

So, that’s when I was like, I can do this.

It was the first time in my adult life of almost fifteen years of working in TV that I was home with nothing to do. We had a hurricane in New York called Hurricane Sandy, and it completely decimated us. Jackson: I think, specifically, the moment I knew for sure I was going to be an author was back in 2012 when I came across a case that ended up being the case that inspired my first book, and I just started writing from there. Was there a moment when you began writing with the intention of publication or was it more organic? Bates: Share a little bit about your writing journey on the way to publication. Bates, to discuss authenticity and purpose in writing. Jackson, sat down with Arkana’s managing editor, Kathy M. In November, the University of Central Arkansas’s Fall 2021 artist-in-residence, acclaimed YA Novelist Tiffany D. Bates Transcribed by Savannah Moix-Rogers and Melanie Wilson
