Alexandra Bracken

I didn't get to experience proper autumn until I was eighteen and heading off to college on the East Coast!

I had this almost secret life of going to 'Star Wars' conventions because,' when I was younger, Star Wars' had phased into the uncool part of its life and had yet to become cool again for everybody else.

The Darkest Minds' came from a period in my life where I felt my most powerless, when I was a teenager.

For those of you looking for your action-packed read, check out 'Red Queen' by Victoria Aveyard and 'Vengeance Road' by Erin Bowman. One's a fantasy and one's a Western, but they both feature strong leading ladies and some harrowing twists!

When I first read 'Outlander' a few years ago, I was shocked to find that Jamie was the complete package: incredibly smart, incredibly witty, strong but emotionally vulnerable, passionate to a fault - and, well, the Scottish accent doesn't hurt! I actually stopped reading at several points to swoon over something he said... he's really that good.

Familial betrayal is, to me, the most heartbreaking kind - because if you can't trust your family to love you and protect you, who can you really trust?

The powers of the teenagers in 'The Darkest Minds' were always meant to represent that inherent drive that young people have to make change, and how the world pushes back against it.

Much like dystopian and post-apocalyptic books are a way to explore the worst-case scenarios lurking around the corner, fantasy can serve as a wonderful tool for showing kids that they have an inherent power in them to create change, both in themselves and in their community.

I was genuinely lucky to have the professors I did, many of whom took a very humanist approach in teaching history that went beyond memorizing dates and battles and all of that - basically, looking at the life of individuals throughout history, aided by fascinating primary sources.

From the time I was in first grade or so, my dad collected 'Star Wars' toy figures from the 1970s and '80s, and we'd take weekend family trips to antique shops and to toy stores. My father collected a crazy amount of 'Star Wars' stuff over the years, and he and I traveled to many conventions.

In the years between 'Afterlight' and 'Legacy,' we see a Zu who has watched all of her older friends head out into the world to do meaningful work while she's made to wait and hang back because of her age. It reinforces a feeling in her that she's falling further and further behind and won't ever catch up to them.

I would be honored if someone reads my books and it inspires them to write their own work.