BEGINNER’S PLUCK: Laura Jane Cassidy

Laura Jane Cassidy is just 24. She’s about to publish a book for teens — and she was just 20 when she started the project.

“I was in my second year at Trinity College Dublin,” she says. “I was studying drama and film studies. In the summer between first and second year, I wrote the first draft of Angel Kiss. At Christmas, a London agent expressed interest but wanted a rewrite, so I took time out of college.”

After a six-month rewrite, though, the agent turned the manuscript down.