Novelist Maureen Johnson counts Fitzgerald and Hemingway as her literary inspirations, but she also dug into the occasional Judy Blume book.

“I remember reading Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret and doing the ‘We must increase our bust’ exercise,” recalls Johnson.

It’s just that mixture of intellect and sassiness that Johnson imparts into the characters of her six young adult books. The precocious teens navigate journeys — both literal and figurative — and along the way encounter the usual themes of death, dating and dishing. Johnson’s own Bucks County roots appear as settings: the high school in Devilish is loosely based on Nazareth Academy, Johnson’s alma mater, and the setting for Keys to the Golden Firebird, is “pretty much any Philly suburb off of I-95,” says Johnson.

Johnson’s latest novel, Suite Scarlett, channels her background as a former literary manager of a now-defunct theater company. Johnson says she feels a bond with Scarlett, the heroine of an eccentric family living in the dilapidated ghost of a once-grand Manhattan hotel.

For now, the author is continuing to get to know her fans through her lively blog while relishing the reaction to Scarlett. Scholastic is even holding a Suite Scarlett sweepstakes comprised of a trip for two to New York City and lunch with Johnson, a prize she considers “fairly hilarious.”

—Aubrey Tait