I was so thrilled that I was having a girl, because I just am so girly myself, but I think the teenage years are going to be very interesting.
I'm always hopeful. I feel like I'm at the prom sitting against the wall waiting for someone to ask me to dance.
When I was a teen, I was never really into the captain of the football team or the student body president. The guys I liked were quirky and different: They listened to music I'd never heard of, never had lunch or gas money, and could always make you laugh.
Teenagers are a great audience and they are fearless about asking what they want to know.
I just started to put texting and phones in my books. I want my books to be read 20 years from now; I don't want them to be dated.
My books are so tame!
If I had to pick, I'd say my favorite book is 'A Prayer For Owen Meany', by John Irving.
I was always a big reader, mostly because my parents were.
Each time, I think I'm never going to write another book. It never gets easier.
I think my mother characters have changed a lot since Sasha was born, just because I understand what a hard job it is now, and I'm coming at it from another angle - like you just love and care about this person so much, and just want to protect them from everything.
I've been writing, in one way or another, for as long as I can remember.
I write thank-you notes the minute I throw the wrapping paper away.
I'm really happy to have the chance to talk about the editing process. It's something that I think doesn't get the weight it deserves, especially with the rise of self-publishing.
Maybe other writers have perfect first drafts, but I am not one of them. I always try to get the book as tight as I can, but you reach a point as the author where you have lost all perspective.
You're not supposed to have it all figured out in high school. If you knew it all, and it was the best, it's all downhill from there.
I don't live in New York or California. I'm in the grocery store, at the park with my kids, and I'm a normal person. I'm feeding my chickens and agonizing about my next book!
I always wished I could move around and switch schools. It was hard to have these radical transformations. You'd think, 'I will be a totally different person tomorrow,' but it never worked.
I've changed in my sympathies since I've become a mother myself. In high school I went through a period where I was close with my mom and had to break with her in order to find myself and come back. Since that was my experience, that's often what happens in my books.
I was born in 1970 in Illinois, but all the life I remember I've spent in Chapel Hill, N.C.
In high school, I was lucky enough to have a big group of girlfriends that have really inspired a lot of the stories in my books. I'm still close with my friends from that time, so it's never very hard to put myself back into that place, that voice.
