Long Islander Patty Blount writes software technical guides by day and novels at night. She finished her first novel, a hockey murder mystery called Penalty Killer, on a dare by her oldest son. Though never published, Penalty Killer was the subject of so many seventh grade book reports, the teacher subsequently requested a copy and later returned it, covered in red corrections. Patty did better with Send (Sourcebooks Fire, Aug, 2012), a story about a cyberbully coming to terms with the suicide he caused. A short version of this novel earned a top ten finish in the Writer’s Digest 79th Annual Writing Competition. Her latest teen novel, Some Boys, was inspired by the Stuebenville rape case and deals with the tough issues of rape culture and victim-blaming. Patty is also the author of the contemporary Christmas romance, Goodness and Light, a Christmas in New York novella.