Hey Gang,
Yep. Week 14 on the TIMES list. I’m floored. And in honor of this, I give you…
14 THINGS ABOUT DONNA BRAY
1. Donna Bray is my editor at Hyperion Books for Children
2. Way back when Love You Kill You was in its infancy, Donna was at a conference in Texas when the sample chapters ended up on her desk, and her assistant at the time, Ari, called and said “You have to read these chapters”, so Donna downloaded the files and had the hotel print them out for her. But the hotel charged A LOT for printing, so she had them print them out in a teeny tiny font so that it wouldn’t be too expensive. She later told me that any book that could make her excited to read it in 8 pt. font was a book she needed to publish.
3. In totally unrelated news, I have complete and utter faith in Donna’s taste in books. (Case in point: she was one of the first U.S. editors to see and bid on Harry Potter.)
4. Donna is a fabulous mentor. (As is evidenced by the fact that Ari, from #2 above, is now a kick butt editor in her own right.)
5. Donna is kind. (Did you know she sent me flowers both when I finished CMH AND when it debuted on the TIMES list?)
6. Donna has gone through every single GG book line by line, word by word, to help them to be as good as they can possibly be.
7. Donna has the rare ability to both see the big picture and the small details–the forest AND the trees, so to speak.
8. Donna frequently makes me cry. (Not because she’s mean…at all! But because when you’ve been killing yourself for a book and there’s a little part of you that says “it could be 10% better…but maybe no one will notice”…well, Donna always notices.)
9. Donna is also the editor of my favorite book of the year, THE DISREPUTABLE HISTORY OF FRANKIE LANDAU-BANKS by E. Lockhart.
10. The Gallagher Girl books are what they are because Donna Bray is my editor, but sadly, as of Monday morning, Donna won’t be my editor anymore.
11. Because Donna is so spectacular that she and her colleague, Alessandra Balzar will soon be launching their own imprint (fancy publishing word for subdivision) at HarperCollins.
12. I can’t think of anyone more deserving of an opportunity like that than Donna Bray.
13. Because she made me a better writer.
14. So even though I can’t tell you much about GG3 at the moment, I can tell you three words that will most definitely appear in it:
For Donna
ps…I have it on good authority that there is another AMAZING editor waiting in the wings (I’ll share more details when I can, but for now know that she edits one of my favorite series ever–like, a seriously AMAZING series–and I can’t wait to see what phenomenal things I will learn next.)