Alex Flinn
Love Jacaranda is out in the world! Hope you'll check out this fun wish-fulfillment romance!
Now, bio:
I grew up on a street called Salem Court. This probably influenced my interest in witches. When I was five, my mom said I should be an author. And when I was eight, I got my first rejection letter from Highlights Magazine.
I learned to read early. But I compensated for this early proficiency by absolutely refusing to read the programmed readers required by the school system -- workbooks where you read the story, then answered the questions. When the other kids were on Book 20, I was on Book 1! My teacher, Mrs. Zeiser, told my mother, "Alexandra marches to her own drummer." I don't think that was supposed to be a compliment.
My family moved to Miami when I was in middle school. I had a really hard time making friends, so I spent a lot of time reading and writing then. By high school, I'd made some friends and gotten involved in various "gifted and talented" performing arts programs. I studied opera in college (I'm a coloratura -- the really loud, high-pitched sopranos.) and then went to law school.
It was law school that probably helped with my first novel. Breathing Underwater deals with the serious and all-too-common problem of dating violence. I based the book on my experiences interning with the State Attorney's Office and volunteering with battered women. I thought this was a really important topic, as 27 percent of teenage girls surveyed have been hit by a boyfriend. I'm happy that the book is so popular, and if you are reading this bio because the book was assigned for school, I'm happy about that too.
I think I write for young-adults because I never quite got over being one. In my mind, I am still 13-years-old, running laps on the athletic field, wearing this really baggy white gymsuit. I’m continually amazed at the idea that I have a checking account and a mortgage. So I try to write books that gymsuit girl might enjoy. It’s a way of going back to being thirteen . . . knowing what I know now.
Right now, I live half a mile away from my old middle school, in Palmetto Bay, a suburb of Miami, with my husband, daughters, dogs, and cats.
“Is it enough to be a princess, when being a princess means nothing?”
“Anyone else feel like that? Like your life's a big act. Like you're trying to be a man when you're just a scared kid, trying to keep under control when you really want to scream, cry, maybe hit someone. Ever feel like you're breathing underwater, and you have to stop because you're gulping in too much fluid?”
“Algo bello por dentro vivirá para siempre, como la fragancia de una rosa""Sí amas algo, déjalo en libertad""Así es como debería ser el amor verdadero, la persona amada debería ser parte de tu alma y deberías saber lo que siente todo el tiempo”
“... I was just... thinking.""That must have been quite an experience for you.”
“Parents always forgive you. Like sometimes, you see parents on the news, and their kid just got busted for murdering a 7-11 clerk, and they're like, 'But my Bubba's a good boy. He'd never hurt a fly.' So I'm sure your parents would forgive you for whatever you did.”
“when you're a kid, they tell you that it's what's on the inside that counts. Looks don't matter . But that's not true. Guys like Phoebus in The Hunchback, or Dorian, or the old Kyle Kingsbury-- they can be scumbags to women and still get away with it because they're good-looking. Being ugly is a kind of prisoner.”
“Your telephone! Your friend Travis is in it!”
“True love would look a second time. True love would not be thwarted. True love would not accept no for an answer.”
“You will wake only if kissed by a young man who is truly your love, truly your destiny, one who would walk miles and face torturous tests to find you.”
“Talia: I was brought up to respect older people and peasants...not that you're...Jack: (clears throat) Quit while you’re aheadMeryl: Ahead? She just called mom and old peasant.”
“A beautiful thing is precious, no matter the price. Those who do not know how to see the precious things in life will never be happy...”
“But I am old now; my life is older. When I made the choice I made, I did not think it was forever. It is another thing to give up so young.”
“You shouldn't miss someone who don't miss you, right?”
“Be careful, okay, when you go there. Talia was really scared of this Malvolia chick. She could be dangerous.”“What’s she going to have—an assault weapon?”“Worse,” I say. “She’s got magical powers.”
“Listen.” The voice is extremely loud, and I am forced to hold the telephone away from my ear. “I don’t know who you are, or why you have Jack’s phone, but he is my boyfriend, and—”Boyfriend? What is a boyfriend? Perhaps it is something like a beau. “Is he engaged to you, then?” I hope not.“What? No. Of course not.”“Oh, what a relief. He is my true love, and you do not sound very nice.”“What? Listen, you . . .”And then, strangely enough, she calls me a female dog.”
“What they don´t tell you about Europe is how completely lame it is.”
“You are ugly now, on the inside, where it matters most...you are beastly.”
“Every girl pretends she is a princess at one point, no matter how little her life is like that.”
“Just because something is beautiful doesn´t mean it´s good.”
“my quote is that a guy name beastly theres a guy that has a wierd face and he loves her. so much and the women didn,t like him at all. then they get in love alot in the end.and then he gets his face normal.”
“I am not frightened of you Kyle. I amfrightened for you.”