FAQs

Q: Where were you born?

A: St. Petersburg, Florida, but my spiritual hometown is Barcelona, Spain. (Barcelona is where I feel most at home.)

Q: Did you always want to be a writer?

A: Privately, I always dreamed of becoming a writer, but I never talked about it with anybody because I figured it was a lot like becoming a famous movie actor or top-class athlete--difficult to actually achieve.

Q: What other jobs have you had?

A: Besides being a writer, I have been a waiter, teacher, interior designer, and house builder.

Q: Do you have any pets?

A: I have had many pets over the years, including cats, chickens, tropical fish, parakeets, dogs, and one rabbit that hopped sideways. (He was called FunnyBunny.) Now, I have only a "wooly-child," a schnauzer named Kubric.

Kubric, my "wooly-child."

Q: When did you become a writer?

A: I became a writer in first grade when my teacher helped me make a book and called me an "author." I didn't become a professional writer, though, until my last year of college when my poetry began to be published. When I began teaching school, I would teach during the day and write at night and on weekends. Eventually, writing began to take more and more of my time, so I became a full-time writer.

Q: What was your first book?

A: I started by writing poetry for grown-ups. That book is long out-of-print. My first book for young people was BMX Freestyle.

Q: Where do you live?

A: I live in San Diego, California.

Q: Where do you work?

A: I work at home in a spare bedroom that I've turned into an office.

Q. Are you married and do you have any kids?

A: No.

Q: Do you do anything besides writing?

A: Besides writing, I visit schools and conferences to speak about writing. I also still teach from time to time.

Q: What is your favorite book of those that you've written?

A: I'm supposed to say, "I love them all." The truth is The Littlest Wolf is my personal favorite.

Q: What is your favorite book that another author wrote?

A: Corduroy by Don Freeman.

Q: Do you have to travel for your job?

A: One of the nice things about being a writer is that I get to travel. I am invited to a lot schools to speak to children and their teachers about writing and the importance of reading. Many of those schools are located in the United States, where I have visited every state except Oklahoma and Maine for my work. Also, every year schools in other countries invite me to visit with their young people. I usually make one or two trips each year outside the United States. Some of the places I have visited are Mexico, Ecuador, England, Germany, France, Canada, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, and Italy.

This is Larry in Bilbao, Spain, in 2004.

Q: Some of your books have Spanish in them. Do you speak Spanish?

A: Yes, a little, but not nearly as well as I would like. One of my goals is to live in Spain or some other Spanish-speaking country for a year or two to improve my speaking skills.

Q: Are your books published in any languages other than English and Spanish?

A: They have been published in French, German, and Japanese.

Q: Do you have any hobbies?

A: When I'm not writing, I enjoy reading, working out at the gym, riding my mountain bike, and cooking. There's nothing better than sharing a conversation with friends around a table filled with good food!