When I was four years old, my father, who was a colonel in the army, was stationed in Salzburg, Austria. Across the street from our house was an ancient castle on a cliff. So when I first heard fairy tales, I felt as if the magic of Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty was taking place right in my own neighborhood.

When I was five, we moved to Virginia and lived inside an old fort that was surrounded by a moat. So when I heard stories of American history, I felt as if those dramas were taking place right in my own backyard. Maybe those early environments explain why mythical and historical times and places seem more real to me than the modern world of shopping malls and freeways.

When I was a teenager, I continued to visit imaginary places by spending all my free time at our local community theater. Whether I acted in a play or worked backstage, the world of Tennessee Williams or Shakespeare always seemed more real to me than the dreary life of high school.

Once I graduated from college, I tried to turn my dreams into reality by actually visiting faraway places. Then I finally settled in New York City where I married my husband, Will Osborne, an actor, playwright, and theater director. And for the last seventeen years, Will has given me the support and encouragement I've needed to be a professional daydreamer-in other words, an author of children's books.

With my writing, I can still play inside an enchanted castle or live inside an old fort. I can run from ghosts of ride dolphins any day of the week.