I first moved to New York, like many twenty-somethings before me, to be a grown up. I was attending an MFA program in the city, starting work at a nonfiction imprint at a reputable publishing house, and excited about being on track to becoming the writer I had always wanted to be.

Rebecca Serle

Categorized in : Me New City Work

No love story ends or begins out of accordance with how it needs to go.

Rebecca Serle

story go no-love love

'Ready Player One' has it all - nostalgia, trivia, adventure, romance, heart, and, dare I say it, some very fascinating social commentary. The novel follows Wade Watts through the virtual reality world, the OASIS, and on a quest to uncover and unlock the secrets buried deep inside.

Rebecca Serle

heart adventure reality world

When it comes to vampires, Daniel Gillies's Elijah is the cream of the crop. Since leaving 'The Vampire Diaries' to headline 'The Originals,' we've seen the brother of Klaus grow from the altruistic, steadfast, suit-wearing stud into a complicated, nuanced lead.

Rebecca Serle

grow leaving brother complicated

If you're applying for a creative position, don't be afraid to get a little creative on your resume.

Rebecca Serle

resume your you creative

Whenever someone asks me for career advice, I always tell them to find a mentor. Find someone who has done what you want to do, and study the way they got there.

Rebecca Serle

someone me you way

You don't write a book. You write a sentence and then a paragraph and then a page and then a chapter. Looking at writing 400 plus pages or seventy thousand odd words is incredibly daunting, but if you just focus on the immediate picture - say, 500 words - it's not so overwhelming.

Rebecca Serle

words looking you focus

I was a children's yoga instructor in high school, which was a lot of fun but hard work. I remember once trying to teach 13 three year olds how to do tree pose... not so easy.

Rebecca Serle

hard-work work tree children

American fantasy is not a genre we think about too often. Sure, we are familiar with the worlds of English boarding school houses and castles and fairies, but true American fantasy, fantasy that is built on the land of this country, is hard to come by.

Rebecca Serle

think fantasy country school

At its heart, 'Mostly Good Girls' is about the pressures we put on ourselves to live up to ideas of perfection.

Rebecca Serle

good perfection heart ideas

Picture books have terrible PR amongst the children of this country. Ask any librarian: after a certain age, children just aren't interested in the picture book section anymore. It's filled with moms, strollers, and unbalanced toddlers.

Rebecca Serle

picture age book children

The idea that success is limited is an easy one to believe. We buy into it, and often without even thinking. There aren't enough resources. Something for you means less for me. I understand it, too. It's the give and take of the human experience. If you have the apple, I can't then hold it at the same time... or can I?

Rebecca Serle

me experience success time

When someone around you succeeds, it does not mean they've taken that spot from you. What it means is that you are in the atmosphere of someone who is creating.

Rebecca Serle

someone who you mean

It's devastating when that happens, when someone just ups and leaves for no reason, but love does sometimes go wrong.

Rebecca Serle

someone reason sometimes love

I think perfect happiness has a lot to do with peace. For me, I get peace from writing, from the people in my life, and from yoga - om!

Rebecca Serle

me happiness peace life

It takes a lot for a show to withstand the test of time.

Rebecca Serle

takes show test time

The first thing I thought when I finished Ernest Cline's 'Ready Player One' was, 'My God, it's the grown-up's 'Harry Potter.'' Now this is from a mega 'HP' fan, so I mean business, here.

Rebecca Serle

thought ready business god

So many tend to brand the Internet as the downfall of youth, but 'Ready Player One' hints that it's more complicated than that.

Rebecca Serle

brand internet youth complicated

The adult fiction and writing for children portions of my MFA program were kept very separate, and there was a stigma around those 'kid people.'

Rebecca Serle

kid writing children people

I used the second year of my MFA program to write a young adult novel and began pursuing picture books as well. I loved the economy of this art form, choosing, with pristine attention, the exact right words to tell the exact right story.

Rebecca Serle

picture loved words art

It is my greatest wish to teach children what I now believe: that writing is not a burden but a joy.

Rebecca Serle

wish joy believe children