I keep a little notebook with me all the time because it’s very strange with Amelia Bedelia. In fact, I have it here. Right here. A little notebook, which is very — I mean it’s a — kids say, “Well, how do I become a writer?” Step one, get a notebook and just start making notes because especially with Amelia Bedelia, a lot of the things you hear are things you’ve heard a million times.
It’s raining cats and dogs. How many times have you heard that? But I’m thinking, well, how would Amelia Bedelia think about that? Well, she would say, “Oh, goody. We’re going to get a free pet.” And that takes, you know, that is a launching pad for a whole other story. And so it’s funny because a lot of the things you hear, you would never suspect. It just sort of washes over everybody because we hear these things all the time, but I sort of — I’m hearing them the way Amelia Bedelia would. And so sometimes I’m sure I look pretty strange to my friends ‘cause they’ll say something completely normal and completely mundane and I’ll start laughing because I thought, “Here’s what Amelia Bedelia would do with that and here’s what she’s going to do even years later.”
