I credit Stephanie’s Twilight series as what got me reading (and writing) young adult fiction. My neighbor, who also happened to babysit my children, first told me about the series — she practically shoved the books in my hands, and after I read the first one I was hooked. They didn’t have stories like that when I was in high school, so I didn’t realize how impactful teen fiction could be. Twilight enabled readers of all walks of life to connect on a visceral level with the emotions of falling in love for the first time—every glorious, gut-wrenching feeling; myself included. I’d never read a story that made me feel so alive.
Incidentally, Twilight and this same teen started me down the path of writing YA. After devouring the Twilight series, my neighbor was hungry to connect with other stories in a similar way, but nothing was resonating. So I set out to write a book for that would prompt that same level of emotional investment. I wanted to create a story that would literally keep her up all night turning pages, like the Twilight experience had been for us. To this day, after writing numerous YA novels, one of the biggest compliments I get from readers is they can’t put my books down. That’s a testament to Stephanie and the imprint of her series on my life.
