(continued)
How do you begin a book?
With trepidation, usually. But I will have a hero I like, an opening situation, and a loose idea of where the story is going. I don't want to know everything; that would be too boring for me. So in a sense I am discovering the story along with my characters.
Tell us about your personal life.
I was married for 44 years to Claire Medney, who was my best editor, muse, and much later on my literary agent. We and our kids lived happily in a big, old Victorian house in Brooklyn. Claire died a few years ago after a long illness. I recently married an old friend, Margery Nathanson, who is a designer and a collector of Latin American folk art. She designed our apartment in Manhattan where I am trying to begin writing again.
Do you have a specific message for readers?
Several. Get the most out of yourself, enjoy life, and be good to people along the way. I like to write about making a moral choice, although I hide this as well as I can. Kids don't like to be lectured to or hit on the head. I think I wrote CHOCOLATE FEVER just to say "you can't have everything every time you want it." Of course my secret agenda is to create books so entertaining they get kids hooked on reading, particularly boys, who need help. But usually my story line conveys a moral without my having to make it concrete. Concrete is too heavy for good writing, anyway, and usually messes up the page.
