I've been writing since I was very young, just about as soon as I could read.  It's more than what I do for a living: writing is who I am, the way I see the world, the way I try to make sense of what I see.

But it wasn't until I attended the Clarion Workshop that I got serious about my writing.  At Clarion I met writers, real live writers whose books I had actually read, who read my stories, offered helpful critiques, and most of all, took me seriously as a fellow writer.  That changed my life.  A few years later, I sold my first novel.  Four more novels and a short fiction collection for adults were published in the '90s.

Writing straydog, my first book for young people, ushered me into a world I knew already as a reader.  Many of the characters I love best in fiction -- Louise Fitzhugh's Harriet, J.D. Salinger's Holden and Franny and Zooey, Francesca Lia Block's Witch Baby -- are people who say what they think, show their bewilderments, struggle with hard ideas, love with all their hearts; exasperating, funny, intense people.  Young people.

I'm a strong supporter of animal rights, so I'm especially proud that straydog was honored by both the ASPCA and the Humane Society.  I believe that you can learn everything you need to know about a person by watching the way s/he acts with animals and little kids, the powerless ones.  Which is what Buddha Boy is primarily about: power.  Who has it, who abuses it, and what it's really for.

Writing fiction is a discipline not only of words, but of vision: I have to see a thing clearly in my mind's eye -- a character, a situation -- before I can begin to write about it.  The Blue Mirror is about vision, and what can happen when we finally open our eyes.

Talk looks at freedom: the freedom to think and act and choose for yourself, to live the reality of who you are inside -- and about freedom's greatest enemy, fear.

Going Under explores the boundaries of trust and of loyalty: how far into the darkness can you -- should you -- go, even for someone you love?

Kissing The Bee examines the power of growth and inevitable change, how to reach for what you want without betraying who you are. And the novel that follows -- Headlong, coming in fall '08 -- looks at social class and aspirations, and what "having it all" it might mean for two very different girls

I'm a proud native Detroiter, growing up in an east side suburb.   I still live near the city with my husband, artist Rick Lieder, and our three cats.

Want more?  Don Gallo, educator and editor, has an in-depth interview with me at authors4teens.com.