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I was born in Boston, Massachusetts. My big brother was already 8 years old when I entered the family, so I was the "baby" and got lots of attention.
When I was in third grade, my family moved to Brookline, Massachusetts. I got to choose the exterior color of our new house. I chose pink!
In school, I was the smallest kid in my classes. I made good grades, but sometimes my conduct grade needed improvement because I was a chatterbox. I loved to read, but I wasn't very good at P.E.
At home, my favorite activity was playing with paperdolls. I had a shoebox full of them. When I found a cartoon figure or magazine photo that I especially liked, I clipped it out and added it to my collection. I made up relationships and problems for my paperdolls, dressed them, and moved them around in houses and cars and yards that were actually scatter rugs and bedspreads. I made up voices for my dolls and pretended they were talking to each other.
As a grownup, writing is my favorite activity. Maybe this is another way to play with paperdolls? When I write, I move my characters around in places that I've imagined. I create relationships, give my characters problems to solve, and let them talk to each other. (As a writer, I get to be the "boss" - if my characters don't want to do what I tell them, then I erase them!)
I've always been very eager to please people. When I played paperdolls, adults would tell me what a good little girl I was, because I was keeping quiet and amusing myself. Writing is also a quiet activity and very amusing. But it's better than playing paperdolls because I get to share my characters with thousands of new friends.
 I went to college at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. That's where I met my husband, Chester. We both went to graduate school at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Then we moved to Athens, Georgia, so Chester could teach in the Psychology Department at the University of Georgia. I taught, too - in public schools in Clarke and Oconee County, GA. We raised our two daughters in Georgia. (Our older daughter, Leslie, is a clinical psychologist in Seattle. Our younger daughter, Geneva, has a degree in Natural Resources; she has been on projects to study endangered hawksbill sea turtles in Hawaii, spotted owls in California, and salmon in Washington state. You can see my family in the brown portrait, below.)
What did I teach? I began teaching English, Creative Writing, and Drama to high school students. Then I taught Reading and English to middle school'ers enrolled in the gifted program. Later, I taught Social Studies, Language Arts, Science, Math, and Enrichment to gifted elementary school students. All together, I spent 13 years in the classroom, and I taught students in grades 3 through 12.
I stopped teaching so I could spend all my time finishing my second book, Seaman, the Dog Who Explored the West with Lewis and Clark. I do return to school, as a visiting author. (This is even more fun than teaching, because now I'm the “special event!”)
If you want to read more about me, look in the reference set, Something About the Author. Or click to connect to these interviews:
http://3questionsandanswers.blogspot.com/2008/07/interviewwith-childrens-author-gail.html
http://www.sylvandellpublishing.com/Interviews.htm (On this page, you can listen to radio
interviews, as well as read a text interview.)
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