Vivian Vande Velde (born 1951, Rochester, New York) is an American author who writes books primarily aimed at young adults. She currently resides in Rochester, New York.
Her novels and short story collections usually have some element of horror or fantasy, but are primarily humorous. Her book Never Trust a Dead Man (1999) received the 2000 Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Novel. She says that she really likes to write for children. She likes to do school talks to children. She does many book conventions and also gives writing classes. One of her short stories was added to Gothic! Ten Original Dark Tales.
I truly appreciate the mail that I get asking for further adventures for many of my characters. I'm honored that you like them well enough that you want to spend more time with them.However... As much as I enjoy all (well, most of) my characters, once I finish a story, I want to move on to other people in other situations. Once a book has been published and out for a while, with readers deciding for themselves what happens after the end of the story, it hardly seems fair for the author to come back and say, Nope, you're all wrong...THIS is what happened next.Besides that, one of the reasons I became a writer was because I enjoyed mentally writing sequels to books I didn't want to end. (Or I made up new endings for stories I felt ended the wrong way.) It's an interesting exercise that you might enjoy.Meanwhile, I won't say that I'll never write a sequel to any of my stories. But I have no plans to at the moment. Vivian Vande Velde's Website (page about sequels)