About moi--Rhonda Stapleton

Hola! (and by the way, that's the extent of my knowledge of the Spanish language).

I'm thrilled to be a part of Fictionistas. So, here's a little about me, randomly thrown out there:

I write young adult romantic comedy/chick lit. My trilogy, Stupid Cupid, will release with Simon Pulse starting December 2009. That seems like a lifetime away, but I know it'll be here before I know it.

You can visit my website HERE to find out more info as it gets closer to the release date, but in the meanwhile, here's a blurb about the trilogy:

When seventeen-year-old Felicity gets a job at Cupid’s Hollow, she’s skeptical at first when she finds out it’s no mere matchmaking gig: she’ll take on the role of a cupid (there’s more than one of them, you know) and matchmake her high school, using Palm Pilot technology to send love emails. In a stroke of sheer genius, Felicity decides to matchmake her best friends, which leads to all kinds of disaster…especially when she accidentally makes the whole school fall in love with Derek, the guy of her dreams.

I'm totally into manga and anime. I've been watching a lot of good stuff (Fruits Basket, Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo), and I'm loving it! I'd love to write a graphic novel, but alas, I can't draw that well. I guess I'll have to find someone who can help out in that aspect, eh?

I adore movies, especially uber-romances, samurai/kung fu/ninja movies, and comedies. There are so many I've seen about a billion times. By the way, be on the lookout for excessive hyperboles, as I'm prone to them, as well.

Also, I'm one of those people who quotes movie and TV lines a lot, so be on the lookout for it. haha. Also also, I'm hooked on chapstick. I hate dry lips ("But my lips hurt real bad!"--see, I just did it, haha).

Okay, here's how I got started in YA: I started writing YA when a good friend of mine (Erin Lynn) suggested it to me. She pointed me at Serena Robar's book Braced 2 Bite (which is a hoot!), and I scarfed it up, enthralled by how much YA had changed from when I was younger. From then on, I knew I'd totally found my writing home. I immediately set out to write one of my own, which was the book that got my agent. In the meanwhile, I worked on Stupid Cupid (which was originally planned as one book). An editor at Simon Pulse read it and brilliantly suggested the book would work well as a trilogy. I happened to agree, and apparently, she liked my rewrites, because she acquired it! YAY!!

Anyway, I'm looking forward to yapping with you guys on here. Thanks for reading about me!

Rhonda