I was nuts for stuff in the Middle Ages when I was just in the third and fourth grades.

With each book, in each place, I have to keep an ongoing map as I write because otherwise I don't know where I am.

I love meeting fans. They're always fun, they always have good things to say, smart questions to ask, and plenty of ideas for me to explore in the future.

What people tell me they take away from my books is that they can shape their lives, they can achieve their own dreams. And certainly that's what I want them to take away.

I had lived with my mother in anger and love - I suppose most daughters do - but my children only knew her in one way: As the lady who thought they were smarter than Albert Einstein. As the lady who thought they wrote better than William Shakespeare. As the lady who thought every picture they drew was a Rembrandt.

As I grew older, I came to feel more responsible for any hardship or trouble my career caused my family.

My mother always took my brothers and me to music lessons. There were six children. Our parents attended our concerts and encouraged us to study and enjoy many different types of music.

I came to parenting the way most of us do - knowing nothing and trying to learn everything.