my life next door by huntley fitzpatrick

That kind of support has meant the world to me.”ĭial executive editor Jess Garrison, who was Fitzpatrick’s editor, shared this remembrance: “Knowing Huntley and working with her on her three fantastic young adult novels were among the happiest experiences of my editor’s life. “People have been really kind - buying the books, using them in book clubs, asking if I can speak to classes in local schools. “I’ve been really lucky to live in a relatively small town full of people who have welcomed first my growing family, and then my books,” she said. She noted how fond she was of her time there. “The beaches and the woods where the characters walk are more or less directly derived from the places I see around me every day,” she added.įitzpatrick, along with her husband John, and their six children, was a longtime resident of Dartmouth, Mass. “Stony Bay is an amalgam of several towns I’ve known and loved,” she said in an interview with SouthCoast Today. All three books are set in the fictional Stony Bay, Conn., the type of place Fitzpatrick knew very well. Her third novel, The Boy Most Likely To (Dial, 2015), returns to a favorite character and the world of My Life Next Door.

She followed up that work with What I Thought Was True (Dial, 2014) featuring the romance between two teens from different socio-economic backgrounds. In 2012, Fitzpatrick made her YA debut with the publication of My Life Next Door (Dial), a warmly received summer romance about first love.

“In order to tell the strengths and weaknesses of their work, I had to figure those out on my own,” she said. Reading the slush pile and eventually editing manuscripts was her “writing career ‘jump-start’ ” Fitzpatrick told in 2015. Fitzpatrick was drawn to a career involving books and worked in academic publishing before landing a job as an editor at Harlequin.

Taking a course taught by the late author Madeleine L’Engle inspired Fitzpatrick to dive even more fully into her own fiction writing. As a teenager, much of her writing was keeping a detailed journal, something she would refer to when working on her books.įollowing her graduation from Concord Academy in 1981, Fitzpatrick earned a B.A. She was 58.įitzpatrick was born Octoin New York City and grew up in the small coastal town of Essex, Conn., in “a house full of bookworms,” she told Something About the Author, with parents who encouraged her early passion for stories and writing. Young adult author Huntley Fitzpatrick, known for her realistic contemporary teen romances, died on April 8 following a long illness.

My life next door by huntley fitzpatrick