1. Which of your own books do you like best?
This is a difficult question to answer. The newest book is the one my current hopes are pinned on, but that has been true of each book in turn. A writer’s first book is always special, so I’m still fond of A Question of Loyalty, and A Pioneer Story was the first prize winner so that makes it special. That’s the closest I can come to choosing which I like best.

2. How long does it take to write a book?
I’m a very slow writer. I know when I start a new book that it will take at least a year and usually it takes two. So being a writer means having the patience and determination to see a long project through to the end.

3. Why did you want to be a writer?
Reading led me to writing. I loved stories so much that by the time I was in about Grade 5, I wanted to create my own. And of course, reading also teaches one how to write, so it becomes a circle, one leading to the other.

4. Why are so many of your books about pioneers?
I enjoy reading about the past so I wanted to set my stories there. But I also wanted to write about the place where I grew up—southern Ontario. Much of our early history is about immigrants who found a land covered in trees and who had to hew their communities out of the backwoods with axes, determination and courage. The first settlers were pioneers—the first Europeans to settle in this area. So, my stories are about their lives.

5. Which book that you didn’t write do you like best?
I read so much that it’s easier to say which book I liked best this week or this month rather than choose my all-time favourite. But two books that were very important in shaping the writer I became are Cue For Treason by Geoffrey Trease and Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw. They showed me that history is about the everyday lives of people not unlike the ones I meet in my own life. Even more important, they showed me that history is full of adventure, excitement and mystery—the very elements a writer needs to spin a good story. These titles are still available in libraries and I urge you to read them.