title: Fireflies: A Writer's Notebook
author: Coleen Murtagh Paratore
description: Having published twenty books, Coleen Murtagh Paratore shares what she has learned about writing for young people with great enthusiasm. Every time she speaks about writing, she holds up her library card and says, "I am a writer because I was a reader." She credits her mother with taking her on the bus to the city library each Saturday to collect her "treasures" of the week. <br><br>Coleen now lives in Troy, NY, and is the proud mother of three BIG sons, Christopher, Connor, and Dylan. In addition to writing, she gives presentations at state and national conferences and book festivals, as well as visiting schools across the country, where she enjoys meeting librarians, teachers, parents, and students. Learn more about Coleen at www.coleenparatore.com.
zlib_text: ![](Images/image00232.jpeg)
  
  Also by Henry Porter
  
    
  
   _Remembrance Day_
  
   _A Spy’s Life_
  
   _Empire State_
  
   _Brandenburg_
  
   _The Dying Light_
  
   _Firefly_
  
   _White Hot Silence_
  
  ![](Images/image00228.jpeg)
  
  ![](Images/image00229.jpeg)
  
  This ebook published in 2021 by
  
  Quercus Editions Ltd
  
  Carmelite House
  
  50 Victoria Embankment
  
  London EC4Y 0DZ
  
  An Hachette UK company
  
  Copyright © 2021 Henry Porter
  
  The moral right of Henry Porter to be
  
  identified as the author of this work has been
  
  asserted in accordance with the Copyright,
  
  Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
  
  All rights reserved. No part of this publication
  
  may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
  
  or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
  
  including photocopy, recording, or any
  
  information storage and retrieval system,
  
  without permission in writing from the publisher.
  
  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available
  
  from the British Library
  
  EBOOK ISBN 978 1 52940 332 9
  
  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters,
  