It’s always hard to know what to say when people ask me to tell them a little bit about myself. Of course there’s the regular stuff to talk about, like where I was born and where I live now. Then there are the harder, more interesting things to get into, like how I write my books and what’s the best thing about being an author. Oh, and of course there’s the question everyone seems to want answered—do I have any pets?

So starting with the easy stuff – I was born in Ann Arbor Michigan, back in the days when there was no color TV, milk came in glass bottles and was delivered by a milkman, Barbie dolls came in only two varieties – blonde and brunette, and girls had to wear dresses to school every day, even in the cold, harsh Michigan winters when the temperature often dipped below zero.

My dad was an English professor at the University of Michigan, who loved words, and books, and telling funny stories. My mother stayed home with my brother and sister and me until we’d all three gone off to college, at which point she went back to work as a bookkeeper in a law office. After going to college in Massachusetts, where I studied composition, I moved to New York City where I still live today.

My sons, Gabe and Nat, were both born in New York City and have gone to public elementary, middle, and high schools. Even though they live in one of the busiest cities in the world, they still do all the same kinds of things other kids do – play sports, hang out with friends, and eat pizza. The only difference is that they play sports in Central Park, hang out with friends on Broadway, and the pizza in New York is sold by the slice.

As for how I write my books and what the best thing is about being an author – I think I’ll answer the second question first. The best thing about being an author is that I get to spend all day doing what I like best – writing.

From the time I was a little girl, the two things I enjoyed most were music and writing. I still feel that way. Sometimes when I’m working on a book I completely lose track of time and when I finally stop writing I look out the window and am amazed to find that it’s dark outside. Other times, when I feel blocked and the ideas aren’t coming, I do my housecleaning instead, or bake cookies, or okay, I admit it, veg out in front of the TV for a while until I feel like writing again.

I’m one of those writers who believes in the idea that it’s best to write what you know. I love animals, and I know a fair amount about them, so a lot of my picture books are about animals and the environment. I love kids – the way they talk to each other and the things they think are funny, so my novels are about kids.

Describing how I write is not an easy thing to do. I’m not ever sure where the ideas come from. Sometimes they seem to pop into my head out of thin air, and other times I see something, or hear something, or read something and that triggers a story idea. Once I have an idea, the story doesn't always come out right away. Sometimes it has to sit in my head for a long time, being turned over and over again until I understand it well enough to start putting it down on paper. I work at the computer, but I edit with a pencil. I print out whatever I’ve written one day, and start the next day by reading it over and making corrections. Lately, I’ve been trying a couple of new ways of working. One is to just start writing and not stop until I get to the end of the story and the other is to make a tape recording of a section I’ve written and edit as I listen to my own voice reading it back.

Every book I write goes through many drafts. Some more than others. With each draft I get comments from my editor and then I rewrite and rewrite and rewrite until we both feel the book is as strong as it can possibly be. I don’t love rewriting, but it’s just one of those things you have to do if you want to be a good writer. I work with several different editors because my books are published at several different publishing houses. I am very lucky because they are all wonderful to work with!

Besides writing I like to bake, talk to my boyfriend on the phone, poke around in antique stores, go to the movies, watch little league games, and visit classrooms around the country talking to kids about my books. It’s nice being able to write both picture books and novels because it means that I’m always shifting around, doing different things. One day I might be working on a rhyming book about a clothesline, the next day a song about a penguin and the day after that a serious book about a girl who goes on a long journey in search of herself. Variety. That’s what keeps life interesting.

Okay, okay, you’ve been very patient. I know what it is you really want to know so I won’t keep you in suspense any longer. No, I don’t have any pets. I used to have a little brown pet mouse named, Bing, but unfortunately he moved on to that big exercise wheel in the sky. Growing up I had dogs, two really sweet beagles and I’ve been thinking lately that it might be time to get another dog. Maybe a beagle, or maybe a cute little French Bulldog. I’ll keep you posted.