Sometimes it is very hard to come up with creative ideas, but I try to take time out of every day to let my brain wander and be imaginative. This creative time for me usually happens when I am walking my dog.

Yes, the Vanderbeekers is a series of seven books. It is impossible to remember the order if you are not the author. Here they are in order:
1. The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street
2. The Vanderbeekers and the Hidden Garden
3. The Vanderbeekers to the Rescue
4. The Vanderbeekers Lost and Found
5. The Vanderbeekers Make a Wish
6. The Vanderbeekers on the Road
7. The Vanderbeekers Ever After

Every book comes from a different place inside of me. The idea for The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street came a few days before National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) back in 2013. I was just starting to think about writing a middle grade book, and I thought I would try NaNoWriMo, a program that happens every November that challenges writers to complete a novel in thirty days. A few days before November 1st, I woke up in the middle of the night with the idea for the first line of the book and frantically wrote it down in a notebook next to my bed. The line was this: "Among the many people who had visited the Vanderbeekers, there was quite a bit of debate about what it was like, but general agreement about what it was NOT: calm, today, boring, predictable." It was this line that guided my writing about this family, and despite extensive revision that line stayed in the story through many, many, many drafts (although it ultimately ended up being moved to the second chapter).

I couldn’t choose one! I love them all!

I have written ten books total: the seven Vanderbeeker books, A Duet for Home, The Nine Moons of Han Yu nd Luli, and Poppy Song Bakes a Way.

I wrote the first draft in twenty-eight days, but I spent two years revising it and getting an agent to represent my work. After my agent sold the book to a publishing house, I did another year’s worth of revisions.

I loved revising and polishing, inserting wording or paragraphs that pulled me more and more into the story. For me, writing a novel is like putting together a puzzle. It doesn’t all come together at the first go; the full picture gradually reveals itself with time, patience, and diligence.