Writing
Hale began writing The Goose Girl while in her graduate writing program,[6] and worked on her drafts of it during her lunch break while working at her instructional design job.[1] She originally planned to work in literary fiction, publishing short stories and teaching English, before writing young adult and children's books.[9] The Goose Girl became her first published novel after being met with nine rejections;[10] Hale received an offer in 2003 from Bloomsbury Publishing.[11] She based the book on her favorite fairy tale of the same name.[12] It was named an ALA Teens' Top Ten[8] and became the first of many novels in Hale's Books of Bayern series. The Goose Girl also won the 2004 Josette Frank Award for fiction[13] and was reprinted by Bloomsbury in 2017.[14] Hundreds of thousands of copies of the novel have been printed in a total of fifteen languages.[1] The other Books of Bayern include Enna Burning, River Secrets, and Forest Born.[15]
Her novel Princess Academy was featured on The New York Times Best Seller list, as well as that of Book Sense and Publishers Weekly. It also received a Newbery Honor.[4] Hale said that receiving the award was an "unexpected gift" that has profoundly affected her career.[16] After the positive response from readers and reviewers alike to Princess Academy, Hale wrote its sequel, Princess Academy: Palace of Stone.[17] In 2015 she continued the story with a third installment, Princess Academy: The Forgotten Sisters. Hale has remarked that the series is "a love letter to education."[18]
Her first adult novel, Austenland, was also featured by Book Sense.[8] Hale and screenwriter Jerusha Hess then wrote the screenplay for a film adaptation of Austenland, released in 2013 at the Sundance Film Festival. It was then bought by Sony Pictures for $4 million.[19] Twilight author Stephenie Meyer produced the film and Keri Russell starred as protagonist Jane Hayes.[20] In 2012 Hale released a sequel novel, Midnight in Austenland.[21] Another adult novel, The Actor and the Housewife, was published in 2009[22] and was named "the City Weekly readers' choice winner for best novel of the year." Hale has kept numerous rejection letters she has received from publishers, and has compiled them into one 60 foot long scroll.
In 2017, Hale released a graphic memoir titled Real Friends, chronicling her struggles in grade school. It was illustrated by LeUyen Pham.[23] Its sequel, Best Friends, appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list for graphic books and manga in April 2020.[24] In 2018, her Princess in Black series—which she wrote with her husband, Dean Hale—made The New York Times Best Seller list for children's series.[25] The two also co-wrote the graphic novel Rapunzel's Revenge,[9] as well as two young adult novels for the Marvel superheroes Squirrel Girl and Captain Marvel.[26] Hale ventured further into science fiction with her own YA superhero novel, Dangerous, in 2014.[27]
