“He who laughs last laughs the laughiest.”

The death of author Louise Rennison was announced today.

When I was in junior high, I owned all of the Georgia Nicolson books and loaned them out to anyone who would read them. I lost a few of them over the years and had to re-buy several of them, thus making my collection a mish-mash of different editions and covers. This is a photo of one of the bookshelves in my living room.

I even had a small fansite for the book series as a teen. I never watched the movie adaptation, Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging because I just couldn’t handle a movie changing up the characters I formed in my head while growing up with the series.

Author Louise Rennison taught me that books can make people laugh. They taught me that even if beauty magazines say that boys don’t like funny girls, the good ones do. They made me want to write funny books and entertain people with silly, fluffy tales.

This is one of the last pages of my debut novel where I thanked my editors, some friends and, among others, Louise Rennison for inspiring me. Not everyone knows this, but Molly Miranda’s middle name is Georgia, based on Rennison’s main character. Because that is how much she means to me.

Thank you for the laughs and the tears, Louise Rennison. Thank you.