John Searles

I always joke deep down I'm really a teenage girl on the inside.

All my friends are female, I've edited for a magazine for young girls for 15 years, I relate to women, and I'm very, very close to my younger sister.

My goal is to write books that are quality books with very real characters and a gripping plot.

I grew up in a two-bedroom house with my grandfather, my mom and dad and four kids. I slept on the couch or on the floor, and I always wanted to have my own space.

A lot of people are afraid of dolls - everybody remembers 'Chucky.'

I love being able to be a writer. That's what I moved to New York to be.

I take stuff from real life and try to make a character out of it. And I try to live the world of the characters a little bit.

Buying an apartment in New York was beyond my wildest dreams. I had to scrape together every cent to buy it. And I'm so happy I did.

People are often surprised that I am so upbeat. I'm always hearing, 'You're so light and funny, and your books are so dark and twisted.' There's a dichotomy. I like books that are dark and creepy. I don't control it - it's just what I gravitate toward.

I stayed at 'Cosmo' well beyond my internship, moving up the ranks over some 15 years to become books editor, then brand director, then editor-at-large - editing everything from an excerpt of Gore Vidal's memoir to writing some of those juicy cover lines myself.

When I first came to New York, I would scream like a girl and run to the other side of the street if there was a pigeon. Now I can face off with a pigeon.

No one in my family had ever even gone to college.