I was born with a gene for writing because I wrote my first book when I was eight years old.  It was called "Peppy the Frog" and was the story of a little frog who left his lily pad in a forest pond and went out to see the world. The reason I wrote this story was because I was a very lonely little girl, and what Peppy did was exactly what I wanted to do.  Almost all of my books are about something that is important to me, and the children who read them can understand how I felt.  Maybe they have felt that way too.