Joy is the inspiration for this Young Adult (YA) author who admits that life isn't without its angst, as well. But life, she says, is a fascinating continuum, and living life fully is bound to take us to several points along its path. An excerpt from "Fat Kid Rules the World" pulls us into one such journey.

Losing a job is an awfully low point--until it turns into the opportunity to pursue writing full time, and a book like "The Five Ancestors: Tiger" results. Jeff Stone looks back to his own experience as a young reader and taps that experience to help frame his own writing. An intriguing snapshot of his new book follows.

The author of "Candy" talks about the reality that a book is only paper until someone has read it and responded to it emotionally. "When I write a book it's alive in my head, but it only really comes alive when it finds a life in someone else's head." His essay is followed by a chapter from "Candy."