Biography...
Short:
Tiffany Trent is the author and creator of the acclaimed young adult dark fantasy series, HALLOWMERE. She lives and writes in Manns Harbor, NC.
Medium:
Hailed by New York Times bestselling writer David Farland as "one of the best dark fantasy writers of our time," Tiffany Trent is the award-winning creator and author of the young adult dark fantasy series, HALLOWMERE. In the Serpent's Coils, the first book of the series, was named a BookSense Children's Pick for Autumn 2007, a Readergirlz 31 Flavorites selection, and chosen as a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age 2008. Her story "Blackwater Baby" was published in the critically-acclaimed young adult anthology Magic in the Mirrorstone. Tiffany was awarded the 2008 Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Work-in-Progress grant for her young adult dark fantasy based on Charles Darwin's voyage on the HMS Beagle. Prior to becoming a full-time writer, Tiffany received her MA, MFA, and MS from Virginia Tech and the University of Montana, respectively, and has worked in jobs ranging from animal curator to senior editor in Hong Kong to teacher of creative writing at Virginia Tech. When not writing or reading, she chases wolves and bears with her wildlife biologist husband in Manns Harbor, NC.
Long:
Born and raised in Roanoke, Virginia, Tiffany Trent spent much of her only childhood reading books until the covers fell off. When she wrote to Madeleine L’Engle at age nine and received a response, she realized writers were real people and decided she wanted to be one. She won several literary awards as a high school student, including the Edmond Hamilton/Leigh Brackett Creative Writing Scholarship. She continued to pursue her writing dreams throughout college while earning three Masters degrees in English, Creative Writing, and Environmental Studies from Virginia Tech and the University of Montana, where she specialized in environmental literature.
After college, she worked for a wildlife conservation organization in Hong Kong as senior editor of English language publications. When she returned to Virginia, she had the seeds of a story about a child born of the blackwater, a story that ultimately became the genesis for the HALLOWMERE series. Avoiding dysentery and marauding groups of macaques while visiting her wildlife biologist husband in Sichuan, China, Tiffany managed to plot much of the HALLOWMERE series in the summer of 2005. In the Serpent’s Coils was published in August 2007 to acclaim, followed in rapid succession by By Venom’s Sweet Sting, Between Golden Jaws, Maiden of the Wolf (with Angelika Ranger), Queen of the Masquerade (with Amanda Jenkins), and Oracle of the Morrigan (with Paul Crilley). Her short story, “Blackwater Baby,” was published in the Kirkus-acclaimed anthology, Magic in the Mirrorstone. In addition to writing award-winning fiction, she has also won awards and fellowships for her nonfiction.
During her whirlwind publication schedule, Tiffany was fortunate to be a special guest at many events, including Support Teen Lit Day in Chicago, Teen Lit Day in Seattle, and many conferences such as ALA, BEA, World Fantasy Convention, WisCon, and Dragon*Con. To her continued amazement, she was the prize for several contests including one hosted by Girl’s Life Magazine and another for YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association). She has given lectures and held writing workshops for teens around the country at public libraries and schools, all while teaching creative writing at Virginia Tech.
She continues to concern herself with the mysterious, the mythic, and the sublime in her fiction, with nods to her folkloric and naturalistic influences. She is at work on a young adult steampunk adventure tentatively titled The Unnaturalists, as well as the aforementioned award-winning work involving Darwin and dinosaurs running amok in The Fossil Raiders.
She currently lives and writes in Manns Harbor, North Carolina, not far from the site of the Lost Colony on Roanoke Island. When not buried in writing or reading, she’s out chasing wolves and bears with her husband and dog.
Here are thirteen things you aren’t likely to know about Tiffany:
1. My favorite ice cream flavor is green tea.
2. My dog is retired. Her former occupation: a bear scat-sniffing dog for the Smithsonian. What is scat, you ask? Poop. Yep. My dog can detect bear poop from a mile away. Great job, don’t you think?
3. I have never broken a bone in my entire body. However,
4. I almost drowned while inner-tubing down a river when I was 15.
5. I am a firm believer in the power of Orange Julius.
6. Despite my undying love of Orange Julius, I have eaten many gross things, among them Rocky Mountain oysters. If you don’t know what those are, go ask your mother. Were they good? Not really. I have also eaten pig’s urinary bladder, chicken feet, and sea cucumbers. (Mostly because I lived in Hong Kong and it’s only polite to eat what’s put on your plate!)
7. Which brings me to my favorite place in the world—Hong Kong. The people are lovely; the food (other than the shiny, wobbly bits) is wonderful; the countryside is often spectacular. I am also a big fan of the Oregon coast, particularly around Tillamook, and the Outer Banks where I live now.
8. My first job involved, among other things, breeding poison frogs.
9. I absolutely love old Gothic romance. Charlotte Dacre, Horace Walpole, Mathew Lewis—bring it on!
10. I am the willing victim of love-at-first-sight, fairy-tale romance. I first met my husband when I was 14 at a martial arts academy (though we didn’t start dating until I was the more respectable age of 17). We’ve been together a loooong time.
11. My favorite cartoon when I was a kid was “Battle of the Planets.” When the show was cancelled, I raised such a fuss that my father called the TV station and begged them to put the show back on!
12. I have ridden a bus both horizontally and vertically across the United States, from Virginia to Oregon and from Montana to New Mexico. Unfortunately, I’m not interested in doing the diagonal.
13. I am utterly fascinated by 80s music and the New Wave/New Romantic movement. My favorite band from that era: Duran Duran.
