I have not Googled myself. I have not looked at myself on Amazon. It could drive you wild.

The undoing is almost always more difficult than the doing.

Mercy Watson is a pig. She lives with Mr. and Mrs. Watson, who are not pigs. I had that basic premise, but I couldn't make it work. I would come back to it, try it, see that I was failing, and put it aside.

Love!' said the princess. She stamped her foot. 'Why must everyone always speak of love?

Rob Horton, the main character of The Tiger Rising, was a secondary character in an adult short story I wrote, and he wouldn't go away after I'd finished the short story. I couldn't figure out what he wanted, so I wrote to find out.

My father leaving the family shaped who I was and how I looked at the world. By the same token, my father telling me fairy tales that he had made up shaped me profoundly, too.

As a kid books changed how I looked at the world and helped me understand things. Books still deepen me and open my heart.