Boys and Girls Q&A

How long have you been a writer?

I’ve always liked to write. I’d write stories, or lists, or letters, or just about anything. But I didn’t start being a writer as a job until after I grew up and became a mom. I didn’t know then that anybody could be a writer. And it took me even longer to figure out that I could be an artist, too.

Where do you get your ideas?

Sometimes someone will give me an idea. For example, my editor will say "Can you write a story about breakfast?" But the stories I have the most fun with are the stories that come when I practice using my imagination. Just like my muscles, I have to exercise my imagination. So if I see a lady with a basket on her bicycle, I imagine what kinds of things she might carry in it and who she might visit with those things and before I know it, I have a story!

Do you have pets?

Yes, we have lots of fish, and a snail named Thank You.

Fish Photos

Do you have a pig?

No, we don’t have a live pig. But we had a toy pig that traveled with us everywhere when one of my kids was small, and now I have a collection of flying pigs that people have given me since my first book, When Pigs Fly, was published.

How many books have you written?

I have three books that have been published (to see them, click here). And I have lots more stories waiting to be made into books. And I keep getting more ideas!

Do you have a question for me? Would you like to show me some of your art? Email me and I’ll answer you as soon as I can. Maybe I’ll even post it here on the website!


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