So, there was definitely will I be as serious a writer if I’m writing YA and not adult. I was like, “Well, let me give this a try.” I was approached by Alloy to develop my own series, which became Pretty Little Liars. And I realized, too, that a lot of my adult fiction - my short stories that I was writing and all that - also were about younger characters. It was a voice that I really embraced, and it was a genre that I was really interested in. And, after kind of doing a couple of those books, I kind of realized that I liked YA. So that was a young adult book, and, being a ghostwriter on that, I did learn how to write a book from start to finish, what it was like to be edited and how to write on deadline and all of those things. I was going to school to get an MFA in fiction, and I absolutely thought that I was going to be an adult fiction writer, and at the time I was living in New York and took a freelance job ghostwriting a book for 17th Street Productions (now they’re Alloy Entertainment). The way it happened was sort of by accident.

“I love the way he tells stories.” Favorite TV shows: Mad Men, Girls, Modern Family Guilty pleasure: “Lying around by myself reading with nobody bothering me” Last book read: The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout Twitter handle: Why did you decide to write in the young adult genre? Were you ever concerned that your decision wouldn’t prove as lucrative or that your work would be less acclaimed as books in the adult genre? from NYU (1999), MFA from Brooklyn College (2004) Marital status: Single Media idol: This American Life host Ira Glass. Birthdate: April 8 Hometown: Pittsburgh Education: B.S. Started ghostwriting as a freelancer in 2002 and writing her own books in 2005. Custom Publishing, producing lifestyle magazines for corporate clients. Name: Sara Shepard Position: Author Resume: From 2000 to 2005 worked at Time, Inc. But make no mistake she’s more than just mean-girl cliques and homecoming drama. The uber-prolific scribe also has an adult novel on the way - for those of us who prefer to keep the past in the past.

With more than 20 books published (in eight years!), Shepard is one of the hottest writers in the blazing YA genre.

Sara shepard books