I’ve known I wanted to be a writer since I was nine years old and authored our school Thanksgiving play—“Poor Mr. Turkey.” But the road to actually publishing a novel has been long and winding. I’ve been a food writer, a teacher, a poet, a book reviewer, an editor, a columnist. One of my first jobs was as a reader for a paperback publisher in London. I also published an independent newspaper with my brother for a few years. I’ve collaborated on writing radio plays with my sister, and I co-wrote a comic serialized satire, “Developing Begonia,” about the glorious graft and greed of a small city for a local indie newspaper. But THE TRUE HISTORY OF LYNDIE B. HAWKINS, which will publish in February 2019, is my first novel for young readers. I live in Florida now with my wife and my mom, and our dogs Charlie and Snappy. I’m lucky to be smack in the middle of a big, vibrant, supportive community of children’s writers!