What will probably be the last book in the series: Al Capone Throws Me a Curve is the best of the fifteen books I’ve written so far. The Tales of Alcatraz series has sold more than 2 million copies. My most famous novel, Al Capone Does My Shirts, garnered 20 awards, one of which was the Newbery Honor. One Third Nerd, my funniest novel yet, is due out in January 2019. I held a prestigious job in rubbish removal and I worked in a factory wearing a paper gown while wielding a large mallet on small serving packages of ketchup. I taught visually and hearing-impaired kids horseback riding. While I was pretending I wasn’t a writer, trying to be a nice person with a nice quiet job somewhere, I sold lingerie, lipstick and lamp shades.
I finally went for it when I realized I would prefer to be a failure at something I wanted to do, then a success at something I didn’t.
I always knew I loved to write, but it took me a long time to summon the courage to chase the dream. I come from a long line of Irish storytellers on my father’s side and theatre people on my mother’s. What prepared me for a life of writing fiction? Though I have a BA from Brandeis University in English and American Literature and a BFA in illustration from Rhode Island School of Design, the true answer is probably genes. I love the crazy fun and infinite possibility of storytelling. I love when characters come to me out of nowhere and make me cry so hard my mascara runs or laugh until my stomach hurts. I love to slip into another person’s skin and feel what it’s like to live another life. I love words, dictionaries, thesauruses, sharp pencils, the smell of book ink and the delicious art of carving out sentences on clean white paper. There’s a Lego in my bum which fits with the Lego in my chair and when I sit down to write, I hear the satisfying snap of the two pieces fitting together.
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