>SLJ interviews another Zena offspring, Marilyn Kaye. While we both handed her disappointments (Marilyn by writing romances, me by leaving BCCB for Horn Book) I like to think we’ve by and large done the lady proud.
About Roger SuttonRoger Sutton has been the editor in chief of The Horn Book, Inc, since 1996. He was previously editor of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books and a children's and young adult librarian. He received his M.A. in library science from the University of Chicago in 1982 and a B.A. from Pitzer College in 1978. Follow him on Twitter: @RogerReads.
>"My only book in which the character is modeled on myself is The Atonement of Mindy Wise (Harcourt, 1991). Of this particular novel, one reviewer wrote that the work's greatest flaw was the fact that the main character was completely unlikeable. I haven't tried to write about myself since."
This is why I've set a rule for myself to wait several years before writing about anything personal. It's also part of the reason none of my characters want to be writers.