3xA MA: Dahlia Adler

I feel like authors deserve so much from the readers. I believe that authors are people who really connect with us. It was actually an author who I "sorta" owe my life to. Authors and their words make us feel and they can help us.
In this event, I want to get to know the authors. I’d like to get interviews or blog posts about THEM in connection to their book. Who is the mind behind each author?

For each post, I leave links to connect with the author. Please take the time to use one of those links and leave a message for each author, if you can. It can be towards the book or it can be something as easy as “I love the post you wrote on Out of Time! <33”


Dahlia Adler is a 2014 Debut! WOOT WOOT! Her book BEHIND THE SCENES will be coming soon! It tells of a Hollywood Story and I think it's a very interesting concept! I will definitely be breaking my back for one of these ARCs! Enjoy the post <3

Dahlia Adler Goes Down the Writing Road

Thanks so much for having me, Nova!

I spent a lot of time trying to think about the real defining moments of my publication path, and for this post, I decided I want to really, really dig, waaaay back to when I first started doing this. And by “this” I don’t mean all the work that goes into getting published; I had no plans to even attempt to query until I was 24. It never even occurred to me before then that I’d be okay with the world seeing what I wrote.

What I do mean is all the time I spent just writing, and all the things I learned from it, whether through experiences or teachers or critique. (And there was a lot of that time.) So, sit back and enjoy the Not so Glamorous History of Some Stuff That Will Never Be Published by Dahlia Adler:

Poetry – I wrote so much poetry as a kid. I don’t know why. It rhymed, basically always, until I got to college, minored in poetry, and learned new, different ways to write it. (Shel Silverstein was my idol. He might still be.) Anyway, I was terrible at it, even after learning how to write it. But it doesn’t matter. It’s okay to be bad at things. It’s okay to know you’re bad at it, and to never show anyone, and to keep writing anyway. I’ve always liked knowing that.

Shattered Dreams – That melodramatic title belonged to my very first short story, which, by the way, got an A+ in 8th grade. The story was actually a lot better than the title (which I ripped off from the title of a Sweet Valley University book)—it was about a high school football player who died on the field. What I really took away from it, though, is a great place to find story ideas: in the details of other books. In this case, it was actually just a throwaway line of one of those Lurlene McDaniel books where everyone dies. It mentioned that a couple met in the hospital, and the reason he was there was because his brother had gotten injured on the field and died. That’s it. No more mention of the brother that I recall. But that tiny little nothing from one book turned into an entire story for me. Which, if you think about it, is so, so cool.

Big Boys Don’t Cry – My next short story! I was a senior in high school for this one, and actually, I’m not sure I’ve read it again since. I have no idea if it’s any good. I know I thought it was at the time. But that class was full of kids who made me feel Less Than when it came to talent and intelligence, and I don’t know if it was intentional, but they sure were good at it. But years later, I don’t even remember how any of them reacted to the story, though I’m sure it wasn’t complimentary.

What I do remember is the one quiet kid in the class, who rarely ever spoke to me, who came over afterward to tell me privately he thought it was really good.

And that’s a lesson too, as I enter into the part of this process where reviews start coming in. Bad reviews will come in droves, and they will sting, and it will suck. But if you can reach that one person who cares enough to pull you aside and tell you they really, truly loved your work? Hopefully one day that will be the only review you hear amid all the white noise.

What a cool story, Dahlia! It seems you've done so much to do with writing. Really hope BEHIND THE SCENES will be successful!

Thanks for checking out my blog and remember: Be kind to one another. - Ellen

For more giveaways (because these giveaways really rock) and awesome author posts, be sure to check out the opening post with the schedule of authors so far and links! Click here for the opening post and if you're awesome.

Author Info

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Dahlia Adler is an Assistant Editor of Mathematics by day, a Copy Editor by night, and a YA author and blogger at every spare moment in between. You can find her on Twitter at @MissDahlELama, and blogging at @MissDahlELama and blogging at The Daily Dahlia, YA Misfits, and Barnes & Noble. She lives in New York City with her husband and their overstuffed bookshelves. Behind the Scenes is her debut novel.