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So the America I came to know growing up was filled with all the excitement and possibilities found in living the American dream.

I had an amazing childhood.

It was a great childhood. We weren't especially wealthy or anything, but I felt I had a kind of safety and freedom.

Even as a kid, I saw the world in my own way and thought most things that were different were beautiful and magical. Even things that other people thought were horrifying and disgusting and weird.

As a parent with young children, I would always find little things that bothered me when I was reading bedtime stories or watching shows or listening to children's music. I couldn't find any stories, games or television shows that were fun and exciting while also being morally instructive and patriotic.

I always wondered what it was like to be just a normal kid growing up in trying times or during a great moment in history.

I had a very normal, very typical American childhood. My father worked for the government at the Pentagon and my mother was an educator, so we had a very average upbringing, but that's helped me in my writing because I'm writing about ordinary things.

As a kid, I felt really weird.

All I can say is that I had an extraordinary childhood.