Random Facts

Astrological Sign
Gemini

Favorite Color: red

Favorite Music
Indigo Girls, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Elvis, The Eels, The Weepies, Dar Williams, k.d. lang, Jars of Clay, Dolly Parton, The Beatles… a little bit of everything!

Favorite Movies
What We Do in the Shadows, The Others, Ordinary People, Beauty and the Beast, Pride & Prejudice (A&E), For Richer or Poorer, Three Amigos, Meet Me in St. Louis

Favorite Books
This Place Has No Atmosphere by Paula Danziger
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
The Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
The Little House Series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin
On Writing by Stephen King
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith
The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

Favorite Food
macaroni and cheese, peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, steak, mashed potatoes, cookies & milk… pretty much anything that falls under “comfort food”

Siblings
I’m the third of four kids: three girls and one boy

Hogwarts House
Gryffindor

Favorite Poems
A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky by Lewis Carroll
Fiddler Jones by Edgar Lee Masters

Favorite Quotes
“This too shall pass.”

“Judge not lest ye be judged.”

“There’s more than one answer to all these questions pointing me in a crooked line.”
~ Indigo Girls

“I have never listened to anyone who criticized my taste in space travel, sideshows or gorillas. When this occurs, I pack up my dinosaurs and leave the room.”
~ Ray Bradbury

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
~ Robert A. Heinlein

Katie Alender’s name is often misspelled as Katie Alendar. Sometimes even as Katie Alexander. Her official website is KatieAlender.com.

About

Katie Alender (rhymes with “calendar,” but spelled differently) grew up in South Florida, where she attended high school at the Palm Beach County School of the Arts, studying Communication Arts. After graduating, she studied film at the Florida State University Film School, and then moved to Los Angeles, where she worked in TV development and production for several years, including a long stint producing dog shows for Animal Planet.

In her spare time, she enjoys writing, reading, gardening, sewing, cooking, playing board games, and hanging out with her family.

Her first brush with publication was in high school, when her article “So You Want to Live On Mars?” was published in Sassy magazine. In 2009, her first book, BAD GIRLS DON’T DIE, was published by Hyperion, followed by two sequels, FROM BAD TO CURSED (2011) and AS DEAD AS IT GETS (2012). She then published three books with Scholastic, Inc.: MARIE ANTOINETTE, SERIAL KILLER (2013), FAMOUS LAST WORDS (2014), and THE DEAD GIRLS OF HYSTERIA HALL (2015). Her next publication will be THE BREAKING TIDE, to come from Penguin in 2017.

She is represented by Matthew Elblonk of DeFiore and Company and is a member of SCBWI (the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) and ITW (International Thriller Writers).

She does not like scary books or movies, but apparently the books she writes are considered scary by many people. She is also a huuuuge fan of talking about herself in the third person.