Sally Bosco

Sally Bosco writes dark fiction, primarily young adult. She is inexplicably drawn to the Uncanny, the shades of gray between the light and dark, the area where your mind hovers as you’re falling off to sleep. She loves writing young adult fiction because she strongly relates to teenage angst, the search for self-identity and the feelings of being an outsider. First, she wants her writing to be entertaining, then she’d like to reach anyone who has ever felt like an outsider and tell them it’s okay to be different.

Her published novels include: This May Not End Well, The Werecat Chronicles, and Death Divided. Recent publications include stories in Small Bites, Hazard Yet Forward and Cellar Door: Words of Beauty, Tales of Terror and Monstrous Feminine anthologies.

Her favorite kinds of novels are those that propose a mystery. Something about the world isn’t quite right, but you don’t know what. That thing is only revealed later in the story.

Sally had an idyllic childhood in Cheshire, Conn. where she lived in a white farmhouse surrounded by trees and a lush green lawn. Throughout school she was an artist and dancer. She always liked writing, but didn’t get serious about it until years later.

She attended Florida State University in Tallahassee and began as a Dance major, then got practical and switched to Graphic Design, finally graduating from University of Florida with a Bachelor of Arts in Art. Later on, she received an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University.

Early writing influences were: Ray Bradbury (R is for Rocket), Robert Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land and Friday), Herman Hesse (Steppenwolf and Demian), Anais Nin (Cities of the Interior), D.H. Lawrence (Lady Chatterly’s Lover), Collette (Cheri and The Rainy Moon), Lawrence Durrell (Justine), William Shakespeare (The Tempest), Isadora Duncan’s autobiography, My Life.

More recent influences are: Lucy Taylor (Unnatural Acts), Tannith Lee (Dark Dance), Mark Danielewski (House of Leaves), Elizabeth Hand (Illyria), E. Lockhart (We Were Liars), Iain Reed (Foe), Bentley Little (The Store), Kim Stanley (Aurora), Donna Tartt (The Secret History), Rachel Yoder (The Night Bitch) Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl)

“I feel as though I carry all of these writers around inside of me.  The books I read at an early age had a profound effect upon my view of the world.”

“We exist on many levels, and have multiple shadow personalities.  Especially writers, who have all of our characters living within us.  I am equally the unknowing werecat girl; the kid who’s being possessed by an internet vampire, the child who has lethal dust bunnies living under his bed; the teenage girl who, dabbling in the black arts, finds herself possessed; and the boy who finds the gateway to an alien dimension in his back yard.

“The scariest things are subtle. When you’re alone at two am you might feel something touch the back of your hair and get a chill throughout your whole body, or see an unnatural shadow floating behind you in the mirror.

“I’m drawn to the dark side, mainly because it is so much fun. People need an escape from their daily reality. I like writing YA because young people are grappling with identity issues and teenage angst. In many ways I still strongly relate.”

Sally had a career as a graphic designer and corporate trainer. Now she writes full time and teaches writing workshops. She lives in Florida with the most spoiled cat on the planet, Koko, and she has the absolutely best, most supportive partner in the whole world, Eric. She’d love to connect with you: SallyBosco.com, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads