"I did not have the kind of childhood most people would choose to write about. It was happy and uneventful, with only the occasional bump in the night to keep me on my toes. In my spare time, however, I often imagined myself in various stories — as Mighty Mouse, Robin Hood, Popeye or Superman.

"I always liked to make up stories, especially lying in bed at night before I fell asleep.

"It was not until I was twenty that I actually took up ceative writing. One of my favorite parts of the process was imagining myself in various characters' shoes, even if those characters - dragons for example - didn't wear shoes at all. A year later, in 1975, I graduated from Hamilton College and began a six-month internship at the New York Times Book Review.

"Since then I have been a full-time writer for children. I married my wife, Joan, in 1984,and we settled in my hometown of Lexington, Massachusetts, where we live with our two sons, Andrew and Peter.

"When I feel like I've spent enough time hunched over my computer, I like to play soccer and softball, and read books written by other people."

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