TAG! You're It! - Tuesday

Welcome to  

TAG! You're It! - Tuesday, 

where I ask the questions and my guests answer them.  

But that's not all, my guest also gets to tag my next victim. 

This week, Christine Fonseca has been tagged . . .  

by last week's Elana Johnson.

My Question:

After reading about the new book you have coming out that focuses on children who have difficulty dealing with day to day life challenges, it made me think of my own son's autism and how his behaviors affect the ones around him. I'm curious. What caused you to go into the field of child psychology and take on the task of helping those, like me, who struggle every day with trying to mold our gifted kids into productive citizens?

You know, I sort of fell into school psychology! I had been a Developmental psych. major in college - but with no real intent on making that a career. I just chose it because working with people is a great skill for any job! At the time I was in school I was still modeling and had delusions of some fab glam life in NYC - either modeling or ...believe it or not....writing. After I graduated and worked in the fashion industry for a few years, I decided to settle into a job with less travel and more time for kids. My husband and I had been married for several years and were ready to start a family. I decided on education. But, after taking a few teacher prep. classes, I stumbled into an educational psych class. I have never looked back since! For me, it was such a natural fit. And working in schools enables me to help a much larger group of people.

Another Question:

I'd also like to know more about your other passion, writing YA contemporary and fantasy and how your characters compare to the kids you work with.

Oh!!!I love this question - I fell into writing YA fiction when I decided to write my first NF book. Yeah, I know - weird. I decided I was going to write a book about the training I was doing for gifted education. But, characters - fictional characters - started screaming in my head. A few weeks later I spewed my first novel. I will tell you - it sucked. But I fell in love with writing novels. So now I write - and write - and write!!!

In terms of how the characters compare to the kids I work with, my characters are definitely fiction. That said, the fact that I've been working with adolescents for 15 years really helps with the authenticity of my characters. And yes, I see many of my previous students in some of the character quirks. That said, the real life kids are just springboards for the characters I create, if that makes sense.

More About Christine:

Christine Fonseca is a School Psychologist by day and YA and nonfiction author by night. Her books include Emotional Intensity in Gifted Students (2010) and 101 Success Secrets for Gifted Kids (2011). She can be found hanging out on her blog, facebook and twitter.

And now it's time for Christine to TAG a friend.  

Carolina Valdez Miller,

TAG!  You're It!

Come back next Tuesday to see if Carolina accepts the challenge and to see if you've been tagged.