about anne pfeffer
Award-winning novelist Anne Pfeffer grew up in Phoenix, Arizona reading prodigiously, riding horses, and avoiding rattlesnakes and scorpions. After living in Chicago and New York, she escaped back to the land of sunshine in Los Angeles. She has worked in banking and as a pro bono attorney, representing abandoned children in adoption and guardianship proceedings. Anne has a daughter living in New York and is the author of four books in the YA/New Adult genres.
How does living in California inspire your writing?
I find Los Angeles endlessly interesting, and because I’ve lived here for thirty-five years, a lot of my personal experiences serve as springboards for the fictional stories I write. For example, I lived for years on a tiny road in the Hollywood Hills very similar to the Trail of Terror in What We Do for Love. I was married on Catalina Island, and my wedding cake was made by a woman who did all the wedding cakes on the island. Hence, the inspiration for The Wedding Cake Girl, my island-based tale of a girl who wants to leave buttercream frosting behind for college.
How did you get into writing novels?
When I first started writing, I wanted to be Dr. Seuss and write lovely stories in perfect rhyming verse. I composed long tales about the adventures of two white rabbits named Peri and Winkle, all the while striving to write perfect rhythm and rhyme. I’m not sure I succeeded, but I do think that trying is not a bad exercise for someone learning to write.
I later turned to prose and began writing children’s and YA books. I’ve published four novels in the YA/New Adult genre and am now publishing a work of women’s fiction called What We Do for Love.
