My mom missed the School Picture Day memo. She was HORRIFIED when the proofs came back and she saw her darling daughter wearing a grubby McDonald’s T-shirt.
The thing I love most in the world? Humans.
After that? Books.
Stories nourish me: stories about how we live and love and triumph and fall, stories that make us laugh, stories that remind us, when we mess up big time, how to put ourselves back together and start anew.
Without books, I wouldn't be me. If not for The Witch of Blackbird Pond, would I have developed the stubborn resilience that kept me going even after countless crushing disappointments? Without A Wrinkle in Time, would I be as open to magic, mystery, God, and science as I am? And To Kill a Mockingbird! Oh, To Kill a Mockingbird. Who the heck would I be without Scout, Atticus, and Boo Radley in my blood?
I love humanity. I love stories. Of course I wanted to be a writer.
It took a verrrrrrrrry long time to get here, but dang, I’m glad I persevered.
I’ve written for kids, teenagers, and grown-ups. I like going wherever the story takes me. Funny? Bring it on. Dark? Absolutely. Tender, strange, unsettling, hopeful, heartbreaking? Bring it all on, baby.
Oh! And I’m very much a Southerner. To the bone. The South has a complicated, painful legacy, and I don’t believe in romanticizing that or looking away from it. It shaped me anyway—my ear for language, my humor, my sense of story, my fascination with contradiction, my love of family and community.
And dang, do I love a good biscuit. And Flannery O'Connor.