Alyssa Hollingsworth

About Alyssa

Alyssa was born in small town Milton, Florida, but life as a roving military kid soon mellowed her (unintelligibly strong) Southern accent. Wanderlust is in her blood, and she’s always waiting for the wind to change. Stories remain her constant. Alyssa received her bachelor’s in English/Creative Writing from Berry College and her master's in Creative Writing for Young People from Bath Spa University. Alyssa is represented by Amber Caraveo at Skylark Literary. Her debut The Eleventh Trade – "a powerful story of love, loss, friendship and hope, centered around Sami, a young refugee from Afghanistan now building a new life with his grandfather in Boston" – will be published Fall 2018 by Macmillan (U.S.) and HotKey (U.K.).

The Launch Party + Debut Week

Sep 26, 2018

Last Tuesday (just over one week ago???), we officially welcomed The Eleventh Trade into the world! This debut week has been seriously amazing and also seriously so fast, so I’m going to try to capture it quickly for you all! Tuesday, September 18: Sarah Driver flew in from the UK prior to my launch, and together we presented a talk at Christopher Newport University entitled Research & Creative Writing. I had reserved a room for 50 people, but we overshot that a bit and had some students sitting on the floor. We talked about the why, where, how, and when of researching, and...

Less than Two Weeks til Launch!

Sep 6, 2018

We are only 12 days from the launch of The Eleventh Trade. THIS IS NOT A DRILL, PEOPLE. On September 18th, my book baby will be on the shelves. For anyone to see. And read. So what does the life of an about-to-debut author person look like? Well… Busy Busy Busy The next month or two promises to be very exciting! And also very crazy! Next week, I’ll be presenting a talk about Creative Writing and Research with my lovely Sarah Driver at Christopher Newport University. The following Tuesday, September 18th, is launch day (!!!!). The launch party will be held at...

How to Create an Awesome Author Website

Aug 3, 2018

As I mentioned in my last post, I recently did a huge website overhaul to make sure my blog was appropriate for a fancy author sort of person. Also, since a lot of you seem to like my blog post about author business card designs, it seems that sharing a few tips from my research here might be helpful. There are three main elements to any web design — hosting, the design itself (the way it looks), and the content (what’s on it + the way it’s organized). I’m going to address them all below, and give you some ideas...

New Book, New Look!

Jun 28, 2018

Hello, my lovelies! It has been Quite A While since the last real update, and that is because life and writing has been crazy. Mostly the good sort of crazy. But yes, crazy. Today I’m excited to officially announce my spiffy new look, brought to you in part by the wonderful Jonelle Jones. I knew that my website needed an overhaul with the approaching launch of my debut The Eleventh Trade, and I wanted to treat myself to a pro’s creative expertise. I have to admit, it was nice to put this in someone else’s hands and be the client in the freelance relationship...

World Refugee Day: 25 Books for Young Readers

Jun 20, 2018

Today is World Refugee Day! Later on, I’ll be spending my afternoon on the library floor reading with new friends. But I wanted to share a list of some of the books I’ve loved that cover refugee topics. These are in no particular order, but I’ve listed them with their publisher’s descriptions below. What books about refugees do you love? Tell me in the comments so I can add them to my massive TBR list! Picture Books: The Journey by Francesca Sanna With haunting echoes of the current refugee crisis this beautifully illustrated book explores the unimaginable decisions made as...

UK Cover Reveal: THE ELEVENTH TRADE

Feb 23, 2018

I’m so THRILLED to introduce you guys to my debut’s UK cover. Richard Merritt, Cherie Chapman, and the team over at Piccadilly Press have done a fab job putting this together, and I cannot wait to hold a copy in my hands. I always like it when authors post the cover process, so that’s what we’re gonna do! Also, I’m a bit unusual in that I’ve been working with both my UK and US publishers simultaneously on this project. So while the UK was building these concepts, the US was already several months into a completely different look, which may or...

Recent Highlights from WriteOnCon

Nov 28, 2017

Things have been scarce on the blog recently, and that’s down to three things: Deadlines for The Eleventh Trade revision The Invisible Boy draft 2 writing WriteOnCon‘s fundraiser!!!!! It’s the last thing I want to talk about today. If you don’t remember, WriteOnCon is an online kidlit conference covering everything from picture books to young adult, featuring tons of industry specialists from all around the spectrum. (I am personally incredibly ecstatic about GAIL CARSON LEVINE who is COMING TO THE CONFERENCE and I CAN’T EVEN DEAL!!!!!!!!!!!) Since I’ve been doing a lot over on WriteOnCon, I don’t want you guys to miss out....

My First Interview!

Oct 12, 2017

Back in the spring, Bath Spa University contacted me about an opportunity to film an interview with the British Council in Manchester. I was all, “Pffft, why would they want to fly me out to talk to me?” But they were all, “We’re actually making these cool videos for every UK university and we’d like to cover your story and we’ll pay for all your expenses.” And I was all, “WELL OKAY THEN.” So the last week of June, I found myself flying over the Pond yet again. This time I brought my sister along as my travel companion. I...

Stop Glorifying the First Draft and Finish It

Jul 28, 2017

As a mentee for writers, a critique partner, and person who generally has a lot of friends in very different stages of the author business, I end up talking to a lot of people about their first drafts. Especially their first-manuscript first drafts. The attitude of many first-manuscript writers can be summed up nicely in this graphic, which I’ve grabbed off Pinterest: (So much is wrong about this graphic, but I only got time for the starry-eyed attitude today.) There’s something very sweet and appealing about this. It reminds me of the sentimental early days of writing, and how every...

10 Travel-Themed Exercises for Character Chemistry

Jun 9, 2017

As you may have gathered, I travel. A lot. So I figured — why not take a look at my travel experiences and see what brought out the biggest differences among my companions? That way I can steal from our adventures and use it for character chemistry in my writing. (If you travel with me, there’s an 85% chance this will happen. That’s the risk you take being friends with a writer-person.) Even when you’re traveling with great people, there are subtle conflicts and compromises along the way. If you’re less lucky, those little adjustments can become stewing rage or explosive...