Babysitters Club to Jodi Picoult

I used to get grounded from reading.
I was always the kid with her nose in a book when she wasn't playing outside with her four siblings. But, man, when I started a book, I didn't put it down until I finished the entire thing.
When I was 8-9-10, I read the entire series of The Babysitter's Club. One day, while reading, my dad came into the living room, grabbed my book, and told me I had to go outside and play. I was grounded from reading until he said so. Of course, it was a playful moment, but he really did ground me from that book for a while, and since it was one in a series, I couldn't just go grab the next one off of the shelf. That's blasphemy.
When I was 11-12-13, I read The School Story and Frindle by Andrew Clements and became a middle schooler determined to do something incredible--like write my own book and get it published or make up a new word. Haha.
I also became hooked on Lurlene McDaniel with her stories of cheesy (clean) romance between two teenagers. When I say "hooked," I don't mean I read a couple of her books; I mean, I took all of her books from the library and read until I needed more books by her. Mrs. Enos, the librarian, and I became great friends because of my constant visits to the library. She would often recommend books to me (like Life of Pi), and I would always start them, but my niche was romance.
When she discovered that, she introduced me to Jodi Picoult--more specifically, The Pact. Ohmyword, it was the best thing I'd ever read. It had romance; it had drama; it had action; most importantly, it had an intense family dynamic. I come from a family of seven and and extended family of too many to count on my fingers and toes, on both sides, so family is my life. It defines me in a way that I could never really understand. I think God knows that in order to get me out of my comfort zone, He'd have to completely take me from my family. And I would be devastated beyond words.
Anyway, Jodi Picoult quickly became my best friend. Lame? I don't care. Her characters were more real to me than the people sitting around me. I even almost asked for prayer for one of them in my Sunday School class. Lame? No. Good writing.
Jodi Picoult is still my favorite author as well as my inspiration.
I still read quite a bit, from cereal boxes and milk cartons to lengthy novels, but my leisurely reading is at a minimum right now. I started Jodi Picoult's latest novel over the summer, and my marker is still in the book because I can't read her without escaping from reality. Bubble bath, tea, cell phone off. Walking around like a zombie. That's how I read Jodi Picoult and Jane Austen and Francine Rivers.
Maybe I'm a rebel because I don't enjoy the classics as much as everyone else. I am very much a girl who wants to be romanced, so I read romance.
And I write it. My goal is to one day meet Jodi Picoult and pick her brain or just sit with her. I want to write in a way that captivates readers' attention like she captivated mine.
We'll see.