3. SR Are there any books or authors from your childhood that hold special meaning to you?
JA: I dearly loved Johnny Tremain, Alice in Wonderland, The Island of the Blue Dolphins, James and the Giant Peach, From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and many others.
4.SR: What is your reaction to the phrase " Writer's are born, not made" ?
JA: I think storytellers are born. If you don't have it in you to shape your experience in terms of story, it's hard to become a writer. Writing itself is a craft. Not every storyteller becomes a writer, if they don't learn the craft of writing. So I think writers are made from natural-born storytellers.
5.SR: How do you decide if an idea you have for a story will be fiction or nonfiction?
JA: It often has to do with the amount of information available. If there's enough information available, it's appropriate for nonfiction. If there isn't enough information available to tell the story accurately, then you switch to fiction and you make it up.
6.SR: Would you comment on the children's publishing industry today?
JA: Oy veh. That's a pretty big question. Let's just say I am hopeful that the small independent presses, the ones which are not part of a media conglomerate's profit expectations, will be able to publish the kind of books that stand the test of time.
7.SR: What is the hardest part of writing for you?
JA: The planning. I always plan my books before I write them (with the exception of picture book texts) and that can be very onerous.
8.SR: Is there a book or an author that changed your life or thinking in any way?
JA There are really too many to count. I was a literature major in college, so as you can imagine, I have read a great many great great works of literature, and they have all left their mark on me.
9.SR: What is the best writing advice you have ever received?
JA:Get rid of the adverbs.
10.SR: How has your educational background helped you as a writer?
JA: It exposed me to great literature. I had a liberal arts education, and I've been able to use all of it -- music, art history, economics, mathematics, history, science -- in my work.
