Peternelle van Arsdale was an executive editor for HarperCollins, Anchor/Doubleday, Hyperion, and Putnam. Over the course of her career she edited multiple New York Times bestsellers and award-winners, including The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's novel Sister of My Heart. She also conceived, compiled, and edited Kurt Vonnegut's posthumously published collection, Armageddon in Retrospect. Peternelle is now a freelance editor and ghostwriter of both fiction and non-fiction. The Beast is an Animal is her first book under her own name. Visit her at pvabooks.com.