3xA MA: Francesca Zappia

 

I've always felt so grateful to the authors that take the time to connect with me through social media. In my mind, I'd always thought they were on an unattainable level. In this event, I want to get to know the authors; to see them for the people they are and not just as creators of your favorite book.

Note: For each post, links are left to the author's social media. If you know an author whose book has affected you [in my event or just in general,] please use one of those links and leave a nice message to them! Something as simple as "I'm such a huge fan of your work" can go a long way - you'd be surprised.
For a full definition, the author schedule [and a fabulous opening giveaway,] click here.


Besides having a great name [us "Z's" need to stick together!], Francesca Zappia is the author of a book that I'm so excited to read: Made You Up.

When I was little, everything was terrifying. Old abandoned cars in the woods; weird tree knots; doves cooing; answering the telephone. Clowns, ants, dark spots on the bottom of the pool. The pool, too. I had nightmares about evil dinosaurs, disembodied hands, eyeless fishermen, and driving. Just hearing the title The Neverending Story gave me chills, because the thought of things that didn’t end sounded like the worst kind of fever dream.

I wasn’t scared of these things by the time I hit my teens. (Except clowns. Clowns will be scary forever and always.) By my teens I was writing every day, and I think writing was what made all those things interesting instead of terrifying. Writing gave me a way to translate everything that made me scared and anxious into something understandable. Scary things became mysterious things that were fun to work into stories.

Weirdly enough, I lost all those fears and became scared of writing. It was never a fear of the actual act of writing, thankfully--I had a lot of big ideas, and even though I executed them terribly, I still had fun writing them--it was about having people read what I’d written.

Mostly I didn’t think they’d get it. Which I know now means I wouldn’t have written it well enough to be understandable. I was at one of those soft points where I didn’t want critique because I didn’t want to lose the excitement for the story, and I just didn’t want anyone to say it was bad. I was scared of what people thought. It was a really different kind of fear from what I experienced as a kid, because as a kid fear came from vague creepiness and not knowing what things did or how they worked. I knew--or at least thought I knew--what would happen if someone read my work.

But then I decided I wanted to get published, and I realized that wouldn’t work. You can’t be a published author and be scared of critique and criticism. Critique is absolutely necessary to become a better writer, and criticism is unavoidable when your work is available to the world.

The fear wasn’t going to go away like the childhood fears. I had to whip myself into shape by doing the very thing that scared me. I found critique partners. I put myself out there. I got better.

Now I’m not scared of anything (except clowns). I don’t have nightmares (except about clowns). And if someone wants to read my stories and critique or criticize them, that’s cool with me.

(Unless those people are clowns.)
(Just kidding--clowns can read my books, too.)
(But really, clowns are terrifying.)
Fears are a great thing to talk about. I used to think that I was scared of everything. Now, I know I'm scared of most but not all things. For example: heights, injections, surgery, pain, insects, spiders and being forgotten. I'm insane, I know. Like, how do I even leave the house, right?

Enter the giveaway below! 
Thanks for checking out my blog and remember:  Be kind to one another. - Ellen 
Want more fun? Check out the other authors featured here.

Francesca's Goodreads | Twitter | Tumblr | Website

YA writer represented by Louise Fury of the Bent Agency. My debut, MADE YOU UP, will be out from Greenwillow/HarperCollins on May 19th, 2015. I like writing, reading, drawing, anime, playing way too much Pokemon, and other things.

This giveaway will be a RT giveaway that can be found here.