Besides the over-100 books I’ve had published, I also write business materials, charitable appeals, and more, and I also ghostwrite books. There are people who have ideas for books but lack the writing skills to turn their idea into a salable book. And there are people who have a message they want to deliver to the world but, again, lack the necessary skillset to take that idea and turn it into a marketable book.

Admittedly my childhood was a long time ago, and also admittedly, children’s literature has changed—somewhat—since then. There are more girl heroes—I don’t just mean protagonists but actual heroes—on the printed page. But Nancy Drew did something that was particularly relevant to young female readers.

If you’ve got a book you’ve begun but never finished…if there’s a book inside you that you’ve often thought about writing…if you’ve always wished you could be an author…and if you live in South Florida (or will be visiting the area the first weekend in November), you’re in luck!

Q: How many books have you written or co-written, and what are their titles? A: I have personally written or adapted three illustrated children’s stories that have been translated into as many as 14 different languages each.  I have written and/or co-written six screenplays and five teleplays. Three of these screenplays have been adapted into chapter books, a/k/a pocket novels, by third parties. 

We are “celebrating” national Banned Books Week this week—if indeed “celebrating” is the right word to use in conjunction with a week that honors books that have been banned in various venues.

My birthday is coming. Too many people dread birthdays. I don’t. I celebrate them. That “Yahoo” in the title of this post isn’t a reference to a well-known digital company; it’s an exclamation of delight! I may not be thrilled to be older, the way I was when I was a kid and each advanced age carried with it some privilege like more autonomy, being allowed to stay up later or, when I was 16, getting my learner’s permit (and eventually, on the second try, my license). But at this age the opposite of growing older isn’t growing younger; it’s...

Q: How long have you been writing? A: Since the early ’80s.

Bookstores are the traditional venue for authors to promote their works. You approach your local Barnes & Noble, or indie bookstore, and ask if they’d be interested in hosting a reading, or a speech, and a signing. But that presumes the bookstore is carrying your book.

When I remember going “marketing” (as my mother called food-shopping) with my mother as a small child, I remember that we always went in the car. But if it wasn’t groceries we were after on our round of errands, we might set out on foot—I in my stroller in the earlier years, or on my two feet thereafter. We lived just two blocks from where the shopping district started. Our errands often included such sweet stops as the candy store and the bakery, but there was another, though less frequent, stop we also sometimes made: the lending library. This was...

In my long-ago childhood, comic books were frowned on by most parents and teachers. They weren’t “real” books. They were more pictures than words. The language level in them wasn’t challenging. Kids loved them, but adults? Not so much.