Questions kids ask me:
Have you ever written a picture book?
Yes! A Christmas Wish for Little Dala Horse: A Saint Lucia Celebration is coming in SEPTEMBER 2025!
Why isn't SOPHIE'S QUEST available anymore?
The first publisher went out of business and then two more publishers offered to publish it! I selected the one that would edit it for an American audience. Unfortunately, a little global pandemic got in the way of all the amazing editing work that we were doing, and the book’s release has been delayed. The fabulous new black line illustrations by Tina Gollings will make the story even more fun to read, so it will hopefully be out soon!
The book’s themes grow in importance every day: things like respecting those who look different or who believe different things; making friends with those who are different; listening to God’s leading when it doesn’t seem to make much sense; depending on Jesus’s love and goodness and his abiding presence, no matter where we are or how dark things may seem–those things are important to me in my daily life, and I hope they will help my readers to feel confident that they are loved and worthy of respect, no matter who they are.
Have you published anything else?
Yes, my husband and I teamed up to write a book about one of our favorite places, Mount Rainier National Park. We’re both history buffs (I was a history major in college, and he just really likes it), so we wrote Mount Rainier’s Historic Inns and Lodges. It’s full of interesting old pictures and fun facts. My favorite picture in the book is of a man feeding a box of marshmallows to two bears. For one thing, I didn’t know that marshmallows ever came in a box (did you?), and for another thing, people are not encouraged to feed the bears at Mount Rainier today!
I’ve also written for some magazines and an anthology of short, true stories. The magazine I’ve written for the most is called Keys for Kids, a devotional magazine for elementary school-aged kids.
What do you like best about writing?
I like learning new things as I research. As I wrote Sophie’s Quest, I often went to our local library to check out large stacks of books on everything from owls and mice to pirates to clipper ships to world religions. This was before libraries let patrons scan their own books for checkout, and the librarian would look at me with a funny expression. I’m not sure she believed me when I told her that I was putting all of those things together in a story! The most fun day of research I’ve ever had was the day I got to go on board a huge cargo ship. I tagged along with a Catholic priest who ministers to the sailors on board these immense ships who arrive in Seattle from all over the world. I felt like a spy as I imagined what it would have been like for Sophie and Timley to be on board the ship.
What surprised you the most about writing a novel?
I was really surprised at the way new characters popped into my mind–even into my dreams! One night, I dreamed about a funny monkey who was meditating on the deck of a large container ship–Pooki, in Sophie’s Quest! I had read that J. R. R. Tolkien, the author of the Lord of the Rings, once said that the character, Faramir, just came walking through the forest and into his novel, and I never imagined I would have the same kind of experience. Boy, was I surprised when Pooki just showed up!
I like to write. Can I write a book, too?
If you are serious about wanting to publish a book someday, the best thing you can do right now is to just WRITE! Enjoy creating characters and stories, or maybe reporting on true things around you, and don’t worry about publishing just yet. There are books in your library to help young writers to learn all the skills you need to really publish a book someday. And yes, YOU can do it! Why not? You just have to love writing and have patience to keep learning and improving until you write things that other people want to read.
What are you working on now?
Ever since I lived in Japan, I’ve wanted to write a historical novel about the time when Christians, both Japanese and foreign missionaries, became trapped in a society that tried to get rid of them all. It was a very intense time, and yet two hundred years after the last Christians were supposed to have disappeared, Japanese Christians presented themselves to foreign priests who were once again allowed back into the country.
I’m working on a novel that follows the life of Kiku, a peasant girl who becomes a Christian right before the doors to the west are shut and all Christians are persecuted. Does she stay true to her faith? Is she able to protect her disabled little sister, who she has promised to keep safe? How can she find peace and joy during a very dark time? When she is exiled along with the Shogun’s favorite–but, unfortunately, Christian–consort, and then shipwrecked during a storm, all hope seems lost. A light reflecting from a special mirror might just be the hope she is looking for.