Norma Fox Mazer is an award-winning author of books for young people. Her books—including When She Was Good, A Figure of Speech, Saturday, the Twelfth of October, and Taking Terri Mueller—are enormously popular because the stories are realistic, showing how people interact, deal with problems, and come to terms with change. Although she knew since the age of 13 that she wanted to be a writer, she wasn't very good at writing as a student. Mazer began writing seriously at the age of 28. She and her husband, Harry Mazer—who is also a writer—live in Jamesville, New York.

"Ideas come in every possible way you could imagine. I've had ideas come to me from dreams, from memories, conversations, news articles, letters, and certainly from plain old garden variety daydreams or fantasies," Mazer says. "Sometimes an idea hits me between the eyes—it's just there waiting for me, and believe me I take it and run." She has always worked hard at writing. "Really,"she emphasizes, "I had to do what everyone has to do to master anything in this world—which is work, to keep at it, not give up, believe in myself, and believe that what I wanted so much—to be a real writer—was possible."