Questions about Alice

i live in california and am 13 years old. I recently reread the very first Alice book (Starting with Alice), and realized that i had forgotten how much I had enjoyed this book reading it as a fourth grader. I was so surprised when I found out that there were more books in this series. I had heard of them before but never knew that there were so many books. I have been looking for some interesting books to read while I am stuck at home. My question is: how did/when/ where did you get inspiration for Alice and her story? And what happened to Oatmeal the kitten and how did she die? How did Alice’s mother die? Thank you so much! Excited to hear back.

Don’t you want to read the series and find out the answers for yourself?  I can’t remember how Oatmeal died, frankly.  Alice’s mother died of cancer, I believe.  I started the Alice series because I thought it would be interesting to follow the life of a girl who is looking for a role model, someone to take her Mom’s place.  And gradually all the other stuff came to me–friends, brother, dad, Aunt Sally etc.  I wrote one book a year for 28 years, so you have a lot of reading to look forward to.