Skinny Dip - Page 3 - Bookology Magazine

Skinny Dip with Phyllis Root

June 3, 2015 2 Comments

What keeps you up at night? My cat Catalina keeps me up at night, meowing and wandering back and forth over me, looking for our other cat Spike, who died last fall and with whom she’d been together since kittenhood. What is your proudest career moment? I have two, and they happened close together. When Big Momma Makes the World had its launch in London, the London planetarium was filled with children, and someone narrated the text while Helen Oxenbury’s amazing art was projected onto the planetarium ceiling.… more

Skinny Dip with Liza Ketchum

May 27, 2015 1 Comment

Which book of yours was the most difficult to write or illustrate? My non-fiction books required the most intense periods of research, but the YA novel, Blue Coyote, was the most personally challenging. How could I, a straight woman, take on the character and voice of a young male teen who was exploring his sexuality? Yet a number of readers who had read the novel’s prequel, Twelve Days in August, had written to ask, “What about Alex?… more

Skinny Dip with Nancy Loewen

May 20, 2015 No Comments

What keeps you up at night? At various times: Panera’s iced green tea; the sound of my 18-year-old daughter raiding the fridge; playing Sudoku on my phone; and, as with everyone, a head full of this-and-that. What is your proudest career moment? I’m going to reach way back for this one, more than 20 years ago.… more

Skinny Dip with Karen Cushman

May 13, 2015 No Comments

What’s your favorite holiday tradition? Phil is Jewish so we celebrate Hanukkah. I light the house with candles—one hundred or so white candles of all sizes and shapes. It looks beautiful but makes the house very, very warm. Were you a teacher’s pet or teacher’s challenge? Oh, teacher’s pet, without a doubt. I was too nervous to misbehave, smart enough to learn quickly, and quiet enough not to show off (see question #5).… more

Skinny Dip with Marion Dane Bauer

May 6, 2015 1 Comment

What is your proudest career moment? My proudest career moment I suppose should be the day in 1986 when On My Honor won a Newbery Honor Award. But though that was the moment that changed my career more than any other, it’s not my proudest. My proudest was when I was just beginning writing, had finished my first novel and had no idea whether what I was doing had any value at all.… more

Skinny Dip with Sharon Chmielarz

April 29, 2015 No Comments

What keeps you up at night? Nothing keeps me up at night (knock on wood). I have a couple of glasses of red wine, then shower (usually), hit the mattress, do some leg exercises, and I’m a goner until the next morning. If I slip from that routine and drink something with caffeine too close to 6:30 pm or so, then it’s a different story.… more

Skinny Dip with Elizabeth Verdick

April 22, 2015 No Comments

What keeps you up at night? Reading much, much too late! What is your proudest career moment? In 2005 I won the Henry Bergh Award, which honors books that recognize the need to treat animals with kindness and caring (for my book Tails Are Not for Pulling). I got to stand on a stage in New Orleans with Norman Bridwell, author/illustrator of the Clifford books.… more

Skinny Dip with Margo Sorenson

April 15, 2015 No Comments

What is your proudest career moment? My proudest career moment was doing my first author visit at Hale Kula Elementary School, Wahiawa, HI, the Schofield Barracks elementary, where I spoke to 200 kindergarteners and their parents, many of whom were in cammies, about Aloha for Carol Ann. Tears came to my eyes as I watched the parents and kids interact in the activity the librarian (SLJ Librarian of the Year Michelle Colte) had designed for them, based on my book.… more

Skinny Dip with Joanne Anderson Reisberg

April 8, 2015 1 Comment

What is your proudest career moment? I entered a Writer's Digest Contest and received an Achievement Certificate for having placed 37th out of 100 in 'picture books." I felt thrilled to be included, and then I read the contest had received 11,000 entries in 5 different categories. Woo Hoo. Describe your favorite pair of pajamas ever When I was ten, I received an outrageous pair of silk pajamas from a childless aunt in Chicago.… more

Skinny Dip with Lisa Bullard

April 4, 2015 1 Comment

What keeps you up at night? I don’t need anything to keep me up at night—I am almost always up at night no matter what! When I have morning obligations, I force myself to go to bed at a reasonable time. But when I have a few days in a row where I don’t have to get up “early,” my bedtime slips to a later and later time—until I am regularly staying up until 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning.… more

Skinny Dip with Melissa Stewart

April 1, 2015 3 Comments

What keeps you up at night? Nothing. I fall asleep the instant my head touches the pillow, and I’m probably the world’s soundest sleeper. Describe your all-time favorite pair of pajamas. When I was in college, I spent a term at the University of Bath in Bath, England, and rented a room at a house nearby.… more

Skinny Dip with David LaRochelle

March 25, 2015 4 Comments

Favorite holiday tradition? Without a doubt my favorite holiday tradition is carving pumpkins. It has become such a trademark of mine that people start asking in September what I plan to carve for the upcoming Halloween. I’ve learned to jot down possible pumpkin ideas in my sketchbook throughout the year, but it usually comes down to crunch time (the week before Halloween) before I finally decided on the 4-6 pumpkins I carve each year.… more

Skinny Dip with Toni Buzzeo

March 18, 2015 3 Comments

What’s your favorite holiday tradition? Although only my father is Italian, I grew up with a strong connection to my Italian heritage. And really, when does one’s heritage shine more brightly than the holidays? So, every Christmas Eve finds me with my family in our Maine farmhouse kitchen making homemade ravioli. My husband Ken rolls out the dough that has been resting on the counter under a bowl for several hours while my son Topher and I wrestle the circles of dough he provides us into folded cushions of deliciousness that we drop into a boiling pot of salted water.… more

Skinny Dip with Nikki Grimes

March 11, 2015 1 Comment

What keeps you up at night? My brain! I can't shut it off. I'm constantly bombarded with thoughts about what's on my to-do list (I live or die by the list), what arrangements I need to make for the next conference, book festival, or school visit; what work I need to do to elevate the relationships of my characters or ways to make them more authentic; what manuscript I need to concentrate on next (I'm always juggling three or four at one time).… more

Skinny Dip with Gennifer Choldenko

March 4, 2015 1 Comment

What keeps you up at night? Generally I wake up worrying about my kids or my career. The middle-of-the-night scenarios are dire: accidents, Alzheimer’s, awful reviews, abject humiliation in one form or another. Unfortunately I’m a world-class worrier, so there I am lying in a pool of sweat whipped into a fretting frenzy when suddenly an idea pops into my head.… more

Skinny Dip with Kate DiCamillo

March 3, 2015 No Comments

Do you remember any book reports you wrote or gave while in elementary school? No one has ever asked me this question before! Here is the truth: I don't remember doing one, single book report. Have I blocked the memories out? Or did I really not do any? I'm thinking it's the latter. Truly. Describe your all-time favorite pair of pajamas.… more