Patricia Maclachlan

Peter Rabbit in the house

Well, I got started because of my parents more than anything. We had a house full of books. My father and I acted out stories all the time, and we changed them. We acted out Little Women many times, and we changed the ending because we didn't like it. We would do Peter Rabbit 25 or 30 times a day. My father would play Peter Rabbit, and I would play Mr. MacGregor. And then we'd switch roles and have long, philosophical discussions. Books were real to me – and stories were real. My father believed that you could find out who you were in a book, and that's why you read.

Solitaire and CNN

I play Solitaire while I'm trying to get to know my character better, or between chapters of a book. And so my process is not pleasant. When a book is going well and I'm into it, I'm very nice to be around. If my husband were here, he'd tell you.

But the time when I'm thinking about writing a book and about to do it, it's like I have an illness and I haven't started taking the medicine yet. So, I'm restless, and it's hard for me. It's a slow process for me. I write in peaks and valleys. I probably shouldn't say this, but I write in my writing room with CNN all the time. I want to know the news, and so there are these voices. I kind of use them as noise that helps me focus on my story. I can't play music when I work, because I start typing in rhythm. So, that doesn't work.

But it's wonderful when it's going well, and it's terrible when it's not.

The reading link

I think it's really hard to be a writer without being a reader. I notice that when it's going badly, I will, for instance, take out Charlotte's Web. I will read the barn scene – a description. Or, I'll take out Natalie Babbitt's Tuck Everlasting. And what it says to you is, "This is the way words are supposed to go together. This is the way you set up a scene." I think it's inspiration, and I think you learn from it. So, for me, it's very important.

If I go through a period of not reading and just watching television, I get very passive, and my language is not as surprising and delightful and intense.

Miraculous feedback

I get a lot of telephone calls. Children track me down. They're very smart. I think on the Internet there must be telephone numbers of everybody in the world.

And I will get, for instance, calls about Journey. Journey is about children who've been abandoned by their mother. And the children who call me will leave messages, and they tell me what they like about the book and what they don't like about the book. And then I call them back, and I always find that they have been abandoned, too, and perhaps they're living with extended family or grandparents.

One little boy said to me, "I like the way you didn't make the mother come back in the end, because that's the way it happens." So, those are the kind of things you long for, if you're a writer; because you write in your little office, playing your games of Solitaire. And you write in isolation. Nobody else can help you do it. So, when you get this feedback, it's miraculous. And it serves you, and it makes you want to write more.

Books and messages

My friend, Jane Yolen, once said, "If you want to send a message, use Western Union." I'm very aware of that in books. When I write, I try not to send a message. I try to create a character and a moment and a piece of story that communicates and brings the child along. So when I begin a book, I don't know how it's going to end. I'm writing it for the same reason that I read books – to find out what's going to happen. So, messages are low on my list…