Katherine Marsh’s latest young adult novel Jepp, Who Defied the Stars, lost its round in the 2013 Battle of the Books to another book with a celestial title (don’t get too excited nerdfighters, the heavyweight in question was by the talented Grace Lin). She consoled herself by doing what all gracious non-winners do–using her abject sense of failure to fuel her next book, rumored to be a scary fairy tale. When she’s not writing, you might find her at an undisclosed location in the nation’s capital, maniacally stroking the Edgar Award for her middle grade mystery The Night Tourist and planning future Battle of the Books domination.