Betsy ByarsMariah ,Chameer, Chris

Where was she born?

Betsy Byars was born at Charlotte North Carolina.

Where do you live?

I live in South Carolina on an airstrip.   Both my husband and I are pilots.   The bottom floor of our house is a hangar so we can just taxi out and take off, almost from our front yard.

What was your favorite book when you were growing up

I  loved a book called The Adventures of Mabel. Mabel was everything I wanted to be - pretty, adventuresome, a good horseback rider and she could communicate with animals

Do you have any sisters or brothers?

I have one sister - Nancy. She became a mathematician and I wanted to become one too, but I didn't have the smarts for Calculus, so I became a writer.

Do you have any children?

My four children are adults now. Nan is an engineer, Guy is a computer expert, and two of my daughters, Betsy Duffey and Laurie Myers, write children's books of their own.

Where do you get your ideas?

Since my books are mostly realistic fiction, I get my ideas from the things that happen to me, to my kids, to my dogs and cats, to my friend's dogs and cats, and from things I see on TV and read about in the newspaper. I sometimes think my books are like scrapbooks of my life because almost every incident brings back a memory.

What was your favorite subject in school?

Reading! Reading! Reading! It wasn't like a subject.   It was a pleasure.   I still read all the time - usually a book a day.

Do you have any pets?

I have a Scotty dog named Ace, a cat named Bibbs and some unnamed fish. I especially love dogs. I've been fortunate enough to have had almost twenty wonderful dogs share my life. One of the things I  love about my fictional dogs is that they never die and will be with me always.

How long does it take to write a book?

It takes me about a year to write a novel - six months to get the rough draft down on paper and another six months to make it better. After that, it takes my publisher about a year to get the book in print, so from the time I  get an idea to the time it's a book, it's about two years.