In light of Friday's tragedy in Paris, I decided to locate authors and characters who promote peace.

Our words speak as loudly as our actions. While you work to write the next great novel, consider the messages your characters share through their words and actions.

Consider these wise and thoughtful words from some of our most creative writers.


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Why can't people just sit and read books and be nice to each other?” 
― David Baldacci, The Camel Club

“A quiet conscience makes one strong!” 
― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

“If you love me as you say you do,' she whispered, 'make it so that I am at peace.” 
― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

“Peace is always beautiful.” 
― Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

“I do my best thinking at night when everyone else is sleeping. No interruptions. No noise. I like the feeling of being awake when no one else is.” 
― Jennifer Niven, All the Bright Places

“In his face there came to be a brooding peace that is seen most often in the faces of the very sorrowful or the very wise. But still he wandered through the streets of the town, always silent and alone.” 
― Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

“I have never been carried around by a large boy, or laughed until my stomach hurt at the dinner table, or listened to the clamor of a hundred people all talking at once. Peace is restrained; this is free.” 
― Veronica Roth, Divergent

“How blessed are some people, whose lives have no fears, no dreads; to whom sleep is a blessing that comes nightly, and brings nothing but sweet dreams.” 
― Bram Stoker, Dracula

“It is better to be small, colorful, sexy, careless, and peaceful, like the flowers, than large, conservative, repressed, fearful, and aggressive, like the thunder lizards; a lesson, by the way, that the Earth has yet to learn.” 
― Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume

“Thus Gotama [Buddha] walked toward the town to gather alms, and the two samanas recognized him solely by the perfection of his repose, by the calmness of his figure, in which there was no trace of seeking, desiring, imitating, or striving, only light and peace” 
― Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

“Let the peace of this day be here tomorrow when I wake up.” 
― Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow
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Find your words of peace and infuse them in the stories you tell. Let your characters rise above the horrible acts of human nature and be the trumpets of a new world, a peaceful world.

Today, write only words of peace.
Write on.

We're a full month into spring, and I can smell summer's surf and sun already. What's on your reading list!

As a writer of YA, and someone who is more A than Y, I try to keep up with popular reads. If I want to write what young people want to read, I need to read what they like. Since I must also balance my life, and since I have so many books I want to read (adult fiction, biographies, books on writing), I am quite choosy on my YA.

Fortunately, the other day, I happened upon a lively discussion of YA books to read with writers, editors and readers on #StoryDam (Tuesdays at 5PST) via @StoryDam. I now have a whole collection on my Goodreads YAtoRead list!

Today, I'm sharing FIVE with you:

1. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein - a friendship forms amidst WWII (theme: friendship) Read if you liked "Flygirl" by Sherri Smith.

2. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - a foster girl steals to survive in WWII London (theme: responsibility, kindness) Read if you liked "The Diary of Anne Frank".

3. Mickey Harte Was Here by Barbara Park - a sister must deal with her brother's early death (theme: death, choices) Read if you liked "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Piccoult.

4. Freakboy by Kristin Elizabeth Clark - a boy feels more like a girl struggles to be himself - and tell his girlfriend (theme: sexual identity) Read if you liked "Forever" by Judy Blume or "Openly Straight" by Bill Knoigsburg.

5, Paper Covers Rock by Jenny Hubbard - Alex tries to deal with his best friend's drowning (themes: death, friendship, guilt) Read if you liked "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles.

Don't stop here...start reading! Share your reviews or other ideas for summer reads here or with me on Twitter.com/thisgirlclimbs.