Heather Davis has been writing for years. Back at her Uptown home she has five finished manuscripts that have never been published. And three years ago, at the brink of huge change in her life, she was given every writers’ dream come true: one of her books was sold to a publisher. Now, three years later, Never Cry Werewolf, her first published novel for young adults 12 and up, is finally on bookstore shelves.

Tonight she will be having a launch party (equipped with a reading, signing and cookies shaped like paws) at Queen Anne Books starting 6:30 p.m. Never Cry Werewolf is the story about a young girl, rebellious girl who is sent away to “brat camp by her sort of evil step mom.” And at this camp full of troubled teens, she meets a boy who seems to be teenage royalty. He’s also happens to be a werewolf.

Never Cry Werewolf is coming out amidst a surge in paranormal genre fiction, but Heather says she’s been writing this beat much longer.

“I totally did not write this book because of Twilight. I was writing paranormal way before that, so it’s kind of interesting that it’s so popular,” she said. “When I was in high school, I was reading Anne Rice!”

After years of substitute teaching in Skagic Valley and writing on the side, she got the idea to write young adult fiction from the kids she taught.

“I thought, maybe I should write something for the kids that I worked with,” she said. And she did. She wrote a few chapters that have since not been published, and tested them out on one of her sixth grade students, Emily, who is going to be at the signing tonight. It was a huge hit.

“She was stopping me at the crosswalk asking me if I’d finished the next chapter of the book,” Heather laughed.

And then everything sort of fell into place. She got an agent, finished Never Cry Werewolf, the result of six years of work and weekly meetings with a genre writing critique group. And the night before Heather moved to Queen Anne three years ago, she got a sign – the call that her book had sold.

And now, three years later, she is officially a published author (her book was released September 1, and she’s been bombarded with emails and Facebook messages from friends who’ve snapped pics of her books in stores all around the county). But despite her new status, she still works at Midori, a ribbon and paper company based in the neighborhood, as a sales and marketing coordinator and doesn’t plan on leaving.

“I think Queen Anne is the best place to be,” she said, reminiscing on the fact that she works, lives and loves the neighborhood and can walk practically anywhere.

Up next for Heather, another young adult book, The Clearing, which she says is “a bit more serious” and for an older age group (14 and up) to be published in April 2010. And maybe, just maybe, a sequel to Werewolf.