Meet the Author: Gail Shepherd

Gail Shepherd is a middle-grade novelist who also writes in the K-12 education field. She has spent her life churning out quantities of words for anybody would pay her to write them, from the glamorous (award-winning restaurant criticism, crime coverage for Agence France-Presse) to the ridiculous (newsletters about rebar, catalog copy for SPANX TM). She plans to keep doing this indefinitely.

Gail’s debut middle grade novel, SOUTH BY SOUTHEAST (Penguin/Kathy Dawson Books, Winter 2016) is a coming-of-age story set in Tennessee, post-Vietnam War. The story follows Lyndie, who as the daughter of a Vietnamese woman and an American soldier feels she doesn’t really belong, either in her town or in her family.

Fun facts:

• Favorite book growing up: THE SECRET GARDEN
• Childhood aspiration: Opera singer
• Favorite time of day/place to write: 5:15 a.m. with coffee and fake candles
• Book currently reading/most recently read: WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY BESIDE OURSELVES by Karen Joy Fowler
• Favorite things to do (other than reading): Walk fast in big cities
• Surprising personal fact: She was a high school dropout
• Greatest thing about being a 2016 debut author: Not being a 2017 debut author (if she’d been invited to participate in the marshmallow experiment, she would definitely have eaten the marshmallows)

Where to find her:

Website | Twitter | Add Book

The Debut Club: An interview with A.L. Sonnichsen, author of RED BUTTERFLY

Sweet Sixteener Gail Shepherd recently spoke to Fearless Fifteener A.L. Sonnichsen about her MG contemporary novel-in-verse debut, RED BUTTERFLY (February 3, 2015 from Simon & Schuster BFYR).

About the Author:

Raised in Hong Kong, A.L. Sonnichsen grew up attending British school and riding double decker buses. As an adult, she spent eight years in Mainland China where she learned that not all baozi is created equal. She also learned some Mandarin, which doesn’t do her much good in the small Eastern Washington town where she now lives with her rather large family.

Find A.L. on her website, Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.

 

 

About RED BUTTERFLY:

A young orphaned girl in modern-day China discovers the meaning of family in this inspiring story told in verse, in the tradition of INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN and SOLD.

Kara never met her birth mother. Abandoned as an infant, she was taken in by an American woman living in China. Now eleven, Kara spends most of her time in their apartment, wondering why she and Mama cannot leave the city of Tianjin and go live with Daddy in Montana. Mama tells Kara to be content with what she has…but what if Kara secretly wants more?

Told in lyrical, moving verse, RED BUTTERFLY is the story of a girl learning to trust her own voice, discovering that love and family are limitless, and finding the wings she needs to reach new heights.

RED BUTTERFLY is available for purchase at Amazon, Powell’s, Books A Million, Barnes & Noble, and Indiebound.