Barbara Park - About the Author
As an author, one of the questions I'm asked most often is, "When did you start writing?" I have to admit I always hesitate a minute before answering this one, because unlike many other authors I have met, I didn't always have a burning desire to be a writer.
In fact (if I'm going to be completely honest here), when I was in school, a writing assignment was (for me) about as much fun as a trip to the dentist. So the idea that I somehow became a children's author is a constant source of amusement.
I didn't start writing until I was almost thirty. It was then that I - still unsure of what I wanted to be when I grew up - sat myself down and tried to figure out what my true talents really were. I'm embarrassed to admit that the only thing I came up with was the fact that I'd always had a rather "odd" sense of humor. And although being the class clown in high school didn't seem like much to bas a career on, I decided to write "something funny" and see what happened.
What's interesting about this was that I had absolutely no experience at all as a writer. What I did have, though, was the good fortune to have been blessed with parents who always made me feel that I had the ability to succeed at whatever I tried to do. So the first time I sat down to write "something funny" it never occurred to me that I didn't have at least as good a chance as anyone else.
It took a while. (To put it bluntly, my early attempts at being funny weren't) And my work - from short stories to greeting cards - was rejected over and over again. But in 1979 - when I made the decision to tackle my first novel for kids (Operation: Dump the Chump) - I had such fun with it, that I finally knew where I "belonged" as a writer.
