1. What made you decide to become an author?

Elizabeth Van Steenwyk: I remember the day it began. I was ten years old and came home from school in a high state of excitement. Running into my room, I pulled out a pad of paper and a pencil. Then I heard my friend, Jeannie, calling me. Quickly, I ran out to the front porch and told her that I couldn't play because I had to write a story. No one told me I had to except me, and what propelled me into my room to that pad of paper and pencil was simply a desire to write something down. A story. My grandmother had told me stories in Swedish, my mother in English, until I began to read them for myself. Now it was my turn to write one. Something inside made the decision for me to become a writer.

2. What's a typical workday like?

Elizabeth Van Steenwyk: There's no such thing as a typical day for me. It all depends on the part of the creative process in which I'm involved and whether it's fiction or non-fiction. I always begin with a look at my e-mail and answer that immediately. Then I read what I've written during the previous writing session, make changes, and move on.

If I'm writing non-fiction, I outline at my computer or write with a pencil on lined, yellow sheets of paper. I develop chapter heads and then create chapter envelopes into which I begin gathering material for that chapter. All the while I am researching, usually at the Huntington Library which is only two blocks from my home. I spend weeks, occasionally months there, gathering information to fill my outline. Finally, the writing process begins to turn my data into what I hope is a useful, entertaining non-fiction book.

If I'm involved in a work of fiction, I write and rewrite and pace. Sometimes I go for a walk outdoors to stretch my mind as well as my body. As I near the end of a piece of fiction, I begin to carry the manuscript with me wherever I go. Because characters and plot are so much a part of me by then, I need to be able to change something or add something that might come to me any time, anywhere. It's comforting to be able to look into my purse or folder or briefcase and find that manuscript wherever I am should I want to look at it.

In the late afternoon I talk to friends, read a book, go for another walk, or, in the summer, swim. Some of my writer friends and I used to gather for what we called "literary swims." We swam and talked about books, ours already published, works in progress, or something special one of us had read.

3. Where do the ideas for your books come from?

Elizabeth Van Steenwyk: Everywhere. My memories, a subject I've just read about, a moment in history, inspiring historical characters, a place where I've been, my children, now my grandchildren, school children to whom I've spoken, current events. The air is alive with ideas waiting for a receptive mind.

4. How much research do you do before you begin writing? Can you give any examples of unusual research for any of your books?

Elizabeth Van Steenwyk: I always do some research before I undertake any project. First, I check to see if this subject has been written about before and if there is room for another book on the same subject. If the answer is yes, I begin. Then I ask myself if enough material is available in research or in my mind to sustain a plot, characters, setting, and theme. If I don't have enough, will I be able to write a complete story?

Sometimes an idea comes roaring along like a freight train. That's what happened with A Traitor among Us. My husband and I were in The Netherlands, out for a Sunday afternoon drive when we happened upon a museum. Not just your average museum, but one created on a battlefield after World War II. Now, many years later, it was still there, just as the soldiers had left it in 1944 when the Allied and German soldiers had thrown down their weapons of war and walked away. My story-head moved into overdrive as we strolled the grounds, looking at tanks, fox holes, old weapons rusty with age, and personal belongings of soldiers who'd lived through the battle. By the time we left, I had the nucleus of a story. To this, I added interviews, many from primary sources about their experiences as teenagers in Holland during World War II. Then I headed for a museum in downtown Amsterdam where an exhibition of snapshots by Dutch citizens taken during the Nazi occupation told me much about dress and personal fashion. Those pictures gave me more intimate details. Finally a small newspaper article about dogs and their role in wartime Europe added to my story. This was unique and fascinating research at its best for me.

5. Do you rewrite much?

Elizabeth Van Steenwyk: All the time, every day, again and again. I have no idea how many times I rewrite a manuscript, nor is there an ideal number. Recently, though, I kept track of rewrites for a picture book manuscript. Underneath a table in my workroom, I have ten versions for that one story and probably ten more in which I only changed a few words, not enough to demand a complete rewrite of the entire manuscript.

6. Do you have any advice for would-be authors?

Elizabeth Van Steenwyk: My advice is to learn your craft and then enjoy the process of writing a story. There's nothing like the process. Putting those words down on paper is exhilarating, the ultimate high. Don't worry if it sells or not, don't worry about getting an agent, don't worry about options or any of the other buzz words you hear at writers' conferences. Enjoy the craft and the process of writing. If you do, you've already succeeded.

7. What characteristics do writers need most?

Elizabeth Van Steenwyk: Writers need patience, curiosity, persistence, creativity, and the insatiable ability to dream.

8. Can you tell us one thing people may not know about you?

Elizabeth Van Steenwyk: When I was nine, I secretly envied a little friend who could tap dance and play the violin at the same time. Many people, in fact, admired her. I thought that if I learned how to play the accordion and tap dance at the same time, people would admire me as well, perhaps even more because the accordion was much bigger than a violin. However, my parents could not buy one for me because it was much too expensive. I felt quite deprived until I later tried to play someone else's and found out how much accordions weighed. Tons, it seemed to a nine-year-old. No way could I ever dance while playing one of them. Secretly, I was glad that my parents couldn't afford the price of an accordion, thereby helping me out of a wish fulfillment that was so impractical. Since I was already taking tap dancing lessons, however, I concentrated on that as my performing talent. I continued to take dancing lessons for many years even as an adult and can still do a pretty mean time step.

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