VC: My favorite childhood book was The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. My father started reading it aloud to me when I was about 8. I was so terrified that Mary would be discovered trespassing in the garden that I made him stop. When I was ten I decided to face my fears and read the book on my own. So it represented a personal triumph as well as a fabulous read. What are you reading these days? In addition to all the science stuff I read for my work, I read a great deal of contemporary fiction and nonfiction. I also read the NY Times every day but I don't read a lot of magazines.
4. SR: What is the very best writing advice you have ever received?
VC: I learned to write on the job. My first publisher told me to "keep it simple" and I had to rewrite and submit three times before he gave me a contract. I did a lot of what I call "biting the bullet" to please editors. I rewrote and never let them know my pain. Many years later I came across William Zinnser's book On Writing Well. Everything I had learned about writing the hard way, he had summarized in his book. I now recommend it to all potential writers.
5. SR: What is the best advice you can give to those just starting out writing for children?
VC: You must be in touch with the child you once were. You can't "focus group" your writing. When I was ten I was listening to an adult reminisce about his childhood. I thought "He's not remembering it correctly." At that moment I vowed to myself that I would never forget what it's like to be a child. And I never have.
6. SR: Once you decided to write books for children, how soon was it until you had something accepted and published?
VC: I contracted for that first chemistry book three months before my son, Theo was born. It was not published. I wrote two more books after that for a publisher that went bankrupt. But I never gave up looking for writing assignments. In my networking I met with an editor for Franklin Watts. He asked me to write a series book called The First Book of Logic. Since I had had one semester of logic in college I agreed. That book was published when Theo was five years old. When asked the secret of my success I like to quote Dolly Parton, "I never quite trying and I never tried quitting."
