Freaky Friday-Interview with aspiring children’s author Hilary Sierpinski

September 18, 2009 |

If you’ve seen the movie Freaky Friday, you know that its premise is about change and growth through role reversal. For my Friday Blog entry I thought it would be interesting to interview aspiring writers; the same writers who spend lots of time reading the interviews of published authors and dreaming of the day when they might get their book on the shelves…
This week’s interview is with Hilary Sierpinski. Hilary and I have yet to meet face to face, but that hasn’t stopped us from getting know each other on Verla Kay’s Blue Boards and on Facebook. One of the things that has captured my attention with Hilary is her really cool blog The Bone Digger’s Underground , but more about that later.
Lets get started…tell your new fans a little bit about yourself.
I’m not one of those people who felt she was born to be a writer. I have a B.A. in Art History, a very writing intensive discipline but scholarly writing is very different than fiction writing but it was then I first started thinking about it. I minored in studio art, had great visions of myself as a painter but found I resonated with sculpture more, and in fact married a sculptor! I graduated and quickly realized that a B.A. in Art History wasn’t going to get me very far but a PhD wasn’t in the cards so I went back to school and got my graduate certification in Art Education. I taught in the public school systems about a year, learning that administrators frown on teachers that encourage non-violent forms of anarchy…or just about any kind of independent thinking. In other words, it wasn’t a good fit. I left public education to do Public Relations and Development work for non-profit arts organizations. During these years I decided I wanted to try my hand at writing, and specifically writing for kids.
When I found out I was pregnant with our little boy (Cole who is now six) I had not envisioned myself as a stay at home mom. Then something terrible and wonderful happened. The delivery was very difficult and while Cole, thank goodness, came through it all right, I had a long recovery. It was two years in fact before I could sit sans pillow! I had also had a change of heart once Cole was born. I wanted to be home with him, and was really too ill to return back to the job I had at the time, which was very demanding and required long hours. I may have not been the most comfortable during those years, but I had been given the gift of time, time with my son and time to follow the little voice in my head that said write and I’ve been writing steadily ever since.
This is a perfect start and by the way, we’re kindred souls. Before I stayed home with my boys, I was a Special Education teacher working with children with behavioral difficulties. I very quickly learned that non-violent anarchy is frowned upon. I was often frustrated because the “right” thing to do for a child wasn’t always the politically correct thing. When my oldest son was born I unhappily left my students behind, but happily left the job.

I’m going to jump right in and ask an unrelated question. I’ve peeked at your blog and it’s loaded with fascinating things about you and your writing. Can you tell us a little bit about it?

My writing. First of all I believe that “write what you know” is bad advice. I started off writing what I knew and while I was new to fiction writing, I wasn’t new to reading and it was bad. The idea for THE CIPHER OF ANU-K’AI came in a quiet moment where I literally asked “what should I write about” out loud. The answer came in a black and white image in my head, very detailed, of a Native American. My first thought was no, sorry, next please. It was unfamiliar territory, but I didn’t shut it out entirely. Later that day I was at the computer and felt compelled to google Chief Sitting Bull, and there it was, the exact picture I saw in my head earlier. How the story I wrote came to be fully formed in my head I can’t even remember, but I was definitely writing it down, not thinking it up.
That being said, my love for history and archaeology, art an artifacts informs how I write. I am fascinated by how little we know about the world around us, and how often what we thought we knew turns out to be flawed. The Sistine Chapel is a perfect example. For years Art Historians expounded on Michelangelo’s use of “sfumato.” And then they cleaned it and discovered his “sfumato” was smog. And what hasn’t been discovered? The devastating 2005 Tsunami in Indonesia uncovered an ancient port city…how many more are out there? I don’t think we have a clue how old, or interesting the history of civilization is on this planet, so even the most fantastical part of my writing is connected to our earth and it’s history, because I think there is enough magic and mystery right in our own backyards. Even the chapter book I’m tinkering with is rooted in science, so I guess you could say I’ve always got one foot in the make believe and one foot grounded in “reality” whatever that is!
I couldn’t agree more. I think there’s a nugget of “something you know” in everything you write. It’s the platform from which you push off of, but it’s only the start. The yearning to know and discover something within yourself creates the deepest and truest stories. I read the synopsis of THE CIPHER OF ANU-K’AI that was on your blog. You have to share a little bit of it with us. It sounds like Dan Brown meets National Treasure for middle graders. I already covet an advance reader copy for my boys-they would love it!

Well, after several years of trying to land an agent I think I’ve given up on CIPHER. I think I might suffer from what Steven King calls timid writing, so I’m starting from page one…same characters and going a little more Mulder and Scully with it. We’ll see! But I’d be happy to share my trials and tribulations with it as well! Thanks for your kind words and your interest!
I admire your tenacity. I think that fear lurks in the back of everyone’s minds. I’m glad you’re not abandoning it because the concept sounds really interesting. I’m looking forward to hearing about your progress with it in the future. It takes a lot of courage to reinvent your own story. For me, the initial sting of criticism, aka learning I’m not perfect is difficult but I’ve discovered that I really enjoy the growth that comes from revision. Having said that I have yet to restart from scratch, so I bow to your dedication.

Now that I’m getting to know you a bit, is their any chance that I’ll bump into you at a conference somewhere? Basically, the loyal readers of this blog want to know the best way to stalk you LOL!

I have never joined SCBWI if you can believe it. Being able to stay home with Cole and write means we can’t afford conferences and honestly, with Verla’s I never felt like I was missing out not being a member. So I guess I can be stalked on-line or in my local supermarket!
The Blue Boards are great that way. We love you Verla! I guess we’ll have to make do with growing our friendship on line. You may want to watch your back in the grocery aisle that stores the ice cream…I hang out there ;o)

Can you also tell us a little bit more about your blog and the other WIP’s?

I envisioned my blog as an extension of my writing, not a personal journal. The Bone Diggers’ Underground I hope, will one day serve as sort of a community meeting room for kids interested in the type of stories I post about, like a big newspaper of the unconventional that follows the Bone Diggers’ creed, “Question Everything. Unearth the Truth.”
It’s hard to talk about CIPHER now, because it is changing so much in my mind. I think I had already mentioned it is taking a much more agents Scully and Mulder turn…think Indiana Jones meets the X-Files.
The Chapter Book I’m working on gets the short end of the stick because I’m so caught up in CIPHER (or whatever it will be called now!) but essentially, BORISLAV THE TERRIBLE AND THE WAYWARD STINKBOMB is a humorous chapter book that follows Calvin, the most normal kid in school who finds himself in a heap of trouble ever since a mad scientist started to borrow his brain. Of course no one believes him, but we find out Borislav is a very real, renegade scientist who was expelled from CERN (the real life particle physics laboratory that houses the Large Hadron Collider) and has accidentally fallen into a black hole he blew open in his living room. Borislav, Calvin learns, lives just doors down from him and somehow part of the mad scientist got “stuck” to Calvin during the explosion. With the help of his friends, Calvin has to somehow find a way to get Borislav back before he unknowingly launches another rotten egg or projectile pizza in the lunchroom and gets himself expelled.
MOLLY BROWN is another work in progress about a little girl (named for the Unsinkable Molly Brown) who has just lost her mother to cancer and then her father as he disappears into his grief. On the morning of her mother’s passing, she escapes to the streets of Brooklyn and finds herself in a Vintage clothing store and becomes the unlikely friend of the old woman who runs. The old woman helps Molly sew pieces of fabric she cuts from her mother’s clothes onto vintage pieces. Molly, who had never had many friends but who was the whole universe to her parents, suddenly feels invisible and creates these clothes as a protective shell around her. But she soon finds she isn’t that invisible…at least not to animals, especially strays. Every day it’s more and more so that every time she leaves the apartment, she has in tow a parade of creatures, including a pigeon that she swears has her mother’s eyes. MOLLY is about a girl who has to learn to see herself through her own eyes. I’m playing around with it as a screenplay with a bit of a Royal Tenenbaums feel to it.
I’m a big fan Hilary. Between your creative ideas and your drive, I have a feeling it is just a matter of when. It wouldn’t be a Freaky Friday interview without your top five…

Top 5 books in no particular order. Thanks, Kim.
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, by Maurice Sendak. I never got sent to my room as a kid, but I did lie awake wondering when my room would become a forest. As an adult, I still rate this as one of the most perfect books of all time.
THE HOBBIT, by J.R. Tolkien. “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole and that means comfort.”
Reading this was the first time I was immediately, and fully transported into a world that was not my own. And it was a wonderful adventure!
HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERERS STONE, by J.K. Rowling. When this book first hit the United States, I was teaching high school and had an early morning commute and always listened to NPR’s All Things Considered. One morning they ran a story about a little known author who was all the rage in England. They described her book signings where children were getting out of school to attend them and dressing as their favorite characters and I remember thinking to myself, what is this book? That night I drove to my local indie and bought the paper back. The first chapter blew me away, especially the ending lines. “…He couldn’t know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: “To Harry Potter—the boy who lived!”
In that one short chapter, Harry Potter became “The Boy Who Lived.” Of course we were going to follow him to the bitter end right? The power of that chapter, the wonder of her story telling captured me as it did much of the world. And when I finished the book I felt so horribly green with envy, so jealous that someone could be this good and engage so many young minds, that I knew the jealousy was telling me that this was my passion.
THE POWER OF MYTH, by Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers. This book more than any other has influenced how I write. If you are not familiar with his work, Campbell was a comparative mythologist who coined the phrase “follow your bliss.” In this book, he expounds upon the idea of a collective mythos, that we are all part of this vast pool of stories that surround us and bind us together. He sights similarities between the story of Genesis and tribal creation myths from around the globe. It was after reading this book that I began to think of stories as real, tangible things that already exist even before we “think them up.” It shaped my understanding of archetypal characters and hero journeys, and has helped me to get out of the stories way. I’m still learning how to do this, but the more I listen, the better my writing gets.
CHARLOTTE’S WEB by E.B. White. Because Wilbur is “Some Pig” and because I cried my eyes out when Charlotte dies even though I have arachnophobia.
You just gave me chills and goose bumps with your thoughts on Harry Potter and Charlotte’s Web. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview. It was a pleasure. Don’t forget to check out Hilary’s very cool blog The Bone Digger’s Underground and be sure to friend her on Facebook so you can reap the wisdom of her experiences with her re-write of CIPHER.

See you next week.

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Freaky Friday-Interview with aspiring children’s author Amy Spitzley

September 11, 2009 |

If you’ve seen the movie Freaky Friday, you know that its premise is about change and growth through role reversal. For my Friday Blog entry I thought it would be interesting to interview aspiring writers; the same writers who spend lots of time reading the interviews of published authors and dreaming of the day when they might get their book on the shelves…
Today’s Freaky Friday interview is with Amy Spitzley. Amy is my second interview with an author that I’ve had the good fortune of meeting in cyber space. We bonded with Mike Jung over virtual muffins. BTW, virtual muffins are the way to go, they are low in calories and there are no crumbs to impede conversation ;o).
Amy, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Hi Kimberly…Um…well, one of the biggest things about me that always comes through in my writing is my dislike of formality. I’m a very casual person. I like to say that formality and I sit on the opposite sides of a room and I make faces at it. (grin) In most things I aim to be childlike, but sometimes end up at “childish” instead. Damn those last three letters!
I’m married to a goofy Englishman who encourages me and puts up with me, which is awesome and not always easily done. Our kids are 9 (Nerissa) and 6 (Dorran), both total bookworms, which rules. I don’t think I’d know what to do with a kid who didn’t like to read!
I write the way I talk and the way I think, only a little more streamlined. I like to take reality and give it a tweak. I have a Victorian story with a magic pin and a dragon, another where the princess sleeps around with stableboys out of rebellion, and one where the ruling class lives in trees and is addicted to a substance in the leaves. My latest project, strangely enough, is rather the opposite–to bring mutants down to earth a little.
You are in good company Amy. I ping-pong back and forth between childlike and childish depending on what way the wind is blowing. I am fascinated by people who have several stories going at once. I occasionally diddle with a picture book from time to time, but I am a one story at a time, kind of a girl. In fact I have to create a visual picture board of characters and setting, a playlist of music that pulls me in and then I have to wander for hours in the empty space between my ears. *no giggling* Do you jump from story to story? Or are these completed works ready for an agent? What is your process?
Hmm…process. Good question! Well, I have five novels completed, but some of them will never see the light of day. One of those I have on the backburner because I think it has tons of promise but the ending keeps defeating me. That’s the Victorian one. I started it about five years ago. The “druggie tree story” needs to be finished, and the princess story is in the revision pile as well. The one I’m currently revising, though, is the mutant scrapbook. It’s been
through the submission/rejection process with quite a few agents already, so I’m trying to throw a few more stones at my characters this time before sending it back out. There’s been some tentative interest in a revised version, which is cool and motivational!
I tend to write better away from my apartment, usually in a bookstore downtown or at the library. All but one of my stories have been written to specific music–for the mutant scrapbook it’s U2, Avril Lavigne, and Matchbox Twenty, although I may start using something a little edgier as well.
Probably the funniest part of my process is that if I’m writing at the library I have to sneak a few big books off the shelves to sit on because I’m too damn short for the chairs, and if I cross my legs for that long my knees protest! I like to think that the whole booster-chair-at-age-37 scenario keeps me on the childlike side of things, though.
Any chance we can get a picture of you in your “booster seat” for the interview?

You mentioned that you were blessed with kids who are avid readers. Woo Hoo! I have three boys who love books too and it is great to share that passion with them. I also know that they inform and effect my writing and writing process in multiple other ways. What is your take on being a mom at the same time that you’re writing for children?

I don’t know about taking a picture of me sitting on books at the library. Sounds embarassing! But I can probably come up with a picture of myself if you need one.
Being a mom and writing for kids doesn’t really inform my writing yet, because my kids are 6 and 9 and I’m writing YA fantasy. I do know that anything I write needs to be stuff I won’t mind them seeing someday! I have a line in my mutant scrapbook where one character tells a gold-skinned girl who dresses like an Amazon for Halloween that she looks like “a walking wet dream.” I kinda hope my daughter doesn’t get on me for that someday. And I guess I’m more aware of the parental characters I write, being one myself. For the most part, though, it’s just a scheduling thing. I have a hard time writing with my kids around because there’s nowhere I can hide away from them in my apartment.
The other funny thing is that my daughter refuses to take my advice on books! I know all these great MG fantasies I think she’d like and when I point them out to her at the library she generally says “No thanks, Mom. Maybe next time.” I suppose I should be thankful she’s polite about it, anyway!
Alright, I’ll take any great picture of you but the book one sounded so cute. I personally think it’s hysterical that your daughter shuns your taste in books. (I have three boys-someone is always shunning something I suggest!) I guess we should be proud that we are raising kids who feel comfortable enough to be themselves. In my last Freaky Friday interview with our mutual muffin friend Mike Jung, we talked about conferences and virtual reality. I was wondering where you get support and information? Do you have a local writer’s group? Are you blog surfing? Reading those old fashion things called BOOKS?
I’m forever reading books. I think it’s depressing that people actually feel electronic media may be the wave of the future. I’m not the type to wave “Save The Books!” signs in front of the local library or anything, but for me reading a good book is a great way to escape and relax. I can’t see that happening on the computer somehow. That might be why I haven’t done the blog stuff much. I’m not opposed to it, I just never got into it.
I do have several people who read my stories for me and an online critique group that’s awesome. I like things to be pretty laid-back–I think too many rules can kill a group. That’s just me, though. I have an in-person group that’s sort of in transition at the moment, as well. I get a lot of support and information from the Verla Kay boards, of course, and lately from Facebook. Half the people I know there are old friends I’m re-connecting with, and the other half are new ones I haven’t even met yet!
I have attended a few SCBWI conferences, too, for what that’s worth. I went to the winter NY one right after I started all this (about five years ago) and pretty much got my mind blown. More recently I’ve been to two Michigan ones, and I actually got to go to the LA conference a few weeks ago thanks to a scholarship. It was about as cool as you’d think!
I’m looking forward to going to LA next year. I hear it is an incredible experience. I agree, the first conference is mind blowing. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. Before I let you go, can you tell my a little bit about your top five books and how they have influenced you?

My top five books…it’s always a bit hard for me to tell. I always feel bad for the ones I’m not including!! I guess for now I’ll go with these, in no particular order, as long as anyone reading this knows that they’re just the tip of my literary iceberg.
The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley–the most tattered book I own, and the one that really got me started on fantasy. Cool heroine, awesome setting, romance–everything a book should have. Read it.
Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier–I kept saying “Oh, WOW!!” when I read this because she threw so many old legends into one book. I’m a sucker for that. An enchanted frog, dancing princesses, Night People, fairies, a sick father and an evil cousin…and it’s set in Transylvania.
The Moonspinners by Mary Stewart–I love this for the language. It’s 50’s British English spoken in Crete, so there are things worked into the dialogue like a Greek translation of the phrase “not a sausage.” Somehow that cracks me up. Plus it’s dramatic in that cloak-and-dagger 50’s way, which is fun.
The Powwow Highway by David Seals–I haven’t read it in a while, but every few years I have to go back and rediscover the insanity. It’s hilarious, and moving, and just a very cool book all-around. I mean, who wouldn’t love a gentle Cheyenne giant named Philbert?
An Old-Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott–By now you’ve guessed it’s all about the characters for me, and Polly is no exception. Even when I don’t agree with her, which is often, she manages to get to me. Plus, again, the language is fun. I mean, Alcott uses words like “bandboxy” and apologizes for it since it’s slang. I go back to this every so often, when I need something comforting. I think that’s what Polly–and her creator–is really good at. This is Comfort Lit 101 for me.
Amy, I can’t thank you enough for taking the time to be interviewed. I’m looking forward to meeting you in person some day and reading your stories. I will forever picture you on a stack of books in the library and I strongly believe that your future author photo should be taken exactly like that. If you’re in agreement about the photo or just fell in love with the very cool Amy Spitzley, be sure to stop by and let her know.

Until next week…

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Ballad

September 9, 2009 |

BalladI’m a big fan of Maggie. Loved her latest book SHIVER and she’s really cool too. Can’t wait to read more!

This is a teaser from Maggie Stiefvater’s BALLAD, a novel involving homicidal faeries and kissing that’s coming out October 1st.

He turned towards me. For a long moment, he stood facing me. I was held, anchored to the ground – not by his music, which still called and pushed against the music already in my head and said grow rise follow – but by his strangeness. By his fingers, spread over the ground, holding something into the earth, by his shoulders, squared in a way that spoke of strength and unknowability, and most of all, by the great, thorny antlers that grew from his head, spanning the sky like branches.

Then he was gone, and I missed his going in the instant that the sun fell off the edge of the hill, abandoning the world to twilight.

Buy it here. Enter the contest at Maggie’s blog here.


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Freaky Friday-Interview with aspiring children’s author Mike Jung

September 3, 2009 |



I would like to start off by making a slight amendment to the Freaky Friday title. It was pointed out to me that an aspiring WRITER is someone who wants to write but hasn’t done it. Everyone who has been interviewed so far, is a full-fledged WRITER and an aspiring AUTHOR. I stand corrected. See how good I am with revisions LOL! Now back to our regularly scheduled program…

If you’ve seen the movie Freaky Friday, you know that its premise is about change and growth through role reversal. For my Friday Blog entry I thought it would be interesting to interview aspiring writers; the same writers who spend lots of time reading the interviews of published authors and dreaming of the day when they might get their book on the shelves…
Mike Jung (Facebook) is my first interview with someone I have not met in person. This was a little bit exciting for me. We’d bumped into each other on Facebook and The Blue Boards. I didn’t know for sure how this was going to go, so I sent out some feelers.
Hey Mike~
It’s Kim from the Blue Boards and Facebook…you know the girl trying
to steal your birthday muffins. I wanted to take you up on that offer
to do a Freaky Friday interview if you were still interested. You
would be my first interview with someone I haven’t met face to face
yet…but you had me at muffins LOL! If that wasn’t enough I thought
you were rather impressive in the online YA discussion about
Responsibility on the Blue Boards. So if you are interested….I was
wondering if you could tell me and my very small following of readers
a little bit about yourself.

Thanks
Kim
My book is called THE CAPTAIN STUPENDOUS FAN CLUB, it’s out with beta readers for a final pass right now, and I plan to submit to agents within the next month, feedback willing. It’s middle grade, with superheroes, supervillains, big robots and twelve-year-old fanboys. I’ve had one close call with an agent, and I have referrals to a couple others. It’s my first attempt at a book. I used to write/play/record songs as a hobby (NOT a pro musician), and my degree is in studio art, so I have a pretty long history of creative activities, but this is my first try at starting up a real professional career as a creative. I work as the web editor at a small liberal arts college in Northern California, which keeps me plugged into the web technology thing in a different way from the Twitter/Facebook/Blueboard stuff I do as a writer. I’m married, and have a 3-year-old daughter. In the seventh grade I once wrote a paper for a computer science class that turned into a story about a boy and his sentient computer – I sadly don’t remember that teacher’s name, but I remember that she was a good soul who very gently reproached me for getting caught up in the story and not finishing the actual assignment. In 1997 I took a class in children’s book illustration at UC Berkeley extension – Julie Downing was the teacher – and while it was interesting and fun, it showed me that I’m not actually a pro-caliber illustrator, and I let the idea of writing languish until my daughter was born in 2006, when I realized it was now or never. I read comic books obsessively as a kid, mostly by going through my older brother’s massive collection of old-school Marvel and DC titles, and while I almost completely stopped with comic books after that, they really formed a core part of my creative foundation.
How’s that for a start?
WOW-that is a great start. You’re multitalented and your book sounds great. I love the concept. My youngest son is a superhero and I’m sure he would be smitten. You and I’ve had the pleasure of meeting through Facebook (with some virtual birthday muffins) and through Verla Kay’s Blue Boards where you weighed in on a very interesting discussion about the responsibility of the authors who write for Young Adults. We may have to return to that topic, but first I have another question. It used to be, that the virtual world writer’s lived in, was only in their imaginations. I’m curious as to what you think about the quickly growing and changing virtual world we find ourselves in now. In fact, we may have never “met” without it.
Virtual world we live in now, hmmm…. I have to say, as a person who is A. a textbook example of an introvert and B. a writer, I LOVE LOVE LOVE all the opportunities that currently exist for communication in the virtual world. I think the virtual world does have its pitfalls, the biggest one for me being the tendency to do too much of my communications online and not enough in person. There are real and severe limitations to online communications, after all, and the fact that I’m often not the most graceful or eloquent person in an actual brick-and-mortar blood-and-guts room is actually a strong reason for me to get out there as much as I can. That having been said, the Twitterverse/blogosphere/webshamalamadingdong definitely provides channels for communication that can’t be replicated in the genuine space-time continuum. I’ve become involved with online communities that include people from all over the world. I’m able to fire off my random silly thoughts and ideas to several hundred people at any given moment – sometimes one or two of ’em even respond! The sheer tonnage of information out there in cyberspace is staggering and daunting and wonderful. And the single greatest thing about communicating in all of these online venues is that you HAVE to communicate via the written word. Sure, you can use photos and sound and video too, and those are all terrific additions to your quiver of tools, but the bedrock tool, the one that you’ll be using the most, is the written word. To have a real presence in the virtual world you have to write. You have to write fast, and you have to write a lot. I like that.
Since face-to-face interaction tends to be a bit more challenging, (I never would have guessed, you are very easy to hang out with in the cyber world) I was wondering if you’ve been to any conferences or have any plans to attend? I ask for purely selfish reasons; hoping to bump into you sometime. :o)

I also wanted to return to that interesting topic of responsibility in writing for YA. You were very eloquent on the Blue Boards. Now that I know you have a Middle Grade book in the pipes, I was wondering if your thoughts on responsibility changed with writing for a slightly younger crowd?

I’ve been to two or three regional SCBWI events (Northern California, East Bay), last year I went to SCBWI nationals in LA, and yeah, I do plan to keep attending these events – it’s hard, money- and time-wise, so I need to be picky, but I’d like to bump into each other and chat in real time too! I’m dead-set on going to SCBWI LA next summer, just because it was SUCH a transformative experience for me in ’08. All the online media stuff has given me more reason to go to these events too, because there are now all kinds of people who I’ve only met online and would love to meet in person! I went to Cindy Pon’s signing for SILVER PHOENIX in San Francisco and got a chance to meet a few folks from the Enchanted Inkpot and the Blueboards, and despite my bashfulness I want to keep doing that.
I do feel differently about writing for the MG audience as opposed to writing for the YA audience, although the word “responsibility” still gives me some trouble because it does imply that there’s a single, concrete, universal standard of values that we all adhere to. That’s obviously not true – spending 30 seconds flipping through a newspaper will tell you it’s not true, talking to anyone about religion or politics will tell you it’s not true.
And at their core, the principles I have for YA fiction hold true for MG fiction – be true to the characters, be true to the story, be genuine, be honest, don’t condescend, respect the reader’s intelligence, respect the reader’s choices. I think the two audiences function on different physical, emotional and psychological levels, however, just because of the difference in age, and that must be taken into account. For example, I don’t have any problem with the idea of sexuality being explored in an open, honest, unflinching way in YA – exploring and coming to grips with sexuality is a huge part of the young adult experience. I wouldn’t approach it the same way for a book about a 10-year-old character, because 10-year-olds are generally not having those experiences – they’re not going through puberty, they’re not facing the same social pressures, they’re not having the same kinds of conversations. If it was germane to the story I’d probably focus on the 10-year-old’s reaction to others who are going through those experiences, and try to zero in on what a my 10-year-old character’s understanding about it is. I think that’s the key – what is a middle-grade child’s understanding of difficult topics? Bulimia, for example – how would a 10-year-old kid perceive a family member going through such a situation? They would likely not see as much of what happens, and they would definitely not comprehend all the emotional and psychological complexities of the problem. But they’d see some of it, wouldn’t they? They’d see the weight loss. They’d see the parents’ distress. They’d sense the shifting emotional states, they’d notice the changes in behavior.
To go back to using the word “responsible,” troubling though it is, I don’t think being responsible means avoiding hard topics, even in MG fiction. I think it means presenting them in a way that’s genuine and relevant for your audience, which means presenting them in the same way a reader of that age might experience them.
Oh Boy! I’m planning on going to SCBWI LA next year. Now I’m extra excited. We will have to meet up and have muffins LOL! I have to admit, I’ve become a big fan of your thoughtful musings on the subject of author responsibility in YA/MG writing. It is a beautiful reminder to write with the eyes of your reader in mind.

Before I let you go, I was wondering if you would give us your top five books and a little insight into how they’ve influenced you?

I’ll bring the muffins, Kimberly! And thank you for the kind words. This has definitely been fun, thank you so much for inviting me to do it!
Okay, top five books and their influence on me: just FYI, I’m pulling these out of the big sloppy broom closet of my mind, so rhyme and reason may be in short supply, and there’s no guarantee that the books will match up with any other “favorite books” list I’ve written anywhere else. Which is probably fine because for crying out loud, who’s gonna bother to go looking?
THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS by Graham Greene: I remember reading this over and over and over as a kid. I remember it feeling so multifaceted, funny and sad and apprehensive and pensive and frightening and lonely – I couldn’t get enough of it. Christmas at Mole’s house was one of the most warm and cozy chapters ever, and it’s been a goal of mine to one day inject that kind of emotional loveliness into a story of my own. Still working on it.
ENDER’S GAME by Orson Scott Card: I read this in high school, and have periodically re-read it over the years, and it stands in my mind as an example of a story that’s just flawlessly executed. It’s perfectly self-contained (although I like the sequels too, some more than others), the narrative never flags, the characters are compelling, and the quality of the prose is superb. I find inspiration (if not a model of working that’s realistic for me) in the story that Card thought about the book non-stop for a couple of years, then wrote the whole thing in one explosive two-week burst.
THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY by Irving Stone: Hmm, which thing doesn’t belong here? This is not a kid’s book, of course, and I was never a drop-dead fan of Stone’s prose stylings, but in college I found a copy of this in a used bookstore and it immediately sank its hooks into me for other reasons. I’m a big Michelangelo fan, so it was great in that way. It was also one of the first times I can remember reading about someone’s creative process and really latching on to the idea that the artistic impulse and ideas are out there, it’s just a matter of uncovering them. I thought of it again after watching Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED speech about the cosmic pool of creative genius that we all tap into from time to time, which I thought was very related to Michelangelo’s idea that he didn’t create the sculpture, he was just able to see it and chip away the excess marble.
HOW TO EAT FRIED WORMS by Thomas Rockwell: Because how could you not love a book about eating worms? I just thought it was so, so great that a book dealt explicitly with the consumption of night crawlers, but in later years I realized the true genius of this book was in its character development. The boys in this book are REAL BOYS – they’re capable of laziness, merciless cruelty, deceit, fear, violence, grandstanding, self-pity, braggadocio, and more, yet they can still be friends at the end of the final page. I strive to make my own characters as real as Thomas Rockwell’s.
THE LIGHT FANTASTIC: A DISCWORLD NOVEL by Terry Pratchett: I laughed so hard I thought I was gonna injure myself, and I loved, loved, loved Terry Pratchett for doing that. And he did it with a FANTASY NOVEL! That blew my mind, because every fantasy novel I’d read before (and I’d read a LOT) was just deadly serious. Not that it was bad to be serious, but this intense, playful humor was so new to me.
Again, Kimberly, thanks for having me, I’m flattered and honored to be your latest interviewee. And if I see you at SCBWI LA next year (or someplace else), the muffins are on me!
Those were some great book choices. I recently read HOW TO EAT FRIED WORMS to my three sons. It’s even better when you read it to boys LOL! Mike I can’t thank you enough for being a contestant. If you are now a HUGE fan of Mike (I KNOW you are!) Then stop by and friend him on Facebook. Don’t forget to introduce yourself and bring the muffins.

*I would also like to add that Mike and I got those fantastic virtual muffins from Amy Lynn Spitzley (Facebook) and I’m hoping that she will cook up something good for one of our future Freaky Friday interviews.



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My Indie Collection

August 30, 2009 | Uncategorized

Dick, Me and Suzanna

I thought it would be fun to start collecting Independent Bookstores. They are the little jewels of the book world after all. Thursday I had perfect weather for the Dutchess County Fair and the cherry on top of my Sundae was to run into the folks from OBLONG BOOKS & MUSIC.
My 6 year old took the picture, so our heads are a little cropped, but he was rather proud of himself so its a keeper. I happily acquired a PEACE, LOVE, BOOKS T-shirt and I also ran back and purchased an $8 squirrel finger puppet that likely kept $150 out of the pocket of the guy who charges, the weight of my youngest child in gold, to throw 3 balls into a tilted bucket. I owe you OBLONG and I’ll have to make a trip up to see you and spend some of that $150 on some books.
Be sure to stop by and visit in person or on line…
OBLONG BOOKS & MUSIC
Montgomery Road, Rhinebeck
and
Main Street, Millerton
(845) 876-0500
(518) 789-3797
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