Literary Birthday – 11 January – Alethea Kontis

Happy Birthday, Alethea Kontis, born 11 January 1976.

Quotes

Getting a book published is one of the hardest things you’ll ever do and getting a picture book published is darned near impossible. Have a thick skin, and prepare yourself for truckloads of rejection and humiliation. But if you’re just masochistic and hard-headed enough to never give up, you’ll make it happen. (Just like anything else in this world.) I wish you the best of luck!
How do you get ideas? If in your whole life you have never, ever had an idea, then you should really get out more. Wake up, open your eyes, and pay attention when your teachers are talking.
I grew up writing stories exclusively for my entertainment and that of my friends and family.
If your reading habits are anything like mine, then you can remember the exact moment that certain books came into your life. You remember where you were standing and whom you were with. You remember the feel of the book in your hands and the cover, that exact cover, even if the art has changed over the years.
It took me a long time to learn how to be brave enough to put myself out there and try everything, no matter how strange or silly. If I can impart that same wisdom to other folks – no matter what age – it would be an honour.

Alethea Kontis is an American writer of Teen & Young Adult Books, picture books, and speculative fiction. The New York Times and USA Today bestselling author says she ‘is a princess, a voice actress, and a force of nature’ who is responsible for creating the epic fairytale fantasy realm of Arilland. Her YA fairy tale novel, Enchanted, won both the Gelett Burgess Children’s Book Award and Garden State Teen Book Award.