Wallen, Amy 1964(?)-

PERSONAL:

Born c. 1964. Education: University of Oklahoma, B.A., 1986.

ADDRESSES:

Home—San Diego, CA.

CAREER:

During early career, worked various jobs in advertising and legal administration; University of California at San Diego, Extension Program writing teacher.

MEMBER:

San Diego Writers Ink (advisory board member).

WRITINGS:

Moon Pies and Movie Stars, Viking (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Amy Wallen had a peripatetic childhood, living in places as varied as Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Nevada, Nigeria, Peru, Bolivia, and Oklahoma due to her father's work for an oil company. She ultimately attended the University of Oklahoma in Norman, where she studied journalism and advertising in an attempt to acquire solid skills with which to earn a living while she concentrated on creative writing on her own time. Her first novel, Moon Pies and Movie Stars, draws on the author's memories of summers spent with relatives in Texas. Set in the mid-1970s, the book follows the adventures of Ruby Kincaid as she sets off from Texas to Hollywood to bring home her wayward daughter, Violet, who deserted her husband and children four years earlier. A reviewer for Cozy Library remarked that Wallen's effort "shows off her storytelling skill, along with a fine and very fluid writing style." Carolyn Kubisz noted in Booklist that Wallen never resorts to Southern stereotypes in her depictions of the characters, but instead "infuses them with personality and pokes fun at their flaws."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 15, 2006, Carolyn Kubisz, review of Moon Pies and Movie Stars, p. 30.

Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2006, review of Moon Pies and Movie Stars, p. 1044.

Publishers Weekly, October 9, 2006, review of Moon Pies and Movie Stars, p. 37.

ONLINE

Amy Wallen Home Page,http://www.amywallen.com (May 23, 2007).

Cozy Library,http://www.cozylibrary.com/ (January 8, 2007), review of Moon Pies and Movie Stars.

Washington Post Online,http://www.washingtonpost.com/ (January 9, 2007), Louis Baynard, "A World Gone Madcap," review of Moon Pies and Movie Stars.