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Welcome back to the Penguin Teen Author Spotlight, everybody! Today we’re so excited to introduce you to Huntley Fitzpatrick, author of one of our favorite summer romances, MY LIFE NEXT DOOR. You guys, you don’t even know what you’re getting into with this book. Jase Garrett will give your favorite YA boys a run for their money, and that is not an exaggeration! But as much as we’d love to slobber over Jase all day, we’ve got an author interview to get to! Without further ado, meet Huntley!

Name: Huntley Fitzpatrick
Novel: MY LIFE NEXT DOOR
Available: June, 2012

Who’s your favorite author, living or dead? There are so many, but John Green, Deb Caletti, Jennifer Echols spring to mind in contemporaries. I love Cassandra Clare and Madeleine L’Engle. I reread C.S. Lewis and Louisa May Alcott all the time.

What’s your favorite thing about your book? All the people I met because of it.

If you could spend one year on a deserted island with one character from literature, who would you choose? Augustus Waters, if the desert island contained a magic elixir that would make him healthy—and, much as I like Hazel, she couldn’t be in the picture because I’d feel too guilty about breaking up that beautiful couple.

Where do you write? I roam from place to place. This is my workspace [Ed: See photo above!] but when I’m short on inspiration, I pick up my laptop and rove.

Who is your favorite hero or heroine of history? Anne Frank. Louisa May Alcott again. Robert and John Kennedy.

Do you tweet? What’s the funniest thing you’ve ever tweeted? I do. I’m sort of a twit on twitter but I try.

What is your favorite season? Summer. I count the months every year. It’s short here in New England and every year I wonder if it’s worth living here where we only get the beautiful warmth and radiance for a few short months, and every year I decide it is.

If you could teleport anywhere in the known universe right now, where would you go? London. I’d take my kids. I haven’t been there since my Junior year in college and I’d love to take them for cucumber sandwiches and a tour through the British Museum and Hyde Park.

Do you have any writing rituals? Just writing regularly is enough of a ritual for me. I feel beyond lucky to be able to do that.

What is your idea of earthly happiness? I’ve always liked that definition of happiness that was “The full pursuit of your capacities along the lines of excellence”. Trying your best about the things you care about, taking time to appreciate and enjoy the things you love the most, and making sure no one you love ever doubts it, would, I guess, be my ultimate definition.

What is the best concert you’ve ever been to? Joan Baez. I love songs that tell stories. I can make up fifty for each one of hers.

What are you currently working on? Book 2 is about Gwen Castle, a working class girl who has grown up on a privileged island, and Cass Somers, the boy who is her Worst Mistake Ever and inescapable crush, whom she thinks she can spend the summer forgetting, until she learns that he is going to be the yard boy on the island this year—and has no intention of being forgotten.

………

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer our questions, Huntley!

You can find Huntley online on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and her website.

Add MY LIFE NEXT DOOR to your “to-read” shelf on Goodreads!

Purchase MY LIFE NEXT DOOR from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or your local independent bookseller.