A is for accordion. I love the accordion! I don't play it yet, but maybe someday...? (See also: V is for violin, Y is for yet)
B is for brownstone Brooklyn, which is where I live. Also for bookstores, which I love. (Shout out to Community Bookstore, my local indie!)
C is for comparative literature, which I studied in college--just like the title character in my play Cotton's Tale!
D is for dumplings of all kinds: knishes and momo and pierogi and gyoza and empanadas and all tasty food-wrapped-in-dough from around the world. I love them all.
E is for ellipses and em dashes, because I'm a bit of a punctuation nerd.
F is for footnotes. I wasn't kidding when I said I like to read them. (See also: R is for research)
G is for goldfish. That's what we had for pets when I was growing up. Usually three: Bagels, Lox and Cream Cheese (now forever memorialized in my play Goldfish Have No Memory).
H is for hurly-burly and helter-skelter and words that are fun to say. A large part of why I'm a writer is because I like to play with words.
I is for inspiration. I get inspiration for writing from all different places. My picture book was inspired by meeting members of an all-women's motorcycle club. One play I wrote was inspired a book my grandmother wrote. Another was inspired by a news item I heard about a hitchhiking robot that got beaten up. (Weird, right?)
J is for journals. I got my first journal when I was nine years old and I've been a consummate scribbler ever since.
K is for kindergarten, which I skipped. True fact. So you know when people say everything you need to know, you learn in kindergarten? I find that terrifying.
L is for libraries, especially the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, which is one of my all-time favorite places.
M is for musical. I'm working on writing my first one now! Shhh! I'll tell you more later...
N is for not knowing. I'm a big fan of not knowing things, and seeing where that takes me. (Often to research!)
O is for onomatopoeia, which I think deserves a prize for word-which-is-most-fun-to-say-yet-most-difficult-to-spell.
P is for podcasts and also for Prospect Park which is where I walk while listening.
Q is for questions. Did you know I love questions? Who doesn't love questions?
R is for research, which I love to do. Researching new writing ideas is my favorite form of procrastination.
S is for sitzfleisch, which is one of my favorite Yiddish words. It refers to the ability to sit still, like at one's desk. I used to think I didn't have enough sitzfleisch to be a writer but it turns out I just hadn't settled on the right topics yet.
T is for teacher. My first career was as a middle school teacher. I loved it. I think seventh graders are some of the coolest people on earth.
U is for unread books. I have a lot of them in my house. I get grouchy if I don't have a book (or two or twenty) lying in wait for me to read next.
V is for violin, which I started playing when I was five years old. I also play the mandolin and can pick out some notes here and there on a piano. Sadly, I don't yet play accordion (though maybe some day...?).
W is for walking. See P.
X is for xylophone... because, let's face it, in most every alphabet book you come across, x is for xylophone. Unless it's for x-ray.
Y is for yet, a small but powerful word. I could say, I haven't written a middle grade novel. But I prefer to say, I haven't written a middle grade novel YET.
Z is for zettabyte. It's a cool word I learned when writing the play Goldfish Have No Memory that means "one trillion gigabytes." Did I mention I love doing research?