Lizzie Borden in Love by Julianna Baggott

The author of over 20 books, Baggott knows crazy. I’m fighting-when, of course, there’s no need to fight.In Julianna Baggott’s universe, crazy is the new sane. For some reason that sentence sounds like I’ve taken a number at the deli counter and I’m waiting in line.

I confess this is an issue that I’m taking up with the Holy Spirit. I think that the publishing industry has picked my pockets, somewhat, robbing me of a love of that form. As for adult novels, honestly, I’m at a difficult place-a specific form of writer’s block, if you believe in that kind of thing. But I know now that it will take many years of fits and starts, and headlong rushes.

This was supposed to take one year-hence the title. I know that two more books for younger readers are in the pipeline, and, poetically, I’m at work on a collection of poems entitled 52 Sundays, which are reflections on the gospels. I suppose, creatively, I try to follow my passions, which are far-flung. I saw myself, originally, as a short story writer-which I do very little of these days. This seems odd, especially since I never thought I’d be a novelist or poet. Bode)-will be published in the fall, as will my second book of poems, Lizzie Borden in Love: Poems in Women’s Voices. The Somebodies-the third novel for younger readers in The Anybodiesseries (written under the pen name N.E. Which Brings Me to You: A Novel in Confessions (co-written with Steve Almond) will appear in April. “I have three books coming out in 2006 in three different genres. She is the founder of Kids in Need – Books in Deed, which provides free books and author’s visits to underprivileged kids and teachers at Florida State University’s Creative Writing Program, and lives in Tallahassee with her husband and three young children. Baggott’s work has appeared in dozens of publications and anthologies, including the Best American Poetry series, Glamour, Ms., Poetry, and TriQuarterly, and has been read on NPR’s Talk of the Nation. Bode is a featured essayist on XMRadio’s XMKids. Bode-The Anybodiestrilogy (in development with Nickelodeon Movies at Paramount Pictures) and a fantastical Catholic novel The Slippery Map (2007). She also writes novels for younger readers under the pen name N.E. Julianna Baggott is the author of four novels-including national bestseller Girl Talk and Which Brings Me to You (co-written with Steve Almond), as well as three books of poems, including Lizzie Borden in Love and, forthcoming, Compulsions of Silkworms and Bees.

Lizzie Borden in Love by Julianna Baggott