Bethanie

Bethanie age 13

Bethanie Borst 

A little on the quiet side, Bethanie is a deep thinker with creative ideas, and a laugh-out-loud sense of humor!

 

Bethanie was only 9 when she came up with the idea for Cinderskella. She was in third grade at a local public school and the librarian had droned on about fairy tale retellings, most of them about princesses. If you know anything about Bethanie, you'll know exactly why that bugged her! When she came home from school--clearly distraught--and told me about her day, I asked her what she did to resolve her problem. She showed me a stapled packet of paper and proudly proclaimed, "I wrote a fairy tale I'd actually want to read!" On the cover was the image of a skeleton in a casket with the title Cinderskella. I immediately saw the genius in her work (and basked in the glow of my Tim Burton influence over her) and asked her if she wanted to write it together. She agreed!

We wrote the book over the course of a month. Rewrites, edits, and revisions took another two years. Then we queried over 100 agents and a few small publishers. Jolly Fish Press sent us a contract on Bethanie's 12th birthday and Cinderskella released in October 2013, when she was 13 1/2!

In October of 2016, just days after the release of Snow Fright, our publisher closed its doors. In 2017, Bethanie and I created our own publishing house, Mystery Goose Press. We hired a brand new illustrator, Roch Hercka, who breathed new life into our series. Cinderskella released in May 2018, followed by Little Dead Riding Hood and Snow Fright in 2019.

Bethanie is now a college student and continues to write. She will soon be publishing a series under a pen name.