April Mack

aprilmackwrites.com/now

Fiction is a safe place to explore the discomforts of real life. Discomfort can be hard to accept, but it's an integral part of growth. So when it feels like too much to practice facing real-world discomforts, we can escape into fiction to practice with some distance by watching the characters face their own discomforts. To the reader, it feels like an enjoyable break from the hard stuff—but they're still practicing. "Fun" is the spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down, to paraphrase a character we all know and can learn from. Non-fiction is learning through facts. Fiction is learning through imagination.

Location:

Dallas, Texas, U.S.A.

Professional title:

Fiction author, YA fantasy

What do you do?

I write YA fantasy novels and short stories with magic, adversity, and happily ever afters.

Why?

As a child I struggled to make friends. Between loneliness and my desire to escape my stressful high school years, I dove into novels and only came up to breathe when reality forced me to. Now I write stories for the reader who needs a safe escape and proof that hope isn’t lost, like I did back then.

What should we read?

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine; Princess Academy by Shannon Hale; My Fair Godmother by Janette Rallison; Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith