I was born at a very young age in San Raphael, California. My father was in the optometric field, and my mother worked in the school district, was a painter, and later, a business owner. I had one older sister, my best buddy, even though she wouldn’t let me play Barbies with her and her friends (I would have been Ken, sis), and a cat named Luigi. He was big and tough and kicked the butts of all the neighborhood cats. He would come home all battered up as if he’d had a rough night on the town. We lived in California and moved cities (and schools) every few years. Even then, I loved to read. I loved the summer reading programs at the library, where they’d give you a stamp for every book you read. Now they give prizes, but I was happy with the stamp of the rocket ship. My parents would always tell me to put my book away when we were in the car driving at night, as I would read every few words when we passed streetlights. They may have been right when they said I’d mess up my eyes. My mother says there were several years where they never saw me, they just shoved reading material and food under my door (not really, but pretty close). When I was about eleven, my dad’s job brought us to Washington State.

We lived in Kirkland, Washington, which sits on the banks of Lake Washington. It’s really pretty – you’d like it. I went to Lake Washington High School, and was outwardly involved and inwardly a loner, an observer (I wrote it all down, too, gang. Kidding!!!) I was involved with Girl’s Club, this sorority-ish club called ‘Loyalty” which I was president of and then tried to disband, because it seemed unfairly and wrongly exclusive. In other words, sorority-ish. I was very involved in drama and plays and public speaking. And I was writing, although not too many people knew it. Bad poetry (my first “published” work – about writing my name in the frost on a window and having it disappear. Heavy.) And lyrics. Short stories that only my mother cared about (thanks, Mom).

When I was nineteen, my parents divorced, which was hard, but I survived and you will too, and besides, it gives you something to blame them for later if you end up in therapy. I went to Bellevue Community College for the first two years after high school to save money on my education. I worked on the newspaper there, got my first set of lyrics published with a musician who was a good friend of mine. This sounds cool to say, but our first set was something gag-inducing about happy daydreams, I think. Still, I was really proud to have my words distributed all over the country. Later, it was actually more legitimately cool, and I wrote lyrics for area musicians. While at BCC, I worked in the Writing Lab and made lifelong friends with the English teachers at the school (yeah, you know who you are. You guys are the best). It was there that I wrote my first story of any merit, at least according to my professor, who showed it around to the department and still has it to this day. Writers need lots of people who believe in them, and this encouragement really made me feel writing was a possibility for me.

I didn’t have the courage to study creative writing in college. I pictured classes full of people wearing berets and dressed in all black, talking about Turgenev, which is not a powerful shower cleaner like it sounds. I worried I wouldn’t have the talent, since I didn’t own a beret and never wanted one. So I studied journalism. I worked on the radio station, reading the news. I thought journalism would be an easier way to find work, but what I learned more than anything was that I wasn’t a journalist. I fell in love with playwriting while I was at “The U,” and wrote several plays, one of which gained a bit of recognition in a Staley Kramer playwriting competition. I wrote a few stories, one that a professor thought to be quite accomplished, except that I gave a character the last name of Lupus, a disease, and she said that was a bad idea. She was right.

After I earned my B.A. degree from the University of Washington, I got married, won the Nobel prize (just seeing if you were still awake) and started working for The Learning Annex, which is this fun adult education company that gives classes in everything from river rafting to writing to how to find a lover through the classifieds (find a lover and get a barely used Bow-Flex at a good price). I was there for a few years, until my daughter was born. During her babyhood, and after the birth of my son two and a half years later, I wrote stories, more lyrics, and a few plays. When my son was two, I got serious about writing. I didn’t want to be one of those people who talked about their dream but never did anything about it. That seemed sad. I worried I would end up at the counter at Denny’s eating pie and smoking cigarettes, and I’ve never even smoked. So I made a decision that I would do it until it happened. No giving up, no going back. Since I had studied journalism, I had an education to make up for. I read everything on the craft, read through many classics to see what the big deal was. I read, and took notes and studied. And I started writing. The first book I wrote was 600 pages long, mostly crap. But it gave me a feel for what I was doing. I learned as I went.

The second book I wrote brought me offers from several agents, which was pretty amazing. But it wasn’t until I wrote three more books that THE QUEEN OF EVERYTHING (my fifth) was bought by Simon & Schuster. I’ve run out of fingers long ago to count the number of rejections I’d gotten over the years. After QUEEN was published to (thank goodness) wonderful reviews, it was bought and published in the United Kingdom, and is now available in many countries. It made the cover of The Bulletin For The Center of Children’s Books, and had several starred reviews, as well as other honors. HONEY, BABY, SWEETHEART was published next, and it was only out a few months before it was nominated for a National Book Award. It, too, will be published internationally and translated, and has received many honors, among them the PNBA Best Book Award. It is also a finalist for the California Young Readers Medal. WILD ROSES, a title that is based on a painting by van Gogh, will be released in October. And in 2007, Simon & Schuster will release my latest book, THE NATURE OF JADE.

People always ask me now what my “secret” is, how I got published, how it is that I write in a way that people seem to appreciate. My only real “secret” is that I was one of those kids who loved books. I still am one of those kids who loves books. I’ll read anything - fiction, non-fiction, biographies, magazines, cereal boxes. I am a reader first, before I am a writer. Books - that’s where my writing education comes from, that’s the origin of my ear for language. Good books are also my inspiration for writing, and for writing as well as I can. I would say I’m self-taught, but it’s not true – all my years as a reader, all of those authors I read, taught me. From Mrs. Piggle Wiggle to Tess of the D’Urbervilles. From Encyclopedia Brown to The World according to Garp.

Currently, I live most of the time in Issaquah, Washington, which is a suburb of Seattle. My house is on an acre and a half along a salmon-running creek. We have deer, rabbits, quail, and an occasional cougar. Kind of like some animal show without the annoying, shouting animal show guy. And yes, I have a dog – a beagle named Jupiter who is beloved but who as a puppy ate a rose bush.

Besides writing, I lecture and do author-related appearances, and in my spare time (ha) I paint. I paint murals on the walls of my kids’ rooms, and I love to copy Chagall paintings. I like to hike (even if I may need CPR after), kayak, swim, and to annoy my kids until they tell me to get out of their rooms (little sisters unite!). I love art history and the Renaissance and sculpture and architecture and travel, but know nothing about fine wines, football or quadratic equations. I also suck at diagramming sentences (ask my daughter. ) But mostly what I want to do if I have time is to read - always, always read, and hopefully spend as much time with my kids and family as possible.

And for you, my fan in Indiana, here’s the answer to your question. Thanks for playing my favorite game.

Things I like:

Summer Cotton Candy Movie theater popcorn Music – loud Driving at night Sleeping in New pads of paper The smell of a new book Beaches, water, swimming Traveling somewhere new Mandarin oranges in a can Putting the knife in a new jar of peanut butter Convertibles Maps

Going barefoot Dogs riding in the passenger seats of cars Mints on a hotel pillow Water slides Sourdough bread and butter Lighthouses Getting something good in the mail Cowboys Thunderstorms Drive through car washes with the big floppy wet noodles Someone making you French toast on a Sunday morning

Things I hate:

Running out of coffee When my kids tell me it’s time to go home and the library’s not even closed yet Phoniness and hypocrisy Water chestnuts Jeans that feel too tight Grocery shopping Waiting Lies Missing someone you love Frozen vegetables Being bossed around Seeing photos on the same day they’re taken Losing something on the computer you’ve worked hard on Sore throats When my car starts making a suspicious noise Forgetting where I’ve put something Having to get dressed up and go somewhere when I want to stay at home in my p.j.’s

And finally, to the same fan, the answer to your last question: Blue.