Whenever I travel, I seem to get sick - it's probably inevitable when you're on a plane every single day.

I was fortunate to have many teachers who encouraged me - one of the first was Dianne Derrick, my 5th grade teacher at Woodbury Elementary. She challenged us to write creatively and praised my work, but most importantly, she treated writing like it was important.

I'm ashamed to admit that I very seldom read poetry, even though many of my friends are poets.

My mother wrote a teen column for the South China Morning Post in the 1950s when she was growing up in Hong Kong. Her name was Lily Mark, but she sometimes wrote under her confirmation name, Margaret Mark. That was how she met my father.

Buying new books supports the writer by providing both a royalty and an audience; a writer whose book sells well has a better chance of selling another.

When my father finished his Ph.D., my mother went back for another bachelor's degree, this time in environmental science.