Educator’s Guide

By Cynthia Leitich Smith

Kurt Dinan is the first-time author of Don’t Get Caught (Sourcebooks Fire, 2016). From the promotional copy:

10:00 tonight at the water tower. Tell no one. -Chaos Club

When Max receives a mysterious invite from the untraceable, epic prank-pulling Chaos Club, he has to ask: why him?


After all, he’s Mr. 2.5 GPA, Mr. No Social Life. He’s Just Max. And his favorite heist movies have taught him this situation calls for Rule #4: Be suspicious. But it’s also his one shot to leave Just Max in the dust…


Yeah, not so much. Max and four fellow students-who also received invites-are standing on the newly defaced water tower when campus security “catches” them. Definitely a setup. And this time, Max has had enough. 

It’s time for Rule #7: Always get payback.


Let the prank war begin.

When and where do you write? Why does that time and space work for you?

Having a full-time teaching job, papers to grade, and four children under the age of ten, let’s just say that writing time (or any free time for that matter) is pretty sparse. So basically, I’m a anytime/anywhere possible type of writer.

I write in the mornings before my students arrive, on my lunch break, in the fifteen minutes before I head home to get the kids, during my kids’ practices, or in the time after the kids go to bed if I’m not too tired and my brain is still functioning.

It can be a very piecemeal process, but I’m not too hard on myself and have a very realistic goal–500 words a day. When I get that finished, I don’t stress out about my writing the rest of the day.

That’s nice in that it allows me to focus my efforts and energy in other places they are needed.

As a teacher-author, how do your two identities inform one another? What about being a teacher has been a blessing to your writing?

Follow @kurtdinan on Twitter

Other writers have good-naturedly ribbed me for having a secret “in” to the world of teenagers, and I suppose I do. I’m surrounded by them all day, and I hear their conversations, their worries, their humor, etc. I get to use all of that when I’m writing.

Being a writer has helped me immensely in the classroom though because kids love my honesty about how hard writing can be, about revision and brainstorming techniques I’ve learned, and about how you want to write something you’re proud of, not just something you’ve finished.

 Basically, I’m not just someone forcing them to write, I’m someone going through a lot of the same struggles they are, and a lot of them appreciate that.