How did the Sammy Keyes series come about?
After discovering the joys of writing for kids, I started thinking about all the books I’d liked when I was a kid. And being a teacher, I realized that kids today were still reading some of those books. But looking them over in a contemporary light, I also realized that the characters didn’t hold the relevance for kids today as they had for me. So I started thinking it would be cool if there was a character who was more like the kids in my classroom, who faced some of the same issues kids today face. And once I started Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief, I couldn’t stop. I became so smitten by Sammy that I wanted to follow her and find out what she was going to get into next. So by the time Hotel Thief was done, I already had ideas for Sammy Keyes and the Skeleton Man. When Skeleton Man was done, I started right away on Sammy Keyes and the Sisters of Mercy. No contract, no promise, nothing. I just wrote for the charge I got, following Sammy through her expanding world. And the short story
