INN: Your book has been called "stunning," "amazing," "unforgettable" and
"superb" by readers and reviewers alike. What's it like to read reviews of your
own work?

MKH: Completely surreal. Before your book gets published, you have
no idea whether or not people will like it or connect with the characters or
enjoy the story. The feedback that I’ve gotten from readers has been amazing and
has gotten me through some tough days. I don’t think that readers realize the
impact they have on writers. Their opinion means more than any review or
magazine mention, at least in my opinion.

I love hearing directly from readers...

The Third Installment of My Reflections on the Election (for lack of a better title)
By Snowflake

Calendars aren’t made to suit elections. My philosophy is that for every normal calendar day, there are about ten election days. Think about how much happens in one day of an election! Endorsements, rallies, interviews, you name it! Therefore, my attempts at summarizing and reflecting on the events of the past few days is a difficult task. Not to mention the fact that whenever I’m in the mood to write a post like this, I’m constantly being interrupted by meals, homework and limits on computer time. But I’m going off on a tangent here, because the focus of this post is obviously not about the trials and tribulations of teen writers (dramatic, eh?), but about the election.

I’m going to start with Colin Powell’s endorsement of Senator Obama. For those of you who don’t know (and, I’ll admit, until a few days ago, I didn’t really know who Colin Powell was, except that he worked in the Bush administration), Colin Powell is George W. Bush’s former secretary of state and a four-star general. He is probably one of the United States’ best known African-American officials. He’s a Republican and has worked for many Republican administrations, so his endorsement came as a shock to many people, including me!

Powell says that he endorsed Obama due to the negative nature of McCain’s campaign and because he believes that we need a “transformational figure” for president right now. He also noted that McCain’s choice of Palin as a running mate helped to persuade him.

Here are my thoughts on the endorsement: I applaud Colin Powell for stepping across party lines and endorsing the candidate he thinks would be the best for the job. One thing I find interesting when browsing articles about this subject was that Powell supports abortion rights and affirmative action. I know this does not directly relate to the endorsement, but I thought it was cool. Anyway, while I disagree with Powell’s judgment here, I think that he made the right decision for himself. However, it’s going to hurt McCain, no doubt about it! When a Republican who worked in the Bush administration endorses one of the most liberal Democrats in the Senate, what does that say about McCain? Or do you think he has different motives? I don’t know--I’m curious to hear what you guys have to say!

Next, let’s discuss “Joe the Plumber”, whose real name is Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher (forgive me if the last name is misspelled!). I think that it’s awful how his personal life is being dug up. He asked a legitimate question, and lucky for him, Barack Obama’s answer was one that the media really picked on, so now the poor guy has camera crews camping out on his front lawn. So, I have two questions for you girls: What do you think about Joe’s question and do you think it was right for the media and the campaigns to respond the way they did? And what do you girls think about Obama’s answer?

Also, I have to get to bed, but I’ll just throw this out here: what do you girls think about the ACORN controversy, Bill Ayers, the GOP robocalls and all the other news like that that’s been going on lately? I look forward to another good political discussion!!