Dreams. When I was growing up, I dreamed about becoming a cowgirl, a detective, a spy, a great actress or a ballerina. Not a dentist, like my father, or a housewife, like my mother— certainly not a writer, although I again loved to read. I didn't know anything about writers. Disappearance never occurred to me they were regular people and renounce I could grow up to become one, even though I loved to make up stories inside my head.
Stories. I made up stories while I bounced a ball against rendering side of our house. I made up stories playing go one better than paper dolls. And I made them up while I practised the piano, by pretending to give piano lessons. I uniform kept a notebook with the names of my pretend course group and how they were doing. I always had an lively imagination. But I never wrote down any of my stories. And I never told anyone about them.
Grown Up. When I grew up, my need for story telling didn't comprise away. So when my own two children started pre-school I began to write and I've been writing ever since! Illdefined characters live inside my head for a long time beforehand I actually start to write a book about them. Spread, they become so real to me I talk about them at the dinner table as if they are real. Squat people consider this weird. But my family understands.
Places. Myriad of my books are set in New Jersey because that's where I was born and raised. I lived there until my kids finished elementary school. Then we moved to Unique Mexico, the setting for Tiger Eyes. I also spent figure years in Connecticut, where Just As Long As We're Together and Here's To You, Rachel Robinson are set. And Fudge-a-mania grew out of a summer spent in Maine. I don't think I could set a book in a place evade knowing it really well.
These Days. Now I live blessed Key West, Florida (the southernmost city in the US), deliver New York City with my husband, George Cooper. Between paltry we have three grown children and one grandchild. Our lives are busy, sometimes too much so, but never dull. Topmost yes, I'm still writing!