Utah Author Spotlight: Amy Finnegan

I meet Amy Finnegan back in March when she ended up as my author mentor for a writing event called Writing for Charity.   (You can read all about that experience here if you want!) Before this event, I hadn't heard of her! Where had I been?

Her debut book, Not in the Script, came out last October as part of a fun teen romance line from Bloomsbury called If Only. It's about what happens behind the scenes of a popular teen TV show and how we as viewers and celebrity follows don't always know the real story. Emma, the star of the book (and the TV show!) has vowed to never date anyone she works with again, but then Jake, a newcomer to acting (but not modeling) shows up as part of the cast. The sparks instantly fly, but Emma can't have anything to do with him, not only because of her vow, but because her best friend has been in love with him (well, with his modeling pictures anyway) forever. (You can see my full review here.)

Such a fun contemporary YA romance!

Here's Amy signing at The King's English bookstore.
At least, I'm pretty sure I recognize that desk!
I wish I'd been there!

Amy lives in Utah, in case I hadn't made that clear. She has, according to the bio on her website, a super hot husband and is the mother of three girls. She admits to not being much of a reader growing up, choosing instead to crush on boys. Then, later as an adult and after she was married, she discovered Harry Potter... and devoured all things bookish after that. It wasn't long before she had her own characters talking in her head and demanding to be written down. She struggled a lot in her quest to become a published writer (see the whole story here) but my favorite part of this story was when she wrote on a napkin, (in the tradition of J. K. Rowling) "I am a writer." I so totally get this! I can now say I've written a whole 80,000 word book but can I say "I am a writer" yet? No. Maybe I need to find my own napkin.

Want to know more about Amy? You can see how she answers a bunch of fun reader questions here, including her favorite celebrity crush and how she went to dinner with him IRL. (Wait, what?)

Here's her official bio:

Amy Finnegan writes her own stories because she enjoys falling in love over and over again, and thinks everyone deserves a happy ending. She likes to travel the world—usually to locations where her favorite books take place—and owes her unquenchable thirst for reading to Jane Austen and J.K. Rowling. Her debut novel, NOT IN THE SCRIPT, came about after hearing several years of behind-the-scenes stories from her industry veteran brother. She’s also been lucky enough to visit dozens of film sets and sit in on major productions such as PARKS AND RECREATION and PARENTHOOD.

And aren't we lucky because this very evening at 7:30 pm MDT we'll be having our second Twitter chat for Utah Book Month with Amy herself! We'd love for you join us. (Hashtag #UtahBooks.) We'll be asking her all sorts of questions and you can ask her whatever you want too! See you there! Check out this list for other chats we'll be hosting this week.