I was fortunate to start from a place of relative ignorance about the enormity of the task, otherwise I likely would not have done it. So I took the leap and started writing a novel for teenagers.

The closer I got to artists like Phil who were doing such personal, vulnerable life-changing work that was serving a meaningful purpose in the world, that was created from the very essence of who they were, it became harder to deny my own desire to share myself in a similar way. Somewhere along the way, though, making and watching other people’s stories stopped being quite so satisfying. After graduation, I began a career in film that led me to starting and running a production company with the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman which I did for over a decade. In fact, as an adult, I credit this abundant, early exposure to TV and film with my affinity for character-driven, visual storytelling.īy college, I was all in, graduating from Brown with a degree in art-semiotics, the study of how images make meaning. I never saw any of this as a bad thing, and presumably neither did my parents. My passion grew and in high school, it inspired weekly pilgrimages to the Angelika Film Center in NYC’s SoHo to see the latest foreign or independent film. Some kids played the piano, some read books, but I spent the majority of after-school hours growing up glued to the lengthy stream of sitcoms that would start at 5pm and carry me late into the evening most nights. My husband likes to joke that I was raised by a television. Suspenseful, lyrical, and thought-provoking, Light Years features a remarkable heroine on an intensely physical and emotional quest for hope and existential meaning.Emily Ziff Griffin | The Children’s Book Review | September 6, 2017 When Lu receives a cryptic message from someone who might hold the key to stopping the epidemic, she knows she must do something to save her family-and the world. Maybe Lu will even figure out how to control the rare condition that plagues her: whenever her emotions run high, her physical senses kick into overload, with waves of color, sound, taste, and touch flooding her body.īut Luisa’s life is thrust into chaos as a deadly virus sweeps across the globe, killing thousands and sending her father into quarantine. Being chosen means funding, mentorship, and most importantly, freedom from her overbearing mother. And she could be on her way, as her extraordinary coding skills have landed her a finalist spot for a fellowship sponsored by Thomas Bell, the world’s most brilliant and mercurial tech entrepreneur. As a mysterious virus infects the world’s population, a girl embarks on a quest to find a cure in this thrilling debut from Emily Ziff Griffin.

Light Years by Emily Ziff Griffin