Author of over 400 Books for Children and Adults
This short novel has a long and complicated history. My agent was phoned by an editor at Scholastic wanting to know if I had any interest in a new series they were starting called HORRORS! It was to be novels based on old fairy tales brought up to date, with a frisson of terror
Here is a complicated and ironic book history. About ten years ago I sent around a proposal for this book, listing about fifteen cat folk stories I’d like to retell. Every publisher I sent it to (including Harper) turned it down.
My newest editor hero is Liz Van Doren at Harcourt. She called me about two and a half years ago and said that she wanted to talk to me about doing a series of books that had the same kind of impact as my Scholastic HOW DO DINOSAURS books. In other words,
This is another long story. After having done a bunch of music books with my son Adam in the 80s and 90s, I made a list of other possible interesting collections, and Work Songs was high up on that list. I sent the ideas around to many of my publishers
Another complicated book history. I wrote this book about thirty years ago (the first time) when my own children were small and playing a game they called “Soft House” by taking cushions off the sofa and building a house with blankets for a roof.
I was incredibly honored to be asked to be one of the three Guests of Honor at the Glasgow SF World Con. That’s the largest science fiction convention in the world, a moveable feast, held summer 2005 in Scotland. Part of the perks of being a World Con GOH, is that
Book 3 of the Stuart Quartet is about Bonnie Prince Charlie and the disastrous battle of Culloden that broke the Scottish clan system and saw the English banning the playing of bagpipes, the speaking of Scots Gaelic, and wearing tartan and kilts.
I have been a long-time fan of Hans Christian Andersen’s work. My favorites include “The Snow Queen,” “The Nightingale” and “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” Occasionally I am called “America’s Hans Christian Andersen,” to which I sometimes respond,
For the fourth (and alas final) Young Heroes book, Bob and I decided on Jason because the old tales tell about how he was raised on a mountain by the kindly centaur, Chiron.
When we were still in the research phase of this book, Heidi and her daughters and their friends, the Napiers of Myrtle Beach, went on a road trip to Salem to get the feel of the area and pick up more books. Heidi came back with a bumper sticker that said,