Like most children's book writers, my call to writing started with my daughter, who is and has always been a clear and articulate chatter box. A few years ago, she came home from daycare making sounds and saying words that were incomprehensible. I thought something had gone awry with her verbal ability and was about to call the doctor, when my husband stopped me and suggested that I talk to our daughter more and tell her stories. I told him that I read to her every night before she went to bed. He said I should tell her stories as if talking to her to improve her speech. I did just that, making up stories on our metro rides to and from daycare. Shortly thereafter, my husband and I found out that there was absolutely nothing wrong with our daughter's verbal ability; she had been repeating words and phrases from a little girl in her class from Hong Kong and was actually speaking to us in Cantonese! From this serendipitous experience, the seed for storytelling was planted in me and has been growing ever since. In addition to writing stories for children, I write plays and food articles. I also have a doctorate in political science from Columbia University, and I am conversant in Krio, Italian, French but, unfortunately, still not in Cantonese!