Short Story

Hello! I’m Bethany Hudson, 27-year-old aspiring YA author, Pacific Coast transplant, and apple addict. I am currently working on The Drafting of Josephine Saito, a contemporary YA about an 18-year-old girl who is drafted into the US army upon her high school graduation.

I live in Seattle with my incredible (and incredibly geeky) husband, two amazing kids (and one on the way!), and a lazy old cat named George. I’m still acclimating to the rain, but the coffee is great.

Full-Length Manuscript

I was born and raised in upstate New York, but I moved to Los Angeles to study acting at the University of Southern California. At Freshman Orientation, I met (and shortly thereafter fell irrevocably in love with) a handsome computer geek from North Idaho. We graduated early, got married, and migrated to Seattle, which has become our much-beloved home. Our growing family is made up of our endlessly creative four-year-old daughter, our endlessly curious two-year-old son and our pampered, geriatric cat.

Everything I know about character development, dialog, and emotional arc, I learned in theater school. For any other writing skills I picked up over the years, I am indebted to my phenomenal mother. She taught me to read when I was three, tossed me leather-bound volumes of Dickens and Hardy whenever I let slip that I was bored, and passed onto me her neurotic obsession with proper grammar.

In addition to being a writer, I’m a full-time homemaker. I also home educate my daughter. When not at my laptop, I can usually be found in the kitchen with a spatula, in the park with a stroller, or in church with a rosary. (It’s like Clue, minus the murder!)

I love strong coffee, afternoon tea, autumn sunshine, and the sound of rain on the roof. I strongly believe that each can be best enjoyed with a good book in hand. My favorites include (in no particular order) A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, The Once and Future King by T.H. White, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and The Giver by Lois Lowry. 

Also, apples. I adore apples and can be easily bribed with them. They are my preferred snack of choice while writing, usually accompanied by a large dollop of peanut butter. I even pack apples in my suitcase when I travel, just in case the only ones available where I’m going are Red Delicious. Which are decidedly not. Delicious. But, enough about apples.

I’m so glad you stopped by and that you were curious enough about me to read all the way to the end of this bio. Feel free to browse the rest of the site, to comment, and to contact me if you have any queries. I’m always good for a query.

Or an apple.

The Cliff Notes

or, 10 Random Facts About Bethany
  1. When I was growing up, my mother’s mantra was “Say what you mean, and mean what you say.” It is now mine.
  2. I’m left-handed.
  3. I am an only child.
  4. I have been asked on numerous occasions (meaning enough that I lost count) whether my parents invented my name. They didn’t. The Jews did several thousand years ago. (Hint: It’s also the name of a city outside Jerusalem.)
  5. My freshman year of college, I read the Bible cover to cover, including all the “begats.” (Note: There are not nearly as many begats as I had feared.)
  6. I once had a terrible accent, but my college theater professor beat trained it out of me. I owe him so much.
  7. I once starred as the female lead in a musical called Zombie Prom.
  8. I completed my first full-length manuscript at the age of 14. It was a Star Wars knock-off about Han and Leia’s kids. Yes, I am now properly embarrassed. And no, you can’t read it.
  9. My current novel-in-progress is a reincarnation of a screenplay I wrote in high school.
  10. When I was 21, I married my best friend. It remains the best day of my life.