This is the question I think that I am most often asked by people and I mean all people—kids, the guy who cuts my lawn, the tv repairman, my doctor. It’s as mysterious to me as it is to all of you. I did read someplace that some famous writer ( I forget who) said that a writer is not necessarily the smartest person in the room but the most observant. So I think I am just a good observer and perhaps see things and wonder about them in odd ways; and this means sometimes making up stories about them. Once I saw a raccoon in our trash shed dragging away a gingerbread house I had made for my kids many Christmases ago. Now I have never written a story about a raccoon celebrating Christmas. But someday I might because for years I have been thinking about that raccoon waddling out our yard down the street with that gingerbread house. But you get the idea—things come to me in weird ways. I must admit also that I read a tremendous amount. I read everything novels, non fiction, newspapers. And reading gives me a lot of ideas.

Yes, I have two terrific kids, a boy and a girl.

Sometimes.

Well, it’s not like they say Mom you should write a book about this, but again by being a careful observer and just listening I might get an idea from them. Actually one time I did get a very specific book idea from my kids. My son used to tease my daughter and call her Porkenstein although she was the skinniest little thing you ever saw. Anyhow they started talking about this monster pig and it gave me an idea for a book based on the Three Little Pigs story and about how the third pig who was not eaten up grew so lonely that he decided to invent himself a brother pig—Porkenstein! The book is pretty funny and the illustrations are great. It’s coming out in the fall of 2002.

Well, name just sort of come to me. I might hear a name I particularly like and say okay that might work. Because I write a lot of historical fiction I often look for old fashioned names.

My husband! My husband is the best title maker going. Once in great while I’ll think up a title and the odd thing about that is usually a title is thought up after an author has finished writing a book. But when I think of a title myself I think of it right away, when I first decide to write a book.

I guess first of all I get to live in the world of my own imagination all the time. It’s great. Also, I don’t exactly have a boss. I mean I have an editor but an editor is not really the same thing as a boss. I work hard, probably as much as people with regular jobs , but I get to set the hours myself and finally I can go to work in my pajamas if I want to. I don’t but I can if I want to.

What is your favorite book that you wrote?

It’s like asking if I have a favorite child. A very hard question to answer and I write many different kinds of books—fiction, non fiction, picture books. But I guess I would have to say that of the novels I really loved The Bone Wars and True North. And of the non fiction books I really loved the one about the rain forest called the Most Beautiful Roof In The World.

How long does it take you to write a book?

Anywhere from six weeks to six months. But the it goes to the publisher and they have to edit it and I have to do revisions and then they read it again and it’s at least another nine months to a year before it comes out.

READ READ READ and Read widely. Read novels, read newspapers, read about science and read history. If you read you learn how to buiold characters, and how to structure a story and handle a plot. So READ!

As my friend Lois Lowry said if you want to get rich become an orthodontist. Don’t become a writer because you want to get rich. Become a writer because there ‘s a story inside of you that has to get out. Or maybe in a way it’s the reverse. I sometimes think of stories as visitors knocking at my door and I just have to let them in and make them feel at home.