I Am A Big Defender Of 'harry

I Know Where "blubber" Came From. It Came From Stories That My Daughter Told Me When She Came Home From Fifth Grade. There Was A Kid In The Class Who Was Being Bullied. We Didn't Even Call It Bullying Then, That's What's So Weird. Victimization In The Classroom. The Word Bully Was So Out, Was So Not In Use For All Those Years And Now It's Back Big Time.

When I Was Growing Up, I Dreamed About Becoming A Cowgirl, A Detective, A Spy, A Great Actress, Or A Ballerina. Not A Dentist, Like My Father, Or A Homemaker, Like My Mother - And Certainly Not A Writer, Although I Always Loved To Read.

When I Started To Write, It Was The '70s, And Throughout That Decade, We Didn't Have Any Problems With Book Challenges Or Censorship.

I Want You To Know It Was No Big Deal...those Movies Showing Women Screaming In Labor Are Plain Bullshit....there's Nothing To It...you Just Push And Push And Finally The Baby Pops Out...to Tell You The Truth I Don't Even Rember That Much About It Except There Was A Very Nice Guy Standing Over Me And Every Time A Strong Contraction Started He Gave Me A Whiff Of Gas.

"summer Sisters" Was Actually Was A Huge Influence On "girls" Because It Was The First Thing I Ever Consumed That Sort Of Looked At The Way That Female Friendship Can Be Glorious And Can Be Complicated And Can Be So Like A Worse Betrayal Than Something Romantic And It Just Showed These Archetypes Of Femininity Than Totally Sort Of Individuated Them And Exploded Them.