What authors have most influenced your writing style?
Whatever I’m reading at the time, usually! When I wrote the scene in my book where Lily starts talking “correctly” because of the Quest Clause, I was reading an Amelia Peabody book, by Elizabeth Peters (which has an advanced vocabulary and a more formal tone). I was just as surprised as Lily that all these “strange” words were coming out of her mouth. Then I thought, “What if it’s intentional? What if the magic is making Lily sound a certain way?” Since then, I try to be a bit more careful with what I read while I’m writing. I recently discovered that I can’t read present tense books while writing (thank you, The Hunger Games) because the switch in tense really messes with my head. (I write in past tense.)
As far as long term influences, I stole the idea for the footnotes in The Cinderella Theorem from the Ruby Oliver books by E. Lockhart (love those books!). The first book I ever read in one day was Starring Sally J. Freedman, as Herself by Judy Blume. I was about seven or eight then. I loved that book and that Judy Blume did something different with it—the imaginings from Sally’s mind. I generally prefer books that are funny to ones that are super serious, and that certainly influenced me. I think of my book as a comedy. And, of course, the tension and conflict between Lily and Calo comes from a favorite book of mine: Pride and Prejudice. I somewhat modeled their quarrelsome relationship after Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy’s.