I drive a lot in the summertime, but after that, I don't drive if there's snow predicted for anywhere in 500 miles.

It's my job, too, to keep up with pop culture and what the kids are into 'cause you don't want to sound like an old man trying to write for kids. I spend a lot of my time spying on them.

Believe it or not, my introduction to scary literature was 'Pinocchio.' My mother read it to me every day before naptime when I was three or four. The original 'Pinocchio' is terrifying.

If you do enough planning before you start to write, there's no way you can have writer's block. I do a complete chapter by chapter outline.

Normally, I spend a week on the outline and take two weeks to write the book.