Dragon’s Gate won the second Newbery Honor. And, actually, I feel fairly fortunate; because there’re a number of people that have won the Newbery Honor two or three times, but they usually have been close together. And that second award came to me 20 years later, and so it’s hard enough getting a book published, and it’s hard enough winning an award. But the really most difficult thing in being a writer is longevity. Most of the writers that I started out with back when I was in my twenties, they’ve stopped writing for one reason or the other. And so the fact that I’m still able to do it pleases me to no end. I mean it’s nice being a professional daydreamer, to be able to daydream and get paid for it.
