Why did you decide to write for young adults?
Well, I didn’t know what I was writing.  Nobody had given me a course in writing.  I had been a missionary in Japan and felt very confident about setting a story there.  It was a bit like going back to Japan.  So I wrote my first three novels.  Also, I didn’t make that conscious decision.  Those seven years when I was writing but not publishing, I was doing all sorts of things – fiction, non-fiction, poems, articles.  So this friend in Maryland decided to take me on as her good work.  She brought me to a writing class, a Mom’s night out.  They were offering a course in writing for children, which I decided to go [to].  And I began to write for them.  I was writing almost a story a week, and figured that I could write a chapter a week instead. And that’s how I wrote my first novel.  It only had 14 chapters, but it was the discipline of having to write something on a regular basis.

Like the angel stories, year after year.
You know, it’s a funny thing about those stories. I thought I would send them to my own denominational publisher, but they said, “Nobody wants stories about angels.” 

No kidding!  Because they went on to become a huge success. 
Yes.  But I think Christian publishers are scared of fiction.  The imagination can go into unorthodox paths, you know.  I finally showed them to my publisher and she said she wanted to publish them. 

How many children do you have, and how did you combine your writing with their schedules and the demands of being a pastor’s wife?
Two adopted children (by choice) and two children by birth.  You don’t wait for inspiration when you have small children, though.  You just do it!

Clearly, however, you were inspired to write “Bridge to Terabithia.”  How did that come about?
When our son David was seven, he was best friends with a girl named Lisa.  The things that happened in that friendship made me write to try and sort it out. 

What things?
I didn’t know what they were doing – children have their own private lives.  So I did this from my own childhood.  I had lived in many places because we moved so many times, and I always had to find a secret place for myself.  I had three sisters and a brother but I was the one in the middle, so I played by myself.  I made up stories in my head and played out all the parts.

What was it like for you to see the book take off?
I couldn’t believe it. I thought it was a very private book.  I wasn’t sure my editor would even publish it.  Then when it was [published], I could not believe the response. 

What was the first thing that happened which made you realize the book was big?
It won the Newberry Medal in January, after being published in the fall.  In those days, they called you, so the phone rang at five in the morning.  It was very hard to believe.  We have a friend who won, and her husband opened a bottle of champagne that morning.  My husband went down and got me some milk.