Author Guest Post // Thank you, Elizabeth Acevedo by Tanya Lloyd Kyi

Greetings readers!

I’m so excited to share this post today! Tonya Lloyd Kyi has written a series of mini essays about her writing process for her most recent novel, Me and Banksy and I get to share one with you today!

I love knowing more about an author’s writing process, especially hearing about the things that inspired them and challenged them as they were coming up with there stories! Be sure to grab your copy of Me and Banksy, on sale now!

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Thank you, Elizabeth Acevedo
by Tanya Lloyd Kyi

I’d written a few chapters. I liked my characters — an artist, a prodigy, and a jaded child star. I liked the setting, and the focus on privacy and security. But my novel needed something more. Something big.

While I pondered, my deadline loomed. I began to hyperventilate. Probably I wouldn’t manage to write anything. I’d have to cancel the project. Maybe I could retrain as a barista. Then my teenaged daughter came home from school raving about the novel she was reading. I caught a glimpse of the cover: The Poet X, by Elizabeth Acevedo.

Immediately, I guessed what was inside. The book was OBVIOUSLY about a guerilla poet who spray-painted her verses onto abandoned buildings, signing them with an X. Why hadn’t I thought of that? Graffiti would have been perfect for my artistic main character, Dominica. And I loved the street artist Banksy. If only Elizabeth Acevedo hadn’t already written it!

I continued to wring my hands instead of writing.

My deadline continued to loom.

Eventually, my daughter deposited her book on my end table.

“It was great,” she said. “You should read it.”

So I did. And of course The Poet X is excellent. Also, it has NOTHING to do with graffiti. Absolutely nothing. My scattered brain had filled in all the right gaps… for the wrong book.

The realization left me free to have Dominica spray-paint as many squirrels as her rebel heart desired. And that’s how Me and Banksy came to be.

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About the Book!

 

A Banksy-style protest against cameras in classrooms brings a group of middle-grade students together. For fans of Rebecca Stead, Susin Nielsen and Gordon Korman.

Dominica’s private school is covered in cameras, and someone is hacking into them and posting embarrassing moments for the whole school to see. Like Ana picking her nose. When Dominica quickly changes her shirt from inside out in what she thinks is the privacy of a quiet corner in the library, she’s shocked — and embarrassed — to discover a video has captured this and is currently circulating amongst her schoolmates. So mortifying, especially since over the past three years, they’ve had a half-dozen school talks about social media safety.

Who has access to the school security cameras and why are they doing this? Dominica and her best friends, Holden and Saanvi, are determined to find out, and in the process start an art-based student campaign against cameras in the classroom.

Check it out! Amazon | Chapters-Indigo | Goodreads

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Let me know what you think! Do you enjoy learning about an author’s writing process? What inspires you to write? What is your favourite Elizabeth Acevedo book?

Happy reading!

~ Rendz