There's only one thing to say to the censors: Shut up.

I can't think of a subject that is taboo for me, unless it's one I simply don't know anything about.

Deadline' is the story of a young man forced to discover who he is, and what's important in life, during the short span of his senior year in high school.

I don't think I'll ever lose the feeling that I had when I read 'To Kill a Mockingbird' - Harper Lee was going back into her childhood. I grew up in a real small town - Lee's was in the South, mine the Northwest - but small towns have a lot in common. There was such a revelation in knowing that a story could be told like that.

There's only one thing to say to the censors: Shut up.

Sometimes a book is better than it ever had a right to be because of the history the reader brings to the reading and because of the methods educators use to bring a particular story alive.

You have to be careful not to use anything too colloquial or you date the book.