You Nest Here With Me

Heidi and I wrote this book about eleven years ago, sold it to the very first editor, the marvelous Liz Van Doren. And we did a couple of good revisions with her. She loved the book. Then Harcourt imploded and Liz was without a job. She became an editor of adult books. Nest languished five years at

Cover of Trash Mountain by Jane Yolen

Trash Mountain

Trash Mountain after I had been rereading a lot of Jane Austen and that voice was stuck in my head. Except, of course, this was a squirrel. I knew quite a bit about the war between the red squirrels and gray squirrels, mostly from British magazines and newspapers (I live part of the year in

Cover of A Plague of Unicorns by Jane Yolen

A Plague of Unicorns

This began as a short story in 1994 called “An Infestation of Unicorns” in my collection HERE THERE BE UNICORNS.     Not my first foray into unicorns (that would be poems and a novel called THE TRANSFIGURED HART).  Then I met the Zonderkidz editor at the Texas Library Association meeting and we hit it off.

Cover of How Do Dinosaurs Stay Safe by Jane Yolen

How Do Dinosaurs Stay Safe

Those dinos, they keep on going. And this one began because the editor asked for it. I made a dozen wrong tries until I got it right. She and I made lists of possible scenarios. And only then did I manage to get it right. Mark Teague’s pictures do indeed steal the show, and it seems nothing is going to

Cover of Centaur Rising by Jane Yolen

Centaur Rising

This began as a short story, Centaur Field, in a Bruce Coville anthology: HALF HUMAN, published in 2001. But I thought about it on and off for over ten years before I decided it should be a novel. Along the way, I wrote it set in modern times and then realized that the secret of a centaur born in a

Cover of Stone Angel by Jane Yolen

Stone Angel

I saw a photograph of a stone angel carving on an apartment building in Paris. The angel had originally been meant for a competition for a lighthouse but hadn’t won. Years later it was used for the building. You can still see it in Paris. That photo was the seed that started the story. I wrote th

Cover of Sister Fox's Guide to the Writing Life by Jane Yolen

Sister Fox’s Guide to the Writing Life: Poems

I first met the editor, John Patrick Pazdziora as he was finishing his doctorate at St Andrews University in English Literature. My friend Debby brought him, his lovely wife Rebecca, and their amazing then two year old daughter Fern to tea at my house. We began a conversation about his work

Cover of Speaking in Pearls by Jane Yolen

Speaking in Pearls

This small art press limited edition (of 50) hand-bound books is for the serious collector. The book includes both published and unpublished adult poems in the faerie tale/fantasy genre. If you go to www.papaveria.com you will find ordering information

Cover of How Do Dinosaurs Say I'm Mad by Jane Yolen

How Do Dinosaurs Say I’m Mad

This How Do Dinos book was the editor’s idea, but I took to it with gusto–as did illustrator Mark Teague. How many times have those of us with children (or who are next door to neighbors’ children) seen toddlers through five-year-olds have massive meltdowns? All of us! And who could