Barbara Shoup is one of Indiana's most prolific writers. Her young adult fiction novels captivate readers and have won numerous accolades.

The title of her new book, An American Tune, was inspired by one of the country's great songwriters. "I had a friend in college who became involved in radical politics that changed her life pretty drastically. I've always been interested in how somebody believes in something passionately and then commits illegal acts that changes the course of her life forever. I'm interested in the idea of secrets and keeping them from the people you love. The books takes place in the run up to the Iraq war and seeing how many parallels there were to the Vietnam War and the secrets the character suppressed for a very long time. The character went underground in the 1960s and never told her family how things really were. It was different then because people my age were more innocent because we believed we could make a change. The title is from a Paul Simon song and all of the chapters have song titles. It's got a lot to do with the feel of that sense of that period of time," she recalled.

Released in September, An American Tune can be found on amazon.com and at Indy Reads Books downtown. "I started the book in 2002 and it was published 10 years later. I did a lot of revisions and put it away. Books evolve when you put away a draft and see all kinds of things that need to be done. It is published by Indiana University Press from Breakaway Books," Ms. Shoup said.

Dan Wakefield, author of Going All The Way, praised her recent book: "Barb Shoup's new novel, An American Tune brings to life an important time in our history that young people don't know and older people would rather forget - the idealism and protests of 'sixties youth against the war in Vietnam and the shadow it casts in today's world."

She writes short fiction, poetry, essays and conducts interviews. Her young adult novels, Wish You Were Here and Stranded in Harmony were selected by the American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults. Vermeer's Daughter was a School Library Journal Best Adult Book for Young Adults. She also has written a travel article about visiting Edith Wharton's grave in France.

Ms. Shoup mentioned a creative grant she recently received: "I won the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Regional Indiana Author Award for 2012 in September. The nice part of it was receiving a $2,500 grant to give to my favorite library (Indianapolis Marion County Public Library branch) at 4180 North College Avenue."

Her calling to write began at a young age. "I started writing as soon as I could write, but I had a funny experience when I wrote my first novel when I was 11 years old. It was about an African American girl who was escaping through the Underground Railroad - like escaping on a subway with dining cars. I submitted it to a publisher, but was rejected. I was so embarrassed that I just stopped writing and didn't start again until my late 20s," she recalled. "When I was a kid, I received books from my grandparents in London. My mom was a war bride (in the Royal Air Force) who met my father during World War II. My novel, Faithful Women, draws upon this period of time, although it is set in contemporary time," she added.

A renewed interest in writing began a new chapter in her life. "I took my first class at the Writers' Center in 1979. It was originally part of the free university in Broad Ripple in the 1970s and later became a non-profit organization. I've always been involved in it and later became Executive Director of it. I always loved novels and loved to read them. I just write what is interesting to me. There are certain things that interest you in the way that you look at a story. I think that writers in general see the complexity of a situation that other people don't see. As a teacher, I was always interested in finding those writers who didn't think they were very good. I've stayed in touch with many of my students. That is a very rewarding kind of thing. I love to teach and I miss it when I'm not doing it," she noted.

Teaching students may have been a prelude to Ms. Shoup's writing for them. "The young adult market (teens and twenties) was a market that I kind of got into accidentally. I taught writing at Broad Ripple High School in the Center for Humanities and Performing Arts for 20 years and was interested in high school kids. I wrote a novel, Wish You Were Here that was set in Broad Ripple Village and released in 1994 that had a high school student as a main character. I tried writing Stranded in Harmony as an adult book, but couldn't get it to work, so I took an adult character from it and shifted them to a young adult book with his story. Some things were left out and added. It was an interesting process," she mentioned.

"A fiction writer's job is to be someone else and make it believable. You get to try on a lot of different identities. A good fiction novel expresses a truth that is beyond fact. You're trying to figure out how to create that time on the page. It's rewarding just being in the story. I love to sit down and enter that world of my novel, which seems very real to me. Time will go by and I love to be involved in it and solve the problems that come up along the way," she said.

In addition to being Executive Director of the Writers' Center, located at the Indianapolis Art Center in Broad Ripple Village, Ms. Shoup is an associate faculty member at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis. She is also an associate editor with Other Voices Books. It was originally a literary magazine, but is now a publishing company where she does screening (as a first reader) and proofreading of submitted works. When a manuscript arrives, it is read by a team.

"You need to be prepared to do a lot of revisions because nobody gets it right the first time. Learn how to write and worry about getting published later and come to the Writers' Center. It's important to have a community of writers. It can be lonely work and you can find a group of kindred spirits who can be friends. That's one of the things that we do at the Writers' Center. We can find support groups that help them along their path," she advised.

"The Writers' Center has classes for aspiring writers and we do outreach programs for children and adults. Our annual gathering is Saturday, November 10 at Indiana Landmarks Center, located at 1210 Central Avenue. We'll have a keynote speaker (Allison Joseph) and several writers from around Indiana speak as well. Part of the job of the Writers' Center is to recognize and promote writers from around Indiana," she said. Those interested can register at: www.indianawriters.org or call 255-0710.

Ms. Shoup has long standing ties to the community. "I've been a Broad Ripple resident since 1969. This is my community and I really love living in Broad Ripple. When I was teaching at BRHS, I did a project (about five or six times) with juniors who researched businesses where they interviewed proprietors. We put together books about the businesses. It was a great way for the kids to get out of school and gain an appreciation for the small businesses in Broad Ripple and their history. The stories include Lobraicos, Fire Station #32, Stationers and French restaurant Renee's on Westfield Boulevard. The things about Broad Ripple that was so great was that the students could walk out and be within the community. A lot of people that owned businesses also lived in the area," she noted.

Writing is a dominant theme in her family. One of her daughters is a freelance writer who also writes books and is a jazz dancer who does a lot of community theatre. Her other daughter is an attorney who drafts documents.

Synopsis of Ms. Shoup's books can be read at www.barbarashoup.com. Her blog is www.barbarashoup.blogspot.com. Her teaching and writing has inspired many potential authors to take the next step pursuing their craft.