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Malinda Lo is the award-winning author of several YA novels, ASH, HUNTRESS, ADAPTATION, INHERITANCE, and A LINE IN THE DARK. She writes mainly fantasy and science fiction, but acknowledged that even contemporary fiction requires world building. She defined world building as "the imagine process of creating settings, cultural practices, and magical or scientific structures of a fantasy or science fiction novel." You as the author have a lot of control over your fantasy world: who has the power, who discriminates. You don't have to reproduce real-world prejudices. (Doesn't mean your world can't include prejudices! But become aware of these things when you create your world so you do it deliberately.) Something that frustrates Malinda: You watch a TV show set in San Francisco or New York and everyone is white. "This is completely unrealistic," she says. She has five issues she focus on (and I'll share a couple with this blog post): Rules Rituals Power ...

Malinda Lo is the author of several young adult novels, including most recently A Line in the Dark . Her novel Ash , a lesbian retelling of Cinderella, was a finalist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award, the Andre Norton Award for YA Science Fiction and Fantasy, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and was a Kirkus Best Book for Children and Teens. She has been a three-time finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Malinda’s nonfiction has been published by The New York Times Book Review, NPR, The Huffington Post, The Toast, The Horn Book, and AfterEllen. Her website is www.malindalo.com. ** Malinda shares how dialog in one scene of her YA novel, "A Line in the Dark" was pulled from her own life, and how sometimes writing truth isn't joyful, but a catharsis. Speaking of Arthur's prompt of a quote from Alexander Chee's How to Write an Autobiographical Novel  regarding transforming Gay and Asian stereotypes, via drag, to power, Malinda tells us about her current novel...

Moderated by Arthur A. Levine (far left), the panelists are (continuing left to right): Dashka Slater, Malinda Lo, Aida Salazar, and Ibi Zoboi.