Michelle asked Katherine Center:

I have recently discovered your books and just love them! They are such fun stories and full of lovable, quirky characters. I just started on my 4th one last night. I was wondering 1) Did you know at a young age that you wanted to be a writer? When did you know? and 2) what was the very first work you had published? (I am not looking to read it. I am just curious if it was some sort of short story or something else.)

Katherine Center Thank you so much!! I knew by sixth grade for sure that I wanted to be a writer!! I used to write for fun with my two best friends back then, and I got hooked. I've basically been obsessed with learning how to write stories ever since. Even to this day, I'm still endlessly fascinated with what makes stories compelling and page-turning and meaningful. The first work I had published was my first novel, The Bright Side of Disaster, back in 2007. I had done a ton of writing before that (had a Master's degree in fiction writing, in fact), but I was not terribly brave or lucky about sending things out to get them published. I loved to *write,* but all the rejection was less fun!! Thanks so much for asking!!

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