I was deeply moved and influenced by some of the books I read. I would plan the story in my mind, draw an elaborate cover, list and title every chapter, and usually write one or two pages of chapter one before starting on the next novel. Later, in elementary school and throughout most of junior high I always had a novel-in-progress. The first book I did like this was called 'The Little Girl' about a girl who doesn't want to go outside because it is raining and she doesn't like to get wet. I would then draw pictures in the book to go with the story. I used to dictate stories to my father who wrote them down in a little book of blank pages I had tied together with string. I consider myself lucky, in that knew I wanted to make books since before I could even write myself. I make things up after that, but the initial inspiration usually begins with my own experiences both past and present. I have had a life full of rich and unique experiences, although it was around age eleven when I began to more keenly ex perience the sufferings of growing up, beginning with my parents' divorce and then being diagnosed with juvenile diabetes, and later when I left for college, my father's death.

I have always felt very connected to Maine, especially to Monhegan Island which is about half-way up the coast and where my family has been going since the 1940's. We left the farm life behind and lived in a town where I could walk to school.

My brother and I collected lots of bugs and butterflies. We had a pet monkey for a while, who we named Zephyr after the monkey in the Babar books. My father was a zoologist, with an interest in mammals, so we often had animals around. I recall my farm years as idyllic: I had an older brother, a best friend, goats, acres of woods to explore, and the ocean at the end of the road. Long BIO - personal: I was born in Rhode Island on a small farm and except for a two-year interlude in Norway between ages 2-4, and summers spent on Monhegan Island, Maine, I lived on the farm until I was ten.

Alicia Has a Bad Day by Lisa Clough