Since finding YA in her twenties (No, you're never too old for YA), Christina started writing her own stories. She makes up for her lack of a childhood spent writing with an obsession for it now. She's currently working on a YA sci-fi thriller (full of space and zombie-esque people and kissing) and a YA contemporary where a girl uses her brother's autism to hid from her own life.
Christina is represented by Louise Fury of The L. Perkins Agency and is an editorial assistant for Spencer Hill Press.
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Patricia RileyPatricia Riley is a Senior Editor at Spencer Hill Press and the Editor-in-Chief of their contemporary imprint, Spencer Hill Contemporary. She blames her total inability to tan on the fact that as a child she never saw any reason to venture outdoors. After all, her books, imaginary worlds, and stories were inside (as was air conditioning).
A die-hard fan of all things involving the written word since she can remember, Patricia prefers editing and reading to sleep (which is saying quite a lot given her deep love of sleep). As her clients can attest to, she does not consider the Oxford Comma a negotiable punctuation mark.
In addition to books and writing, Patricia can be found spending time with her wonderful (and incredibly supportive) husband and their two tiny humans.
Connect with Patricia: Twitter
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Cindy Thomas
Cindy Thomas has always been a writer. In her younger years she wrote everything from songs to short stories. It wasn't until third grade though, that she realized she could possibly do this as a living someday. Her almost entirely fictional story about her great aunt won an award large enough to pay for dinner for her family of four and she thought she'd won the lottery! Since then, Cindy continued to write but mostly stuck with poems and legal memoranda during and after earning a bachelors degree from Suffolk University. After having children, Cindy left her job as a paralegal just outside of Boston to become a stay at home mom and write. Cindy is represented by Marcie Posner at Folio Lit.
When she's not writing, Cindy is the Head Publicist at Spencer Hill Press/Spencer Hill Contemporary.
Danielle Ellison
The first novel SALT (a duology about a snarky witch with no powers, until one day she has them) comes out with Entangled DigiTEEN in September 2013. FOLLOW ME THROUGH DARKNESS (the first book of a trilogy about a girl racing a clock to save her family) comes out October 21, 2014 with Spencer Hill Press. (Okay. Maybe Danielle is a robot.)
When she’s not writing or editing, Danielle is probably wasting time on “research” or watching TV. She also loves knights, so she’s probably going to talk about them if you ever meet her.
Lindsay Smith
Lindsay Smith is rather shy for someone who puts herself online. But in brief: She is 28, living and working and grad-schooling in Washington, DC with her boyfriend Jason and their sheepish sheltie Cooper. She writes because she can’t not write. Lindsay reads almost everything, eats almost anything, drinks primarily sour beers and old-fashioned cocktails, heals her friends in various MMOs of the month, and hoards impractical shoes.
She is a Russophile and an Oklahoma exile who writes all kinds of fiction, from fantasy to YA historical to quirky contemporary. However, she likes to think it all shares the common thread of the dark, fantastical, surreal, and amusing.
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Lisa Maxwell
Lisa Maxwell is the author of Sweet Unrest (Flux, Fall 2014). When she's not writing books, she teaches English at a local college. She lives near DC with her very patient husband and two not-so patient boys.
Emma Adams
Emma spent her childhood creating imaginary worlds to compensate for a disappointingly average reality, so it was probably inevitable that she ended up pursuing a career as an author.
Her debut novel The Puppet Spell, published in January 2013 by Rowanvale Books, is for young adults and the young at heart, and is inspired by her lifelong love of the fantastical, mythology, and video games.
Emma also writes dark and creepy paranormal novels for older teens and adults. Her next book, Darkness Watching, is the first in the upper-YA/New Adult supernatural Darkworld series, and will be published in September 2013 by Curiosity Quills Press.
She is a Russophile and an Oklahoma exile who writes all kinds of fiction, from fantasy to YA historical to quirky contemporary. However, she likes to think it all shares the common thread of the dark, fantastical, surreal, and amusing.
Lindsay is represented by Ammi-Joan Paquette at Erin Murphy Literary Agency. Her first book SEKRET, a YA historical/paranormal thriller, comes out with Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan Children’s in April 2014! She's also the author of the forthcoming SKANDAL (sequel to SEKRET) and DREAMSTRIDER.
Learn more about Lindsay in our interview post.
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Asja Parrish
Asja Parrish danced out of the womb. When this happened, her parents knew that she’d likely become one of those starving artists living in New York City. They were only half right. Asja resides in Brooklyn and eats a steady diet of words and movement, so she’ll never actually starve.
She went to college for too long, earning a BFA in dance and a MFA in creative writing. She feels ridiculously educated. Asja is currently dancing professionally with two NY-based companies and teaching little ones on the Upper West Side. She's also an Associate Editor at Spencer Hill Contemporary. Somehow she finds time to write and read and dance.
Sleep is only sort of necessary.
Asja Parrish danced out of the womb. When this happened, her parents knew that she’d likely become one of those starving artists living in New York City. They were only half right. Asja resides in Brooklyn and eats a steady diet of words and movement, so she’ll never actually starve.She went to college for too long, earning a BFA in dance and a MFA in creative writing. She feels ridiculously educated. Asja is currently dancing professionally with two NY-based companies and teaching little ones on the Upper West Side. She's also an Associate Editor at Spencer Hill Contemporary. Somehow she finds time to write and read and dance.
Sleep is only sort of necessary.
Lisa Maxwell
Lisa Maxwell is the author of Sweet Unrest (Flux, Fall 2014). When she's not writing books, she teaches English at a local college. She lives near DC with her very patient husband and two not-so patient boys.Emma Adams
Emma spent her childhood creating imaginary worlds to compensate for a disappointingly average reality, so it was probably inevitable that she ended up pursuing a career as an author.
Her debut novel The Puppet Spell, published in January 2013 by Rowanvale Books, is for young adults and the young at heart, and is inspired by her lifelong love of the fantastical, mythology, and video games.
Emma also writes dark and creepy paranormal novels for older teens and adults. Her next book, Darkness Watching, is the first in the upper-YA/New Adult supernatural Darkworld series, and will be published in September 2013 by Curiosity Quills Press.
Learn more about Emma in our interview post.
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Brianna Lebrecht
Brianna lives in upstate New York with her high school sweetheart, their two homeschooled children, and a couple of mutts. Aside from family, reading, and writing, she spends her time leading her local Holistic Moms Network chapter, hooking (the kind that involves yarn), and going for long motorcycle rides through the mountains with her husband.
Connect with Brianna: Twitter
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Kimberly G. Giarratano, a former Jersey girl, now lives in the woods of northeastern Pennsylvania with her husband and children. She spends most of her time driving everywhere because she doesn’t live near anything. During those long car trips, Kimberly flips between NPR and the 90s alternative station as she daydreams about her characters. A former ESL teacher and YA librarian, Kimberly loves Etsy, Jon Stewart, The Afghan Whigs, and '90s nostalgia (but, not necessarily in that order).
Kimberly always dreamed of being a published author. Her other dream is to one day live in Key West where she can write in a small studio, just like Hemingway. Her debut novel, a paranormal romantic suspense set in 1996, will be published by Red Adept Publishing in 2014.
Chrystal Schleyer
Chrystal is the youngest of seven girls and has always loved reading, but it wasn't until her twin sister, Christina, encouraged her to write that she became serious about it. She writes YA/NA and reads everything from YA scifi to Adult historical.
She now works as an editor for Curiosity Quills Press, but in previous "lives" she's been an aide in a school for special needs children and a photographer in a hospital taking pictures of all the newborn babies.
Her other loves are coffee, photo editing, and Star Wars, and she dreams of owning a little farm.
