Since the inception of Not Your Mother's Book Club, every time I've asked members who they'd like me to interview, the most overwhelming requests have always been for Judy Blume. We all grew up with her books, from Freckle Juice to Fudge... to Margaret, and then of course, Forever.

I know that Judy Blume made me love reading, and reading YA in particular. I think it is safe to say that without her books, there would be no NYMBC. So please welcome, the legendary La Blume!

Hi, Judy - thanks so much for joining us. Your new book, SOUPY SATURDAYS WITH THE PAIN AND THE GREAT ONE, is for the younger set. Will you tell us a bit about it?

JB: Jennifer -- I'm cheating here -- but everything I can tell you about the book is already on my website -- so to save time I've pulled up that page. Thanks for understanding!

Seven energetic and comical new stories about the spunky siblings first seen in The Pain and the Great One. In equally sassy voices Abigail, 8, and Jake, 6, capture slices of Saturday life, from getting haircuts to dog-sitting. With sly illustrations by James Stevenson. The first in a series of four chapter books.

I first wrote about the Pain and the Great One when my kids were six and eight years old. I’ve always wanted to write about these characters again, but this time in a longer book where I could get to know their family and their friends. I wrote one story a couple of years ago just to see if I could do it. I liked it and thought, “This is going to be fun!” But then other projects got in the way so I had to put the Pain and the Great One away. Finally, I said, “It’s now or never!

Last summer I sat around with my grown daughter and son (who inspired the original picture book) and shared some of the stories I’d written. They started to reminisce --

“Remember the magnifying glass?”
“Remember the bully on the bus?”

Soon, my daughter was reminding my son that she was the Great One, and he was the Pain. My grandson found it wildly funny to see his Mom and his favorite uncle acting like six and eight year old siblings.

When I thought I had finished the book I realized that Fluzzy, the cat, needed to have his say, too. I liked writing from Fluzzy’s point of view. So now all four chapter books in this mini series will end with Fluzzy.

The Title: All the stories in this book take place on Saturdays. And the haircutter’s name is Mr. Soupy. Put that together and you get Soupy Saturdays. (Plus there’s more about soup but I don’t want to give that away here.)

How is it different to write an early chapter book than to write a YA book or an adult book? Do you approach the writing differently?

JB: The writing process is exactly the same for me. And it's always hard, especially the first draft. The one difference is, I've never written short stories. Even though the main characters are the same in each story (the Pain and the Great One) it means coming up with more ideas -- (specifically seven ideas for each of the four books). You know that question - where do you get your ideas? That's my least fav question. It's a question that scares me because I'm never really sure. With novels, things evolve. I feel exactly the same as Jerry Spinelli when he says, it's the middle of a novel that's the hardest part. With a book of short stories for young kids there's not much room for a middle. You have to keep the energy level up the whole time.

What is your writing routine? Do you have any weird writing habits?

JB: If I don't write in the morning, I won't write all day. So it's really important, when I'm writing a book, not to get sidetracked by e-mail or my blog (or other blogs) before I start my real work for the day. That's what I tell myself, anyway. I need three hours of quiet time -- from 9-12, let's say - to get a book going. After lunch I'll read over what I wrote earlier and make notes -- lots of notes on the printout -- you wouldn't believe what my early drafts look like! You wouldn't believe how many drafts I go through with each book, either. But I probably won't do any new writing in the afternoon. That's when I should do my e-mail, go to the gym, and catch up with everything else.

As for weird writing habits -- I wish I could tell you I can't write without twirling around the room three times, or sharpening 20 pencils, or dressing like my main character -- or something even weirder -- but that wouldn't be true. I have enough distractions in my life. Maybe that's why I don't have any weird writing habits. Now, if you ask my grown kids -- I know they think I have lots of weird habits! (They're just not weird writing habits!)

I know it is probably a bit like picking favorite children, but -- what have been a few of the favorite characters that you've created, and why?

JB: It is like asking a mother which is your favorite child? It's not a question I can answer easily or happily. Once I get started I can't stop. But okay -- Margaret is one of my favorites because she brought me my first readers. And Fudge is everyone's favorite and was based on my son Larry when he was a toddler. Then there's Sally J. the character who's most like the kid I was. See, I told you once you get me started....

What books did you love when you were a kid / teenager?

JB: When I was about 9 or 10 I started reading the Betsy/Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace. I loved those books. The series begins when the girls are very young and it goes all the way to Betsy's wedding.

When I was a teenager (actually, by the time I was 12) I was browsing in the bookshelves at our house. My parents were both readers and I found some fantastic books on my own. Lucky for me, nobody ever told me what books I could read and what books I couldn't. There were no YA books then. I remember my mother handing me Ann Frank's Diary of a Young Girl and To Kill a Mockingbird years before those books were ever assigned reading at school. I loved them. I found Catcher in the Rye on my own. I remember sitting on the floor reading it. That got me interested in everything else Salinger wrote. But Catcher was recently assigned reading in my grandson's class and he couldn't stand it. He didn't identify at all. He liked Frank Portman's novel about the boy who didn't like Catcher. I read a lot of books before I had any idea what they were about, like Ayn Rand's Fountainhead, and The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow. I liked reading about the things adults kept from children. I hated secrets. I still do.

If you could give a teenage aspiring writer any advice, what would it be?

JB: Never give up. Don't let anyone discourage you. You write because you have to, because of some burning inside you. Nobody writes because it's a cool thing to do. It's too hard. And it never gets any easier. But you'll get better and better at the craft of writing. I don't think I could have survived without writing, or maybe it was the creative work I needed so badly, maybe it could have been any creative outlet. I don't know. What I do know is how glad I am to have found my way.

Is there any question you WISH I had asked that I didn't?

JB: check out my website judyblume.com and you'll find everything you ever thought about asking. My new website (same name, same info, cool graphics, and better organized) should be launched very soon. And I'm trying to Blog -- which reminds me, it's been a couple of weeks since my last entry! Better get to that right now.

Thanks so much!

Thank you!

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There are about a million questions I wanted to ask and didn't have the time or presence of mind to get to. Visit Judy online for tons more, HERE.

Read Judy's blog HERE.

Buy Soupy Saturdays, or any of Judy Blume's books, from a very sweet independent bookseller HERE.

Visit today's other WBBT sites:

Lisa Ann Sandell at Chasing Ray
Perry Moore at Interactive Reader
Autumn Cornwell at The Ya Ya Yas
Jon Scieszka at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
Gabrielle Zevin at Jen Robinson's Book Page
Erik P. Kraft at Bookshelves of Doom
Clare Dunkle at Miss Erin
Christopher Barzak at Shaken & Stirred