Why did you decide to become a writer?
I’m not sure I ever *decided* to be a writer. That’s just what I am. I write. I can’t help it. Even if I didn’t write stories or books, I would write–letters, journal entries, notes to myself on scraps of toilet paper, very creative shopping lists (chopin liszt), etc. Writing is how I process life. At some point, however, I must have made the decision to try and become a *published* writer. I think I was about seven when that happened. 2_–Who is your favorite character that you have written? Probably Roo, the title character in my forthcoming picture book, KEEPING UP WITH ROO (Putnam, 2004). Roo is based on my real-life Aunt Martha and, like Martha, she is spunky, irrepressible, and loyal. 3–If you could change one thing about being a writer, what would it be? Hmmm. I’m not sure I would change anything about being a writer. I would change some things about *me* that sometimes get in the way of my being a writer though. I would become less obsessive-compulsive about housework, for ex
I wanted to become a writer when I was a child, but didn’t think it was possible until I was about 28 years old, and that’s when I started writing Freedom. Thinking it wasn’t possible for me to be a writer didn’t stop me from writing for myself though. When I was a child, I wrote a number of books about a bay mare named Nellie.
