Judy Blume
The book I’m working on at the moment is for girls in their early teens and to get into the right headspace I’ve been rereading Judy Blume’s books. Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret had the LONGEST waiting list at my school. I still love the character of Nancy, who seems to know all the forbidden secrets. There was a girl just like that in my class during my last year of primary school and we spent most of our lunch hours (when we weren’t reading Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret) sitting in a little circle around her, open-mouthed, wide-eyed and spellbound, while she said things like, “If you really want to impress a guy, what you have to do is stare at him, wink slowly and then beckon. That’s how I met my boyfriend.” Actually I must confess that even though I have a boyfriend I like very much, I never tried this technique to impress him. Perhaps I will give it a go some day.