Q: What made you want to write books for teens?

A: Christopher Pike's novels! Seriously. When I was fifteen, my mom bought me one of his books, probably thinking the storylines would be as innocent as Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden's, whom I was really into at the time, and I was hooked on the suspense genre...tossed with a little horror. 

Q: What are your books about?

A: The themes differ book to book, but they all involve a teen, a Big Mistake, and overcoming the consequences of that Big Mistake.

Q: Where do your ideas come from?

A: Sometimes as I'm lying in bed waiting for sleep to come along, a nugget of a question drops into my head. Like: What would happen if a young girl found human bones on a beach? And: What if a popular cheerleader was secretly miserable with her life? And then I write a novel that answers these questions.

Q: Who are some of your favorite authors?

A: I have so many! Dean Koontz, Christopher Pike, Kimberly Edwards, Ellen Potter, Patricia Cornwell, Lois Lowry, Elizabeth Strout, Robin Cook

Q: What's next for you?

A: I plan to finish four novels by this time next year, plus write a few screenplays. I have eight novels in various stages of development started. It generally takes me two years to write and edit a book!