Frequently Asked Questions

When will your next book be published, and what's it about?

Knopf will publish Dark Water, Laura's solo novel, on September 14, 2010. Dark Water was inspired by the southern California wildfires of 2007 and puts three people in the path of an inferno blowing through the Santa Margarita riverbed: a 15-year-old girl named Pearl, the homeless migrant worker she loves, and Pearl's uncle, who goes looking for them on a dirt bike.

How do you write together?
When will your next book be published, and what's it about?
Do you divide up the characters by gender, with Tom writing the boys and Laura writing the girls?
Will there be a sequel to Crooked?
Where do you write?
Which ideas tend to come first—the characters that populate your books, or the storylines that drive them?
Do you see characters’ faces as you write?
Is the paper from Ms. Hekkity’s shop (in The Decoding of Lana Morris) truly magical, or are the events following the drawings merely coincidences?
How often do you revise?
What kinds of books did you read as a teenager, and what do you read now?

How do you write together?

When will your next book be published, and what's it about?

Do you divide up the characters by gender, with Tom writing the boys and Laura writing the girls?

Will there be a sequel to Crooked?

Where do you write?

Which ideas tend to come first—the characters that populate your books, or the storylines that drive them?

Do you see characters’ faces as you write?

Is the paper from Ms. Hekkity’s shop (in The Decoding of Lana Morris) truly magical, or are the events following the drawings merely coincidences?

How often do you revise?

What kinds of books did you read as a teenager, and what do you read now?