I have always felt like a fish out of water, like someone who didn't belong to whatever group she was trying to join. I suppose this is partially due to moving around a lot as a kid and then later as an adult but mostly, that's just who I am.
I love stories about characters who are new to a thing: new to a place or a school or a group of people. On a macrocosmic level, I enjoy science fiction for the new perspective it gives us of a culture that is so familiar to us, whether it's Douglas Adams peering at Earth through the lens of aliens ready to bulldoze our planet for a new intergalactic highway or Gene Roddenberry's vision of a peaceful human society. In college, I adored the courses I took for my anthropology major because I loved reading about new cultures around the world and I loved comparing them to my own.
But on a microcosmic level, I love personal stories too. I love discovering a new town and new people with writers I trust and characters I identify with - those traveling from place to place, either willingly or not.
I guess this is why I write what I do: about people (girls) being thrust into new situations, usually in a new town and state and school, and having to discover their own paths. It's what interests me because it IS my life.
Write what you know.
