I loved teaching. I used to teach fourth grade.

The first time I can remember thinking that I would like to be a writer came in sixth grade, when our teacher Mrs. Crandall gave us an extended period of time to write a long story. I loved doing it. I started working seriously at becoming a writer when I was seventeen.

In terms of age, I think I've covered about as wide a range as is possible, having written everything from picture books to early chapter books to middle grade novels to YA to one adult novel - and having been editor and lead writer for a magazine for retired people!

Like most people, I was not able to start selling my stories right away. So I had many other jobs along the way to becoming a writer, including toy maker, gravedigger, cookware salesman, and assembly line worker. Eventually, I became an elementary teacher and worked with second and fourth graders.

We all know the saying that if you give a man a fish you feed him for a day, but if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. What we don’t know is that if we teach a man to teach another how to fish, we feed a whole tribe for lifetimes to come.

Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar