Chat with author Leslie C. Youngblood about her more than fifteen-year journey to land her two-book deal with Disney Hyperion. What kept her motivated after hundreds of rejections? Why Middle Grade? What does a “two-book deal” really mean. She’ll answer these questions and more. Plus, pose your questions and she will do her best to give you the real deal.

Leslie C. Youngblood is the author of the forthcoming Middle-Grade novel, Love Like Sky (Disney Hyperion, November 6 release). Honors and awards include a 2014 Yaddo’s Elizabeth Ames Residency; a 2010 Go On Girl! Book Club Aspiring Writer Award; the Lorian Hemingway Short Story Prize; a Hurston Wright Fellowship; and the Room of Her Own Foundation’s 2009 Orlando Short Story Prize. Youngblood received her MFA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and served as a columnist and assistant editor for Atlanta Tribune: The Magazine. She has taught as an assistant professor of creative writing at Lincoln University in Jefferson City as well as Writers & Books in Rochester, NY where she was raised and currently lives.