HOLY COW, LAST DAY!!! It’s Saturday and how better to kick off the weekend than with the final installment of our awesome Author Interview Series with Beth Merlin. Hopefully, you already have grabbed your copy of One S’more Summer and will be enjoying a relaxing reading day by the pool. #ahhutopia
On the final day of this Author Interview series, we want to hear about Beth’s inspiration as a writer. It’s always fascinating to see what has inspired and influenced a writer throughout their life, right?
FHP: What book or instance made you want to become a writer?
BETH: There are a couple of books from my childhood that’ve influenced me well into adulthood. Anne of Green Gables and the other works of L.M Montgomery were some of my absolute favorites growing up. I loved the world Montgomery created on Prince Edward Island and all the characters that inhabited Avonlea.
Jo from Little Women was probably the first character I came across that wanted to be a professional writer -it stuck with me. I could absolutely relate to how in the novel she would write plays for her sisters to perform. As a kid, I wrote a lot of little one and two act shows and then in high school wrote plays for statewide competitions. I also started keeping a journal at about eight years old and continued to write in one all the way through college.
Truthfully, there’s really no one book or moment that made me realize I wanted to become a writer, but reading and writing have always been part of my life.