Q: You have a link to the Caster Girls blog on your blogs, and those of us who read your blogs know that you talk about them a lot. Who are the Caster Girls?

K: When Margie and I set out to write Beautiful Creatures,we were writing it with a specific group of girls in mind. When we started the book, we gave them pages and they demanded more. They passed chapters to their friends and started asking questions. Their questions, ideas, and criticism shaped Beautiful Creatures- because for us, they were our audience. We had no idea we would sell BC, or even send it out. In the beginning, we were just writing it for them. These girls eventually became the Caster Girls.

M: A Caster Girl, in its broadest definition, is a girl with the power – the incredible power – the superpower, even – to be herself. Which isn’t easy. Each of our Caster Girls is as powerful and unique, quirky and talented, witty and complicated, and crazy as Lena Duchannes, from Beautiful Creatures. They’ve fallen into our lives in different ways – some are friends, family members, even students. But at the end of the writing process, they became the original sisterhood of the book. So to us, they’re family."