"This intense, marvelously plotted, paced and characterized story will immediately garner comparisons to Lord of the Flies, or even the long-playing world shifts of Stephen King . . ."
-- Booklist (Starred Review)
Mostly I write. Type type type. With two fingers. I sit on my porch drinking coffee and smoking a cigar and type type type. Sometimes I go to a coffee shop and type type type. Occasionally when I get really excited about what I'm writing I can engage a third finger.
Hmmm. That's boring, isn't it? So. Okay. I'm sitting on my porch type type typing when a car pulls onto my street. I don't recognize the car and the driver is in shadow, but something about the tilt of his head, his silhouette . . . I'm over the railing, spilling coffee and MacBook before he can squeeze the trigger. I hit the dirt as the bullet hits the railing. But that was my one trick used up. Now I'm flat on my back with no cover but a shrub and he has plenty of bullets, a clear sightline and nothing but time.
I've published 150 kid books under 11 different names. These include (with my lovely wife, K.A. Applegate,) the ANIMORPHS series, EVERWORLD, BOYFRIENDS/GIRLFRIENDS, and even, early on, back in the so-poor-we'd-write-anything days, SWEET VALLEY TWINS. My career runs from Jessica Wakefield's first period, to crazy fights between Bengal tigers and razor-covered aliens.
I retired from writing for a couple years, did some other things, including producing documentaries. Now I'm back writing. (insert shameless plug here) I have a six book series called GONE, the first book of which just came out.
