Interview Questions and Answers  

Where do you get your ideas?  I use bits and pieces of my life in many of my fiction stories.  For nonfiction stories I look at the market and try to determine where there is a gap in informational books for children, but mostly I write about what interests me.

How many times do you revise a story?  Too many times to count, usually.  My first draft of a story often bears little resemblance to the finished story. 

How did you get your start as a writer?  I began writing after an instructor at the University of Kentucky encouraged me to write.  I began by writing for educational magazines.  During that time I also wrote stories that I hoped someday would become children’s books.  I persevered, and sure enough I am an author today.

If you could trade places with one famous person for a day, who would it be?   For one day, I would trade places with lots of different people.  That person would have to love dogs and love books or I would never consider the trade, not for a minute.  

What is your best habit?  My work ethic.  I work long and hard at being a writer.  Find out what you enjoy doing.  Work hard at that activity and you will succeed.  

What is your worst habit?  Eating when I’m not even hungry.  

What are your hobbies?  I enjoy reading lots of different types of books.  I like to play with my dogs.  And I enjoy being on a lake in my boat.

What was your favorite book growing up?  I enjoyed Winnie the Pooh.  In fact, I still enjoy that book so much that I named my miniature schnauzer Pippin Pooh, after Pooh Bear. I also loved reading Nancy Drew books.  Today, I still enjoy reading mysteries. 

What subject did you enjoy most in school?  Literature and science were my favorite.   

Do you have a hero?  My hero was my father.  He taught me to look at the positive side of live, to try hard at anything I did, and he was a fantastic storyteller.  I think those three aspects of his character have played major roles in my success as a writer.  My father believed in giving me everything I needed, some of what I wanted, and he expected me to earn anything else.  

Is there something that you don’t do, that you would like to learn?  I would like to take jewelry making classes.   

What advice would you give to anyone wanting to be a writer?  Read the type of books you would like to write.  Read.  Read.  Read.  Take workshops on the craft of writing.  And write.  Write.  Write. 

What is the favorite story you have written?  My favorite story is usually the one that I am working on at the time I am asked this question.  Actually, I don’t have a favorite.  My books are like my dogs.  I can’t choose one over the other.

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