Question: Your Diary series for HarperCollins—which includes Diary of a Worm, Diary of a Spider, and the upcoming Diary of a Fly—captures what it is like to be a very small creature. Where did your inspiration come from?

Answer: Essentially, the inspiration really comes from the research. When you start learning things about worms, spiders, and flies, then translate them into children's life, the material starts to build itself. For example, insects really could overrun the planet if spiders didn't control the population.  And worms are essential to the earth's well-being.  So if a child imagines him or herself as a worm (and I do believe children often feel insignificant and overlooked) or a spider, then maybe if they learn how important those tiny creatures are, they can also begin to see some of their own incredible value.

Question: On your website you tell us that you are reading Sharon Creech’s Heartbeat.  Who else are you reading right now? 

Answer: I have read Kate DiCamillo’s Tale of Despereaux quite a few times.  I am trying to find the time to read the Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane also by Kate DiCamillo.  I also love Karen Hesse’s Out of the Dust and Cynthia Kadohata’s Kira Kira. In picture books, Mo Willems and Lauren Thompson are my favorites (my daughter’s too).

Question: How important do you think keeping a journal is for young people and developing writers?   

Answer: Keeping a journal helps you to get to know yourself better–which always makes for better writing.  On a more practical level, the more you do anything, the better you get at it. If you write everyday, you’ll get better at that, too.

Question: What about other forms of creative expression?  Do you draw?  Do you take photographs?

Answer: I am a terrible artist!  Although, I have to say, having spent oodles of time with Betsy Lewin and Harry Bliss, I have gotten much better!

Question: What types of things do you do for inspiration or to get creative juices flowing?

Answer: I always find that the busier I am, the more creative I am.  The more people, places, ideas, obstacles, and situations you are exposed to, the more your imagination is going to flow.

Question: Can you describe what your usual writing process is like? 

Answer: I really have to get to the "fluid" part of my brain in order to come up with good writing, and that means writing pages and pages and pages of . . . not-so-great stuff.  Our brains are meant to be orderly, organized, and rational. Those are not great elements of a children's book.  I have to "mine" all those automatic thoughts and sentences in order to reach the good stuff that doesn't happen until my brain is "looser."  Case in point, I do my best writing when I'm sleep deprived.  Why?  Because my (and everyone's) brain is mushy then—more likely to make new and original connections.  Think about how incredibly original (and frighteningly weird) your dreams are.  It’s your brain at its most fluid, with no rules.  That's the brain I need to write.

Question: Do you revise a lot? 

Answer: One word can make the difference between an okay page and a great page.  It’s all about re-writes.  You just keep shaping it and shaping it and shaping it until it’s the form it’s supposed to be.  If I can't get it right, I scrap it and start all over.  Some of the best advice I ever got was that if you are having trouble with a manuscript, take out the part you love the best, because chances are you are writing around it in order to accommodate it or "save" it.  It’s true and it works every time.

Question: Do you compose primarily on computer? 

Answer: I brainstorm in longhand, type it into the computer, then revise in longhand.   

Question: How can you tell when it’s been a good writing day?  What is that like?

Answer: I don’t commit to a certain number of hours or pages a day.  I’m just not that organized.  Even less so now that I have a two-year old and a newborn at home.   The one constant seems to be that I tend to write in the evening, usually very late.  Ideas will often get me out of bed and I’ll rush to my computer at 2:00 am.

Question: What is it like to experience writer's block or have a bad writing day?  

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