GUEST POST--author Corrine Jackson on "Fandom"

Today I get to introduce an author today of whom I've been a huge fan for the past three years--ever since I read an early copy of IF I LIE and fell in love with her use of language and the eloquence of her craft.  I met Corrine Jackson through the Class of 2k12, and now consider her a friend, and she has agreed to visit us as a final post-stop on her PUSHED blog tour (see more below).

Thank you for visiting, Corrine!

I’ve never been sure that it’s a good thing to meet your heroes. I wasn’t the type of kid that looked up to celebrities or athletes. I figured they were only human, and if you people on pedestals, you’re setting them up for a fall. So I didn’t have posters of people on my walls and wish to be like the people in magazines. I was more apt to get lost in books and the worlds the authors created, but even then the authors were a distant, removed entities to me – I never imagined them as real people.

Becoming a writer changed that. One of the first young adult books I read was Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. Right from the get go I had a major literary crush on the author that could write a book so meaningful and beautiful. A wistful part of me wanted to write books like that. In fact, when working on my own stuff, I used to read sections of her Wintergirls as if it were poetry to get myself in a certain frame of mind to work.

Anderson has definitely had an influence on me, so you can imagine that I was excited to listen to her speak at the 2011 SCBWI conference. She happened to be doing a session on Time Management for writers. She seemed so kind, practical, and funny that I decided to take a chance and meet one of my heroes. I wanted to tell her thank you because the book she had unknowingly influenced had sold several months earlier.

Unfortunately, I’d lost my father two weeks before the conference. I was telling myself to keep it together even as I went up to the front of the room to meet her after the session. I didn’t count on the girl before me crying when she met Ms. Anderson. I am an empathetic crier. Add that to my fragile state at the time and how moved I was to meet her, and I was done for the instant that other fan let loose.

When I met my hero, I imagined I would be articulate and somewhat polished. Instead, I barely opened my mouth to say hello before I started weeping. If she thought I was a nut job, she never gave off a hint of it. She hugged me and was gracious. She listened as I rambled about admiring her work. I’m still not clear on exactly what I said. I was so embarrassed that I ended up emailing her a while later to thank her for being so kind.

The lesson I learned from fangirling her like she was the Beatles is that the words we put out into the world have a ripple effect. We may only see one ring, one tiny disturbance in the pond, but we have no idea about the impact that we’ve had on others. Words really do change lives. They give meaning. They inspire. They beget new words. And I hope that I am as gracious as Ms. Anderson was if I ever meet a fan that needs to cry on me for reasons unknown.

Corrine Jackson lives in San Francisco and has over ten years experience in marketing. She has bachelor and master degrees in English, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Spalding University. Her novels include If I Lie  (Simon Pulse) and the Sense Thieves trilogy (KTeen), comprised of Touched,  Pushed,  and Ignited  (5/27/14). Visit her at  CorrineJackson.com or on Twitter at @Cory_Jackson.

 She  didn't  know how far she’d go—until she was pushed. 

Remy O’Malley was just learning to harness her uncanny healing power when she discovered the other, darker half of her bloodline. Now she lives trapped between two worlds, uneasy among her fellow Healers—and relentlessly hunted by the Protectors. 

Forced to conceal her dual identity, and the presence of her Protector boyfriend Asher Blackwell, Remy encounters a shadow community of Healers who will put her loyalties to the test. 

Pushed to the limit, with the lives of those she loves most on the line, Remy must decide whether to choose sides in a centuries-old war—or make the ultimate sacrifice and go to a place from which she may never return… 

You can find Pushed--Book 2 in the Sense Thieves Trilogy--here.