The people I write about is one of the greatest writing joys for me. Getting to know them, feeling intimately close to them... They feel like close friends who will always be a part of my life.

Neil Gaiman, J.K. Rowling, Amy Tan, Liane Moriarty and Holly Black are just a few of my favorite authors. I have so many, it would be impossible to name them all.

Knowing there is a nice, hot cup of coffee waiting to be brewed.

I also love to read, paint my nails and travel. Life's too short to stand in one space all the time.

Most of the time I discover new books from the Amazon top 100, or through recommendations from blogs and friends.

I wrote and finished my first novel when I was sixteen. It was about a dancer who fell in love with twin vampires. Sounds kind of like The Vampire Diaries, doesn't it?

I like to create a basic summary of the story so I know vaguely where I''m going, and then I just start writing. Sometimes I end up exactly where I planned to end up, other times it's a surprise even to me.

My mother made me read a lot when I was a kid. When summer vacation started, each summer day required one mandatory reading hour. She didn't care what I read, as long as I read. The first book I remember reading for mandatory summer reading was Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It sparked my imagination. I grew up in a small, woodsy neighborhood, and spent a lot of my mornings playing in the forest, pretending I was Laura Ingalls.

I read a wide variety of genres, from sci-fi and fantasy, to contemporary romance and chick lit.

I read on my iPad, using both iBooks and the Kindle app.