The Ultimate YA Reading Group

1. How did you concoct the idea for Just Your Average Princess?
I love pumpkin anything—candles, bread, you name it. I was staring at my pumpkin colored kitchen walls and the idea of a pumpkin patch setting popped into my mind. Then I thought what if you were a teen girl who grew up on an awesome touristy pumpkin patch. And I was off from there.

2. What is the main message or theme you want your readers to take from the book?
When I write I don’t start out thinking of messages to go into a book, but looking back at it, I guess it would be to not judge a book by its cover. Both Milan and Jamie have ideas about each other and treat each other a certain way based on how they appear.

3. What is the best thing about being an author? What is the most challenging?
There are so many wonderful things about being an author but my very favorite is when a teen stops me or sends me an e-mail telling me how much they like one of my books. The most challenging part for me is promotion. It’s a whole other giant part of being an author that falls mostly on our shoulders and there is definitely a learning curve as to what does and doesn’t work.

4. Did you ever have your own pumpkin patch like Jamie?
I wish! I adore all thing pumpkins. But, no. I do live down the street from a pretty cool one.

5. While researching about your previous books, I realized how the design of your website is centered around The Espressologist. For your curious fans, would you ever decide to re-design the website to center around Just Your Average Princess?
Nah, I love the current design. I actually didn’t design it around my first book but around my love of coffee and writing in coffee shops.