1. What made you become a writer?
MPH: I loved to read when I was a kid, and as soon as I realized that an actual person got to make up the books I loved so much, I decided that that was the job for me.

2. Who was your role model as a child?
MPH: Hmm, that's a toughie.  If you mean role model as a writer, I'm not sure that there was any one person in particular that I tried to imitate.  I liked books by E.L. Konigsburg, Barbara Corcoran, Eleanor Cameron, Frances Hodgeson Burnett, Louisa May Alcott and lots of others and I'm sure I learned a lot from reading their books.  But I think I learned a lot from reading in general--even from reading badly written books.

3. What was your favorite book as a child?
MPH: I had several.  For a while, it was Burnett's "The Little Princess."  Then it was Konigsburg's "From the Mixed-Up of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler."  I also loved a book called, "She, the Adventures," but I'm not even sure who wrote that.

4. What is your favorite book you have written?
MPH: That's a hard question to answer--it's almost like saying which of my kids is my favorite (and I would never, never do that.)  There's something about each of my books that I'm really proud of, and there's something about each of my books that I cringe over.

5. Do your children read your books or do you read them to them?
MPH: My kids are still a little young for my books (much to their dismay.)  They think it's really unfair that I don't write for a younger audience.  However, my daughter, who is 8, has read "Running Out of Time,"  "Among the Hidden," Among the Impostors," "The Girl with 500 Middle Names," and part of "Turnabout."  My son, who's 6, is interested in hearing me tell him about the books, but he hasn't wanted to hear them or read them yet.

6. What are some new books you will be writing?
MPH: I'm working several books ahead, so I'll just tell you which books are coming soon.  In June, I have a sequel coming out to "Among the Hidden"--it's called "Among the Impostors," and it will be joined in 003 by another sequel, "Among the Betrayed."  Then in the fall I have a contemporary YA book called "Takeoffs and Landings" coming out.

7. What do you like most about writing?
MPH: When it's going well, there's nothing like it.  It's just so much fun to make up characters, situations, and everything else about a story.  I have so much freedom and flexibility to do whatever I want.  I also like playing around with the words;  I love it when I feel like I've picked the exact right word to describe whatever it is I'm trying to describe.

8. How long does it take to write a book normally?
MPH: This varies somewhat.  Generally I finish a first draft in 2-6 months, then I set it aside for a while so that when I come back to it I can read it with fresh eyes and figure out how to improve it.  Sometimes I'm very happy with my first draft and only spend a day or two revising it;  sometimes I can spend as long revising a manuscript as I spent writing it in the first place.  Then after I've sent my revised draft to my agent and editor, they suggest more improvement sand again, this revision phase can take anywhere from a few hours to a few months.  So the process can stretch into more than a year, though I'm not working constantly on that one book for that whole year.

9. How long have you been writing your books?
MPH: I started trying to write when I was in second or third grade, which was more than 25 years ago.  However, it's only been about ten years that I've treated my writing seriously, like a job (as opposed to being like a hobby).

10. Is there anything that you don't like about being a wrier?  If so, how do you work around the bad parts to keep writing?
MPH: Notice how in question 7 I said "When it's going well..."?  Well, this is the flip side of that.  When writing isn't going well--when I can't figure out what should happen next, when my characters won't let me know what they're like, when everything I write comes out flat and dull--then the bad thing about being a writer is that I have such freedom and flexibility to do what ever I want, that I also have the freedom and flexibility to do something badly, and no one else can fix it for me.
    Fortunately, I've never experienced this problem for any long period of time.  Sometimes I've forged on, and eventually the bad stuff I'm writing turns into better stuff.  Other times, I've just walked away from what I was working on, and figured I'd have a better perspective when I came back to it.  In the extreme cases, I've asked someone else (my husband, my kids, my agent or editor) for an opinion, and sometimes that's spurred me to get passed my problem.

11. How do you usually get your ideas for your books?
MPH: My ideas come from lots or different places.  My first three books were inspired by newspaper articles I've worked on as a reporter in Indianapolis.  Other books have grown out of things that happened to me or other people, things I've overheard, or just weird thoughts and speculations that floated through my brain.

12. All of your books seem really different from each other--we think that is really neat!  Which genre is your favorite to write in though?
MPH: I'm not sure that I have a favorite.  I like the variety.

13. We read that you used to be a reporter.  How is writing for the newspaper different from writing your own creative stories?
MPH: The deadlines are much, much longer with books.  When I was a reporter, a lot of times I'd come in at 8:30 a.m., get an assignment right away, interview somebody (or several people), turn the story in by 9:30, and have the finished story in the paper that landed on my desk by noon.  Now I write a book over a period of months or years, and when I'm done with it, usually another year goes by before I see it in print.  It's hard to be patient and wait.
    On a more positive note, though, I also have a lot more control over what I write when I get to make things up, instead of having to stick to the facts.  And I know (or, at least, hope) that my books don't get thrown out in the recycling pile right away, the way my newspaper stories did.

14.  What is the thing that you like most about being a children's book author?
MPH: I like the fact that kids are willing to be imaginative and go along with me when I'm telling strange tales.

15. Have you had any challenges to your books?  How do you feel when this happens?
MPH: Strangely enough, the book that people have raised the most concerns about was "Just Ella."  That's taken me totally by surprise.  All the concerns have been from people who would like to be able to promote the book for younger kids--fourth and fifth graders in particular--but feel they can't because of the few mentions of topics such as rape and virginity.  When I was writing the book, I was not expecting younger children to have any interest in the book.  If I had to do it over again, I would probably not write the book any differently.  But I can sympathize with the people who have questioned it, because I won't let my own daughter read it yet, either.
 
16. We really like the book "Leaving Fishers"--what made you decide to write about a religious cult?
MPH: That book grew out of an article I wrote as a newspaper reporter:  I investigated a church that was being accused of being a cult.  The whole situation was very interesting to me, because it's so difficult to define exactly what a cult is.  I was also intrigued by the views of former members of the church who were still searching for a way to be religious--they hadn't lost their faith in God, but they were struggling with the whole notion of how to worship and serve Him.  I just thought that was fascinating, so I gave Dorry in "Leaving Fisher's" a similar problem.