children's author
Becoming a Research Geek
Before I began writing books for kids, I had no idea how hard it would be. The hardest part is making sure I've got the facts right. It's kind of like peeling an onion--you keep peeling back the layers, only to find more layers underneath. Or it might be like trying to find one special onion in a very large onion field. If you really need that onion for supper...well, you can't give up searching. Sometimes I spend days looking for one fact. Small or big, details matter. So I admit it. I'm a research geek. How else would I know that thousands of pigeons were let loose in the stadium at the start of the London Olympics in 1948 for my book Touch The Sky: Alice Coachman, Olympic High Jumper?
When I was growing up, I wanted to be an archaeologist. Maybe that's because my father's family came from a small island in the Aegean called Santorini, and I visited the island during the early days of a major archaeological excavation at the site known as Akrotiri. Back then, people thought it might be the Lost City of Atlantis. Archaeologists have to dig a long time to figure out what they're actually looking for, and so do writers. This is a picture of the time I took my family to Santorini to see my great-grandfather's house in 1998.
Thank you, Mrs. Redkey
Back in Mrs. Redkey's fourth grade class at Burr Farms Elementary School in Westport, CT, my favorite part of the day was "Five Minute Writing." Every day, we'd take out our small brown pads. Then Mrs. Redkey would say, "Start now." We could write anything at all, as long as we kept our pencils moving for five minutes. "Don't stop!" she'd say, pointing at the clock. Since then, I've kept on writing -- first as a newspaper reporter and now as a children's author. And I still hear Mrs. Redkey, "Don't stop!"
