An October 2005 interview by Kim Peek with children's author Susan Taylor Brown.

My former editor at Hyperion (who published my first picture book Can I Pray With My Eyes Open?) asked me to try and write her a book for Mother's Day. I tried. Boy did I try. And it SO did not work. The original story was called Michael Martin Murphy's Marvelous Mother and was about a super mom that did all these great fun things with her kid except all the kid's friends made fun of him because his mom was different than everyone else's mom. For ideas of what the mom and the main character could do together I simply looked back to when my kids were little and the sorts of things I did with them. All the kids in the neighborhood loved to come to our house to play and we had a lot of adventures.

What was the process like for you? How did the book come together?

When the editor finally said no Michael Martin Murphy's Marvelous Mother I was afraid the book would never go anywhere else. But I can't leave things alone very long and pretty soon I was tearing it apart and putting it back together again, this time trying to focus on a single day in the life of a child and his parent. The new book circulated quite a lot, picked up 14 rejections, before it sold to Boyds Mills Press. It took 2 years from the time I wrote the first version until it finally sold and another 2 1/2 years before it was published.

When did you learn the importance of revision? / How many times did you have to revise Oliver's Must-Do List?

I think I'm lucky in that I have always appreciated the revision process. Maybe it comes from the critique groups I've been in because I've always received good input about how to make my stories stronger. I've never been one of those writers who believes her words are golden and can't be improved upon.

For Oliver, most of the revision was done before it was ever sold. When I look back through my folder of saved versions, I show 17 versions. That doesn't count all the times I scribbled notes over the same printed versions. I have a YA novel I have been revising for 15 years.

Often, for me, it's a matter of learning that less really is more. I tend to write long and to overwrite. Revision is a process of going back and cutting away every unnecessary word until all that remains are the important ones, the right ones, the ones that deepen your understanding of the character and move the plot forward. But you can't always see that the first time or two you go through the book so you have to be willing to keep going through until you know it's right.

Recently I've been revising my verse novel and I've noticed (with my editor's helpful comments) that I tend to tell something and then show it within the same scene. It's almost like I was warming up for what I was supposed to say so I have to go through and cut all the telling.

When did you make the decision to write for children and young adults? Was it a memorable day or something that evolved over time?

I can remember very vividly the day I decided to take my writing seriously. I was a stay at home mom with two kids; a toddler and a fairly new baby. I'd been home since my first child was born and felt obligated to try to bring some sort of money in the house. At least that's what I told myself. When I look back I think I was just in that time of trying to "find" myself. I fell into party plan mode and sold decorating stuff, baskets, plants, needlework kits, craft supplies and children's clothes. There's probably more but I have thankfully forgotten them. Nothing worked. I spent too much and sold too little and my heart just wasn't in it.

Along came the new baby and I put my son in day care a couple of days a week so he could play with kids his age and I could have some time with the baby. A neighbor and I were walking our babies around the block, pushing strollers and chatting, and I was feeling lost again, not sure what I should do next to try and make some money. This friend asked me what I would do if I didn't have to worry about making any money at all? What would I do if I could just spend my time doing what I wanted without worrying about contributing to the family bank account? And I didn't even hesitate. I told her I'd write stories. Then this very bright woman pointed out that I might as well be doing that now because I wasn't making any money at any of the other things I was doing and it didn't seem to be affecting our lifestyle so why not spend the time doing something I really wanted to do?

It was like one of those lightning bolts out of the sky. Why not?

Although I had never really stopped writing I went back to it now with an eye toward trying to get published. I started with short stories because, well, they were short. I wasn't thinking about any genre at first because I didn't know much about genres. I did think about writing adult romances because that was what I was reading at the time (escapist mommy lit) but mostly I just tried EVERYTHING. I joined California Writers Club whose members are from all genres and volunteered to do the newsletter so I could get to know the business. The newsletter was printed by an agent who was a member of the group. From her I learned that YA romance was going strong so that became my goal. My first two book sales were YA romance novels for a German publisher. The club connected me with three other writers for children who eventually became one of my first critique groups. We all had young children and would get together every few weeks to share our work. The social time before the critiques started was spent catching up on what was going on with our kids. My contribution was usually about some sort of a fight my two kids had over something silly. After telling one of those stories one them said I needed to start writing them down because they were children's books. I started to write for young people and never looked back. And those stories my friend convinced me to write down became my Nathan and Nora books that later sold to Wendy Pye in New Zealand and The Wright Group here in the US. (Thanks, Liz!)

What do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started out?

I wish I had realized that personal letters from an editor were a really big deal. Early on I had some very nice feedback from editors that was both helpful and encouraging but I was so new to the business that all I saw was NO.

Can you tell us about some of your writerly habits?

Messy. Very, very messy. For fiction I write in longhand first. I need to find the right notebook before I start the book and that's not always easy. Usually it's a steno pad but sometimes it's something different. One of those, I'll know it when I see it sorts of things. I pick a pen and have to have 5 or 6 of them because I want to use the same kind of pen throughout the project and I am always losing them and freaking out about it. So I write in longhand first and move to the computer when I have a skeleton of the story, enough to hang something on. I edit as I key it into the computer then print it out and start the process of revision. I can't tell you how many copies I might print of a picture book while I'm working on it, 15? 20?

Non-fiction is different. I always write that directly into the computer then print it out and begin to edit.

I make huge paper messes but I HAVE to look at things on paper. It's too different on the screen. No matter what I'm writing, there's a lot of pen to paper time. There's something about the act of actually writing by hand that tends to kick start my muse and connect my heart to the page.

You have picture books, a novel in verse, magazine articles. Which genre comes most easily to you? Do you find it difficult to switch gears?

The real answer to this is "it depends." Articles are easy to me in that I don't have to invent something. I have the facts, I just need to tell the factual story in an entertaining way. But I can spend two weeks looking for that first line in an article. Bad verse always comes easy it's the good stuff that supports a plot that's tough. I've written poetry since the 7th grade so I've often used playing in verse to warm-up before the other writing. But that's playing. That's different though than doing a novel in verse and trying to make sure the poetry is as strong as the plot and the plot is a story worth telling. No matter what, the blank page is hard to face.

Switching gears is often something I have no choice in which might make it easier when it comes to switching. If I'm working on fiction and I have an article due, the deadline (and the knowledge that a check will be coming soon) helps me switch gears. Because picture books are short, it's easy for me to pick one up and get back into it again. The hardest thing for me is working on a novel and being away from it for a while. In order to write fiction I have to sink down into a place inside of me that I can't access with the snap of a finger. Coming home from work every day I am usually too tired to be able to go to that fictional place right away. If I haven't been working on the novel every day I'll probably spend three or four days just thinking about the book again before I can even imagine trying to write anything new.

What can children who are interested in writing or illustrating do to learn the ropes?

Like the commercial says, "Just do it." The more you write and draw the better you get. Learn to watch the world around you and practice recording what you see in detail. And of course read as much as you can.

Two of my favorite websites for creative kids are http://www.kids-space.org/ and http://www.kidpub.org/kidpub/

What can parents do to encourage young readers and writers?

Read to them and LET them read. There are far too many stories, horror stories in my mind but true none the less, of a child who wants a book and a parent who doesn't understand the appeal and drags them over to the latest toy instead. Let kids see you reading and enjoying the books you read. Find books you can read together. I know parents who are still reading out loud to their 12 and 13 year old kids because it has become a special family time.

As for encouraging writing, many kids (and many adults) are afraid of writing. I think writing should be fun and anything you can do to show a child the fun parts of writing will help them. Set aside some time at home to write together, fun stuff, no grades. I have a page of story prompts for kids on my website that make a good starting point for parents that don't feel they know what to do to encourage writing. http://www.susantaylorbrown.com/writingexercises.html All the exercises there are suitable for kids but the one that I think is the most fun for them is story parts, which is a random generator.

Magazine poetry is fun. Take a stack of old magazines and cut apart words or phrases that appeal to you. Then rearrange them to make a poem. You can build up a box of cut up words and then bring it out whenever you want to play with words. Let the kids make up poems on the table while you cook dinner.

Family history is also a great way to get kids writing. Let them interview the members of the family or have them create a book all about themselves.

I really believe if kids can have fun playing with words and writing they'll be less intimidated by the "have to do it" kind

Is peanut butter and pickle your favorite type of peanut butter sandwich?

MMm yes.....it's my favorite comfort food. Fresh Wonder Bread, creamy JIF peanut butter, and thick slices of sweet pickles. One bite and I'm five years old again.