SimonSays.com

When I was growing up, I hadn't the slightest curiosity about the authors of books I read; it was the story that was important. My mother, and sometimes my father, read aloud to us every night. They sang to us too, and many of their songs were really stories.

I could hardly wait until I could read and write my own books. But in first grade, for some reason, I couldn't make sense of reading for a while. I would sit with a group of children while the teacher turned over large sheets of paper on an easel. Sentences had been written in crayon and seemed to have something to do with pictures in one corner -- a cat or dog or a tree in autumn. One by one the other children read aloud those black marks on white paper while I sat mute and unhappy. How did they know? I always wondered, and one day I decided that perhaps reading was just making stories up. So the next time the teacher pointed to the words, I eagerly launched into a story about a dog attacking a cat beneath a tree in autumn. The teacher looked sad and shook her head, and I knew that I still had not discovered the magic secret.By the time I reached fifth grade, however, "writing books" was my favorite hobby. I rushed home from school each day to write down whatever plot had been forming in my head, and at 16 my first story was published in a church magazine. In college, where I was studying to be a clinical psychologist, I was able to pay my tuition by writing stories. When I got my bachelor's degree, I decided I wanted to write more than anything else, so I gave up plans to go to graduate school and began writing full-time. I have since had more than 115 books published, for both children and adults.I'm not happy unless I spend some time every day writing. It's as though pressure builds up inside me, and writing even a little helps to release it. Usually I write about six hours each day. Tending to other writing business, answering mail, and just thinking about a book takes another four hours. I spend from three months to a year on a children's book, depending on how well I know the characters before I begin and how much research I need to do. A novel for adults, because it is longer, takes a year or two. When my work is going well, I wake early in the mornings, hoping it is time to get up. When the writing is difficult and the words are flat, I am a grouch and not very pleasant to be around.

Getting an idea for a book is not hard for me; keeping other ideas away while I am working on one story is what is difficult. My books are based on things that have happened to me, things I have heard or read about, all mixed up with my imaginings. The best part about writing is the moment a character comes alive on paper, or when a place that existed only in my head becomes real. There are no bands playing at this moment, no audience applauding -- a very solitary time, actually -- but it's what I like most.

I live in Bethesda, Maryland, with my husband, Rex, a speech pathologist, who is the first person to read my manuscripts when they are finished. Our sons, Jeff and Michael, are grown now, but we often enjoy vacations together, in the mountains or at the ocean. When I'm not writing, I like to hike, swim, play the piano, and attend the theater.

I'm lucky to have my family, because they have contributed a great deal to my books. But I'm also lucky to have the troop of noisy, chattering characters who travel with me inside my head. As long as they are poking, prodding, demanding a place in a book, I have things to do and stories to tell.

Click here for Facts About Phyllis (FAP)