A: The same way as any other tremendously bored suburban kid growing up in the ‘90’s. I read Harry Potter, thought it was the most fantastic thing in the world, and decided that I had to become a writer. So I wrote a bunch of books until, finally, one of them seemed to suck less than the rest. I emailed a query letter to a dozen literary agents the summer before my freshman year of college telling them about this book, and a few of them asked to read it. One of those agents offered to represent me, and she sold the novel to an editor at Random House four months later.

A: Knightley Academy is available in the US & Canada from Barnes & Noble or your local independent bookseller. My older books are most likely out of stock, which means you will have to order them online here. If you are an international reader, you can order my books online.

A: I try to keep my Facebook account personal (I am very, very bad at doing this), but there is a Facebook fan page here, where I do check in.

A: I have a ton of advice! I keep it all in the For Writers section of this website.

A: You can preview the first two chapters of Knightley Academy for free here.  You can read random excerpts from Better Than Yesterday on Amazon. Samples of Social Climber are not available at this time.

A: Please see my contact page to determine whether you will need to contact myself, my publicist, or my agent for your specific request.

A: Authors with books being published by a brick-and-mortar US publisher: Shoot me an email with the details or else have your publicist contact me. Aspiring authors: I’m sorry, for legal reasons I can only read books already represented by an agent or sold to a publisher.

A: Shoot me an email with the details of the other blogs where you will be touring, basic information about your book, and the dates. I’m sorry, I can only consider published by traditional publishing houses, not self-published or POD titles.

I did, using my dubious graphic design skillz, Wordpress, and Photoshop CS4. I hired the fantastic Anna Moore for the more technical/coding aspects.

The Knightley Academy series is an alternate history/fantasy series fwritten by my Victorian alter ego Violet Haberdasher.

Barnes & Noble, your local independent bookseller, or the internet. Until foreign sales of the series are announced, non-North American readers will have to order the books online. You can order the book on Amazon here.

From the jacket:

Henry Grim has never been in trouble for borrowing a sword from the Headmaster’s private stores. He has never discovered a forbidden room in a foreign castle, or received a death threat over breakfast.

All Henry knows is life as an orphaned servant boy at the Midsummer School, bullied by the arrogant and privileged sons of aristocracy who never guess that Henry studies secretly by night. But all of that changes when Henry is the first commoner to pass the entrance exam for the prestigious Knightley Academy, where he will be trained as a modern-day Knight alongside the cleverest and bravest fourteen-year-olds in the country.

Henry and his roommates, two other students from decidedly un-Knightley backgrounds, are not exactly greeted with open arms by their classmates. In fact, it soon becomes apparent that someone is going to great lengths to sabotage the trio’s chances at becoming Knights.

But Henry soon learns that there is more at stake than his future at Knightley: After generations of peace, the threat of war looms, and only Henry and his friends can sound the alarm. But one by one, Henry’s allies are cast from the Academy in disgrace. Is there anyone left who’s going to believe a former servant on the brink of expulsion? Brimming with wry humor, page-turning suspense, and surprising twists, this first adventure in a memorable new series is sure to enthrall readers of all ages.

I know! This series is exactly like Harry Potter, except it’s set at an all-boys’ military academy over a hundred years ago, and there is no magic. Which is why it is awesome.

When I wrote Knightley, I wrote the book that I wanted to write, in a way that was entertaining to me. The cover and content of the book should appeal to readers of all ages; the label simply means that nothing in it is inappropriate for a 9-year-old reader. The setting is a high school, and the first book in the series is nearly 500 pages long. In my opinion, the ideas about war, religious tolerance, social classes and political obligations presented in Knightley are sophisticated enough for readers who usually prefer teen fantasy titles. Also, I get emails from sheepish housewives. Hopefully I will be that awesome when I am all old and saggy (kidding about the old and saggy).

16. I sold the book when I was 18 and it was published when I was 20.

In middle school, my favorite author was JD Salinger, and I was re-reading Catcher in the Rye one day when I wondered what the book would have been like with Holden’s roommate as the narrator. Then, it would have been a story about a kid who feels guilty when his roommate takes off for New York City, since he went after a girl his roommate clearly had a history with, and would the kid feel guilty enough to go after his roommate and track him through the streets of New York or just get on with his own life? That sounded like a pretty good idea for a book, so I decided to write it.

Yes, you! Just kidding! No, the book is purely fiction, I promise.

No. I’ve grown up so much since I wrote Better Than Yesterday (it’s been 6 years!) that I don’t think I could continue the story authentically.

A. 19. I wrote most of the book, however, in the Sage Hall dormitory of the Emma Willard School For Girls in the summer of 2006, when I taught a creative writing class at their summer camp.

The book is really non-fiction in the sense that it is a guidebook full of charts and lists, and does not have a cohesive story or characters. However, the narrator of the book is not exactly non-fiction. She is an exaggerated, fictionalized version of me who existed for a brief period of time in my late teenage years.

The advice in Social Climber is real advice, but the book is also meant to entertain. I’m not a serious writer by nature, and even when I write academic papers on topics such as medicine, I put in bogus footnotes with the phrase “baby daddy” or something else suitably funny because, well, who doesn’t like to have a laugh? But yes, I generally consider the book to be full of sound, rational advice.

A few years ago, this was a possibility, but the TV option expired in 2010 and was not renewed, so there are no current plans for Social Climber to become a TV series.

Sort of. From what I’ve heard, a couple of years back, there was a big protest in Manitoba against banning books, and Social Climber was one of the books that was read aloud. It was not formally banned, but there was a protest where people said, “don’t ban this,” and then other people decided not to, even though I am apparently a dirty, dirty writer who gives twelve-year-old girls hookup advice (for the record, the part of the book most people take issue with is a chart advising how to “fix” it when a guy sucks at French kissing or has roving hands.)

I use a Flip Mino HD and, as of March 2010, a Canon VIXIA S100. My older videos are shot on a Sony WebbieHD. I edit using a combination of Final Cut and After Effects 4 with graphics made in Photoshop CS4.   

Hopefully. I am planning two: one that is set in the subdivisions of Southern California and concerns Korean School, cadavers, debate tournaments, flash mobs, and illicit midnight road trips,  and one that is set in alternate, dieselpunk  London and concerns an orphan called Peter Brimley. However, I am contracted to continue writing about Knightley Academy, so these books are being written in my free time, of which I have very little.

GnomeTwilight is one of those stupid ideas that you have in a late night phone conversation where you throw out an example of something absurd to prove a point and, one you both stop laughing, the idea seems suddenly genius.

Mostly, it’s a satirical fan fiction I wrote which features a choose-your-own-adventure alternative to Stephenie Meyer’s excellent first novel, in which Edward Cullen is a garden gnome, and Jacob Black is a shapeshifting bunny. 

Actually, yeah: Before I became a professional writer, I trained as an actress with South Coast Rep, Comedy Sportz, and scene study under Blake Gould. I’ve been in one full-length film, one short film, an off-Broadway comedy show, a cable access sketch comedy show, two stage productions at Columbia University, and have performed stand up comedy at many world-renowned clubs, lounges and theaters.  Recently, a bunch of younger readers have been downloading torrents of my comedy; guys, there’s a reason I don’t have links to this stuff on my website. My stand up comedy shows were 18+ due to coarse and sexually suggestive language. If your parents would be upset to catch you watching late night stand up on Comedy Central, I ask that you not download the torrent files. There are plenty of funny, appropriate videos on my YouTube channel.