Some of her YA Science Fiction books are recently back in print.

What do you think is the biggest difference between writing for adults and writing for teens?

In general, the main difference is that books for teens are less complex, and of course must deal with situations of interest to young people rather than to middle-aged adults. With respect to science fiction, however, there is another major difference. SF for adults is edited and reviewed by science fiction specialists, who seek material that will appeal to readers with many years of background in the genre; they tend to feel that fiction intelligible to non-specialists isn't "far out" enough. SF for teens, on the other hand, is edited and reviewed by people who evaluate all types of literature in terms of its appeal to general audiences. That was that main reason I chose to publish in the young adult field.

I've always heard rumors that it was hard to be a woman writing in the science fiction arena. Have you found that to be true?

I have never tried to publish in the science fiction field, except in the case of the new edition of my trilogy--as explained above, the young adult field is entirely separate from the editorial and marketing standpoint. So I wouldn't know. But I suspect that if it was once true, it no longer is, since there are now many women writing SF.

What is your favorite book out of all that you have written?

That would be hard to say, since they are quite different from each other and are directed to different groups of readers. In most respects my favorite is Enchantress from the Stars, but I have a special feeling for my trilogy, which according to the e-mail I've received, has influenced the lives of quite a few older teens who are now adults.

Can you tell us a little about the "Children of the Stars" omnibus edition that has recently become available?

First of all, the title word is "Star," not "Stars" -- I find a lot of people are misspelling it. It refers to one particular star, not stars in general, and the word "children" is used figuratively. The omnibus contains my trilogy This Star Shall Abide, Beyond the Tomorrow Mountains and The Doors of the Universe, which were first published in 1972-73 and 1981. The first was very successful as a YA book, but the second and third were not, as they weren't of interest to most younger teens, and the older ones for whom they were intended rarely found them. They "fell through the crack" because librarians tended to shelve all my books next to Enchantress from the Stars (for which I was best known) in the children's room, whereas older teenagers look for adult science fiction. Also, since there was a gap of 8 years between publication of the second and third volumes, many teens grew up and never learned that the third existed. I am happy to have all three together in one volume, which has been issued as adult SF and is being bought by many adults who remember the story. I hope new readers, from high school age on up, will find it, too! Since the publisher is a small press it's not in all local stores, but it can be obtained from online dealers such as Amazon.com, and from me at my website.

You also do web design work. How did you happen to get involved in that?

I was a professional programmer from 1957 to 1967, so it was easy for me to learn HTML when in 1996 I was asked to develop a Web site for Connected Education, an organization for which I had been doing other part-time work. I've since developed a site for another author as well as my own, and I'm certainly available for more such freelance jobs; but I haven't found a way of getting clients.

Do you think the Internet will ultimately change the publishing industry?

Yes, I think it will bring about major changes. Already, it has enabled small presses to reprint books such as my trilogy, and others for which there is enthusiastic but relatively small demand. Today large publishers are interested only in books that can be expected to have huge mass-market audiences, or, in the case of Young Adult books, large library sales--and libraries are short of money. But the Internet can reach individual readers throughout the world who want "special" books that most bookstores can't carry, and this, combined with new printing technologies, makes small-press publication cost-effective, which it never could be with traditional methods of promotion and distribution. Print-on-demand books may eventually be common, too. However, I don't feel that electronic publishing will replace print publishing.