Have you ever thrown away a book that you just couldn’t make work?

I have abandoned any number of outlines. The advantage of outlining or framing your story ahead of writing is that you don’t get halfway in and realize you have a dud. A novel’s storyline has to be something the writer can live with for 10-14 months. It’s a relationship, not a one night stand.

How has writing the Kingdom Keepers books changed your life?

Writers create worlds where the imagination is set free to roam. Sometimes that world is down the street, or inside your home. Sometimes it is a world of hope or despair. As writers, we buy into our own creations. What has been compelling about the Kingdom Keepers series is the ability to translate a world that already exists, but a world where imagination is already built into it: they realm of Disney. It is such an honor to be given the access I am given, to be allowed to “push” the boundaries of what’s already there. I strive to treat the material with the respect and even reverence it deserves. I hope to embellish one’s Disney experience––not ever attempting “to improve” or even come close to what is already there.

​For me, this world, this series, continues to excite me as a writer, to take me places I’ve never been (but have dreamed about going, creatively) to give me license to open my imagination and travel to new and unusual places with people (my characters) I’ve come to love and feel as friends, and enemies. I’m ever grateful to my readers and to Disney to let me take this ride.

Is the Escher Keep real?

Escher’s Keep is one of the few fictionalized attractions in the books. I did visit the apartment but wanted to come up with a more interesting way to reach it.

Is Wayne a real person?

Wayne works as a loader at Splash Mountain. If you see a white haired guy loading on log…that’s him and you can ask him. He is retiring mid 2014, so hope you get a chance to meet him before he goes!