What I like most about writing for kids is the way I look at the world. There are so many stories around me, I wonder why I didn’t notice before!

Take for instance when I met Sydney Lewis at the Decatur Book Festival last year. She was selling Vernacular, a publication full of stories and poems written by high school students in the Atlanta area. I might not have been too impressed by that had Sydney not told me about the Wren’s Nest connection.

The Wren’s Nest is the home of Joel Chandler Harris, author of the B’rer Rabbit stories, to name just a few of his writings. I’d taken my kids to the Wren’s Nest; it’s a museum, not a publishing company. So now, she’s piqued my interest.

Turns out the Wren’s Nest has a special program that reaches out to high school kids who might want to submit to this yearly publication. But that’s just the tip of the program. Because a staff of high school kids is involved in every step of the production of this yearly magazine.

How cool is that, I thought. That’s a terrific teen story if I ever heard one. Luckily, Encounter felt the same way.  So, my interview with Sydney is in the fall issue. You might want to look into Encounter if you have an interesting story for teens. You can email and ask for guidelines and an editorial calendar. Or just send your idea, like I did.

And keep an eye out. You never know when you’ll run across a great story! (P.S. Thanks, Sydney!)