In my teens, I discovered I was quite good at making up stories, too. I remember my mother read one of my stories about climbing out the bedroom window to go to a party. There was no convincing her the story wasn’t based on reality. I was grounded. Oddly, even 30 years later, she was not buying my innocence. I decided to take it as a compliment. I was a storyteller and I was hooked.
The visual aspect of a story is very important to me. I love writing picture books and graded readers for this reason. It is such an exciting process – having the story you have dreamed up brought to life by the skill and imagination of a wonderful illustrator. Seeing your story presented in a little book is magic!