David Mraz

Born within eyesight of the Hollywood sign on one

side and the Pacific Ocean on the other, I grew up with the notion that I would be a sort of sailor film-maker. As one who has always read signs in random events, it made sense to me that I would spend my life scuttling up and down ratlines, furling, hauling in and out and reefing and hoisting mains'ls, stays'ls and jibs while sailing around the world, and--when I had a free minute or two--settling in, in the cockpit, to make movies.

Well, that didn't work out for me. I did do a lot of sailing--not around the world, but around the California Channel Islands--which are their own little world. And I have written many picture-books and a couple novels, which are kind of little movies.

So I guess, in a way, it did work out for me.

Along the way I did a lot of traveling--Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Latin America. Then I went to college and taught school for some 30-odd years ("Some of them," to steal a line from Groucho Marx, "the oddest years around!"), during which time I fell in love, got married and raised two kids.

When I started teaching, I started writing--which is its own kind of traveling.

So I guess, in a way, that worked out for me, too.