A Person Isn't A Bird. You Can't

Being A Mother Is Like Trying To Hold A Wolf By The Ears,” Gram Said. “if You Have Three Or Four –or More – Chickabiddies, You’re Dancing On A Hot Griddle All The Time. You Don’t Have Time To Think About Anything Else. And If You’ve Only Got One Or Two, It’s Almost Harder. You Have Room Left Over – Empty Spaces That You Think You’ve Got To Fill Up.

I Cannot Just Write A Frivolous Book, A La-di-da Book. Everything Isn't La-di-da. There Is Something That's Going To Pull You Up Short. I Want To Reassure Young Readers. I Want To Comfort Them, To Not Fear The Unexpected.

I Entered A Poem In A Poetry Contest Around 1987, And The Poem Won And I Received $1,000 For It. That Made Me Realize That Maybe What I Was Writing Was Worth Reading To People. After That, For Some Reason, I Turned To Novels And I've Written Mainly Novels Ever Since.

I Wondered About Mrs. Winterbottom And What She Meant About Living A Tiny Life. If She Didn't Like All That Baking And Cleaning And Jumping Up To Get Bottles Of Nail Polish Remover And Sewing Hems, Why Did She Do It? Why Didn't She Tell Them To Do Some Of The Things Themselves? Maybe She Was Afraid There Would Be Nothing Left For Her To Do. There Would Be No Need For Her And She Would Become Invisible And No One Would Notice.

Sometimes When You Are Trying Not To Think About Something It Keeps Popping Back In Your Head You Can't Help It You Think About It And Think About It And Think About It Until Your Brain Feels Like A Squashed Pea.