Editor’s note: The 7^th annual author visit to Ben Davis takes place this Thursday.  The authors visiting this year are Jason Reynolds, Ellen Schreiber, Coe Booth and Susan Vaught. The Spotlight will feature each author prior to Thursday’s. Today’s author is Susan Vaught.

We all have our favorite authors. There’s the one that inspired us to be the person that we are today, there’s the one whose writing is just the best thing ever and/or there’s the one that we just can’t help loving. Either way, sticking to one author can be a little boring or sometimes they can let you down.

So whether you’re looking to find new authors to read or a new author to add to your lists of favorites; meet Susan Vaught, who’s the author of Freaks Like Us and Going Underground.

Vaught was born in Oxford, Mississippi and is mostly a contemporary writer (although, she’s written fantasy, too), who’s stories follows teens of today’s world, struggling with today’s problems.

“I started writing in the third grade, and I was totally inspired by Marguerite Henry – and my favorites were Misty of Chincoteague, King of the Wind, Sea Star Orphan of Chincoteague, Black Gold, Stormy, Misty’s Foal, White Stallion of Lipizza, Mustang Wild Spirit of the West, San Domingo the Medicine Hat Stallion, Misty’s Twilight and Justin Morgan Had a Horse,” Vaught said.

But what makes Vaught face the pencil and paper?

“Just about everything inspires me to write. I get fascinated by photos, interesting character names, songs – even funny typos. Often first lines of stories come to me, and everything builds from there,” Vaught said.

Upon asking Vaught what genres inspires her work, she said, “ For me, it’s about the character, voice and situation that moves into my mind as I think about a story. Once I have the character and voice, the story finds me, too – so I’d have to say it’s the main character that draws me to the genre they need.”

Vaught has yet to win awards for her writing, but that doesn’t mean she won’t, “I recently started working on middle grade books, and I’d like to do more of those, and also keep working on young adult fiction as well. I’d like to do more fantasy, both high fantasy and urban/contemporary, which is my favorite genre to read.”

Vaught has written 15 books and is still continuing her journey. Make sure you check out her books and come to the Author’s Meet, held during first period at the library.