Guest Author: Anastasia Hopcus

Anastasia Hopcus, author of Shadow Hills, has been kind enough to stop by Reading with Tequila to tell us about her hair.

Hair today, gone tomorrow. (Sorry, I thought it was punny. Okay. Really stopping that now.)

Something everyone seems to comment on is my hair, so I thought I'd share with you some of my hairstyles along the way:

Even at three, I obviously liked to experiment. Here I am at a tea shop near Windsor Castle, showing off my version of a Tudor lady's hat.

Au Naturel This is me in sixth grade with the color hair I was born with. Later, in seventh grade I went to my first color: fuchsia. Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of my hair that color. But it was a bright fuchsia. (I think my dad, who associated the color with junkies, refused to take any family photos during this time and even kept his camera hidden away. Luckily for him---and me--hairdye is not a gateway drug and it has no known connection with heroin. So this fear of his never came to pass.) The next color I went to was:

Yes, blonde. Extremely pale, Marilyn Monroe type, platinum blonde. I tried at least five different salons in my attempt to find someone who would strip the fuchsia out of my hair and bleach it this light. When I couldn’t, I removed the color at home and came out with a brassy, spotty, awful mess. A mess that only one hairdresser in Austin had the nerve to fix. The others all said any more processing and my hair would fall out at the roots. But she was ballsy and thought my hair was strong, and, luckily, she was right.

Next up was black.

After that I went to a golden brown/natural auburn color that was pretty close to my natural shade.

The most exciting thing I did during this period was probably teasing and hair-spraying my way into a faux-hawk.

Then I decided to just go for it and do a really electric red. That’s a familiar photo, huh?

Now it only varies depending on how recently I’ve dyed it. This is at a signing in July:

And this one’s at a signing a few days ago:

So I’ve been pretty consistent for several years now. But who knows? Someday I might just go platinum blonde again.

About the Author

Anastasia Hopcus wrote her first book in the 2nd grade. It was entitled Frederick the Friendly French Ferret and was seven pages long. During high school she wrote numerous short stories and started (but never finished) three screenplays, all as an alternative to doing actual school work. At the very wise age of twelve her career ambition was to drive a Mack truck, but when that didn't pan out, she tried acting, bartending, and being a receptionist in a dojo before finally returning to writing. Anastasia loves horror movies, Joss Whedon, obsessing over music, and British accents. She lives in Austin, Texas and Shadow Hills is her debut novel. You can visit Anastasia at her website www.anastasiahopcus.com.

About the Book

After her sister Athena's tragic death, it's obvious that grief-stricken Persephone "Phe" Archer no longer belongs in Los Angeles. Hoping to make sense of her sister's sudden demise and the cryptic dreams following it, Phe abandons her bubbly LA life to attend an uptight East Coast preparatory school in Shadow Hills, MA -- a school which her sister mysteriously mentioned in her last diary entry before she died.

Once there, Phe quickly realizes that something is deeply amiss in her new town. Not only does Shadow Hills' history boast an unexplained epidemic that decimated hundreds of its citizens in the 1700s, but its modern townies also seem eerily psychic, with the bizarre ability to bend metal. Even Zach -- the gorgeous stranger Phe meets and immediately begins to lust after -- seems as if he is hiding something serious. Phe is determined to get to the bottom of it. The longer she stays there, the more she suspects that her sister's untimely death and her own destiny are intricately linked to those who reside in Shadow Hills.

Anastasia on Twitter
Anastasia's website
Anastasia on GoodReads
Anastasia's blog
Anastasia on Facebook

Reading with Tequila's interview with Anastasia Hopcus

Reading with Tequila's review of Shadow Hills