Ruse on the Loose: Morristown librarian has young adult book published

Teen librarian Sandy Hall always knew someday she'd write a book. But she never imagined her first try at writing a novel would be so well received.

"A year ago this would have sounded like foolishness. Like, 'What are you talking about, that's ridiculous, I just started writing the book,'" Hall, 33, said. "But I'm really excited."

Hall, the young adult librarian at the Morristown & Morris Township Library in Morristown, is the author of "A Little Something Different," a contemporary young adult novel. Her 246-page book is the first published by the new crowdsourcing website Swoon Reads, an imprint of Macmillan Publishing.

After it was published on Aug. 26, the Morristown & Morris Township Library hosted a book launch for Hall where she signed copies and spoke to the crowd.

"I try to follow a lot of stuff online about books and reading and writing and I heard about the site. I wrote the book for the site because I figured, let me try it out, let me see how it is. I always figured I would write a teen romance novel," said Hall, a resident of Hawthorne.

"I mean, I'm a teen librarian. I see an awful lot of YA (Young Adult) books every day and I always had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to write. And then last summer I had been trying out a couple of different ideas and I heard about Swoon Reads and I decided to try a teen romance."

Last year Hall wanted to write her book for November which is National Novel Writing Month. She spent most of October planning out her story until the last weekend of the month.

"I had a long weekend and thought, I'm just going to start it instead of waiting for November. And I pretty much finished it in six days. The words just flew out of my fingers."

"A Little Something Different" is a sweet romance between two college students as told from 14 very different viewpoints, including the baristas at the local Starbucks, a waitress at the couples' usual diner and even a squirrel who lives on the college green.

"I picked it up here and there. It all came together from a bunch of different ideas I had. I really did want to write something about college because kids would come in and say, 'Do you have anything, oh, I don't know, just about a girl in college?' And I'd be like no, it doesn't exist," Hall said.

"A lot of teens and later high schoolers are looking for books where kids are in college. But a lot of the college books are more for adults or they're not really about like day-to-day life. They're about sex and drugs and failing out so I always wanted to write something 'slice of life.'"

Growing up, Hall found she was happiest working in a library. During high school, she started out as a page after classes. She worked in the library at Rutgers University, where she earned her BA in communications and a master of library and information science.

"I tried something else and I didn't like it. I was like, why do I hate this job so much and it was because it's not in a library," Hall said, laughing.

As the teen librarian, Hall keeps up on any new reads through colleagues, the "Goodreads" website and as a member of the Garden State Teen Book Awards committee.

"If I don't read everything, I try to at least be familiar with it. 'Goodreads' is an incredible resource when it comes to being able to say, well, this book is like that book, even if I haven't read it. I do try to read quite a few but obviously I can't keep up with all of them."

Currently on a 10-city book tour to promote "A Little Something Different," Hall's travels will take her from Philadelphia to Salt Lake City, Utah. She'll participate in book signings and question-and-answer sessions with book clubs and in stores.

Hall has already begun working on her second book for Swoon Reads. Even though she feels the Young Adult market is largely untapped, she would like to expand her writing her horizons.

"I hope to write a little bit of everything, honestly. Some adult novels. I'd love to write more teen, I'd like to write something for the middle grades, I'd love to write a picture book. I feel like the sky's the limit. I kind of lucked out with this Swoon. They're really encouraging."

"A Little Something Different" is available at www.amazon.com, www.swoonreads.com or us.macmillan.com or www.barnesandnoble.com.

Help the Homeless

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