1. As a literacy prof, I’m always curious about how people come to be readers and writers. Can you share some of your journey with us?
My first book was actually my seventh-grade English project, assigned by a track and field coach who had to cover our class. It was published in 1978, when I was a high school freshman, so I’ve been writing for more than three quarters of my life.
2. What is your writing process like?
I’m a story guy, so my process is very much about fleshing out premises into real plots with beginning, middle, and end. It still astonishes me that some of my best ideas never become stories, yet some of the more mediocre-seeming ones really pop when I plan out an opening, a possible conclusion, and two or three big set pieces in between.
3. Any message you’d like to send to the teachers and librarians who share your work with young readers?
I’m an only child, so a lot of my early life was about fighting off boredom. For me, the solution always involved being creative. I made up games. I made up stories. I invented entire sports leagues, kept statistics, and awarded MVP trophies. It turned out to be the ultimate preparation for the seventh-grade project that launched me on this career – which is, essentially, making stuff up for a living. This June, I’ll be releasing THE FORT, which will be my 100th book. I wish I could travel back to middle school and tell twelve-year-old me – just starting out on what would become Book 1 – that we’d someday be publishing Book 100. I honestly don’t think he’d believe me!