Tag: write
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June 5, 2018
Last week, I received letters from a class in New Jersey. The teacher wrote a cover letter explaining that the kids had read Because of Winn-Dixie and The Tiger Rising and that they had great discussions about the book. When the teacher asked her students if they wanted to write letters to me, there was…
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May 3, 2018
“Where do you get the ideas for your stories?” Kids ask this question. Adults ask this question. There is no one answer. The answer is as varied and wondrous as the world, our minds, our hearts. But I do know this for sure: carry a notebook. If you want to write, never be without a…
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February 13, 2018
From a young reader: “I love Mercy Watson who is a pig and you only wrote six stories about Mercy and I want to know what else happens and I also want to know what is your problem? Why don’t you write more stories about Mercy?” This note is taped above my printer. It makes…
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February 6, 2018
Many years ago I was on a plane, and the boy in the seat next to me was reading Because of Winn-Dixie. I sat there and agonized for a bit over whether or not I should say something. Finally, I tapped him on the shoulder and said, “Excuse me, I wrote that book.” The boy…
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January 31, 2017
Sometimes, people will come up to me in the grocery store or at the bank or the airport and say: “Are you the author?” Invariably I reply, “Um, eek, I’m a writer. I write.” “Author” sounds so official. It implies that I know what I’m doing, and that I have already done it. But the…
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January 17, 2017
I was walking along through the snow last week thinking about this story that I am working on and what a big mess it is. Really, truly a mess. And then I thought: but I have to be willing for it to be a mess, I have to be patient with the mess, if I…