Blue Bike Books is happy to welcome our Carolina Neighbor Beth Revis, to the YALLFest!

Beth Revis was born and raised in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina. Despite being a complete over-achiever and teacher’s pet in high school, she often wrote short stories instead of taking notes during classes. This habit persisted into college, except the stories became novels.

Beth tried really hard to like boring books by dead white European men while in college, but she kept drifting over to the YA aisles in the bookstore. (While she does like Shakespeare, she insists it’s only because of all the dirty jokes.) Beth’s favorite author of all time is C.S. Lewis, ever since reading The Chronicles of Narnia under the stairs of her local library in elementary school all the way to writing her master’s thesis on Till We Have Faces. She enjoys books that are strange in someway—either they explore new worlds, discover new magics, or delve into different lives of interesting people. She also holds a special place in her heart for Firefly and Doctor Who.

After graduating from NC State University with a BA in English Education with a minor in history and a MA in English Literature with a concentration in fantasy literature (she is a complete over-achiever, remember?), Beth became a teacher herself. She filled her classes with Greek gods, samurai, and ancient monsters, but continued writing between grading essays and making lesson plans.

Although Beth had originally begun teaching thinking it would be a nice way to pay the bills before she got a book deal, she discovered that, much to her surprise, she didn’t just like teaching, she loved it. This made it much harder for her to quit when she decided to focus more time on her writing. She wrote a series of posts on this decision, reflecting on ending one career and starting another.

Beyond writing, Beth loves to travel. She and her mother are in a race to visit the most states (Beth is currently at 41, her mother has 47). Beth does have her mother beat on most foreign countries visited: Beth has ten, her mother has nine. Beth’s favorite foreign city is London—she did her study abroad at the University of London—but Malta will always hold a special place in her heart as it was the first foreign nation she visited. Before she dies, Beth wants to see Jerusalem, the Great Wall of China, and the Pyramids of Giza.

Beth currently lives in rural North Carolina with her husband and her dog, one of which is her best friend, and the other is her second-best friend. She spends too much time reading and writing, and nowhere near enough time cleaning the house.