Ghostgirl author visits Books and Brew

Charlotte Usher, the protagonist of Center Moriches author Tonya Hurley’s new novel, “ghostgirl,” is like most teenage girls struggling to get noticed by the popular crowd at her high school.

She feels invisible to everyone at Hawthorne High School, especially her crush, the popular football player Damen Dylan. But there’s one thing that makes “life” especially difficult for Charlotte: she’s dead.

Ms. Hurley shared a reading of her first novel with local residents at Books and Brew in Eastport on Sunday.

One fan of “ghostgirl,” 12-year-old Alanna Davis of Manorville, attended the reading and gave raving reviews of the book. “It’s really well written,” Alanna said. “It’s scary, in a cute way.”

Alanna is not alone in her admiration of the novel for young adults. Originally released on August 1, “ghostgirl” has already made the New York Times best seller list and Ms. Hurley’s second installment in the three-part ghostgirl series, “Homecoming,” is due in stores July 2009.

Ms. Hurley said the idea for “ghostgirl” came from her own musings on high school popularity. “I was just thinking about the idea of invisibility and I took it to the extreme,” she said. “I wanted to tell a universal story in an original way.”

In “ghostgirl,” Charlotte dies after choking on a Gummi Bear on the first day of school. She then learns she has to attend Dead Ed High School in the afterlife, but still obsesses about what’s going on at Hawthorne High. She learns to use her supernatural skills to navigate between the worlds of the living and nonliving.

Ms. Hurley said the idea for “ghostgirl” originally manifested itself as a movie script. When the project had not moved forward after a few years, she scrapped the screenplay and decided to turn “ghostgirl” into a novel.

Ms. Hurley had approached several publishers about developing “ghostgirl” but many had reservations about publishing a story on a dead teen. “They wanted to change her,” she said. “I wanted to stay true to the story. This was my labor of love, my passion.”

Before it was published as a novel, “ghostgirl” debuted on an interactive website sponsored by America Online. The website attracted a following and soon the attention generated by the story’s web presence was parlayed into publication of the novel by Little, Brown & Company. Today, fans cans visit ghostgirl.com where they can post poems, artwork, and blog entries.

Ms. Hurley said that her favorite part of the success she has achieved as an author is the feedback she receives from her fans. A lot of young women (and men as well) have approached her to tell her how they have connected with her novel, and many have had their submissions posted on the website. “A lot of these girls, they write themselves,” the author said. “I always post their poems and their art.”

The “ghostgirl” author said in Eastport that she is happy to provide a creative outlet for young people to express their individuality. “In high school, if you’re the same, you fit in,” she said. “You should celebrate your differences.”

Ms. Hurley previously worked as a press representative for R.L. Stine, author of the popular “Goosebumps” series, whom she credits with moral support while she was creating “ghostgirl.” She also worked for twins Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, designing and developing creative vehicles for the actresses for about a decade.

Ms. Hurley said it was always a dream of hers to embark on her own creative venture and to write a novel. “I never thought I would get the opportunity,” she said. “I wrote the kind of book that I wanted in high school.”

In addition to writing the story and creating the website, Ms. Hurley also helped design the illustrations and the book’s unique cover, which resembles a coffin.

East Moriches resident Rose Mary Gandolfo, who attended the reading with her 14-year-old daughter Emily, said that what attracted her to “ghostgirl” was the book’s design. “Just looking at this cover, I thought: my daughter has to have this book,” she said.

Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Ms. Hurley moved to New York City to begin a career that has included working on books, films, television and interactive media productions.

She and her husband, Michael Pagnotta, moved to Center Moriches from Brooklyn after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. She said that she loves her new community, where she plans to raise her 5-year-old daughter, Isabelle Rose.