I am a terrible friend, I have to say, since I am not particularly skilled at cheering profusely and internet-ishly, for my (many! awesome!) talented and wonderful friends. I need to get better at bragging. In particular: this lovely girl on the left, Abby McDonald, is a baller writer of Young Adult novels and Adult novels and a working writer of screenplays that will maybe someday be made into something once the right alchemy hits. (Screenplays: MYSTERIOUS. What I’ve heard second-hand is so crazy: how do movies get made?)
She also has really great hair.
My favorite work of Abby’s, so far, is her latest book, Getting Over Garrett Delaney. It is the story of a girl swooning and stuck on her best guy friend, and the summer of getting over it, perhaps, with a job at the local coffeeshop and excellent new friends. I can say, totally biased, that there’s a bit of Gilmore Girls in this one and it has a lovely small-town New England setting and Sadie, the main character, is familiar, a girl you would know or have been. It’s a good read! And her next book is a Jane Austen riff … That said, you should read her YA, it’s sharp and funny and feminist and realistic, the last one being downright endangered in this era of paranormal and such.
Anyways, point being, Abby is finally on tumblr under abbymcdonaldbooks, and if you friend her, maybe she’ll stop solely reblogging Vampire Diaries GIFs. We first met, years ago, via the internet and being struggling lady music critics together; these days we write different things, and she’s one of the most valuable, true-blue, awesome people in my life. I admire her so much and I think she’s so brave.
It’s fun to brag about cool author best friends!