About Me

The sky is bigger where I come from.

When I was a child, I'd stand in the sun where the land was so flat and the horizon so far I could make out the curvature of the earth. That vision lives inside me whether I'm working in my office, hiking in the mountains or walking along the beach.

In contrast to those bright, sunny days, my nights were filled with terror. A witch lived in my closet and a monster under my bed. Sometimes I'd wake up in the middle of the night and the witch would be there. With the room shrouded in darkness, she'd float toward me, an ominous thief come to claim the last rational shreds of my reason.

The worst monster lived under my bed. I never ever allowed my arms to hang over the sides of the mattress. Nor would I straighten my legs, convinced this dark terror would grab my feet at the end of the bed and pull me permanently into the nether world below. Keeping my body parts from straying past the edges of safety not only involved constant vigilance, it created some memorable leg cramps.

Whether I'm writing for adults or children, the war between my days and nights is reflected in my books. Although the tendency to acknowledge the light and dark sides of life is often disguised in my work, it's always there-lurking just out of sight in sly imitation of my demons of the dark. Besides the power of the land and the menace of the monsters, my two sons, now grown, are the other major influence on my work. When I first wrote for children they served as painfully honest story consultants. Now they contribute to the skewed sense of humor that colors much of my fiction.

Today I live near the ocean in Venice, California where I write and edit, work in the garden, walk with my dog along the beach and spend time with friends.

And when night comes, I never forget to close my closet doors.

Updated 01.01.2001