attention to social media, right? Something’s gotta change, but how? IRL this author has begun leaving the phone in other rooms so that it can be forgotten. I am trying to invoke some kind of mantra that says, “It’s OK to not be connected all the time. It’s OK to not be on emergency alert just because an emergency *could* happen or news might be breaking. It’s OK to not be hip, or in the know, or constantly available, or the recently evolved/expected version of a ‘good’ person who should respond in a nanosecond to all possible crises.” And I wonder why I’m more anxious than I was before I had a “smart phone”? I’ve turned off notifications. I look at social media less. I am happier.💜💖💜
#happier #socialmedia #yalit #youngadult #journalism #journalist #nerdssometimesknow #yougottafollowyourheart
I love a good journalism movie. I love it especial I love a good journalism movie. I love it especially when female journalists are the focus. Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey ought to be household names. I also thought that these three words from this Slate review–“persistence, persuasion, and pleading”– really do sum up the job of a journalist, trying to get the story, build trust, and out the truth. Now I need to read the book!
#Journalist #TruthWillOut #movie #MovieRecommendation #FemaleJournalist #Journalism
2013. @ nervesofsteel is set in that time, when ce 2013. @ nervesofsteel is set in that time, when cell phones went from maybes to mandatory in teen life. Ezra Klein’s most recent podcast delves into the research about the effects on teen girls’ mental health from social media and constant online engagement. My book tells a story that begins on Instagram and ends on Twitter. 
#bullying #metoo
#mentalhealthawareness #yalit #historicalfiction #2013 #books #book #youngadult #mentalhealth #truthwillout

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