Save your rejections so that later when you are famous you can show them to people and laugh.

My original inspiration was my mom: a few years after the death of my dad, she started dating one my teachers!

I think if I hadn't been a writer, I'd have been a teacher like my dad. He was a college professor, and one of my greatest regrets is that he passed away before I was able to prove to him that I wasn't going to be stuck working at Rax Roast Beef for the rest of my life!

I actually love writing for teens best. I had such an awful time in my own teen years - I love having the chance to relive them through my fiction.