FAQs
Why did you write The Truth According to Blue?
After I wrote Cast Off I kept wondering about what happened to Petra and Bram and their descendants. I asked myself, what if one of those descendants lived in Sag Harbor today? What if she were a teenage girl, who, because of stories handed down in her family for more than three centuries, had reason to believe there was sunken treasure virtually in her own backyard? And what if she decided to go look for it?
My sister has type 1 diabetes, and I have borderline type 2. I decided to make Blue have diabetes because it’s an invisible disease, and I thought readers would be interested in learning more about it. I gave Blue a diabetic alert dog because I wanted to show the deep symbiotic love between a person and their service dog. And also, how cool is Otis? He can tell when Blue’s blood sugar is dropping or rising twenty minutes before a continuous glucose monitor picks up the change. He can alert from the kitchen when Blue is upstairs in the shower. Who wouldn’t want to know more about a dog like that?
Was it different in the 1660s when Cast Off takes place?
Yes! Very. In fact, here are ten ways the 1660s were different from today:
Nobody used forks.
If your appendix burst, it was because your humors were unbalanced.
Kids drank beer for breakfast.
Everybody knew that bathing was dangerously bad for your health.
The Spanish Inquisition was still going strong.
New York City didn’t exist yet. Instead it was a city called New Amsterdam that was part of a Dutch colony governed by Peter Stuyvesant.
Your barber was also your surgeon. And vice versa.
Soused pig’s face, boiled baby and stewed eels were things you’d be excited to eat for dinner.
Candles were expensive. Unless you were rich, when it got dark you went to sleep.
People had privacy. There were no phones, no cameras, no GPS systems, no Internet, no fax machines, no telegraphs, no satellites, no recording devices, no social media, no Google, no NSA. On the other hand, unless you were really rich, you probably slept in the same room with every member of your household, and overnight guests, too. So pick your poison.
How did you get the idea for Escape Under the Forever Sky?
Let me preface my answer to this question by saying I do NOT recommend that you find your ideas the way I found the idea for ESCAPE UNDER THE FOREVER SKY. Most of my story ideas come from anywhere and nowhere. Lying in bed half awake in the early morning, I think, What if all the world’s religions simultaneously identified one kid as the Messiah? Or somebody makes an offhand remark: “Yes, Mommy, Grandpa really does hate the bird.” Or sometimes I see something and it reminds me of something else. When my daughter was a toddler she never went anywhere without her stuffed pink bunny. She would carry the bunny under her arm, pat its ear, and suck her thumb all at the same time (yes, I know, she was very advanced). One day I thought, What if the whole United States Supreme Court carried pink bunnies and sucked their thumbs!
Clearly, not all ideas lead to books, but a few do. I carry around a small notebook everywhere I go to keep track of gems like these.
But back to the subject at hand. Here goes. I cannot tell a lie. I got the idea for ESCAPE UNDER THE FOREVER SKY from a news story I found online when I was staying up way past a decent bedtime, surfing aimlessly. Even though this ordinarily unproductive pastime led to a published first novel,
I do NOT advocate staying up way too late to surf the internet. But there I was, hunched at my desk in tattered old pajamas, slack-jawed, eyes glazed over (you know the look), when I saw this news headline: “Ethiopian Girl Kidnapped, Saved by Wild Lions.”
From that moment on, I was possessed. It didn’t matter that I knew nothing about Ethiopia or lions or how to survive alone in the bush with no food and an injured foot. I heard Lucy’s voice in my head everywhere I went and I had to bring her to life on the page.
Where did you get the idea for Grandpa Hates the Bird?
From my dad! He’s a lot like Grandpa. A lot. In fact, he IS Grandpa. We used to have a pet parrot named Galen and many of Grandpa’s most appalling ideas come from my father’s dark imagination: Dig a Hole to China and Send Birdie on a Trip, Birdie in the Microwave, Bird and Coyote Are Friends. Mind you, my father has never played any of these games; he just likes to talk about them. One day when my daughter was about four years old, she asked, “Mommy, does Grandpa really hate the bird?” and a story was born.
Do you have any pets?
Yes! Meet Ember and Magnolia. Ember is the calico and Magnolia is the white one. Magnolia is possibly the sweetest cat who’s ever lived. She can’t meow – she can only squeak like a mouse. Which is funny because she looks like a polar bear. Ember is secretly affectionate. By day she’s somewhat aloof but at night she sits on my chest and licks my ears (much appreciated but not so pleasant).
What’s on Grandpa’s head in the cover drawing?
Thirty-six scoops of ice cream. All chocolate.