By Margaret Lea You probably know that Varsha Bajaj is the New York Times bestselling author of the middle grade book THIRST. But did you know that she found career inspiration watching American Idol in 2008? She realized how easy it was to see which singers would advance through the audition rounds, but as the competition progressed it was extremely subjective, as all were so talented. This helped Varsha not get discouraged by the many rejections coming in for her writing. She did not, however, take this realization and wait. Instead, she studied, attended classes, went to critique groups, and constantly worked to improve, putting in the 10,000 hours of practice she’d read about in Malcolm Gladwell’s book OUTLIERS. Some of Varsha’s mentors were Gary Schmidt, Matt de la Peña, Jacqueline Woodson, Doreen Cronin, Kate DiCamillo, Mem Fox, and Laurie Halse Anderson. No, not one-on-one but through their books. She underlined sentences, analyzed structure and deconstructed scenes f...