Even sitting here in my home office.I look through the window over my desk onto a park. Then they combine with what I'm reading, what I've read in the past - and what I see and observe and overhear every day. The momentum of ideas keeps me going.ĭreams and daydreams, fantasies, memories, and imagination. As a writer, I feel pulled forward that way. Racers call it 'drafting,' I think, when they are pulled along by the suction created in the wake of the person ahead. Instead, I feel pulled along by ideas whirling in my head.I'm always scrambling to keep up with them. Your question 'What keeps you going?' would only have relevance for me if I felt burdened and plodding. It feels like yesterday that I wrote the sentence, 'It was Molly who drew the line,' which began that first book. The time since then has gone by like the blink of an eye: WHOOSH. Lois Lowry: My first book - A Summer to Die - was published in 1977. 's Linda Castellitto talked to Lois Lowry (via email, nicely in keeping with Gathering Blue's futuristic bent) about artists and authority, her sources of inspiration, what she reads…and what books she's working on next.ī: You've been writing books for more than 20 years (my goodness!). Lowry's most recent novel, Book Sense 76 pick* Gathering Blue, depicts a future society in which the government attempts to harness and use the talents of those like young Kira - an exceptional embroiderer and weaver with a magical eye for color.

Two of her works have won Newbery Medals: Number the Stars - which brings the reader back to the Holocaust, as seen through the eyes of young Annemarie - and The Giver, a complex, intriguing work that has inspired controversy and, in some cases, censorship. From the moving A Summer to Die to the endearing and comical Anastasia Krupnik to her most recent work, Gathering Blue, her books have garnered much praise and a devoted following. Lois Lowry's stories have been entrancing readers for more than two decades.

Gathering blue