This book began first as a script for a short animated film. Only five years later did it finally become a book. Part of my Arthurian obsession (I have written a number of books about King Arthur, though this is the only
Snow, Snow
Jason lives in Colorado where it snows a lot. So he has taken a lot of stunning pictures of snow over the years. I culled these, chose about fifteen for writing poems about, and then other photos that I loved but couldn’t
One-Armed Queen, The
I hadn’t planned to write a third book of the Dales, after Sister Light and White Jenna. In fact, I killed off all the main characters in White Jenna so I wouldn’t have to write a trilogy. But there was this nagging question in my
House, House
We live in a small New England town in western Massachusetts. When we moved in, the Town Clerk gave us an old black and white photo of our house from the 1910s. It was by the Howes Brothers, turn of the century
Tea with an Old Dragon
My old college, Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, contacted me and asked if I would write a picture book about the founder for the Sophia Smith Centennial, I explained how long picture books actually take, which
Sherwood
Eight new stories about Robin Hood and company, by such worthies as Nancy Springer, Anna Kirwan, Mary Frances Zambreno. It also includes son Adam Stemple’s first solo short story. My story is called “Our Lady of the
Welcome to the Ice House
This book is about the Arctic in occasional rhyme, part of a series of four Welcome To … books. It takes a lot of research to write a poem about a place. I have been to Alaska three times but I’ve never seen a polar bear.
Raising Yoder’s Barn
A long time ago, my editor at Little Brown sent me someone’s art work asking me to write a book about barns for that artist. I couldn’t. But one day I thought about the barn-raising scene in the movie “Witness” and
Armageddon Summer
Years ago I read about some millenialist group or another declaring that the world was going to end on a certain date and at a specific time. These news stories pop up every year, and not just when we are heading downhill
Pegasus, the Flying Horse
Lightyear Entertainment did an animated movie written by Doris Orgel and she wasn’t interested in turning the story of Pegasus into a book. I watched the movie and wasn’t interested in retelling her story either. So when