About Me

headshot    Writer of Young Adult Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Maddie Rue Olivas began writing as a teenager after moving to Los Angeles from Central California. It was her way of preserving a childhood spent swimming, climbing trees, befriending animals, reading comics, and drawing imaginary worlds. She later studied Theater Arts and copyediting, earned a B.A. in Creative Writing, completed the UCLA Writers’ Program in Fiction Writing, and joined SCBWI. She was nominated for the Allegra Johnson Prize through the Writers’ Program at UCLA. She has won numerous awards through SCBWI, the SDSU Writing Conference, and one from the Futuristic, Fantasy, & Paranormal RWA. Most recently, she won the YARWA Rosemary Award for Excellence in Young Adult Fiction (Suspense and Thriller category).

She is thankful for her young-adult life experiences via road trips, camping throughout California and the Southwest, and working a multitude of jobs–receptionist, shuttle driver, after school program teacher, lighting designer (theater and live events), and stage/production manager.

Drawn to abandoned buildings and places reclaimed by nature, she mixes these elements into the fiction she creates. Environmental issues and support of animal welfare also find their way into her stories.

Latinx mix.

Currently, she lives in Los Angeles, enjoying mom life.

♥Favorite Things♥

Movies: Aliens, Shaun of the Dead, Blood Red Sky, and Train to Busan

TV: Stranger Things, The Office, Super Store

Anime Series: Sailor Moon and Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress

Manga: Peach Girl, Cardcaptor Sakura, and Mint Chocolate

Manhwa: 13th Boy

Books: Flora Segunda (Wilce), Cinder (Meyers), Inside Out (Snyder), Kindred (Olivia Butler)

Childhood Books: Good Neighbors and Tailchaser’s Song

Writers I admire: Gary Soto and Stephen King

Represented by Mary C. Moore at Kimberley Cameron & Associates.