"Margaret" was just my truth. It was what I knew to be true about sixth grade.

In a New York Post interview, Judy Blume, author of young-adult fiction, gave this advice on getting your kids to read: "Moms come up to me at book signings and describe how they're telling their daughters, 'These were my favorite books,'?" she says. "I say, 'Quit it! That's the biggest turnoff!'"You want to get them to read them, leave them around the house and every so often, say, 'You're not ready to read this yet.'

The creative process; I enjoy thinking up the stories and situations for my books.

I'm a more skilled writer now, but after 23 books it's harder to be fresh and that's really important to me. I don't want to write the same thing over and over again.

The parent reads the book. The kid reads the book and then they can talk about the characters instead of talking about themselves. You know there's a connection even if you don't talk about it when you read the same books.

I try to create new characters in each book I write. That's what makes writing fun and interesting for me.

I'm an e-mail junkie though I'm trying to read my in-box only twice a day and to answer all at once.