Writing, playing and coloring and reading stories to my daughter, apple picking, running around on the beach with my daughter, collecting seaglass, antiquing, attending book shows, reading, laughing and telling stories with friends and family, working with incredibly talented writers, editors and agents.
Music
Right now I seem to love all the music that Zach Braff puts in his movies for some reason. I think he missed his calling as a music producer. If he started his own label, I'd bet he would make millions! I also love Sarah McLachlan, Dido, Natalie Merchant, Snow Patrol, Five for Fighting, George Winston, Foo Fighters, The Chilis, Pink (just for that song Stupid Girls--loved it!), Carly Simon, James Taylor and Billy Joel. And I also have to love Avril simply because my daughter doesn't let me play anything else when we are driving in the car.
Television
LOST!!!, The Office, Grey's Anatomy, How I Met Your Mother, Supernatural (I know, I'm a dork), King of Queens, The Tudors, did I mention LOST???, Ghosthunters, Entourage, Criminal Minds and um, what was that other one? oh right....LOST! But most of the time I'm forced to watch Dora, Diego, Sesame Street, Backyardigans, Clifford, Max & Ruby, and The Wonderpets (I think that Wonderpets is my favorite.) Unfortunately Laurie Berkner songs are stuck in my mind at all times (if you have a toddler and watch Noggin, you know what I'm talking about.)
Books
This could be an incredibly long list. First and foremost, the amazingly talented (and wonderful client!! Hi Jackie!) Jacquelyn Mitchard, New York Times bestselling author of Deep End of the Ocean and the recently released STILL SUMMER (August 2007)--go out and buy it today!! :)
Here are a few of my all-time favorites, as well as some recent books that I've enjoyed: Pale Fire by Nabokov; The Secret History by Donna Tartt; Judas Child by Carol O'Connell; anything and everything by Alice Hoffman, Jodi Picoult and Thomas Cook; To Feel Stuff by Andrea Seigel; The Bright Forever; short stories by Alice Munro; Darkness Peering by Alice Blanchard; The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold; The Keep and The Invisible Circus (as well as many short stories) by Jennifer Egan; David Sedaris; David Rakoff; Augusten Burroughs; all the short stories and novels written by my former professor at Skidmore, Steven Millhauser...list to be continued because I could literally go on for hours and hours...
Heroes
My daughter Piper for living up to the nickname "the little spitfire" that she was given as a 2.5 pound preemie. Whenever I look at her and remember how hard she fought to stay in this world, I know that if I have just a fraction of that strength, I can get through (and recently have gotten through) anything. Also, the entire cardiac team at Brigham and Women's hospital for keeping me around for Piper.
Megan Kelley Hall, 35, is novelist and literary publicist living in Swampscott, Massachusetts, and is currently represented by Elisabeth Weed of Weed Literary in NYC. Hall's first novel, SISTERS OF MISERY (Kensington, 2008) is a modern-day gothic, teen saga, complete with witchcraft and runic mythology, set in the fictional town of Hawthorne, MA. Hall regularly writes for a variety of local and national magazines and publications, including Elle, Glamour, Boston Magazine, The Boston Globe, Parenting, American Baby, Working Mother, Better Homes and Gardens.com, More.com, Ladies Home Journal.com, New England Bride, MetroSports, Parents and Kids, The AKC Gazette and various online publications. Hall's writing has been included in an anthology of pregnancy stories entitled, THEY LIED: True Tales of Pregnancy. Hall was also the editorial consultant for The Official TV Guide Collectors Guide. She studied creative writing at Skidmore College under the Pulitzer-Prize winning author Steven Millhauser.
Hall is also writing a non-fiction memoir about her recent open heart surgery, as well as her life as a cancer survivor, her partial vision loss and the premature birth of her very healthy and happy four year old daughter Piper Elizabeth. Hall's essay about undergoing open-heart surgery at the age of 32 will be featured in an anthology by former CNN anchor, Daryn Kagan, entitled WHAT'S POSSIBLE (Meredith Books, May 2008). THE LOST SISTER, sequel to Sisters of Misery, will be out in 2009.
When not writing or chasing after her daughter, Piper Elizabeth, Megan spends most of her time promoting her clients as a partner and founder of Kelley & Hall Book Publicity and Promotion--a company she started with her mother and sister. Check out their current list of clients and mission statement at www.kelleyandhall.com for more information.
Who I'd like to meet: Joan Didion, Oscar Wilde, Ernest Hemingway, Vladimir Nabokov, Johnny Depp, Sawyer from Lost, Oprah, Nora Ephron, Barack Obama, Donna Tartt, Jennifer Egan, did I mention Johnny Depp?, Princess Grace, Vivien Leigh, Cary Grant, Elvis, Lord Byron. Celebrity kids: Apple, Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, Suri, Moses, Lourdes and Rocco, Brit-Brit and K-Fed's kids and Michael Jackson's kids in 20 years just to see how (crazy or not so crazy) they have all turned out.
I realize that most of the people I've chosen are not living, so that poses a bit of a problem. Oh well.
Hi my loves,
OFF CAMPUS is being featured in InTouch Weekly's Hot list this week! Please spread the word.
Thanks so much for your support!
Love and some verses,
THE UPPER CLASS
Hey there lovely people!
Our third installment of The Upper Class Novels, OFF CAMPUS, is officially out!!
We are also now on facebook too!! Please come visit our facebook page and talk to the authors whenever you like!!!
We will also have giveaways coming soon!
Love and some verses,
THE UPPER CLASS
Just wanted to let you know that my romantic suspense, WHAT LIES IN SHADOW, is out! (Set in Boston!) Check out the sneak peek and my Best First Line contest for readers and writers at my website!
Tina Wainscott Romance, Suspense, Chills, and Thrills! www.tinawainscott.com
Hi, Megan. Nice to meet you! Your book sounds like something I would have loved as a young teenager. And your baby is beautiful--darling photos! Blessings--L.
Thanks for the add. I hope you’ll check out my new tween novel, GIVING UP THE GHOST. It's set on a haunted plantation near New Orleans, two years after Hurricane Katrina. It’s my dearest wish that my novel’s themes of fear, grief, and forgiveness, leavened with humor and gripped by a ghostly mystery, will bring comfort and healing to young teens living with uncertainty in unsettling times.
