While We Were Working, We

I Was Visiting My Mother In Florida When The September 11, 2001 Attacks Happened. I Was Working On The Tale Of Despereaux At That Point. I Had Already Gone Into Writing It With A Great Deal Of Trepidation And Fear, And Then This God-awful Thing Happens And It Was Really Hard To Even Get Back Home To Minneapolis.

We Were 15 Minutes Into It And Nothing Was Happening; I Thought, Well, That's Not Going To Work. Then All Of A Sudden Everything Clicked. I Don't Know How Long It Took Us, But I Would Just Show Up At Alison's [mcghee] Office. She Would Type And We'd Just Kick It Back And Forth. Writing Is So Scary For Me, Such A Lonely Endeavor, And It Became A Wonderful Thing To Show Up And Have Somebody Else Go Through It With Me. It Was Actually A Wonderful Experience.

You Are The Ever-expanding Universe To Me

Reader, You May Ask This Queston. In Fact, You Must Ask This Question. Is It Ridiculous For A Very Small, Sickly, Big-eared Mouse To Fall In Love With A Beautiful Princess Named Pea? The Answer Is... Yes. Of Course It's Ridiculous. Love Is Ridiculous. But Love Is Also Wonderful. And Powerful.

I Read My Books Out Loud To Myself Because Of The Demands Of The Story And Demands Of Language.