Today’s guest is Lamar Giles, a two-time Edgar Award finalist for his YA thrillers FAKE ID and ENDANGERED His third YA thriller, OVERTURNED received a glowing New York Times review. Lamar is a contributor to the YA anthology THREE SIDES OF A HEART and the editor of the forthcoming We Need Diverse Books YA short story anthology FRESH INK.

Lamar joins host Mindy McGinnis to talk about the over confidence he had as a young writer, and how he took the time to reflect on 8 years worth of rejection before landed his agent in 2010 with his sixth novel. Also covered: diversity in publishing and how genre writing can be looked down upon, and the complexities of writing a book set in a city you are unfamiliar with, and how research can help you get… most things… right.