We first heard about debut author Hyatt Bass (btw, what a great name!) when Allison Winn Scotch tweeted about her last year. With an endorsement from one of our favorite authors, we snatched up The Embers immediately and also started following @HyattBass on Twitter (when we tweeted her, she tweeted back!). And from the first page, Hyatt's novel was incredibly satisfying. Her writing is engaging and real. As is the story of Emily whose engagement makes her take a difficult look at how her family has been torn apart since her brother passed away. The story moves between past and present over the course of sixteen years and is told from the perspectives of Emily, her father and mother as they all come to face the many buried secrets in the family.

The Embers is out in paperback today. And if you leave a comment here, you know what that means! A chance to win a copy of this fantastic novel. We say it's perfect timing for the holiday weekend!

So here she is.... the fabulous Hyatt Bass! (And PS: If she wasn't already fabulous enough... guess who she's married to? The writer of the hilarious movie, Date Night!)

1) The Embers actually started out as a screenplay (I’d written & directed a film, 75 Degrees In July). When the script for The Embers didn’t work, I had a crazy idea to try writing it as a novel. Ironically, the book is now out to filmmakers, and I think it would make a great film.

2) My son (5 at the time) had a melt-down when he found out People magazine had chosen The Embers as one of its “Get Set For Summer” books of 2009 but had excluded his “book.” Who saved the day? My filmmaker husband of course, writer of Date Night and Shrek Forever After, who offered to make a movie of our son’s book with his Flip camera. I wrote this essay about it at The Daily Beast.

3) My great passion outside of my work and my family is The New York Women's Foundation. I also met up with women’s funds all over the country during my book tour, and it was one of the most rewarding parts of publication.

4) Until I was 18, I wanted to be a professional ballet dancer. I decided to go to college instead, but I sometimes wonder what it would have been like to take that other path.

5) Before our children were born, my husband and I used to take each other on birthday road-trips to surprise destinations. The hotel in The Embers is based on a combination of places we visited this way.

To find out more about the incredibly talented Hyatt Bass, visit her website.

xoxo