Before fielding questions at the library about her writing, Hatton began her day as she has for the last six years, visiting a Huntington Beach elementary school to talk with students about her four books and tell tales about the life of a writer.
This year she visited College View Elementary School, where she spoke with various grade levels at morning assemblies. In the afternoon, she shared a private lunch with a special group of students who won a schoolwide writing contest.
Hatton was eager for the back-and-forth with the students. She didn't just want to field questions — like the usual, "How much money do you make?" and "How do you become a writer?" She wanted to pick their little noggins as well, she said.
"Like many children's authors, I have a day job, because unless your name is J.K. Rowling, you have to find some way to pay the bills," she said. "The kids find out there are rich and poor authors."
In her day job, Hatton tests athletes for use of performance enhancing drugs at the UCLA Olympic Laboratory. Hatton turned to fiction when she grew tired of writing "boring science articles" all day for adults.
"My whole life goes into every book I write," Hatton said. "They all begin and end with an emotion — that kind of spurs me."
Although the day job can be dull at times, the idea for one of her stories, "A Pet for Grandma," came during a lunchtime conversation with colleagues while chatting about childhood pets.
Some of her co-workers reminisced how when they were kids they would catch and keep coconut beetles as pets, feeding them leaves and such, she said.
