Fast Facts About Ann
- Ann was born in Princeton, New Jersey, during Hurricane Connie. She was the biggest baby in the hospital.
- When Ann was little, she thought foxes lived under her bed. Since she didn't think this was a good thing, she kept the overhead light on in her room all night.
- When the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620, Ann's ancestors (on her mother's side) were on it!
- When Ann was 11 years old, she fell off of a ladder while climbing down from her treehouse and had to have her spleen removed. (The spleen is a small organ that helps to clean the blood, but luckily, you can live without it!) She had to stay in the hospital for a week.
- Ann became pen pals with one of the first readers ever to send her a fan letter, Kathy Ames. It was because of Kathy that Ann and Paula Danziger met. Paula and Ann became great friends and writing partners (P.S. Longer Later Later and Snail Mail No More.)
- Ann loves scary books, and Stephen King is one of her favorite authors.
- Ann still gets very, very nervous when she has to talk in front of a crowd, even though she's been doing it for years!
- When Ann was just learning to sew, one of her first projects was a set of white, blue and red curtains for her father's art studio. They hung in his studio for years until he retired.
- Until a couple of years ago, Ann wrote every one of her manuscripts in longhand. Now she's very comfortable working on her computer.
- At one time when Ann was growing up, the Martin family had nine cats! (Five of them were family cats and then one had kittens.)
- Sadie, Ann's three-year old beagle mix/golden retriever puppy, is the first dog she has ever had.
- Ann's father is a well-known cartoonist whose works were published in The New Yorker (a famous literary magazine).
- When Ann was little, she had a special blanket that she named Mommy Blanket. All these years later, she still has it (although she swears she can fall asleep without it!).
- Ann and her best friend, Beth, loved to play a game called Secret Agents. They'd spy on people and pretend to be talking on walkie-talkie sets.
- On a train trip to California as a teenager, Ann read Harriet the Spy. She and her sister spied on the other passengers and took notes in a secret notebook.
- One summer, Ann and her friends set up a library in Ann's room with lots of books for the kids on Dodds Lane to check out. They had due dates and late fines, too.
- Ann has always been an early riser. Her parents had to make a rule that she couldn't wake them up before 6:30 a.m.
- Ann never went to sleep-away camp. She got all her story ideas about camp from listening to her more adventurous friends!
- Ann spent many of her teenage summers vacationing at the beach on the Jersey shore with her friend, Beth, and their families. The girls swam, sunbathed, took walks, flirted with the lifeguards, and ate doughnuts at the jetty on the beach.
- Ann's favorite classes in junior high and high school were English and French. Her least favorite class was Math. She always uses a calculator, and if she has to, she'll count on her fingers!
- Ann hates to wear lipstick. She says it feels funny on her lips and that it smells bad!
- Ann's favorite old-time movies are The Wizard of Oz and To Kill a Mockingbird.
- One summer during college, Ann and a friend drove to Kentucky in a huge Chrysler that had been named Quasimodo. Ann was so nervous driving this monster car, and she was very happy when they arrived home safe and sound!
- Ann loved writing about Karen, Kristy's little sister. She thinks that Karen is her alter ego, the kind of girl she wished she could have been at the same age.
- Most days Ann is dressed in jeans, a polo shirt or a turtleneck, and a pair of white sneakers. But she's always happy to get dressed up if she has something special to go to.
- One of Ann's favorite childhood memories is watching The Wizard of Oz on her friend's color television set. These were very rare, so it was a real treat to see everything turn to color when Dorothy lands in Oz.
- Ann loves the I Love Lucy show. She has almost all of the episodes on videotape, and her favorite one is The Operetta.
- Ann has a sweet tooth (especially ice cream and chocolate). But she makes sure she doesn't keep a lot of treats in the house, because if they're there, they might get devoured!
- Ann hates to cook, which is unfortunate, because she enjoys eating.
