After getting an MFA in Creative Writing I got a gig as a ghostwriter for Francine Pascal (Sweet Valley, Fearless) and wrote 10 books for her over the course of a couple of years. I typed like a maniac (59,000 in less than 2 months, people!) and it was the more remarkable because I can really only type with three fingers. :)
Anyway, I never thought I'd become a "YA author" per se, but after doing these books I wanted to drop the "ghost" and put myself forward as a writer of a YA novel myself. I hoped to make a splash with my first YA novel and I really thought I would when I woke up with the title "The Summer of Skinny Dipping" in my head. I felt sure that dollar signs would follow me and I could leave my contract work behind and roll around in the green.
Ha ha.
It actually took almost 10 years to publish this book and a lot of other work in between. In fact Amanda Howells is just one part of my writerly identity--I am also a motherhood blogger, writer of short stories and travel pieces, and general "Will Write For Food" person.
Anyway, I never thought I'd become a "YA author" per se, but after doing these books I wanted to drop the "ghost" and put myself forward as a writer of a YA novel myself. I hoped to make a splash with my first YA novel and I really thought I would when I woke up with the title "The Summer of Skinny Dipping" in my head. I felt sure that dollar signs would follow me and I could leave my contract work behind and roll around in the green.
Ha ha.
It actually took almost 10 years to publish this book and a lot of other work in between. In fact Amanda Howells is just one part of my writerly identity--I am also a motherhood blogger, writer of short stories and travel pieces, and general "Will Write For Food" person.