INTRODUCING New Tuesday Muse--Beth Hull

I met Beth Hull at a local SCBWI schmooze back in 2011 (or was it 2010? Beth! Help!)  Through a quick get-to-know-you chat, I learned that we have a lot in common.  We're both from little Northern California (and I mean really northern) towns, we now live within a few blocks of each other, we both write YA, and her daughter was about to start at the Montessori school my kids have attended for the past 10 years.  I immediately invited her to the weekly after-school get-together at a local park, where I can now talk about writing as well as the usual mom stuff like reading levels, bedtimes and bowel movements.  It's really a win-win situation.

I am thrilled that I can now truly call Beth a friend--both a writing friend and a personal one.  Her commitment to craft and story are inspiring, her eye for detail illuminating and her sense of humor enchanting. (plus, she gave me the title for Book 3, for which I will be eternally grateful.) 

So without further ado, please let me introduce your new Tuesday Muse, Beth Hull. -- Katherine

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This is me.

In addition to wolfing down hot dogs, I write things—young adult novels, primarily, and some short stories. But writing can be so angsty. So I also make fun of myself a lot (probably not as much as I deserve). And I draw things with Microsoft Paint…usually gophers.
Here’s a gopher dressed up as me and angsting over writing:

I angsted over this post for a long time. Finally I decided the best way to approach a self- introduction to a WILDLY POPULAR, WORLD-FAMOUS blog is to come from a place of gratitude, because I am WILDLY, WORLD-FAMOUSLY grateful.

So, the writing thing I’m most grateful for: even though it can be really hard and I’m tearing my hair out more often than not, I get to write. I get to write, and then I get to angst about it (and angsting has its own appeal). Then, there are organizations like the SCBWI that bring together kidlit lovers from all over the world, where we can meet people like the Muses, where we can learn more about craft, and where we can have our manuscripts ripped to shreds for the small price of $100 (see, I told you there was angsting). And while we’re reeling from that, the Muses and other kindhearted souls can combine soft words of encouragement with just the right amount of tough love to prop us back up again.

Not that I speak from experience.

So I’m profoundly grateful for my tribe of writers and illustrators. I’m grateful for a husband who supports my writing and children who mostly tolerate it. And I’m grateful we live in a world of writing where we can dangle our participles and begin every other sentence with a preposition and sprinkle parentheses with abandon (although I did edit some of those things out and you should totally be careful about dangling your participles in public because some states probably have laws against that). This is such an exciting time to be a writer—a time of risks, connection, and encouragement. I’m grateful to be a part of it, and I’m grateful to be here. Thanks, Muses, for having me.