{"id":2222,"date":"2019-03-31T22:07:50","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T02:07:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blinkyabooks.com\/?p=2222"},"modified":"2026-01-02T08:18:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T08:18:36","slug":"blink-blog-author-spotlight-heather-hepler-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.harpercollinsfocus.hcusweb.com\/blinkyabooks\/blink-blog-author-spotlight-heather-hepler-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"#Blink Blog Author Spotlight: Heather Hepler (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>To celebrate the release of\u00a0<em>We Were Beautiful<\/em>, we have a special Q&amp;A with Heather Hepler! Stay tuned for Part II next week\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Get your copy of\u00a0<em>We Were Beautiful\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/blinkyabooks.com\/books\/we-were-beautiful\/\">HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blinkyabooks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/WeWereBeautiful_3D.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2078\" src=\"http:\/\/blinkyabooks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/WeWereBeautiful_3D-169x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"169\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.harpercollinsfocus.hcusweb.com\/blinkyabooks\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/02\/WeWereBeautiful_3D-169x300.png 169w, https:\/\/staging.harpercollinsfocus.hcusweb.com\/blinkyabooks\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/02\/WeWereBeautiful_3D.png 358w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 169px) 100vw, 169px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>What was your inspiration behind <em>We Were Beautiful<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This book was born out of an anti-fairy tale that I imagined \u2013 about a girl with a scarred face receiving a chance at beauty only to find that she would rather go through her life physically flawed than emotionally empty. It morphed from there into Mia\u2019s story \u2013 which has a similar theme. Mia has a chance at learning about empathy, forgiveness, and unconditional love if she can see past the physical and emotional scars that she has.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why is NYC a good location for this book?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>NYC is city of diversity and possibility. It\u2019s a city where you can lose yourself and you can find yourself \u2013 sometimes on the same day! I wanted Mia to move from the tiny town where she was starting to feel claustrophobic and isolated to a city where she has room to move and to grow. Plus, it\u2019s just plain fun to be in NYC. It\u2019s one of my favorite places to visit.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What kind of impact did writing <em>We Were Beautiful<\/em>\u00a0have on you personally?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>We Were Beautiful <\/em>came to me during a time of my life where I needed my own redemption story. Mia\u2019s story gave me the courage to make my own amends and move forward from a painful time in my life. That is one of the best things about writing\u2014you get to fight your own demons and hopefully defeat them.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What do you hope readers take away from <em>We Were Beautiful<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I hope that readers allow Mia\u2019s story to help them overcome their own pain. I also hope it gives them the courage to try new things, be vulnerable, and learn that just because something is hard doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not worth doing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To celebrate the release of\u00a0We Were Beautiful, we have a special Q&amp;A with Heather Hepler! Stay tuned for Part II next week\u2026 Get your copy of\u00a0We Were Beautiful\u00a0HERE. What was your inspiration behind We Were Beautiful? This book was born out of an anti-fairy tale that I imagined \u2013 about a girl with a scarred [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-notes"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>#Blink Blog Author Spotlight: Heather Hepler (Part 1) - Blink YA Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.harpercollinsfocus.hcusweb.com\/blinkyabooks\/blink-blog-author-spotlight-heather-hepler-part-1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"#Blink Blog Author Spotlight: Heather Hepler (Part 1) - Blink YA Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"To celebrate the release of\u00a0We Were Beautiful, we have a special Q&amp;A with Heather Hepler! 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