The Glory Girl

The one non-singing member of the Glory Gospel singers feels left out like her misfit uncle Newt until the day the Glory family bus is involved in a terrible accident.

Sometimes I get ideas for my books from kids letters. I was in the middle of writing The Glory Girl and I got a letter from a boy who said he and his brother were killing each other. His brother had found an old bike on the dump pile and it didn't have a chain or tires. He took it to the top of the hill and started down. The brother who didn't have a bike jumped out from behind a bush and said, "Nyaaah!" The bike hit him in the chest, knocked him down, rolled over his head, and the place where the chain should have been punched holes in his head. If I got letters like that I'd never have to think what to say next.