When anything bad happens to me or someone I know, I always know who to blame. My no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather.

You make the decision: Whom did God punish?

I write in the mornings, two or three hours every day, and then at least four times a week I play in a duplicate game at a bridge club. I try to go to tournaments three, four, or five times a year.

An idea doesn't die," said Trapp. "It exists somewhere, in its own dimension, waiting to be perceived.

I remember my fourth grade teacher reading 'Charlotte's Web' and 'Stuart Little' to us - both, of course, by E. B. White. His stories were genuinely funny, thought provoking and full of irony and charm. He didn't condescend to his readers, which was why I liked his books, and why I wasn't a big reader of other children's' books.

It was all because of his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealinggreat-great-grandfather!

Part of me becomes the characters I'm writing about. I think readers feel like they are there, the way I am, as a result.