About A.C. LeMieux

     For me, stories are parallel universes. If the world a writer creates is vital enough, and populated by characters who ring with authenticity, be it a fantasy world of mice, or realistic fiction, I'm living in it while I'm reading it. And with certain books, even after I close the cover, part of me keeps living on in that other world—or it keeps living in me.

     I grew up  in Fairfield, Connecticut, on a dead-end street, with lots of big old houses filled with big families, the second oldest of seven, six of them brothers. I was an insatiable reader and  used to steal my older brother Michael's books when I ran out of fresh reading material of my own, which may have contributed to the fact that I often write from a boy's point of view. 

     My freshman English teacher at Notre Dame Girls High School really brought literature alive for me. A few of the books that had an impact on my own writing were To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Cress Delahanty by Jessamyn West, and The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy. Both Scout and Cress were girls struggling to forge their identities within the confines of their particular societal expectations.  And I think I identified with something about the rebellious, chaotic Eustacia Vye, in whose "brain were juxtaposed the strangest assortment of ideas, from old time and from new." (The book was my first acquaintance with the landscape of southwest England, Hardy's "Wessex" which would draw me for a semester of independent studies as a college student.)  In high school, I also developed something of a passion for research—literary, historical, and scientific, especially physics—often driven by the need to satisfy my insatiable curiosity.

     While attending Simmons College in Boston (majoring in writing— mostly nonfiction and journalism because creative writing intimidated me—and minoring in illustration) I started keeping daily journals. This developed the habit of observing life, collecting details, data, as well as musing on the meaning of it all.  My first published piece, an article on the Arthurian tradition (an interest sparked by reading T.H. White's The Once And Future King which I stole from my older brother Michael), was written, after a year of rigorous research, during my independent study semester abroad in England my junior year.

     Once I graduated from college, I felt I didn't own an original thought or idea, so I decided to stop writing and concentrate on living. I went back to school to study music—jazz, classical, and acoustic finger style guitar. I also got married and had two children, which kept me very much in touch with children's literature.  Every once in a while, the urge to write would come over me like a spell, and I'd write an article about whatever interested me at the time, sailing, music. Eventually a number of those were published. 

     After my  son Brendan was born in 1987, I felt I'd acquired enough experience, lived enough life to have accumulated some perhaps original thoughts, and I signed up for a children's book writing course at Fairfield University. Four years and probably a dozen manuscripts later, I sold my first book, The TV Guidance Counselor. 

     Over the course of my career, I've published eleven titles with William Morrow, Avon, Simon and Schuster, Aladdin, Harper Collins, including award winning fiction for young adults, middle grade and early readers. 

     In 2000, Brendan was diagnosed with Williams syndrome (“WS”), a rare genetic condition described by Oliver Sacks as “a hypermusical species.” I read every piece of medical literature I could get hold of, which back then wasn't all that much, trying to understand the ramifications of this condition on my son's life and being. Our lives took a sharp detour and my book writing took a back seat to being Brendan’s Sherpa, helping him climb his daily mountains, including a ten-year stint as manager/roadie/ fill-in bass-and-guitar player for his band of WS musicians, the Kandoo Band. 

      Now I live in a small, book-filled 1918 bungalow near New Haven, Connecticut, with my husband Tim Pocock, and Brendan. I've just finished  a new Upper Middle Grade novel (SEE THE MUSIC, HEAR THE LIGHT!) whose main character has Williams syndrome. I'm also in the process of editing a research-intensive "medical mom-oir", a collection of 41 essays, about our journey to a diagnosis of Williams syndrome.