Amy Fellner Dominy Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Picture Books

Amy Fellner Dominy is an American author of a children’s novel and novels for teens. She grew up in Redwood City, California before moving to Colorado, New York, and finally Arizona when she was eight years old. The family car was a 1966 Mustang and she is the youngest of six children, four girls, and two boys.

Dominy worked as a copywriter in advertising before going on to earn her masters in playwriting. She has written plays for children and adults that have been put on in different places throughout the country. She lives just a few miles from where she grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, and says that it is really hot and there are still a lot of cactus and rattlesnakes in the area. She married Jake, her college sweetheart, and they have two children together as well as a dog named Riley and a cat that is named Lola.

Dominy says that she likes to be active and go outdoors, playing in two tennis leagues, golfing, and hiking. She likes to relax with a good book and a hot bath and also enjoys reading and watching movies. She states that she always wanted to be an author but wanted to have a job that could also pay the bills, which is how she got into the business of being paid to come up with ideas for advertising as a copywriter. She describes herself as a nerdy kid, trying out for every play, doing marching band, and competing as part of the track team.

Dominy left copywriting to go back to school and get her MFA from ASU, graduating in 2004. That is where she learned to write plays for the stage, leading her to a publisher that wanted her to write scripts for kids for Reader’s Theater and leading to her writing short stories for teens and finally a full-length novel.

Her favorite books growing up include a variety of classics, including Judy Blume and James and the Giant Peach. She says that she comes up with ideas, researches them, does a rough outline, and drafts scenes and writes a rough draft of the book. She spends the time after revising and giving it to her critique group and her agent and editor for notes on revision. Dominy estimates that it takes her about a year to finish a book.

She says she gets her ideas from her life and even the diaries she’s kept through the years, but ideas float around everywhere. She says that her best advice for people who want to be writers is that they shouldn’t look for shortcuts or waste time speaking about how they want to write something– they should simply write it!

She says being a writer takes time, persistence, and even a thick skin from rejection (having had her first short story rejected by American Girl magazine, Dominy would know!). She says that her advice is to make writing a part of her life and keeping a notebook, bog, journal, diary, or starting with writing a story is great as long as it has you continuing to work on your writing. You can also join organizations or writing groups that support writers in your area. When writing and finishing a book, Dominy says that you should congratulate yourself and then write those query letters and more.

Amy Fellner Dominy is the author of the teen novel OyMG, published in 2011 by Walker publishing. Her next book was Audition and Subtraction, a charming theater-themed story. She has also written A Matter of Heart, published in 2015 by Random House/Delacorte, Die For You, published in 2016, and The Fall of Grace, published in 2018. She is also the author of Cookiesaurus Rex, a children’s picture book published in 2017.

In OyMG, the main character is Ellie Taylor. She is a teenager that loves to have a good argument or debate. When Ellie is accepted to a summer camp– the Christian Society Speech and Performing Arts camp– she thinks that if she can win the final tournament she will be able to get a scholarship at the best speech school there is.

The summer camp does hold some competition, but there is something that Ellie is hiding. She is not actually a Christian and is in fact Jewish. Complicating matters when she finally shows up to the camp is the fact that there is some serious competition. This is mainly in the form of a guy her age named Devon. She is supposed to try and battle everyone in the war of the words to win the debates, but this guy being near her might change that up.

But the truth is, just being near him makes her heart flutter. Could this guy be the one to screw everything about her best-laid plans up? She’s determined to try and win anyway. But when she starts thinking that the benefactor of the private scholarship might have some hidden negative feelings about Jews, should she still go forward with hiding the true identity of her heritage and religion in order to achieve her dreams?

In this story, it’s all about going for your dreams, having confidence in yourself, the wonder of falling in love, the beauty of our heritage, and coming into your own. Pick up this fun youth novel and see how it all turns out for Ellie!

The second novel put out by Fellner Dominy is called Audition and Subtraction. The main characters are called Tatum and Lori and they are best friends. They do everything together, including their upcoming audition for the District Honor Band, for which they plan to play the clarinet and flute.

When Michael comes to their school and tries out for the band, he’s the one source of competition for their spots in the band. On top of that, he seems to be moving in on Lori’s affections. Tatum doesn’t know what to do, and on top of that, her mom is getting into community theater to cope with her separation from Tatum’s dad. Is it time for Tatum to move on and go solo? Pick up this book and find out!