My Shiny New Editor--Julie Amper of Holiday House!

So, I spoke with my editor from Holiday House, Julie Amper, for the first time today! I was a little nervous, not knowing what to expect, but she immediately put me at ease. We had a fantastic talk and all her suggestions for NIGHTSHADE CITY I totally agree with. I'm so excited to start editing. Looks like we will have a release date of Fall 2010. My rats will finally cut loose during Halloween, yay, perfect timing for the little buggers, nice and creepy!

Speaking of creepy, I'm over half way through with Edwin Copperpot, my YA novel about the dead, and now I'm deciding where I'm going to take the ending. My friend suggested I throw some flesh eating zombies in, since they are the current fad, but they move too slow, the novel would be 500 pages long! Anyway, zombies just aren't my bag, too sluggish and the dialogue would just be a bunch of moans and groans and "I wanna eat your brains" nonsense...my dead folk have far more character than that, they're funny too! See for yourself! http://www.nightshadecity.com/EdwinExcerpt.html

So, lesson learned: Don't be scared of your new editor, flesh eating zombies yes, editors no!

xoxo -- Hilary