Author of over 400 Books for Children and Adults
The first book in the Tartan Magic series. An American family comes to Scotland for the summer and immediately falls into magic. Twins Jennifer and Peter try to rescue their four-year old sister who has been captured by the wicked wizard, Michael Scot.
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
After Jason and I did THE EGRET’S DAY for Boyds Mills, and with the then editor’s enthusiasm for another project, we settled on the idea of alligators as being a good follow up because Jason lives in South Carolina and already had a whole lot of alligator photos from there as well as from having been an Everglades Fellowship winner
My third book of adult poetry, first book of political poems, for the wonderful small poetry press Holy!Cow. I was hitting the right wing hard here, in a variety of poems, and developed a style for what I would later use in the poetry book I began in 2016 right before the traitorous Trump won” Before the Vote/After.
My first book of short stories with Tachyon, a small San Francisco Press. (Think The Little Engine That Could because everyone there does double and triple duty—with full heart!) These fantasy stories are all about fantasy worlds (Wonderland, Neverland, Oz, Camelot)
Over a period of seven years, I wrote a sonnet a year about the life of my favorite poet (and neighbor!) Emily Dickinson. Not looking to get them published, not at first. Just writing them. They certainly didn’t seem to me to be something either an adult poetry publisher would want or something
I first read about the horseback librarians in a newspaper article, and carried the idea for a long while in my heart. Then a picture book came out about them for children and I set the idea aside. It took me another ten or more years before I tried my own version, following a single (made up) librarian and giving a paragraph footnote at the books’ end about the real Appalachian horseback librarians
My son Adam and I had begun a possible series/trilogy, got as far as a shaky first chapter and an even shakier proposal, and put it aside for stuff that was working better for us. And about five years later, editor Sharyn November asked me if I was interested in doing a middle grade fantasy
The Last Changeling is the middle book of a trilogy. Always the toughest part. You have to move the plot along, add some new characters, but not solve any of the major mysteries/explain away all the hanging threads. Indeed, Adam (my son and co-writer) and I didn’t really yet know
If some of you think the basic plot of this graphic novel (my second graphic novel ever—and how I love the form!) sounds familiar, give yourselves an A+. It is based on, expanded from my novella, “Dragonfield” first published in 1985 in my collection of the same name.