ISWG - November

 It's the first Wednesday of the month, so it't time for the Insecure Writer's Support Group!

The Awesome co-hosts for the November 4 posting of the IWSG are Kalpana, Kim Lajevardi, Rebecca Douglass, Jennifer Lane, and Cathrina Constantine!

This month's question is an interesting one:

As a writer, do you have favorite themes that you like to explore in your stories? If so, what are they?

If you'd asked me this question a few years ago, I don't think I could have answered it.  I would have said that all my books are different and have different themes and ideas behind them.  But as I'm settling in to write my 20th (I think)  novel this November, I'm realizing that all my books are really about finding a place to belong.

Obviously they're all different stories with different characters and how and where they find this elusive thing is different each time, but overall, I think that's a strong theme through all my work.

Which isn't that surprising.  I write YA and a huge part of being a teenager and young adult is finding out who you are and where you might fit in the world.  Add to that, the fact I grew up as a diplobrat, moving to a new country every two or three years and never really feeling at home anywhere, and it's pretty easy to see why finding a place to belong might be an underlying theme to my work.

Whether it's literal like Harley trying to find a home to call his own in A Stranger to Kindness, or Arlo and Devon creating their own family on the street in Street Smarts, or Blue desperately trying to find a safe place for himself and his brothers in Standing too Close, or more subtle as in An Unstill Life, The Sidewalk's Regrets, Guide Us, Chasing the Taillights or Stumped, I think you'll find the theme of belonging somewhere in all my work.

And even now, as I'm beginning to piece together my new book (I'm tentatively calling it Truth and Dare at the moment) I can see that the theme will run through this one too, mainly in the form of friend groups and cliques in high school.

What themes do you keep returning to in your work?  Can you identify them?  And can you figure out why these are the themes you keep returning to?