Lee Barwood

The Norton Award, which recognizes outstanding young adult science fiction or fantasy, offers an opportunity for readers to discover some great reading. Many of the other bloggers on this tour will tell you about the latest and greatest they know of in YA fiction, but I'm going to do something a little different.

As today’s blogger on the Norton Blog Tour, I’m talking not just about some books that impressed me and set me on the path of a writer (we're talking decades ago, here, folks), but also about the inspiration that Andre was to me personally—in both indirect and direct ways. It’s important, you see, never to underestimate the influence and power of a storyteller, and Andre herself excelled not just in her desire to help new writers but also in her ability to craft stories that not only touched her readers, but stirred their cores in ways that would stay with them for years. Read More