name: Holly Lynn Payne
genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Historical Fiction
influences:  John Green, Paulo Coelho
avg_rating: 3.6
ratings_count: 959
about: Holly Lynn Payne is an award-winning, internationally published novelist in eleven countries. Her debut novel, The Virgin’s Knot, was named a Discover Great New Writers Book from Barnes &amp; Noble. Her third novel, Kingdom of Simplicity, based on a true story of forgiveness, won a First Place Benjamin Franklin Award and Grand Prize for Writers Digest. She is the host and producer of the Page One Podcast and interviews the world’s master storytellers on the stories and struggles behind the first sentence, first paragraph and first page of their books. Notable guests include bestselling authors Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler), Dean Koontz, JT Ellison, Tess Gerritsen, Robert Dugoni, Alka Joshi and Yasmin Darznik among others. She is the former CE Holly Lynn Payne is an award-winning, internationally published novelist in eleven countries. Her debut novel, The Virgin’s Knot, was named a Discover Great New Writers Book from Barnes &amp; Noble. Her third novel, Kingdom of Simplicity, based on a true story of forgiveness, won a First Place Benjamin Franklin Award and Grand Prize for Writers Digest. She is the host and producer of the Page One Podcast and interviews the world’s master storytellers on the stories and struggles behind the first sentence, first paragraph and first page of their books. Notable guests include bestselling authors Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler), Dean Koontz, JT Ellison, Tess Gerritsen, Robert Dugoni, Alka Joshi and Yasmin Darznik among others. She is the former CEO and founder of Booxby, a startup backed by a grant from the National Science Foundation that built a patented AI technology to aid book discovery for authors. She founded Skywriter Books, an award-winning small press, publishing consultancy and writing coaching service which she continues to serve. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her daughter and has volunteered as a producer for Litquake, the West Coast’s largest literary festival. When she’s not writing, interviewing, or coaching other writers, she enjoys getting dirty on a mountain bike, surfing and hiking with her daughter and Labrador retriever, Lady Gaia. She holds a BA with honors from University of Richmond, where she received a distinguished Alumni Award, an MFA from USC, and MIM from the Academy of Intuition Medicine, bringing her healing gifts to her writing coaching clients. Payne has served on the faculty of the Academy of Art University, California College of the Arts and Stanford, and loves helping people reclaim their voice through storytelling. She has written for Huffington Post, Release Print Magazine, University of Richmond Alumni Magazine, MOCA+ magazine and Medium. She received her MFA from USC and can be found at www.hollylynnpayne.com and on Instagram and Twitter @hollylynnpayne. ...more