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MEET AMY GOLDMAN KOSS
by Bonnie O'Brian

Did you write stories when you were growing up?

Amy Goldman Koss

I was furiously scribbling away, drawing pictures, writing poetry and stories all the time. The sight of a blank sheet of paper was enough to get me going... to the annoyance of everyone else in the house. Especially my dad, whose work depended on his message pad remaining clean and near the phone. Back then I didn't plan or re-write or necessarily finish anything, I just began and began and began. I wish I'd saved some but my mother was very tidy and no trace of my childhood remains. Thanks, ma.

When you were a child did you ever have moments when you decided that you were going to be a writer when you grew up?

The adult life looked very unappealing to me as a kid and I was in no hurry to get there. All that sitting around and flapping their lips and cooking and cleaning. Feh! And, as far as my future career, if I thought about it at all, I assumed it would be something dull and dreadful. But it wouldn't really matter because by then I'd be all dried up and stupid anyway.

What was your first job when you graduated from college?

Actually, strictly speaking, I didn't' graduate college. For that matter, I didn't graduate high school either. A very sweet and understanding nun falsified my high school records a teeny tiny bit so I could get a diploma and go on to take college classes. Finishing things is not my strength. If I had a shrink, perhaps I'd take that up with him or her, but for now, I just have to force myself to finish my books. And I might add that coming up with believable, but satisfying and (most importantly) unpredictable endings is the hardest part by far. Note to my readers, I am a terrible role model. Don't be like me. Finish high school and college and don't be a jerk.

Where do you get your ideas?

This question gets asked a lot and it always puzzles me. Where do other people get their ideas? Like the idea to call Auntie Rosie or have a little snack? I guess an idea for a book is a thought that won't go away. Like having a little snack, but not being satisfied until you've eaten enough for a family of four and have made yourself totally sick to the point of comatose. But that last piece of pie still looks kinda good... Fry in the animated classic, FUTURAMA refers to an idea as a "headache with pictures." I love that.

Do you think it's important to encourage children to write?

I'm glad you asked that, because there's so much phony-baloney praise thrown around these days in the hopes of creating high self-esteem. I don't think that telling a kid that everything he or she writes or draws or tries is brilliant, does that kid a lick of good. It's just noise. I think kids tune out all the crap parents and teachers say about what's important, and pick up way more on what the adults actually DO with their free time. It was clear growing up in my house, that my parents valued the arts. Not because they said so, but because they LIVED so. Both of them had regular day jobs but in the evenings and weekends they played music and painted paintings and built things (dad), and sang in Yiddish choirs and acted in local theater (mom) and did volunteer work and went to concerts and plays and ballets and read fiction. It was unspoken but expected that my brother and I would find our place in creative activities. Not because it would look good on our college applications, but because it made life worth living.

What do you think creativity is?

When my cousin David toasted my dad on his 80th birthday, David said that all the other uncles, (his own father included,) had tool boxes and work benches in their basements. And they'd go down there and do what was needed to fix something around the house.But my dad used those same exact tools to make something from nothing. A duet music stand, a harpsichord, a sail boat, a book case with carved faces and trim, rubber band guns for the kids...Until David said that about my dad I'd never thought of it so clearly. Creativity is the urge and act of making something that wouldn't exist otherwise. People often tell me that they aren't at all creative, can't draw, sing, won't dance, can't imagine writing or making up a song or poem or playing an instrument, I can't really understand how they can admit something so tragic with such ease. I don't have any response but pity.

Why Books? and Why for this age group?

If I could get away with it, I'd be in bed with a novel propped up on my chest at all times. It takes an act of will for me NOT to bring a book everywhere I go and to fight the urge to sneak off and read. So I guess that's why I write books -- because I love them. And the reason I write for the tweens (although I hate that word) and teens is because although every age and stage has challenges and peculiarities, I think those nine to fifteenish years are the most interesting and delicious and in many large and small ways, HORRIFIC!If you can get through middle school, I think you can get through anything, and if I can amuse and entertain anyone while they're getting through it, than I've done good.