S.L.
Where do you get the ideas for your books?

K.C.
My ideas come from reading and listening and living; they come from making mistakes and figuring things out. Ideas come from wondering a lot—such as what would happen if a certain situation occurred—and then, what would happen next?

S.L.
What do you find so interesting about the medieval times?

K.C.
The time period appeals to me because I think of the Middle Ages moving into the Renaissance as like a child growing into adolescence. At this point in history, people began to have concerns about identity and concerns about appearance. Men and women began to pay attention to how they looked, and all of a sudden, there were books written about manners. There were also concerns about accountability and privacy. These are some of the same issues that today's adolescents face.

S.L.
Are the feast days, noted with each journal entry in Catherine, Called Birdy authentic?

K.C.
Yes, the feast days honoring saints are authentic. In fact, I just read a quote that said "by the year 1200, there were more than 25,000 saints." It was easy to become a saint in those days, because making a person a saint wasn't an official act of the Church.

I found most of my information about saints and what deeds were attributed to them in the "Oxford Dictionary of Saints." These were saints of England, because that's where the stories take place.

S.L.
Catherine uses the phrase "corpus bones" in many of her diary entries. What does it mean?

K.C.
It apparently refers to the body of Christ. Or, if it's a corruption of the Latin word for good, it might mean "good body." Children ask about this particular phrase whenever I speak in a classroom, so I use it to make a point.

I did not document my source for "corpus bones." And I always point out that this is a very good lesson about the importance of documenting your research. I read the phrase, copied it into my notebook of language used during the Middle Ages, and did not record the source. I should have documented where I found it.

S.L.
What type of sources do you use for your novels?

K.C.
I use general histories of the period and I search out as many primary sources as I can find. Primary sources are first hand accounts of life and incidents in letter form, private journals, and personal papers. Then I read books about the manners, clothing, agriculture, foods, and even recipes of the period.

Readers will note that I list some of the sources in an author's note at the back of the books. Anyone who is interested in a subject can do research. All you need to do is find one good reference book and look up the bibliography. Select the books that interest you and start reading, recording and documenting.

S.L.
Why did you write Catherine, Called Birdy as a diary?

K.C.
There were two reasons: I thought the diary form would give readers a more personal picture of this young girl in a time and place that may be very foreign to today's children. The diary form made the story more intimate and immediate.

The other reason was that diary entries allowed readers to see Catherine through their eyes and through her eyes at the same time. And the difference between the two points of view brought out a lot of humor, because Catherine, at times, took herself much more seriously than we would.

S.L.
What advice do you have for young people who would like to be authors?

K.C.
Think of an idea or topic that is so strong within you that it's going to come out passionately as you write about it. Because that's what shines in a book. And then, do a lot of work—reading and research—to add layers of story to your idea.

S.L.
Your characters are very strong and memorable and I hate to say goodbye to them when I close the book. Do you ever plan to revisit any of them in future books?

K.C.
I considered writing sequels, but I've realized that sequels often disappoint too many people. Different people have their own expectations for what should happen to characters, and the ideas are so varied that it would be difficult to write a sequel that would please everybody.

S.L.
A teacher states: Catherine, Called Birdy and The Midwife's Apprentice are intriguing books. But I am quite uncomfortable about using crude language when such controversial elements fuel the fire for public censorship. Was it necessary to use such graphic descriptions and vulgar language?

K.C.
I used those words because they are the words that were in general use at the time. They were not considered crude at the time. We think of them as crude today, but they were the generally accepted terms describing bodily functions in medieval times. I wanted the books to be as authentic as possible. And I think that is why people like the books, because the details ring true. It would be out of character to have the protagonists use words from another time.