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	<author id="79589">
  <name><![CDATA[Alex Flinn]]></name>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/79589.Alex_Flinn]]></link>
  <fans-count type="integer">35</fans-count>
  <followers-count type="integer">23</followers-count>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1244148957p5/79589.jpg</image_url>
  <about><![CDATA[I was born in a log cabin in the Big Woods of . . . okay, maybe not.  I was born in a small town on Long Island, New York. When I was five years old, my mom said that I should be an author. I guess I must have nodded or something because, from that point on, every poem I ever wrote in school was submitted to Highlights or Cricket magazine. I was collecting rejection slips at age seven!

I learned to read early and often. But I compensated for this early proficiency by absolutely refusing to read the programmed readers required by the school system -- workbooks where you read the story, then answered the questions. When the other kids were on Book 20, I was on Book 1! My teacher, Mrs. Zeiser, told my mother, &quot;Alexandra marches to her own drummer.&quot;  I don't think that was supposed to be a good thing.  Now, when my daughter, Katie, brings home FCAT prep materials where you are supposed to read a passage and answer questions, I want to ask the teacher, &quot;Does she really need to do this?  She can read!!!&quot;

My favorite authors were Astrid Lindgren, Beverly Cleary, Judy Blume, Marilyn Sachs, and Laura Ingalls Wilder. I also read A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett about 50 times.  I think I always thought Ram Dass and his monkey might sneak into my room with a magical picnic all my own!

My family moved to Miami when I was in middle school.  I had a really hard time making friends, so I spent a lot of time reading and writing then.  But unlike Christopher Paolini or Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, I never finished writing a novel.  That was also when I learned to be a keen observer (Picture Harriet the Spy).  By high school, I'd made some friends and gotten involved in various &quot;gifted and talented&quot; performing arts programs. I studied opera in college (I'm a coloratura -- the really loud, high-pitched sopranos.) and then went to law school.

It was law school that probably helped with my first novel. Breathing Underwater deals with the serious and all-too-common problem of dating violence. I based the book on my experiences interning with the State Attorney's Office and volunteering with battered women.  I thought this was a really important topic, as 27 percent of teenage girls surveyed have been hit by a boyfriend.  I'm happy that the book is so popular, and if you are reading this bio because the book was assigned for school, I'm happy about that too.

I started writing an early (and laughable) version of Breathing Underwater in college (I was really bored on a car trip with my parents).  I didn't get back to it until I had my first daughter, Katie.  I'm self-taught. I went to the library and took out books on writing. Then, I read a lot of young-adult novels by writers I admired, particularly Richard Peck. Reading his books is like listening to Mozart -- you learn the right way to write a novel. Then, you fill in your own style. I actually got to meet Richard Peck in person at a workshop of the Key West Literary Seminar.  Lots of writers have been really helpful to me, especially Richard and fellow YA author, Joyce Sweeney. 
 
I write my first drafts longhand. At first, I did that because I didn't own a computer. Then, I borrowed a memory typewriter and finally purchased a computer three years after I began writing. A year later Breathing Underwater was finished then accepted.

I think I write for young-adults because I never quite got over being one. In my mind, I am still 13-years-old, running laps on the athletic field, wearing this really baggy white gymsuit. I'm continually amazed at the idea that I have a checking account and a mortgage. So I try to write books that gymsuit girl might enjoy. It's a way of going back to being thirteen . . . knowing what I know now.
Right now, I live half a mile away from my old middle school, in Palmetto Bay, a suburb of Miami, with my husband, Gene, and daughters, Katie and Meredith. ]]></about>    <gender>female</gender>  <hometown>Long Island, New York</hometown>      
  
  
  <books>
        <book id="544891">
  <title><![CDATA[Beastly]]></title>
  <authors>
    <author>
      <name><![CDATA[Alex Flinn]]></name>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/79589.Alex_Flinn]]></link>
    </author>
      </authors>
  <average_rating>3.86</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>1798</ratings_count>
  <published>2007</published>  
  
</book>
        <book id="389535">
  <title><![CDATA[Breathing Underwater]]></title>
  <authors>
    <author>
      <name><![CDATA[Alex Flinn]]></name>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/79589.Alex_Flinn]]></link>
    </author>
      </authors>
  <average_rating>3.89</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>680</ratings_count>
  <published>2001</published>  
  
</book>
        <book id="5266667">
  <title><![CDATA[A Kiss in Time]]></title>
  <authors>
    <author>
      <name><![CDATA[Alex Flinn]]></name>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/79589.Alex_Flinn]]></link>
    </author>
      </authors>
  <average_rating>3.63</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>338</ratings_count>
  <published>2009</published>  
  
</book>
        <book id="544893">
  <title><![CDATA[Breaking Point]]></title>
  <authors>
    <author>
      <name><![CDATA[Alex Flinn]]></name>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/79589.Alex_Flinn]]></link>
    </author>
      </authors>
  <average_rating>3.62</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>195</ratings_count>
  <published>2002</published>  
  
</book>
        <book id="544894">
  <title><![CDATA[Nothing to Lose]]></title>
  <authors>
    <author>
      <name><![CDATA[Alex Flinn]]></name>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/79589.Alex_Flinn]]></link>
    </author>
      </authors>
  <average_rating>3.81</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>175</ratings_count>
  <published>2004</published>  
  
</book>
        <book id="544892">
  <title><![CDATA[Diva]]></title>
  <authors>
    <author>
      <name><![CDATA[Alex Flinn]]></name>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/79589.Alex_Flinn]]></link>
    </author>
      </authors>
  <average_rating>3.66</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>181</ratings_count>
  <published>2006</published>  
  
</book>
        <book id="137555">
  <title><![CDATA[Fade to Black]]></title>
  <authors>
    <author>
      <name><![CDATA[Alex Flinn]]></name>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/79589.Alex_Flinn]]></link>
    </author>
      </authors>
  <average_rating>3.74</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>174</ratings_count>
  <published>2005</published>  
  
</book>
        <book id="7075298">
  <title><![CDATA[The Princess and the Shoemaker]]></title>
  <authors>
    <author>
      <name><![CDATA[Alex Flinn]]></name>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/79589.Alex_Flinn]]></link>
    </author>
      </authors>
  <average_rating>0.0</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>0</ratings_count>
  <published>2010</published>  
  
</book>
      </books>
</author>
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