These are some of the questions I am asked most by students:

Q: What is your favorite book?

A: Favorite books for kids: The Library, Jamberry, Frog and Toad Are Friends, and everything by Jane Yolen especially Color Me A Rhyme (with photography by my brother Jason Stemple) right now. Next week that list will change.

For young adults: Tuck Everlasting, Over Sea Under Stone and Devil's Arithmetic (by Jane Yolen--who else?)

For grown ups: anything by Janet Evanovich or the early books in the Kay Scarpetta series by Patricia Cornwell. I also love all the Travis McGee books by John D. MacDonald.

My favorite book that I have written is always the one I am working on right now. Today that might be the Massachusetts counting book I am working on for Sleeping Bear Press and two books which I hope to sell some day, a poetry book with with my brother Jason's fabulous photographs called EarthShare and one with my brother Adam called Dear Brother, Dear Sister. Tomorrow it could be something entirely different.

Q: What is your favorite part about being an author?

A: The three best things about being an author are
1. I get to work with my mother and my brothers.
2. I get to hold up a book and SHOW people what I have been working on.
And

3. I get to work in my pajamas--I'm wearing red ones right now that say "twinkle little star" all over them.

Q: How can I become a great writer?

The most important thing you can do to become a great writer is to read all the time. This is the best way you can learn new words, learn writing styles that you like and even ones that you do not like. I try to read every day. The other thing you must do to become a great writer is to write every day. Not only do I write upstairs on my computer in my office every day (things I hope to publish some day) but I write in a journal too, just for me. Writing is like riding a bike, or a skate board or playing the guitar, you must practice every day to get good at it.

Q: It must be so great having a job like that! OK, this isn't really a question

A: I do enjoy what I do, but you have to remember that it is a job just like everyone has a job. I have to get up to my office and edit stuff I've written even if I don't feel like writing that day. And I have deadlines which means people sometimes tell me how long I have to do that work. Writing is rewarding and it can be a lot of fun, but even for professional writers, it is work.

Q: When did you start writing? Did you always love writing?

A: When I was in school, I always thought writing was too much like work. I did not like to do it. I always wrote really bad poetry, though, every time a boy broke my heart--so I have a lot of very bad poetry in a file named "teen poems".
One started:

Have you ever looked at him
an old love from the past
Even just the thought of him
You wish his love would last

See--very bad poetry. That one was inspired by a boy named Billy who broke my heart when I was 16. He and I are both old married people now--not to each other, though. It wasn't until I was 28 years old and pregnant with my daughter Maddison that I wrote anything worth publishing. After reading my bad teenage poem, I'll bet you are glad I waited so long!

Q: What inspires you?

A: Lots of things inspire me. My mother inspires me every day because of her love of her art and because she lights a fire under me if I'm not working hard or fast enough. My father inspires me because of his great love of learning new things. He passed that on to me and now my favorite thing to do is research.

My kids inspire me: I'm writing a story about a first grader named Maddie Jane which is about my daughter Maddison--well, sort of--and her friends Molly Mac which is her real life best friend. I've just sold a short story called "Dear Santa" about my two daughters--Maddison and Glendon. Sometimes silly things inspire me. I was asked if I would like to submit a crime story involving a cat. Normally investigative animals is not my style, but I had been thinking for years about the scene from the movie "Men In Black" where the cat winds up in the morgue with the dead body. The story that came of that is called "Cat Nip" and was bought for an anthology. Sometimes (and perhaps I should not admit this) money inspires me. If someone asks me to write something and the price is right....

Q: Do you have any friends who are authors?

A: Yes. The area I live in is amazingly rich with people who work in this business. Here I am with just a few of them... do you recognize anyone?