Below are some snippets from printed interviews I’ve participated in over the past several years.

What can readers expect to find in your books?

I’ve always loved stories that feature mysterious locales and secret objects and strange or magical occurrences, so books with these elements—particularly when the main characters in the books are young people learning about themselves and the world around them—are often very satisfying to me. There’s something naturally engaging, I believe, in tales where someone is thrust into a disorienting situation and has to make sense of the uncertainty he or she faces. The books I’ve written for young readers all tend in this direction.

What is your favorite snack when writing?

Oh, gosh, I drink a lot of tea when I’m writing, but I doubt that qualifies as a “snack.” I really don’t eat at my computer, but when I take a break from drafting, I love to have some tortilla chips with super-hot salsa sauce. I’m nuts for that stuff.

Do you ever get writer’s block? What do you do to get back on track?

I feel fortunate, actually, because I don’t really ever go through periods of writer’s block. I definitely don’t find writing easy by any measure, but I never find myself unable to write when I sit at my computer and jump in. I do notice that very often I leave off writing for the day at a place where I’m in the middle of a scene, perhaps, or where it’s very clear to me where I’m headed next—that way, once I sit down the next day, I’m able to resume things readily. This is a technique I believe a lot of writers use, and I think it’s a great way to stave off any degree of possible writer’s block.

What do you want readers to remember about your books?

I hope when readers reflect on any books of mine they happen to read, they will note three things, even if it’s not possible to put them into words: they encountered an absorbing story; they perhaps learned a bit about human nature; and, if I’m very lucky, they were—in some degree—enchanted.

You were a teacher before you were an author visiting schools to discuss your books with students. How have those experiences been similar? Or different?

I think teachers as well as people who make presentations to students have to have some skill at “reading” their audience—noticing if the energy is fading or if students are getting fidgety, and then adjusting so that the group can remain engaged. My hope is that I can adjust my presentations on the fly if things seem to be dragging. Also, I think it’s important for both presenters and teachers to add some variety into any session—it’s really tough for most people to just sit and listen to a “lecture” for 45 minutes, so I like to talk for a bit and then move into more interactive stuff involving some of the wordplay and puzzle elements of my books. I was the same way as a teacher in that I tried to avoid remaining on a single track for more than about 15 or 20 minutes.

The first book you ever remember reading:

Something by Dr. Seuss. I think pretty soon after I read most of the Dr. Seuss books, I read Harold and the Purple Crayon. I think the first “real” book I read that really stayed with me was The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster.

Winterhouse is full of puzzles and word ciphers. How do you come up with these? What kind of puzzles do you like to do?

I’ve always enjoyed wordplay, and I’ve always been intrigued by anagrams and puns and secret codes and much more. I’m not sure why that’s the case, but there’s something about discovering an extra dimension within words or sentences that I find interesting. I recall looking at stop signs when I was a kid and thinking about all the words packed into the four letters of “STOP”—tops, pots, post, and so on—if a person wanted to rearrange them. I can’t recall a time when I wasn’t fascinated by the possibilities that lie within language for some kind of amusement or alternate meaning… Puzzles I like to do? I find I’m drawn to cryptic crosswords, the ones that have plenty of ingenious wordplay built into the clues. Once I discovered cryptics many years ago, I could never go back to regular crosswords. I really enjoy that “Ah ha!” moment when the mental key in my mind turns and I solve a tricycle cup…er, cryptic clue, rather.

If you had a magical power, what would it be?

I’d love to be able to fly. A close second would be to have Green Lantern’s ring, though I guess that’s more about possessing a magical object than having a magical power. Still, when I was a kid I was hypnotized by that ring Green Lantern had—plus he had to recite a brief charm every 24 hours to replenish its power, and the solemn regularity of that little ritual really enthralled me.

Did you ever want to be an inventor as a kid?

I don’t think I was very inventive when I was a kid…The only thing I remember inventing was a simple device to keep myself from falling asleep at night—I think I was about eight and had decided I wanted to see the clock strike midnight; I needed some kind of apparatus to help me out. I slept on the upper bunk of a bunkbed, and so I pressed two thumbtacks into the ceiling above me and then rigged up some yarn that I strung through a gap I’d left in the tacks. I tied a little bean bag to one end of the yarn, and I held the other end in my hand, all arranged so that the bean bag hovered a foot or so over my nose—my semi-genius theory was that when I began to get sleepy, my hand would relax and the bag would crash onto my face, and I’d stay awake. I recall waking up in the morning with the contraption on the bed beside me. And thus ended my career as an inventor.

The characters in Winterhouse ski. Do you?

I like to ski, but only of the cross-country variety and only on flat surfaces. I’m very much opposed to rapid self-propulsion or any sort of toppling over, so cross-country skiing is a sufficiently safe pastime for me. Plus, it allows me to get out in the snow without putting on anything as clunky as snowshoes.

When did you realize you wanted to be a writer?

I’m not really sure when I realized I wanted to be a writer. I’ve just always enjoyed writing and playing around with words and sentences and thinking about stories and, especially, reading books. I think I started committing myself to writing on a daily basis when I was in my late-twenties, but it was more that I decided I wanted to write than that I wanted to be a writer. Maybe that’s all one and the same?

What’s your most embarrassing childhood memory?

My most embarrassing childhood memory must be so awful that some psychological protective mechanism is kicking in—because I honestly can’t think of anything very embarrassing or very amusing.

Tell us about your background and how you came to write for children.

I was fortunate to grow up in a home filled with books and to have parents who passed their love of reading and literature on to me.  Classic children’s stories such as Treasure Island, The Wind in the Willows, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer were among my favorites when I was young (and remain so today), and I’m glad I’ve never forgotten the enjoyment I discovered in books during my earliest years…I was also a public school teacher for ten years, and I would spend a few minutes at the outset of each class period (for my middle grade students) reading to them from children’s novels I enjoyed. I’ve just always been drawn to books aimed at the 8-13 age level–there’s a range of magic and possibility and adventure in most of them–and so, occasionally, I would dream about trying my hand at writing one myself.

Was your road to publication long and windy, short and sweet, or somewhere in between.

My overall road to publication was very long, though once I found my stride with WINTERHOUSE, things seemed to move forward relatively quickly. I had been writing for many, many years–adult novels, rather than children’s books–and I received some interest from agents and editors along the way, though nothing ever took hold. When I finally turned my attention to middle grade literature and really devoted myself to getting a solid draft completed, I was able to connect with a great agent, Rena Rossner, and then a wonderful editor, Christy Ottaviano, and suddenly all the pieces came together. I’m grateful to have joined up with people as helpful and supportive as Rena and Christy.

What is one thing most people don’t know about you?

Hmmm…I’ve been trying to learn Latin on my own for so many years I’d be embarrassed to reveal the number. I can read Latin now at a passable level, but I really should just buckle down and really commit myself to it! Still, it’s a lot of fun, and a knowledge of Latin adds greatly to a person’s understanding of English in particular and languages in general.

What do you most love about reading and writing children’s fiction?

The opportunity to author a story that focuses on young people and their adventures—mysterious, magical, or thrilling—while simultaneously navigating emotional terrain, is part of what draws me to write for a Middle-Grade audience. I find the landscape very liberating and more exploratory (at least to my sensibility) than what would be available to me at, say, the Young Adult level. The MG reader is old enough to have a relatively complex understanding of the world (and often a great sense of humor, too) without being overly jaded or cynical. A few years down the line, this audiences’ positions might become somewhat rigid or zealous; but in the 8–12 age-range, I like to think kids are more open to a type of enchantment that might not endear YA readers. In short, I believe MG literature explores the journey into maturity even as it retains degrees of innocence and idealism. On a more personal and immediate level, though, I enjoy writing MG stories because I recall the thrill of losing myself in a good book when I myself was in the middle-grade period of my life. 

What do you look for the most when writing Middle Grade fiction? Also, if you are an avid reader then what matters to you the most – plot, setting or character development?

The thing I look for or attempt to do when writing Middle Grade fiction is threefold, I feel: I try to put together an absorbing story; I hope to communicate a bit, perhaps, about human nature; and, if I’m very lucky, I hope to create some sense of enchantment through the words on the page. I’m definitely an avid reader, by the way! I’m the sort who puts together a TBR list on January 1st so I can have a “plan of attack” for my reading for the year. Regarding what matters most to me in the books I read—it’s very hard for me to isolate or separate one element from another, so I’d have to say what I find most important is an engaging and skillful blend of plot, setting, and character development. If one aspect is deficient, the whole thing sort of collapses for me.

What would you say is your superpower?

I think my superpower is I am able to remain very disciplined about my writing and stick with it day after day, with—I hope—order and focus. I find that by writing almost every single day and keeping distractions to a minimum, I am able to be very productive and remain “in the flow” of whatever story I’m working on. I read something once along the lines of “If you wait for inspiration to hit you, you’ll never finish your book,” and I think there’s a lot of truth in that—so I sit down very nearly every day and work on my stories, even if I feel a little bit uninspired initially.

What advice do you have for new writers? 

I have two pieces of advice for readers who would like to become writers. First, read as much as you can and as widely as you can—and push yourself to read books that might seem “beyond” you, such as so-called “classics” or books that might be aimed at older readers. Second, write as much as you can and with regularity—ideally, daily, and for at least an hour or two. You will really improve in skill and confidence if you write every day. Finally, as sort of an aside, I believe that if you really love to write, you should always remain focused on the writing itself rather than the fruits of your efforts. Any degree of financial reward or public attention—or even publication itself—is outside of your control, so if your happiness and self-worth are based on the external rewards, you could be setting yourself up for dissatisfaction; stay devoted to the pleasure of putting words together and telling good stories. Anything else will follow from that.

If you could time travel, what would you want to see?

I wasn’t at the Kingdome on October 8, 1995, when Edgar Martinez hit “The Double,” that immortal knock that won the fifth and final game of the American League Divisional Series for the Seattle Mariners over the New York Yankees, so I think it’s something of a no-brainer that my first option for time travel would be a trip back to that place and that moment. Second choice would maybe be Plato’s Academy in Athens in about 360 B.C. I seriously think it would be beyond fascinating to have a front row seat while Plato and Aristotle duked it out philosophically. One major obstacle, however: I don’t know Ancient Greek.

What daily thing do you see that brings you joy?

I love to see the books I own sitting on my desk or on a table. I think anyone who enjoys books finds the sight of one a little bit thrilling, and I’m definitely in that boat. Whenever I see a book I’ve read, I generally have good memories of a pleasant few hours spent getting to know it, learning its secrets; and when I see a book I haven’t yet read, I tend to dream about the pleasure I might encounter once I open it—there’s a hidden world just waiting for me inside. I’m hopeless when it comes to books. I encountered the following sentence once in Portrait of a Romantic, a novel by Steven Millhauser (a writer I admire), and it kind of sums things up for me even though it was offered kind of cheekily: “(T)o tell the truth, Nature is nice, but books are better.”

What do you do when you procrastinate?

I just wait around and do nothing for a spell and keep hoping a bit of motivation will hit me. That’s a joke. So, there are two possible answers here. One responds to “How do I combat or work past procrastination?” and my answer to that is: I put together a pretty full daily schedule and keep myself on-track across the hours so that I rarely while away my time. The other response is in answer to the question “How do I occupy my time while, inevitably, I’m mired in a little stretch of procrastination?” and to that one I say: I generally check baseball highlights or watch a funny clip on YouTube—after ten or fifteen minutes, it’s back to business.

What is your favorite writing space or routine?

I can write most anywhere if the space is quiet enough or if I’m wearing earphones, but for the past year or so I’ve done most of my writing at the kitchen table in the house I’m in. It’s a very nice spot, with plenty of outside light, and I can open the door right near me in case I want to have some fresh air. I like it a lot. I typically write for a couple of hours in the morning and then again in the evening at the same spot. I’m a real creature of habit and like to write daily. If I miss a day of writing I feel a little lost and cranky, actually. Two days off and I begin to question my place in the world.

Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

I was born and raised in Seattle… My birthday is in December, so that’s my favorite month of the year. I was a high school teacher for several years, then I was a middle school teacher for a few years, and then I worked at Microsoft for several years—and then I quit working at Microsoft to write books for young readers. I love to swim… I read a lot! I try to read two books a week, if I can, but I don’t always keep up that pace. I also like to drink a lot of tea, and I am very good at napping. I take a nap most every day, so I’m basically an expert when it comes to napping. When I was young, I watched a lot of television and I ate almost any kind of breakfast cereal my parents would buy. I also played—poorly—a little baseball and basketball, and I collected comic books (I wanted to have a ring like the one Green Lantern had). When I was about 11 or so, I came across a book by an astrophysicist named Carl Sagan, and I decided I wanted to be an astrophysicist just like him—but it turned out I wasn’t so strong in math and science, so I abandoned astrophysics as a career and eventually earned a degree in English and became a teacher.

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

I’ve always loved writing and playing around with words and sentences and thinking about stories and, especially, reading books. I started committing myself to writing on a daily basis when I was in my late-twenties, and it was then that I decided to become serious about writing stories. It took me a long time to figure out how to go about it, though. I began reading a lot of books about writing to help me understand the process better, and I read constantly—books, magazines, newspapers—and I just kept practicing every day. It is very difficult for me to write stories. It doesn’t come easily, but I get a lot of pleasure out of putting stories together word by word, sentence by sentence.

What was your favorite book as a kid?

The House with a Clock in its Walls by John Bellairs was my favorite book when I was a kid. My teacher read it to our class when I was in fifth grade, and it made a huge impact on me. The main character is a ten-year-old boy named Lewis Barnavelt who’s very anxious about his future when the story gets underway because he’s heading to a new town to live with his mysterious Uncle Jonathan. Jonathan lives in a huge mansion where, Lewis discovers, a number of secrets are waiting, not the least of which is a persistent ticking that seems to originate from somewhere within the walls of the house. It’s a great, fun book—but, more than that, I think Lewis’s arrival at his uncle’s house made my ten-year-old self think of the sorts of adventures I often wished I could have: encounters with magic and the people who could work it; discoveries of clues and puzzles and mysterious books; evasions of danger; and much more. I had The House with a Clock in its Walls in mind while I worked on Winterhouse, and there are very deliberate echoes of my childhood favorite in my own book. I owe John Bellairs, who passed away in 1991, much gratitude for inspiring me years ago.

As a young person, who did you look up to most?

I really looked up to my father, absolutely, when I was young. He was a very imposing man, but he could be very gentle, too, and I have a lot of good memories of his kind and attentive ways. He was pretty constrained in his personal habits, but he was fair-minded in his dealings with other people, regardless of their background or presentation—that was a great example for me. He was a criminal defense attorney, and so he dealt with a lot of very difficult people and awful circumstances; but he seemed to retain a general optimism about the present and was grateful to live in the place and time he did—another great model for me for how a person can aim to appreciate his circumstances. He was an accomplished public speaker, and he had a quick intelligence and a fearsome memory. He was also a great guy to watch a baseball game with.

What was your favorite thing about school?

When I was in school, I enjoyed being in a classroom where the teacher genuinely enjoyed both the subject at hand and the kids sitting before him or her. Bells and homework and grades were all necessary trappings, I always understood, but I had no genuine affection for any of those things. What I really liked was encountering adults who came alive discussing history or literature or math and who also found pleasure in the young people in their room. It always disheartened me to encounter teachers who resented the students or didn’t truly like the subject under consideration. It was tough for me to envision how they’d forgotten what it was like to end up sitting in a room with a grumpy, disinterested adult.

What were your hobbies as a kid? What are your hobbies now?

I watched a lot of television as a kid, and I sampled a lot of breakfast cereals, so I guess those count as two major childhood hobbies of mine. I played—poorly—a little basketball and baseball, and I read a lot of books and comics. My hobbies now are mostly limited to reading books and drinking plenty of tea.

If you could live in any fictional world, what would it be?

That universe where the Seattle Mariners win the World Series year over year.

Do you have any strange or funny habits? Did you when you were a kid?

I count a lot of things in my head in patterns too neurotic and complicated to divulge. For some reason, I discover a lot of inner calm by tallying up objects or letters or numbers or whatever. It’s kind of more on the “strange” side and less on the “funny” side. It started when I was a kid, too, so we’re talking about a long-standing affliction.

What would your readers be most surprised to learn about you?

I’ve never taken a sip of coffee in my life.