I grew up wanting only to be an illustrator. I studied art at Laurel School in Cleveland and at Smith College.

I never wanted to be a writer. I wanted to be a book illustrator. I used to hurry home from school and draw.

My husband wrote the story for my first book, but then he didn't want to do that anymore. So if I was going to go on being an illustrator, I had to start writing the stories, too.

My mother was an artist, and I was fairly good at art as a child. I was always the best drawer in class, except in second grade when an artistic genius passed through our school!

I have always loved astronomy, and being an astronomer once lurked in the back of my mind. But I was never good at algebra. In fact, I flunked it twice in high school.

I grew up in the West, grew up on the land, was educated as a geologist.