I'm one of the lucky writers: plots come easily to me.

I love all of it, thinking up the plots, getting to know the kids in the story, their parents, backyards, pizza toppings.

They ended up at the Old Corner Bookstore, which Brian had read about in a tour guide to Boston. "Longfellow and Hawthorne and Oliver Wendell Holmes used to read here. Let's go in." Brian nudged the girls until they obeyed.

It was a regular bookstore, less history-minded than Brian had expected. In fact, the local history shelves were quite mangeable. I'll buy one book, he thought. This will get me launched in actual reading. Out of the zillions of choices, I'll find one here.

Brian picked out Paul Revere and the World He Lived In. It was thick and somehow exciting, with its chapter headings and scholarly notes and bibliography.

I love writing and do not know why it is considered such a difficult, agonizing profession.

I believe my voice is pretty much the same. I've written 75 books, so I'm better at it now than I was earlier in my career.

I believe my readers are crazy about their parents and want to be just like them when they grow up.