How easy was it to find yourself back to the Gadabout World?

Writing is not easy. It’s W.O.R.K.  But, I love the characters in this series, so getting the chance to spend time with them again made the work easy-ish. After the first few scenes, I slipped right back into their mindsets and voices, and felt take-off-your-shoes-and-hang-out comfy around them – just like you do when you’re reunited with a friend whom you haven’t seen in a long time.

This doesn’t mean I didn’t feel awkward around Sneeze, Hayley and Hiccup. I did – at first. Three months pass between where 101 Ways to Bug Your Teacher ends and 101 Ways to Bug Your Friends and Enemies begins. Three months doesn’t sound long, but middle schoolers can go through huge physical and psychological changes over the course of one summer break. They become a tangle of arms and legs and emotions that’s dramatic, confusing and frustrating. Come September, they often don’t recognize their friends – or themselves! So in order to recognize my characters and portray them authentically, empathetically, I had to time travel back to my own adolescence and remember what those days felt like. Remembering was a snap. Reliving it? Not so easy. In fact, at times it was downright painful!

Fortunately, whenever I got stuck for how a character might act or feel in a given situation, all I had to do was spend time with my son and his friends (who are now 15) – and their behavior would give me the answer!

This is like asking the parents of five children: “Which child is your favorite?”  It’s a question I can’t answer, because each character is like a child – my child – to me; and I adore each one for the individual he or she is. I love plowing through my dog-eared copy of Merck’s Manual to come up with exotic disorders to satisfy Hiccup’s hypochondria. Writing dialogue for Pierre – who speeks wis zee phonee French accent –is silly and fun – and if you can’t have fun when you’re writing, why bother?  Hayley has a confidence I never had at her age (maybe not even now!), so I admire her tremendously for that and the ability to speak her mind. And Sneeze…well, Sneeze has passion and perseverance and principles – not to mention all those outrageous inventions!  He’s also funny – and I love funny. Sneeze is probably the most like me of any of my characters, so I can’t help but enjoy spending time with him.

Why did you model parts of your novel after the play Cyrano de Bergerac?

Edmond Rostand’s play features themes that adolescents can easily relate to: first love, unrequited love, the mistaken belief that one is undeserving of love, fear of risk and rejection, outer vs. inner beauty, the conflict between who you are and who you want to be, friendship, loyalty, the joy of living and living with joy – and principles. It’s also filled with brilliant word-play and a heroic main character. I firmly believe adolescents need to be exposed to more of the true heroes in literature.

What is the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received?

This quote from the book Art and Fear, by David Bayles and Ted Orland, says it all:  “…becoming an artist consists of learning to accept yourself, which makes your work personal, and in following your own voice, which makes your work distinctive.”

Isn’t it obvious? I must write 101 Ways to Bug Your Brother and Sister! I never had a sister, but I have two younger brothers whom I adore now, but as a kid they used to drive me crazy because they were overly fond
 of ripping the heads off my Barbie dolls and holding them for ransom!