Happy National Paperback Book Day! I started my career writing trade paperback originals (meaning they were not published in hardcover first). My first was Promise Not To Tell. Though it was my first published book, it was actually the fourth I wrote and one that taught me so many important lessons. My first three unpublished novels were kind of all over the place – they were me trying to find myself as a fiction writer. But if I were to be honest, I’d have to admit that they were also about me trying to write what I thought other people might expect from me. When I sat down to write book four, I began by asking myself the question that would change everything; the question I recommend every aspiring writer ask themselves before beginning any project. What’s the book I most want to read? I remember the night I asked myself that question. I was sitting in front of a campfire deep in the Vermont woods. The answer came to me immediately. I knew the book I’d most want to read: a ghost story, set in those same woods. I got excited. It made such perfect sense: me, who loved ghosts and creepy stories and had always loved scaring people and being scared – of course that’s what I’d want to read. So that’s the book I vowed to write that night by the fire. Little by little, over the next few days and weeks, a story began to take shape. A ghost story. The story of Del Griswold, the Potato Girl. My little girl ghost who whispered, “I’ve got a secret.” And I sat still and listened carefully, writing it all down. In April, my tenth novel will be published – which feels just crazy to me. I’m so grateful for the journey my writing has taken me on; a journey that began with that very first paperback.