Alison Acheson

Alison Acheson has published two teen novels, Molly's Cue and Mud Girl, which was a finalist for CLA’s Book of the Year. She's also released a YA novel, The Half-Pipe Kidd and the juvie chapter book Thunder Ice, a finalist for the Geoffrey Bilson Award, and the Manitoba and Red Cedar (BC) young readers choice awards. She has also published a picture book, Grandpa’s Music—A Story About Alzheimer’s.

Alison Acheson has taught in the creative writing program at the University of British Columbia, and continues to teach and write in the town of Ladner, BC, where she lives with her spouse and three sons.

From the author:

This novel has been through many incarnations, and when it began, it was with the thought that sometimes we really do need something to help us get through some tough spots—a sort of friend. Sometimes we can’t solve a problem entirely on our own. Part of solving problems can befriending someone—or something—to aid us. Even so, we might not attain the goal we originally sought; part of life can be reshaping our goals, or even changing direction.

A question left in the minds of the reader might be: will Molly ever be on stage as she first imagined? Another might be: is she happy in the end? So perhaps this is a change of direction from the question of ‘Why did I write this story?’ Perhaps it’s more a question of, why did I continue to write this book, and bring it to some completion? It took a number of years to struggle with the story and pin it, in final form, to paper. And this aspect of the story—Molly’s struggle with disappointment and need to redefine her goal—made it extraordinarily challenging. It became so important to me to complete this story, and to find a publisher for it, because not to do so would be to let down Molly and her friend Candace. They’d been with me for so long, through so many tellings of the story. And by changing up the rule—no, Molly could not have a disney-esque resolution! She would not triumph by being suddenly, mysteriously or miraculously free of stage fright—I was left with the feeling that to abandon them would not be right.