Your SBBT Schedule for Day 2!

Ben Towle at Chasing Ray: "I'm loathe to site the dopey "Titanic" film from the '90s here, but I will; that movie works similarly to the way Midnight Sun does. You've got some entirely fictional characters operating against a backdrop of an actual historical event—albeit one that the filmmakers have taken some real liberties with—yet, I don't think it was generally assumed by the audience to be 100% true simply because of its historical underpinnings."

Sean Qualls at Fuse Number 8: "When I first started listening to jazz, “A Love Supreme� from John Coltrane was one of the first albums I bought. His version of “My Favorite Things� I think, is one of the greatest songs ever! I also love the music of the musicians that were in his band like Eric Dolphy, McCoy Tyner and his wife Alice. Plus, Dizzy Gillespie is one of the greatest real life characters ever."

Susane Colasanti at Bildungsroman: "Even though we all share universal characteristics as part of the human experience, girls and boys are different on some fundamental levels. When I write boy dialogue, it tends to be choppier and less emotional than girl dialogue. When they're speaking, girls tend to analyze and obsess more over issues that boys might not naturally talk about. So one benefit of writing also from a boy's perspective is that you wouldn't necessarily know how he actually feels just from what he says, but once we know what he's really thinking we understand the depth of his character."

Robin Brande at Hip Writer Mama: "Last year I LOST MY MIND. Maybe I'm not supposed to admit that, but it might be useful for some other writers to know, so I'll be honest about it. "

Susan Beth Pfeffer at The YA YA YAs: "When I was in seventh grade, I read books aimed for kids my age that I knew were terrible (and yet, I read them). I decided at age twelve that I could do better, so I was always interested in writing for that age level (and when I wrote my first book, Just Morgan, I was twenty, so I wasn’t all that much older)."

Debby Garfinkle at A Chair, A Fireplace and a Tea Cozy: "As to suggestions from editors, I usually get indignant the day I read a revision letter from my editor, thinking that she doesn't know what she's talking about, that my manuscript was just fine before she got hold of it. But a few days and maybe a few glasses of wine later, I feel grateful that the editor's wise comments will help me improve my manuscript."

Jennifer Lynn Barnes at Writing and Ruminating: "
I study monkeys and kids in an effort to basically answer the question of how we, as human adults, come to be as socially competent as we are. I'm also starting to study the psychology of fiction and answer such all important questions as "why do people in pretty much every culture like stories?" and "is there an innate preference for happy endings."