Pj McIlvaine

About

PJ McIlvaine is a prolific author/screenwriter/editor/journalist. She is also a co-host of #PBPitch, the premiere Twitter pitch party for picture book creators.

PJ has been published in numerous outlets including The New York Times and Newsday. PJ is also a regular contributor for the Children’s Book Insider newsletter, writing about the path to publication and featuring interviews with established and debut kid lit authors.

In addition, PJ’s critically acclaimed Showtime original family movie MY HORRIBLE YEAR with Mimi Rogers, Karen Allen and Eric Stoltz, was nominated for a Daytime Emmy.  It’s still in the ether at You Tube.

PJ is a born and bred New Yorker and is proud to call Eastern Long Island her home.  When she’s not writing or running after her rambunctious grandchildren or tending to the capricious needs of Luna, a feisty French Bulldog who has a thing about feet, power tools, and following commands. PJ loves all kinds of international noir thrillers, period pieces, gritty Westerns, CSNY, Bruce Hornsby, John Hiatt, Steve Earle, Bruce Springsteen, horror movies, black and white classics, Stephen King, old time fiddle music, Contradance, Irish accents, pizza, vanilla ice cream, brownies, and pretty much anything with Danny Huston. Ciaran Hinds is a close second.

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Books & Publications

Coming in 2024-2027: a Creature Feature series and a standalone about a cookie thief for Young Dragons Press, an imprint of Roan & Weatherford. First book in the series is NO SUCH THINGS AS DRAGONS, a zany picture book romp about a new classmate and friendship. (April 2024).
 
THE CONUNDRUM OF CHARLEMAGNE CROSSE (September 2023). PJ’s debut Young Adult Alternate History Adventure set in Victorian London featuring an evil Queen Victoria, a determined heiress, a psycho cat, lobotomies, corsets, solar eclipses, and doomed romance from Orange Blossom Books. 

A GOOD MAN (August 2023).
PJ’s debut into the adult genre by Bloodhound Books. Set in Montauk and Manhattan, this adult contemporary psych crime thriller is dark, gritty, twisty, and definitely not for the kiddies or those with weak stomachs.

VIOLET YORKE, GILDED GIRL: GHOSTS IN THE CLOSET  (April 2022).
PJ’s debut middle-grade supernatural historical mystery from Darkstroke Books about the misadventures of a poor little rich girl who can see ghosts in NYC 1912.

DRAGON ROAR (October 2021).
PJ’s second picture book about a sick, lonely dragon who has lost his fierce roar and the brave village girl who helps him find it again through acts of kindness from MacLaren-Cochrane Publishing with artwork by Logan Rogers.

LITTLE LENA AND THE BIG TABLE  (May 2019). PJ’s debut picture book with illustrations by  Leila Nabih is about a little girl who discovers that sitting at the big table isn’t all it’s cracked up to be from Big Belly Book Co.