Author Judy Blume grew up thinking she was the only one with stories rumbling around in her imagination. As she became a writer, she remembered her curiosity as a kid and knew she wanted to write about real life, how it worked, and what made people tick. Usually before starting a book, she would have a seed of a character or situation, which would marinate in her mind until she knew she was ready to put pen to paper. For a current book in progress, her first historical novel, the plot and characters came like a bolt, and she immediately plunged into research, something she had never done for any of her previous books.
