Kimberly Pauley

About Me

Kimberly was born in San Mateo, California on January 24, 1973. An avid reader from an early age, she started writing semi-seriously in high school, but never really submitted anything for publication despite encouraging words from her teachers (who trusts them, anyway? Just kidding, Mrs. Johnson). In college she specialized in young adult literature and attended many a science fiction class, much to the chagrin of her boyfriend (and now husband) Tony, who found it amazing that you could watch movies and read cool books as part of a real degree.It wasn’t until some years later (and various stints as a graphics designer, technical writer, web developer, and manager) that Kimberly got serious about her writing and quit her corporate job to devote herself to it full time. Sucks to Be Me: The All-True Confessions of Mina Hamilton, Teen Vampire (maybe) was her first novel. It came out from Mirrorstone in August 2008.

Kimberly has written for a number of publications both offline and on, such as The Weekly Planet, About.com, The Scriptorium, Reflections Magazine, Legacy Magazine, Hardboiled Magazine, GLBTQ.com and others, as well as a number of internal corporate publications and newsletters (i.e. boring tech-y stuff). She has published short stories (primarily crime fiction, believe it or not) and poetry (not teen angst-y, promise!).

She is the founder and owner of Young Adult Books Central, one of the leading YA (& Kids!) literature sites on the Internet where she reviews and gives away hundreds of books a year and deeply appreciates all the volunteers that make the site as awesome as it is. As a YA book reviewer, she has interviewed authors such as Clive Barker (very, very cool and friendly), Lois Duncan (surprisingly down-to-earth and super sweet), and Garth Nix (what can I say — he’s just awesome) and keeps up with pretty much anything going on in the YA publishing world (hey, it’s some of the coolest stuff out there nowadays).

She now lives in Illinois outside of Chicago with a husband who loves her even though he hasn’t read a young adult book since he was about twelve and can’t quite comprehend what the whole fuss is about, a baby boy AKA the cutest boy ever (seriously, just ask anyone), and a cat and dog who hold little love for each other.

The Max!

For more than you ever wanted to know about Kimberly, you can also check out her personal family blog: The Pauleys Go to Chicago where you’ll find out the nitty gritty and get to look at lots of pictures of her adorable little boy (really, no kidding, people stop us on the street).

Though if you really want to keep up with things, it’s probably best to “friend” her on Facebook, since she spends wwwwaaaaayyyy too much time there (she has a MySpace page, but heck if she has figured out how to use it).

And if you want to know more, just ask! Or better yet, check out the Q&A section, since your question might have already been answered.