Writing the L'Engle bio was a bit tough because there was so much information out there on her. And she'd written several memoirs spanning various times in her life. I was unable to secure interviews because she was near death at the time I was working on the bio, and though I had access to some of ... more

Writing the L'Engle bio was a bit tough because there was so much information out there on her. And she'd written several memoirs spanning various times in her life. I was unable to secure interviews because she was near death at the time I was working on the bio, and though I had access to some of the family, I felt it a bit intrusive to request interviews. I did get an interview for the Spinelli bio. I know the person who manages his website, and I asked her to intervene on my behalf. Sometimes it's just who you know. Right now I'm writing a biography of Stephenie Meyer, and I couldn't get an interview even with the people who run her fan sites.

The important thing with dealing with conflicting facts is to present everything, that way readers can make a determination for themselves about what seems likely and what doesn't. In the L'Engle bio there was a lot of conflicting information. Readers can draw their own conclusions.

Hi Lila!
Writing biographies are a lot easier than writing fiction. For one thing, the story is already out there. You just need to do the research and then arrange it to tell a terrific story about the person. Writing is always hard, fiction or non-fiction, but somehow non-fiction is just a ma... more

Hi Lila!
Writing biographies are a lot easier than writing fiction. For one thing, the story is already out there. You just need to do the research and then arrange it to tell a terrific story about the person. Writing is always hard, fiction or non-fiction, but somehow non-fiction is just a matter of putting the puzzles together. In fiction, you're creating all the puzzle pieces and then putting them together, which is altogether more difficult.