Before I went deaf, I used to talk about my writing to kids in schools, and they always asked, “Where do you get your ideas from?” But I was too cunning for them. I knew that if I told those kids my secret, they’d write their own books, and they wouldn’t buy mine.
If you promise not to tell, here’s my secret: I used to pinch my ideas from things kids said. Now I’m deaf and can’t hear the kids, I have to climb in the school windows after dark and read their stories on the wall. That way, I can still steal their ideas.
Here’s another Aunt Effie story. Every idea in it, I stole off some kid. But don’t tell them, or they’ll start hiding their stories, and I’ll run out of ideas for another book.
—Jack Lasenby