“There isn’t anyone you couldn’t love once you’ve heard their story.”

Mary Lou Kownacki

Hello. I’m Hillary.

As a true West Virginian, I maintain the Old Magic by leaving out a pepperoni roll and Mountain Dew for Mothman every June 20th. And speaking of cryptids, Weekly World News once reported they’d found Bat Boy in a cave near my childhood home—though my siblings insist that was just me when I lost my two front teeth.

I had the pleasure of living in Sweden for 18 months, where I battled Viking hordes, ate pickled herring and reindeer burgers, and spotted at least one troll. (It may have been disguised as a boulder by daylight, but I wasn’t fooled.)

I live in Utah with my husband Samwise Gamgee. (He prefers “Nate,” but he carries me up my personal Mount Dooms, vanquishes giant spiders, and whips up the most scrumptious taters.) I spend my days baking gluten-free treats, transfiguring my painfully suburban yard into a wildflower haven, and breaking up battles between the five tiny feral hobbits who call me “Mom.”

A few of my favorite things:

  • Howls’s Moving Castle — Diana Wynne Jones

    Pride and Prejudice; Persuasion; Northanger Abbey — Jane Austen

    Caraval; Once Upon A Broken Heart Trilogy — Stephanie Garber

    Proper Scandals Series — Esther Hatch

    Matilida — Roald Dahl

    Glamourist Histories Series — Mary Robinette Kowal

    Harry Potter Series — J. K. Rowling

    The Paper Magician Series — Charlie N. Holmberg

    Tress of the Emerald Sea — Brandon Sanderson

    The Lady’s Not for Burning — Christopher Fry

    Spinning Silver; Uprooted — Naomi Novik

    The Wheel of Time Series — Robert Jordan

    Alice In Wonderland — Lewis Carroll

    The Chronicles of Narnia Series — C. S. Lewis

    The Blue Castle — L. M. Montgomery

    Bridge to Terabithia — Katherine Patterson

    The Last Unicorn — Peter S. Beagle

    Emily Wilde Series; The Grace of Wild Things — Heather Fawcett

    Skip Beat! (Manga Series) — Yoshiki Nakamura

  • The Muppet Christmas Carol (movie)

    Avatar: the Last Airbender (animated TV series)

    The Mummy (movie)

    Lord of the Rings (movie trilogy & stage musical)

    Anastasia (movie & stage musical)

    Galavant (TV series)

    Hook (Movie)

    Clue (Movie)

    Goblin/Guardian: The Lonely and Great God (K-drama)

    While You Were Sleeping (K-drama)

    Beauty and the Beast (1991 animated movie)

    Tangled (movie)

    Steel Magnolias (movie & stage play)

    Pride and Prejudice (BBC)

    The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (web series)

    Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (web series)

    Leverage (TV series)

    The Scarlet Pimpernel (stage musical)

    Supernatural (TV series)

  • Matchbox Twenty/Rob Thomas

    Sara Bareilles

    Dear Evan Hansen Soundtrack

    The Greatest Showman Soundtrack

    Goo Goo Dolls

    Imagine Dragons

    Jasmine Thompson

    Livingston

    The Lord of the Rings Musical Soundtrack

    The Scarlet Pimpernel Broadway Musical Soundtrack

    Anastasia Broadway Musical Soundtrack

  • Writing

    Drawing

    Cooking/Baking

    Singing Showtunes

    Parenting

  • Papa Murphy’s Stuffed Chicken, Bacon, and Artichoke Pizza

    Mom’s Pepperoni Rolls

    Great-Grandma’s Fried Donuts with Maple and Orange Glaze

    Macaroni Grill’s Rosemary Bread (Not because it’s the best ever, but because we went there on our honeymoon.)

    Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Ramen (The cheap stuff I ate every day of summer at MomMom’s house.)

    Mamaw’s Blackberry Cobbler

    Mamaw’s Biscuits with Squirrel Gravy, Apple Butter, and Homemade Strawberry Jam. (Not all three on the same biscuit; I’m not an animal.)

    All the deep-fried sushi I can stuff down my gullet until I go into a soy-sauce-and-tobiko-induced coma.

  • Zutara: The Greatest Ship That Never Sailed … and I’m grateful every day for that after seeing how some of the canon relationships turned out.

    If you know, you know.

  • To move my family to a 200-year-old farmhouse in the Appalachians with a west-facing library we can paint gold, surrounded by woods with a creek where my kids can catch crawdads and fireflies every day of summer. I can make a comfortable living looking out my window at misty, green mornings while writing about zombie kids whose limbs fall off if they don’t eat their organs every day, girls who live in flying boats and never touch dry earth, and scarecrows terrified by the thought of turning into real men because humans can’t be restuffed with straw when they break.

Katherine Paterson

“Books allow us to eavesdrop on another person’s soul…

Writers are very private people who run around naked in public.”

My mother never understood how I could spend all day with my nose buried in a book yet still fail to finish my homework. Plot twist: My book fixation was exactly why the homework never got done.

I’m absolutely obsessed with stories. If you give me the chance, I promise to become obsessed with yours.

I’m a member of the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA).

I’m a member of Latter-day Saints in Publishing, Media, & the Arts, and I currently volunteer as Editor-In-Chief of the organization’s Articles Team.

I’m a member of the ACES: The Society for Editing.

I’m a member of the Freelance Editors Chapter of the League of Utah Writers, and I currently volunteer on the chapter’s board as treasurer.

I’ve completed the following programs and selected coursework: Poynter ACES Introductory, Intermediate & Advanced Editing Certificates; EFA Developmental Editing of Fiction Certificate; Proofreading & Copyediting with The Chicago Manual of Style; Literary Interpretation; Language Theory—Grammar & Usage; Children's Literature.

My tools of the trade are Chicago Manual of Style, 18th Edition and Merriam-Webster, 12th Edition.

I have over three years of professional editing experience.