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Brendan Halpin

Goodreads Author

Born

in The United States

Website

http://www.brendanhalpin.com

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Young Adult

Member Since

April 2008

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I grew up in Cincinnati, went to college in Philadelphia, and also lived in Taipei and Edinburgh along the way. I've lived in Boston since 1991.

I became a professional writer in 2000, writing about my late wife Kirsten's breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. Kirsten died in 2003, leaving me and our daughter Rowen. I married Suzanne in 2005 and got her kids Casey and Kylie in the deal too. Bargain! Suzanne and I live with our three kids and dog in the shadow of Franklin Park in Jamaica Plain, best neighborhood on earth. ...more

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Popular Answered Questions

I really like your books because (apart from great style) you seem to write about a bunch of important issues, (mental health, queerness etc). Do you choose these things because you want to make statements about them, or are they just where you stories go? And how do you make sure you stay representative of marginalised groups you aren't necessarily a part of?

Brendan Halpin Thanks so much! I really appreciate your compliment and your questions!

I really just write the stories I'm interested in telling. There's a pretty com…moreThanks so much! I really appreciate your compliment and your questions!

I really just write the stories I'm interested in telling. There's a pretty common idea out there that YA fiction has a responsibility to be didactic, but I think this seriously underestimates the critical thinking ability of teenagers. Teenagers are sophisticated consumers of all kinds of media, and they know (and typically reject) when they're being preached at. They can also distinguish problematic or inaccurate portrayals. So I'm pretty strongly against the idea of writing in order to send a message.

Having said that, one of the things I always try to write into my fiction is the importance of empathy, but I think this is more me atoning for being kind of a dick in high school than trying to teach anything to my readers.

As far as writing marginalized groups that I'm not a part of, I mean, you can never really be completely sure that you're portraying someone else's experience accurately. I get a lot from knowing a wide variety of people- I think it's easier for me to write about different kinds of people because I know different kinds of people. The rest is pretty much just empathy--imagining, okay, if this were my situation, how would it affect me? (less)

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After Jenna and Jonah's Fauxmance, would you write another novel with an author? How did you go about writing the book? Did she come to you or vice versa? Where do you get your inspiration from?

Brendan Halpin I would, and I have! Emily and I wrote Tessa Masterson Will Go to Prom after Fauxmance, and I've also written three books with Trish Cook, most recent…moreI would, and I have! Emily and I wrote Tessa Masterson Will Go to Prom after Fauxmance, and I've also written three books with Trish Cook, most recently A Really Awesome Mess.

With both Emily and Trish, the process was pretty similar: we'd get together at the beginning to talk about what the book was going to look like,and then we'd trade chapters, with me writing the boy chapters and them writing the girl chapters. There's usually some back and forth in the middle where we figure out whether we're headed in the right direction or not.

Fauxmance actually came from an idea that an editor pitched to us. My other books with Emily all came from ideas that she originally had that we worked out the details of together; with Trish, I had the skeleton of an idea for Notes From the Blender, and she had the idea for A Really Awesome Mess, and, again, we fleshed them out together.

I don't really know where inspiration comes from. In my case, mostly from being nosy and curious--I'm just interested in people and their lives and how they deal with situations. But I also often find something from my own life that connects to the characters.

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Brendan Halpin’s books

Average rating: 3.6 · 10,916 ratings · 1,769 reviews · 20 distinct works • Similar authors

	Donorboy 3.67 avg rating — 603 ratings — published 2004 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Forever Changes 3.85 avg rating — 563 ratings — published 2008 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Shutout 3.84 avg rating — 439 ratings — published 2010 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Losing My Faculties: A Teacher's Story 3.84 avg rating — 390 ratings — published 2003 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	It Takes a Worried Man 4.19 avg rating — 227 ratings — published 2002 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dear Catastrophe Waitress 3.62 avg rating — 256 ratings — published 2007 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Long Way Back 3.85 avg rating — 106 ratings — published 2007 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	How Ya Like Me Now 3.68 avg rating — 110 ratings — published 2007 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	I Can See Clearly Now liked it 3.00 avg rating — 78 ratings — published 2009 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Enter the Bluebird 4.10 avg rating — 29 ratings — published 2013 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Brendan Halpin's Blog

Where to find my new books!

Hello, my brave, wonderful Goodreads followers! You may have noticed a...dearth of published work by me in the last few years.

Well, I've been continuing to write, but publishers, for whatever reason, haven't seen fit to pay me for it.

But fear not! You can get all of my recent work for free! It's all up at my Gumroad page. You'll find 3 YA books, a mystery, (though actually 2 of the YA books are Read more of this blog post »

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Published on February 04, 2022 14:29

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Brendan’s Recent Updates

Brendan entered a giveaway Nimona: A Graphic Novel by N.D. Stevenson	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Apr 21, 2025 06:19AM · like · see giveaway
Brendan has read Little Green Men by Peter Cawdron (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Sep 21, 2024 08:53AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Little Green Men by Peter Cawdron. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Little Green Men by Peter Cawdron <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

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Quotes by Brendan Halpin (?)

“Yeah, well. You're my best friend, you know, and I love you.”
― Brendan Halpin, Forever Changes

17 likes

“if you wait for everyone else to do the right thing before you do the right thing, then you'll never do what's right. You have to do what's right even if other people aren't. Maybe even especially if other people aren't.”
― Brendan Halpin, Shutout

tags: inspirational

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“I feel like our whole friendship was a lie. She's probably the only person I've ever really opened up to, and the whole time she was hiding stuff from me. I just don't feel like I can trust somebody like that.”
― Brendan Halpin, Tessa Masterson Will Go to Prom

tags: friends, trust

7 likes

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