C.J Skuse, author of Pretty Bad Things, was born in 1980 in Weston-super-Mare, England. She loves graphic novels, sitcoms, Gummy Bears and the music of My Chemical Romance. She hates: hard-boiled eggs, the tops of her arms, carnivals and coughing. The movies Titanic, My Best Friend's Wedding and Twilight were all based on her ideas, she just didn't get to write them down in time. Before she dies, she would like to go to Japan, try clay-pigeon shooting and own a malamute. C.J has First Class degrees in Creative Writing and Writing for Children and her second novel, Rockoholic, about a teenage girl who accidentally kidnaps her rock star hero, was released in the UK in March 2011. She is currently working on her third, for which she is researching lizards, mortuaries and 80s electro.