by Jeff Fleischer
The blog YA Dude Books published a lovely review of A Hot Mess a few weeks ago, and today published a Q&A with me about writing in general as well as the book.
An excerpt:
Q: Your newest book, A Hot Mess, explores climate change through real-life stories. What made you choose that approach to reach young people, and what is the single biggest message you hope they take away?
A: I think it’s important to take a three-dimensional view of the problem. Not just explaining the science, but connecting the dots between what’s going on at a global level and how life is changing differently in different places. Even if people read or watch reliable, accurate reporting about climate science (and not everyone does), it can still be hard to grasp the size and range of the problem. There are plenty of good articles about specific examples in the news on a given day, but sometimes it’s easy to learn about some of the trees and miss the forest. As far as a message, I’d hope they understand that grifters and liars shouldn’t get away with delaying or preventing action to tackle arguably the most serious problem of our lifetimes—and also that while they’re going to have to live with some bad outcomes because of other generations’ inaction, that doesn’t mean they can’t improve things or stop them from getting worse.