Suck It Up. This Is The Life

I'm A Southern Girl, And I Grew Up With This Slightly Schizophrenic Upbringing Where I Bounced Back And Forth Between Atlanta, Georgia, And A Tiny Mountain Town Called Brevard, North Carolina. My Parents Were Divorced, And My Two Lives Were Very Different Because Of Socioeconomic Reasons.

If She Did See, I Hoped She' Be Amazed. Amazed And Thankful, Because Without Even Asking, She'd Received A Genuine Autograph From A Genuine Girl From Atlanta. Not Just Any Girl, But A Girl Who Was, Frankly, A Pretty Big Deal. A Girl Who Was Me.

I Didn't Like Being Alone. Being Alone Was Slightly Better Than Having To Deal With People, That's All. Or So I'd Convinced Myself.

You Should Eat A Waffle! You Can't Be Sad If You Eat A Waffle!

I've Written A Lot Of Novels For Teens And Tweens ... But I'd Never Really Tackled The North Carolina Side Of Me. And It's So Strong And So Important, And Yet I Hadn't Acknowledged It. And So One Of The Things I Wanted To Do In "shine" Is Take That On.