YA Pioneers: Richie Tankersley Cusick
YA Pioneers Richie Tankersley Cusick was a staple of the YA boom of the late 80's/early 90's. A new book was constantly coming out from the author with eye-catching slasher titles that propelled several of her books to the bestseller lists. According to her author site , Cusick grew up in the South and was inspired by the Gothic environment to write horror. She worked for Hallmark until her first book was published, Evil on the Bayou , which was published in 1984 by Laurel Leaf, as book 21 in the Twilight: Where Darkness Begins series. Cusick really took off when she began publishing books for Scholastic's Point Horror line, a hugely popular YA line that is known for launching the career of R.L. Stine. When Cusick published The Lifeguard as book #3 in the series in 1988, she unwittingly became one of the elite YA authors of the time. She would go on to publish several more books under the Point Horror line over the next four years, including Trick...