Will a third Queen book follow The Queen of Second Place and Queen B?
The Queen of Second Place and Queen B are complete as they stand and there aren't any plans for a third Queen book. Sometimes plans change, though, and if I start work on another Queen book, I'll definitely post an update here.

Are the characters in Clearwater Crossing based on real people? Is Clearwater Crossing about what happened to you and your friends in high school?
All of the characters and situations in Clearwater Crossing are fictional, but I’m always thrilled that readers find the stories real enough to ask me this. Although the books are fiction, several people have written to tell me that their schools experienced losses similar to the one described in Get a Life.

Where can I get books in the Clearwater Crossing series?
This series is out of print and no longer available in stores. If you are trying to buy a specific Clearwater Crossing book, your best chance of finding it is on the Internet. Sites like Alibris.com, Amazon.com, and B&N.com offer used (and sometimes new) copies of Clearwater Crossing books through their network of vendors. If you simply want to read the series, a lot of libraries still have Clearwater Crossing. If your library doesn't own it, try asking your librarian; he or she may be able to have the books transferred from another branch.

Did you always know you would be a writer?
I didn’t have a clue. I was always a huge reader, and I always loved writing short things, but I didn't believe I'd ever be able to write a novel. In my job as a geologist, though, I wrote hundreds of reports, some of them quite long. When I went back to college to get an English degree, I wrote a master’s thesis that came in at 130 pages. With so many nonfiction pages behind me, writing a novel seemed more possible and I decided to give it a try.

What advice do you have for teens who want to become writers?
My best advice is to read as much as you can. Pick up everything that catches your interest and a few things that don’t. Ask a teacher or librarian to recommend books that are considered classics. Decide who your favorite authors are for the types of books you like and read everything they’ve written. Pick apart plots to see how they’re made. Notice writing styles. Try to figure out what makes the funny parts funny and the sad parts sad. Go out and participate in lots of different activities, realizing that every single thing you experience now becomes material you can use later. I’ve taken windsurfing lessons and had a root canal—if I’d guessed in advance which would be more painful, I would have been wrong, but I could write about either event now with total confidence. Some teens have managed to get books published, but I wouldn’t suggest publication as an immediate goal. The more different things you do now, the more you’ll have to write about later.

Where do you get your ideas?
Out of a drawer. Seriously. I’m always seeing or thinking of things that might make good stories, but usually when inspiration strikes, I’m totally buried in something else and sweating a major deadline. (This may not be a coincidence, but I can’t afford the therapy it would take to get to the bottom of it.) So whenever an idea comes to me, I write it down and file it for later. That way, when it’s time to start my next project, there are always plenty of ideas to choose from—as well as a few that, on second thought, get transferred to the round file.

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