Eliza Borné

Fiction

Chang-Rae Lee

Interview by Eliza Borné

Although much of Chang-rae Lee’s fourth novel takes place during the Korean War and after the armistice in 1953, the author insists that The Surrendered is not a war story. “It’s a book about historical traumas and how those traumas exhibit themselves and find expression in individual people,” he tells BookPage from his home in Princeton, New Jersey.

Clocking in at nearly 500 pages and spanning six decades across four continents, this riveting and heart-wrenching narrative is alternately told from three points of view, shifting back and forth from past to present. The novel combines compelling character stories with devastating and timeless social commentary.

My conversation with Lee occurred shortly after a massive earthquake struck Haiti, and it was difficult not to dwell on the book’s relevance to this contemporary disaster. Lee agrees that the tragic stories from Haiti are related to the central theme of The Surrendered: “What happens to someone after an experience with mass conflict and traumatic violence?”

In his three previous novels, Native Speaker, A Gesture Life and Aloft, Lee has established himself as a storyteller of the immigrant experience in America—and the alienation that goes with it. The Surrendered, it seems, represents a departure. “My previous books have been focused on someone’s place in a society or culture,” he says. “I think this book is much more interested in the individual in a conditionality—and the conditionality being, of course, violence and war.”

Lee, who teaches creative writing at Princeton University and has two daughters (ages nine and 12), admits he’s glad that “this one is out and done.” He says, “This book certainly took a long time. That was frustrating to me . . . although my wife sometimes thinks I wouldn’t write any faster even if I didn’t have a teaching job.”

When the book opens, 11-year-old June Han is fleeing Korea with her younger brother and sister. Hector Brennan is an American GI who takes June to an orphanage after her siblings die in a tragic accident. The wife of a missionary, Sylvie Tanner helps run the orphanage, and she entrances June and Hector to the point of obsession. The novel moves between scenes at the orphanage in Korea and in later decades when Hector and June reunite in New Jersey. The two eventually make a pilgrimage to Solferino, Italy, the site of a battle that haunted Sylvie.

In one early passage in Korea, June’s brother is dismembered on the roof of a moving train. This scene was inspired by Lee’s father, who lost his younger brother in a similar accident during the Korean War. Lee, who came to the U.S. as a three-year-old and now considers his connection to Korea “more familial than personal,” was startled to learn of this event while writing a biographical paper about his father for a seminar in college.

“The story as he told it was just a few sentences,” Lee says. “But that story always haunted me and had always stayed with me.” In conceiving of The Surrendered, Lee never intended to incorporate the train scene, although he realized in the middle of writing that it would fit nicely into the events of June’s life.

“So I completely fictionalized all the details that you read there. It didn’t have any before. But the basic thrust of that chapter is wandering as a refugee and really traumatic loss of family. That’s something that I thought was absolutely right for June.”

With this scene, and with many others, Lee does not let the reader off easy; there are no neat, uplifting endings for June, Hector or Sylvie. However, one of the story’s most resounding motifs is mercy—not the typical kind of mercy, as light and hope and forgiveness, although there is some of that, but rather mercy as necessity or expedience. “It’s also the mercy of delusion and allusion,” Lee explains.

Although Lee did not consider mercy as a theme when he was writing The Surrendered, he agrees that it is a focal point of the book. “I think it’s just a natural outgrowth of what’s left after such intense and gratuitous heartbreak and misery,” he says. “One of the things that I was trying to answer for myself in this book is not just how people put their lives back together in the day-to-day [‘they don’t do it very well,’ Lee says as an aside], but also what can they morally hang on to? And emotionally hang on to? What kind of humane moment or act can lead them out of this very dark hole that they’re all in?”

Readers learn how mercy can arise in the midst of horror in one of the book’s most viscerally painful scenes, when Sylvie’s missionary parents are tortured by Japanese officers in Manchuria. “Mercy was the only true deliverance,” Lee writes. “There was nothing more exaltedly human, more beautiful to behold.”

As June, Hector and Sylvie journey through the trauma of war and its aftermath, it is natural to question Lee’s purpose in writing The Surrendered Is it a warning about the repercussions of mass violence? A meditation on the power of human resilience?

The author’s answer rings true to the reader’s experience. “It’s absolutely both,” Lee says. “Like an alternating current, it’s always alternating between the two. As a reader of this book and as a writer of this book, I can’t reside comfortably in either idea for very long. To switch metaphors, you’re constantly buffeted by these opposing winds.”

Lee pauses, then evokes the book’s final scene, at the end of June’s life. “It’s a book that ends in awe of life and all that life is,” he says. “Not really judging it one way or the other. Just agape. Saying: wow. Look at these people and how they’ve expressed themselves.”

If that answer is unsatisfying to readers who crave unequivocally happy endings, consider a line from Hector’s father: “They tell us stories not to live by but to change.” Epic and tragic, moving and lyrical, The Surrendered is not only literature that enthralls, it is a novel that will make you reflect on the world in which you live—and inspire dreams of peaceful change. As Lee says, “What a wonderful world it would be if a novel like mine could not be written, because there’s no reference. That would be amazing.”

RELATED CONTENT
Review of Chang-rae Lee's Aloft
Review of Chang-rae Lee's A Gesture LIfe

Although much of Chang-rae Lee’s fourth novel takes place during the Korean War and after the armistice in 1953, the author insists that The Surrendered is not a war story. “It’s a book about historical traumas and how those traumas exhibit themselves and find expression…

Children's & YAMiddle Grade

Ann M. Martin

Interview by Eliza Borné
When Scholastic announced the return of the Baby-Sitters Club—with the publication of a brand-new prequel and the reissue of the four original books in the series—reader response was enthusiastic and immediate, even frenzied. I posted the news on The Book Case and commenters gushed about favorite characters and individual books. The New York Times interviewed author Ann M. Martin, and blogs buzzed with memories of the series, which debuted in 1986 and went on to include 213 titles. Ten years after the publication of Graduation Day, the final book about the babysitters, there are still active fan sites on the web.
 
Although Martin does not consider herself a “huge browser,” she has seen a number of these Baby-Sitters Club tributes. “People have sent me links,” she says. “I certainly have seen the comments and things and I find it incredibly rewarding. I’m just so gratified that the appeal has lasted for this long.” In fact, fan devotion to the series, which follows the lives of middle-school girls who start a babysitting business, played a part in its renewed life.
 
In a phone interview from her home in the Hudson Valley, Martin says, “I had heard lots of requests for another Baby-Sitters book—mostly, I have to admit, for stories that would be set in the future: high school reunion, college reunion, members of the Baby-Sitters Club are all grown up and have kids of their own.”
 
But because her favorite age group to write for is “that really solid middle-grade group,” Martin decided to write a prequel and address what led the four original members of the Baby-Sitters Club to come together.
 
“What was going on in their lives that would make each of them need something to belong to?” she asked.
 
The answer is revealed in The Summer Before. In the novel, Kristy Thomas, the girl who would come to found the Baby-Sitters Club in Kristy’s Great Idea, is counting down to her 12th birthday, hoping that her absent father will show up for the party. Mary Anne Spier, whose mother died when she was a baby, longs for independence from her overly strict dad; she wants to babysit on her own. “Fashion plate” Claudia Kishi, the artist and struggling student, gets her first boyfriend, alienating friends in the process. And Stacey McGill, the character who normalized diabetes for many now-20- and 30-somethings, is moving from New York City to Stoneybrook, Connecticut, where she’ll escape a catty friend group and meet the girls who will change her life.
 
A theme of the novel is drifting apart, as the characters face different challenges in the months before seventh grade. Toward the end of the summer, Kristy makes a comment that foreshadows the Club:
 
“My mom always talks about the glue that holds people together. You know, common interests or experiences or whatever. What kind of glue is going to hold the three of us together?” (At this point in the story, Stacy hasn’t come into the picture.) Soon after, Kristy has the lighting bolt idea that will lead to the Baby-Sitters Club.
 
Although Martin won’t completely discount the prospect of an eventual reunion special—in her mind, the girls would still be friends in later life, albeit scattered across the country—she feels most comfortable writing for a younger group.
 
“Partly, those are really good years in my own life,” she says. “It’s the voice that seems to come most naturally to me, and I’m not sure why. Because the books are not necessarily—some of the issues that are tackled in older books can be more sophisticated, but I would say some of the issues that were tackled in Belle Teal and A Corner of the Universe”—two of Martin’s post-Baby-Sitters Club books, the latter of which won a Newbery Honor—“were equally as sophisticated, but somehow they wound up being written for younger readers.”
 
That may explain why some of the more serious Baby-Sitters Club books now rank as Martin’s favorites, such as Kristy and the Secret of Susan, in which the girls babysit for a child who has autism. Or Claudia and the Sad Good-bye, in which Claudia’s grandmother dies, written not long after the death of the author’s own grandmother.
 
Topics such as these were part of what made the series so popular—Scholastic printed 176 million copies of the books—and Martin thinks they will remain interesting to contemporary readers. “I think that most of the themes in the books are pretty timeless, “ she said. “School, family, friends, friendship problems: those are things that appealed to kids 25 years ago when I was starting the series, and they still appeal to kids.”
 
When confronted with the issue of children being more distracted today—the recent Kaiser Family Foundation study comes to mind, which reported that kids spend more than seven hours a day engaging with electronic gadgets—Martin cites a real-life example.
 
“I look at kids like my nephew, who’s 12 now and who does have his own cell phone, and he texts with his friends and he has an iPod and he likes to use his parents’ computer. But what is his passion in life? Baseball. And that’s the same thing for other kinds of kids whose passion is their friends or their after-school activities. Those sorts of things haven’t really changed. Also, in terms of the characters themselves, they’re the kinds of characters that most kids relate to—they could be your next-door neighbor or a kid in your class. And I think that hasn’t changed.”
 
Throughout her long career, Martin has received letters from parents or teachers who write of reluctant-turned-avid readers, thanks to her books. She has been contacted by the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the Starlight Foundation, about kids whose wish is to spend the day with her. In 1990, she founded the Ann M. Martin Foundation, which supports organizations that benefit education and literacy, neglected and abused animals and children.
 
And she is still at work writing, having recently finished a draft of a book called Ten Rules for Living with My Sister.
 
Martin is grateful for these opportunities, for getting to know “incredible kids and families,” and having the chance to work on so many kinds of books—the series books and everything that came after. She says, "I do just feel really lucky.”
 
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When Scholastic announced the return of the Baby-Sitters Club—with the publication of a brand-new prequel and the reissue of the four original books in the series—reader response was enthusiastic and immediate, even frenzied. I posted the news on The Book Case and commenters gushed…
YA FictionYA

Louis Sachar

Interview by Eliza Borné

In his Newbery Medal-winning novel Holes, Louis Sachar showed readers that he can turn a weird concept—digging holes in the desert—into a complex page-turner. Sachar’s latest novel is no different. Playing bridge? (Yes, the card game—the one octogenarians play.) With a blind great-uncle? That doesn’t sound like the recipe for a YA hit, but Sachar pulls it off in The Cardturner, also touching on themes that young people will relate to, like teen love and embarrassing parents.

The story follows Alton Richards in the summer before his senior year in high school. He works as the cardturner for his blind Uncle Lester—reading him the cards as they’re dealt during highly competitive bridge games—and along the way, he becomes fascinated with the game. Alton’s gold-digging parents set up the job so that the family might finagle their way into Lester’s will. There’s a mystery involved, too, as Alton figures out the story behind the disappearance of Lester’s perfect bridge partner of lore.

Since bridge is an unusual topic for a teen novel, BookPage asked Sachar—himself a devoted bridge player—to elaborate on his choice of subject.

Why did you think bridge would be interesting to young people?
Most people have the wrong impression about bridge, if they have any impression at all. Few young people have ever heard of bridge, and for those who have, they probably think of it as something old and fuddy-duddy. I hoped to present it as something new and exciting. It is highly competitive and full of limitless possibilities. But probably the best part of bridge, unlike chess, is that it is a partnership game. It’s you and your partner against the world. It’s also something a boy and girl can do together, like Toni and Alton in the book.

Your characters talk about bridge getting in the blood. When did bridge get in your blood? Why do you love the game?
I learned the game from my parents when I was a kid, and even then I was fascinated by it, but nobody I knew played. Then in 1994 when I was 40 years old, a sister of a friend invited me to play at a bridge club with her. We started out playing once a week, but I soon got hooked, and was playing two, three or even four times a week.

In the book, a player notes that “the time you quit learning is the time to quit playing.” Do you believe this is true?
Yes, I'm still learning to play bridge and to write. That's why I enjoy both. Neither gets old to me.

A point of pride for characters in The Cardturner is the accumulation of masterpoints. How many masterpoints do you have?
I currently have over 2,400 masterpoints. However I have less than ten platinum points, which are earned at major national events. My goal is to play in more of those events and to do well at them.

If you could choose three people to sit at your fantasy bridge table, who would they be?
You have to understand, as Syd Fox, my imaginary bridge expert explains in the appendix to The Cardturner, “it's all about the cards.” So while my fantasy dinner companions might include Bob Dylan, Barack Obama and Margaret Atwood, if they aren’t serious bridge players, I don’t want them at my table. Instead I would choose people who most people have never heard of, but who are very famous in the bridge world. I would want to be partners with Eddie Kantar, a great bridge writer who is also very funny, and we’d play against the partnership of Eric Rodwell and Jeff Meckstroth, who are considered to be the best bridge playing duo in the world.

Do you think most teens have a “philosophical bent,” like Alton?
Yes, especially those who like to read. I know I did when I was a teenager. My best friend and I would stay up all night discussing the mysteries of the universe.

Lester and Alton discuss a passage from Cannery Row, in which John Steinbeck notes how strange it is that the “traits we detest”—greed, egotism, self-interest—lead to success. Does the passage apply to Alton’s greedy parents, who want Lester’s money?
It was at a time in [Lester] Trapp’s life (in his early 20s) when he was trying to figure out what to do with his life. What kind of career should he set for himself? Can he be successful, without losing himself in the process? I think it is a quote that would have appealed to him, and would also appeal to young adult readers who will soon face that same dilemma. John Steinbeck is also one of my favorite authors, and one who is very accessible to young readers.

As a first-person narrator, Alton repeatedly makes reference to “this book” that he’s writing—the same book we’re reading. Why did you write from this point of view?
Going back to the first question, I knew my readers might be put-off by bridge, and find it confusing. I thought it would be helpful to have a narrator who was equally confused and uninterested by it, at least in the beginning.

Teens spend a lot of time in front of the computer, or watching TV, or texting. Do you agree with Lester that video games are just “little pixels of light”?
I worry about how much time kids spend plugged into computers, telephones and the like. I think it’s unhealthy for the individual, and also for the social fabric of our communities.

The subtitle of the book is “A novel about a king, a queen, and a joker.” Who is who—is Lester the king, Alton the joker and Toni—Alton’s bridge partner—the queen?
Alton is definitely the joker. I would say that [Lester] Trapp is the king and Annabel [Lester’s old partner] is the queen. Toni is the princess, but there's no card for that.

In his Newbery Medal-winning novel Holes, Louis Sachar showed readers that he can turn a weird concept—digging holes in the desert—into a complex page-turner. Sachar’s latest novel is no different. Playing bridge? (Yes, the card game—the one octogenarians play.) With a blind great-uncle? That doesn’t…

YA FictionYA

Jackson Pearce

Interview by Eliza Borné

Jackson Pearce made her debut with As You Wish, a YA novel about a girl who accidentally summons a genie—and then falls in love with him. In Sisters Red, a contemporary retelling of “Little Red Riding Hood,” the plot is more intense: sisters Scarlett and Rosie fight the Fenris (aka werewolves) that prey on girls in their Georgia town.

Scarlett and Rosie have an occasionally strained relationship. Older sister Scarlett is the “tough” one—the physically strong hunter on a self-appointed mission to kill all the Fenris in the world. Rosie feels indebted to Scarlett for saving her life as a child, and though she wants to kill the wolves, she also longs for the normal life of a teenager. Complicating matters, Rosie is also in love with Silas, their hunting partner. Scarlett is in love with the hunt.

In an interview with BookPage, 25-year-old Pearce tells us about writing for an older teen audience, crafting a “kickass heroine” and her relationship with her own sister, which partly inspired the novel—the first in a new series.

Sisters Red is inspired by “Little Red Riding Hood,” but with a twist: this time the wolf—or rather, wolves—are fought, not feared. Did you read any previous retellings of the fairytale when you were working on the book?
I actually avoided other retellings at all costs until Sisters Red was written and lightly revised. I was terrified that reading something else would mess with my mythology, or I’d see a great idea and be unable to use it since it was already someone else’s. I did, however, read every version of the actual fairytale I could find—French; German; U.S., Disney-fied sweet versions; super dark original versions. I think by reading the fairytale in its many incarnations, I was more able to find the heart of the story and stick to it.

Did your relationship with your own sister—to whom the book is dedicated—inspire any of the scenes between Scarlett and Rosie?
I think my relationship with my sister inspired and influenced the entire book, to be honest! But there are several scenes that I plucked straight from our childhood. Specifically, one where Rosie is lamenting how when Scarlett got poison ivy, she was allowed to sleep in their mother’s bed, and another where both Scarlett and Rosie visit an apple harvest festival and everyone is dressed up in apple-themed clothing and kids have paper apples stapled to their shirts. I have a photo of Katie riding her bike, covered in paper apples with apples painted on her cheeks. I have really big blackmail plans for that photo . . .

Many early reader reviews of Sisters Red have focused on Scarlett’s role as a fierce heroine. What do you think makes a character fierce or powerful; is it physical strength, the willingness to kill, cleverness or is there more to it?
I think there’s always more to it. Scarlett is immensely physically powerful—I wouldn’t want to meet her in an alley! But she’s also emotionally fragile, desperate and scared. Rosie is not quite as strong as her sister, but is more confident in herself and her relationships, more willing to let herself be happy. They’re both strong—just in very different ways. Neither is necessarily superior, and those obviously aren’t the only “versions” of strength in the world.

The Fenris are portrayed as sexual predators. The fight scenes don’t shy away from graphic violence (a ripped-off elbow comes to mind). Did you worry about alienating fans of As You Wish, which is written for a younger audience (12 & up vs. 15 & up)? Did you set out to write a book with more “mature” content?
I won’t lie, I am worried that fans of As You Wish will be shocked to read Sisters Red, but I couldn’t let that stop me from writing Scarlett and Rosie’s story the way it needed to be written—and the truth is, there’s just no pretty, happy, sweet way for a werewolf to eat innocent girls. Trying to tone down the violence would have felt like lying.

You’ve said that the names in Sisters Red have significance—Rosie and Scarlett are both related to the color red, and their last name, March, is a reference to Little Women. Can you identify some of the other name references?
Silas’ name means forest/wood, and the apartment they move to is on Andern street—Andern is a city where the Grimm brothers lived. The house number, 333, is the number that Little Red Riding Hood is classified as on the Aarne-Thompson classification system for folktales. Screwtape the cat is named after The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis.

Will Scarlett, Rosie or Silas ever make an appearance in another Sisters Red book?
I’m not sure at this point. The upcoming book, Sweetly, is a companion, not a direct sequel, as is the projected third book in the series. I would love to return to Scarlett, Rosie and Silas, I just don’t have a story for them yet!

Sweetly, the second book in the Sisters Red series, is inspired by “Hansel and Gretel.” The third book, Fathomless, is a retelling of “The Little Mermaid. Are you interested in adapting other fairytales?
I love, love, love adapting fairytales, and as long as the ideas keep coming, I’ll keep writing them. I don’t currently have any books planned beyond Fathomless, but I can see that changing in the future.

What drew you to write supernatural novels? Why do you think this genre is so popular with teens right now?I’ve always loved to read supernatural novels, so it only seemed natural that I’d also enjoy writing them. I think the genre is especially popular recently because authors are taking more and more risks—adding romance, sexuality, violence, religion, etc. to books that might have been “neutered” 15 years ago, making the stories even more relatable than before.

What young adult writers influenced you?
I loved Lynne Reid Banks’ The Indian in the Cupboard, the Boxcar Children series and Harry Potter, as well as classics like Fahrenheit 451 and To Kill a Mockingbird. But to be honest, I think every book you read influences you in someway, for better or worse!

Sisters Red has been described as Little Red Riding Hood meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Are you happy with this comparison? Are you a Buffy fan?
I’m mixed on this—on the one hand, I love Buffy, so. . . hurrah! But on the other, I don’t personally think the two stories have THAT much in common. Buffy has an entourage, musical moments, she essentially has superpowers and can come back from the dead. Scarlett and Rosie. . . not so much. I am, however, thrilled that my characters are being compared to such an iconic, kickass heroine.

RELATED CONTENT

Read our review of Sisters Red.

Watch the book trailer:

Jackson Pearce made her debut with As You Wish, a YA novel about a girl who accidentally summons a genie—and then falls in love with him. In Sisters Red, a contemporary retelling of “Little Red Riding Hood,” the plot is more intense: sisters Scarlett…

Fiction

Tom Rachman

Interview by Eliza Borné

Can you describe the moment you learned that The Imperfectionists sold to Dial?
My agent phoned from New York with the news. I stood there in my small apartment in Paris, shifting from leg to leg as she drew out the story. Finally, there it was: I had sold my novel. I put down the receiver, took a deep breath and began darting from one side of my living room to the other (not a great distance; about three strides each way), punching the air, shouting, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” until remembering that I had neighbors. Next, I ordered champagne to be sent to my agent, and popped a bottle myself, sending the cork flying from the living room, into the kitchen, out the open window.

Did you expect that you would draw from your career and write about journalists in your first novel?
I had intended to use my experiences abroad as inspiration for fiction—amassing interesting tales was the reason I entered international journalism. But I had never planned for journalists themselves to be the subject. However, the period I had witnessed was too fascinating not to write about: the press, after a history of reporting on collapse and chaos, was now the victim of collapse and chaos, as technology wiped out the foundations of traditional media.

Are you a full-time fiction writer now? If so, do you miss working in a newsroom? Do you have plans to contribute nonfiction pieces to newspapers or magazines in the future?
I do write fiction full-time now and don't particularly miss the newsroom. It's not always a congenial place to toil—often, its appeal depends on how far or near you are to headquarters. The nearer you are, the worse it typically is. Too many opinions, too many ambitions. I'm happier at a distance, reading the news rather than writing it. That said, I do intend to write nonfiction in the future—not breaking news anymore, but more deeply researched pieces. I hope that fiction remains my principal occupation, but that nonfiction makes intermittent appearances, too.

What news sources do you read every day? Do you still read print, or do you access everything online?
Most weeks, I read articles online from the New York Times/International Herald Tribune, Yahoo! News, Sporting Life, the Guardian, the Times of London, the Financial Times, the New Yorker. I still read a few print newspapers, depending on how the mood and circumstances strike me. And I always read the New York Review of Books on paper.

What’s up next? Are you working on another novel?
I'm making excellent progress on my new novel. I'm secretive about works in progress, so I apologize for not detailing its subject—even my closest companions have no idea what I'm writing until I have a finalized draft, and that is still a distance away. I can say, however, that this novel has nothing to do with journalists! 

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Review of The Imperfectionists.

Can you describe the moment you learned that The Imperfectionists sold to Dial?
My agent phoned from New York with the news. I stood there in my small apartment in Paris, shifting from leg to leg as she drew out the story. Finally,…

Children's & YAMiddle Grade

Jacqueline West

Interview by Eliza Borné

The first book in The Books of Elsewhere series has a tall order to fill: publicity materials compare author Jacqueline West to Roald Dahl and Neil Gaiman. Luckily for readers, The Shadows does not disappoint. In her first book for young readers, West—who is also a poet—introduces a spooky, magical world that will captivate middle schoolers.

Olive Dunwoody, a shy and curious child, moves with her “dippy” mathematician parents into a Victorian mansion. Olive soon learns that they’re not alone in the dusty, antique-filled house. With talking cats as her guides, Olive discovers that she can travel through paintings on the walls, as long as she’s wearing a certain pair of glasses. But the paintings hold a dangerous, life-or-death secret, and it’s up to Olive to figure out the mystery.

In an interview with BookPage, West elaborates on why she likes writing for kids, her preferred type of superpower and what to expect in the second book of the series.

You have mentioned your interest in magic—talking cats, paintings as portals to another world. What sort of magical adventure would you like to go on; is there a power you’d like to have?
Back when I thought I might be a superhero when I grew up, I wanted to be a shape-shifter. Actually, I’d still like to be one. I know this is sort of like wishing for more wishes, because it’s one power that would come with all kinds of other powers: flying, breathing underwater, running at incredible speeds. But I’m greedy that way. I’d like to see the world from all different points of view, to experience life as a whole slew of people and animals and objects. Of course, this is the same reason I wanted to be a writer.

Do you believe that houses can really be haunted? Would you be delighted—or terrified—if you discovered your house was built on a graveyard (or came with a talking cat)?
Sadly, I’ve never had a personal experience with ghosts or haunted places. I’ve lived in several old houses and even in rooms where people had died, and I remember wishing that their ghosts would show up and keep me company and be my quirky roommates. But it never happened. That’s not to say it couldn’t happen . . .

The Books of Elsewhere: The Shadows is your first book for young readers, although you are an accomplished poet. Have you always wanted to write novels for kids?
When I started writing The Shadows, I was experimenting with all kinds of genres and forms—poetry, short fiction, scripts for a series of graphic novels (which no one ever needs to see), an adult novel (no one ever needs to see this, either)—and I’ll try to keep challenging myself this way. Focusing on writing for kids has been a huge pleasure, in part because I’m writing for my inner child rather than for my inner critic, but I know I’ll continue to write poetry, I’ve got drafts and notes for several middle grade and young adult books underway and maybe someday I’ll baffle myself by waking up with the plan for a three-act melodrama in my head.

Your book has been compared to works by Roald Dahl and Neil Gaiman, and there are scenes reminiscent of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. What are your favorite books for children? Do any authors inspire your writing?
As a child, I read A.A. Milne, Lewis Carroll, J.M. Barrie, Roald Dahl and Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes collections over and over so intently that I think they became part of my genetic makeup. I can still remember finishing Matilda for the first of many times. I was in the backseat of the family car, it was dark outside the windows and I felt as though my whole body was full of lit fireworks . . . It was that exhilarating. My favorite books for kids haven’t changed much—I still love Milne and Dahl and Shel Silverstein (I also deeply admire some writers who are currently working, like Gaiman and Rowling and Kate DiCamillo)—and I suppose it was the joy I got from reading these books that indirectly influenced me to write for kids myself.

The Shadows is filled with descriptions of paintings and antiques—do you have a particular interest in art? Did you do any research on art and architecture when writing the book?
This was drawn more from memory and imagination than from research. I’ve worked as an arts writer, and I’ve spent considerable time wandering in a happy daze through museums, so I had quite a lot of material stored up.

Throughout the book, Olive’s only companions are Morton, a boy from a painting, and three talking cats. Why does Olive have trouble making friends her own age, when she’s clearly funny and spunky?
The qualities that appeal to grown-ups aren’t necessarily the qualities that appeal to kids when making friends. Among kids, fitting in is generally more important than standing out, and even standing out in a good way can be a liability. Olive is shy and awkward, she has moved from place to place a lot and she’s the only child of parents who are more than a bit out of touch with the real world. She certainly hasn’t been prepared to fit in.

Although The Shadows is magical (and often creepy), it also includes themes that are timeless and very real: trusting others, taking chances, being lonely. Are there any lessons (or types of encouragement) you hope kids take from the book?
I certainly didn’t write this with any type of lesson in mind, but I suppose any book in which a child protagonist has to solve her own problems lets the reader learn from her mistakes and her growth. I hope kids will identify with Olive and that getting to know her might make them feel a bit less alone or misunderstood or out of place. Aside from that, I just hope kids will be entertained.

How many books to you intend to write in the Books of Elsewhere series? Can you give us a hint about Olive and Morton’s next adventure?
The total number of books is still up in the air at this point, but I’d estimate four or five volumes in total. Volume Two is already written, so I can tell you that the house has some more big secrets waiting to be revealed, including an object that begins to take over Olive’s life. Olive also makes a friend who isn’t from a painting or covered in fur, and someone else—someone Olive thought she knew—turns out to have been fooling everyone all along.  

 

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The first book in The Books of Elsewhere series has a tall order to fill: publicity materials compare author Jacqueline West to Roald Dahl and Neil Gaiman. Luckily for readers, The Shadows does not disappoint. In her first book for young readers, West—who is also…

Fiction

Hilary Thayer Hamann

Interview by Eliza Borné

Self-published in 2003, Hilary Thayer Hamann’s re-released Anthropology of an American Girl is a coming-of-age story rich with visual descriptions and commentary on life in the 1980s. Through high school in East Hampton and early adulthood in New York City, protagonist Eveline Auerbach confronts the cultural expectations of an “American girl”—along with death, love and the nature of friendship.

Readers have compared Hamann to Henry James and J.D. Salinger, and those evocations are fitting. But ultimately, Anthropology of an American Girl feels entirely fresh, as Hamann addresses—with lovely, intimate language—the contradictions we all face: obsessive love versus a desire for independence, or skepticism of an institution alongside pleasure in our daily participation.

At more than 600 pages, Hamann’s debut is no quick read, but it’s well worth the investment of time. To give you an idea of the themes and plot of the novel, BookPage asked the author to elaborate on her writing, from the choice to include song lyrics in the text, to whether her narrator is a feminist.

Anthropology of an American Girl was self-published in 2003, then sold to Spiegel & Grau in 2007 and “significantly re-edited.” How did the novel change from the original version? Are there significant differences in plot? New characters? A different tone?
There were no changes to the characters or to the plot, but it feels like a different book. It feels lighter, cleaner, and as a result, stronger. Since Anthropology has a legacy—the self-published version got strong reviews and it developed a significant fan base—there was an effort to preserve the essence of the original. Cindy Spiegel, my editor, combed through the novel carefully and cleared away the extraneous material so that the characters and their motivations became more vivid. The revised edition has a freshness and a vitality that the former lacked.

Music and song lyrics factor prominently in the story. How did you choose which songs to excerpt? Is your musical taste the same as Evie’s?
The music that figures into the book doesn’t refer to Evie’s taste or mine, though there are songs in there that I love—and ones that she loves, too! Since the premise of the book is an “anthropology,” I tried to document the music of the time, noting the songs she might have heard or been influenced by. You know, if Evie walks into a deli, for instance, what might have been playing on the radio? Or, if she is standing on the streets in Brooklyn, what might have been playing on someone’s car stereo? There are selections from funk, pop, rock, R&B, classic blues, bossa nova and even opera in there. I realize that some of the songs might be obscure to readers of different generations, which is why simply naming them was not an option. The inclusion of the lyrics allows readers to get a sense of the songwriters’ poetry. And it’s interesting, because even if you are familiar with the music, it looks entirely new to see it written out in the midst of text like that.

In one scene in the novel—during a eulogy—a priest speaks about the necessity and struggle of seeing “the essence of what we admire.” Of all your characters, whom do you most admire? How would you describe the “essence” of that character?
In the eulogy, the speaker is referring predominantly to the problem of viewing friendship as an all or nothing state of affairs. Between wholesale acceptance and wholesale rejection of a friend there should be a sustainable place of responsible engagement. Friendships with high standards and long-term commitments demand more work than the casual, disposal kind, but the rewards are great. When we forsake a friend in need, or when we are forsaken, it’s a terrible thing. There may be nothing worse.

There are some people who would never, who could never forsake a friend. Many of the characters in Anthropology possess this quality to varying degrees, but no one so much as Rob Cirillo. Rob is loving, but beyond that, his love is authentic. As he himself might say, it gets through. It reads as honest because he is fearless, and by that I mean, transparent in expressing affection. He is not secretive or self-protective; he doesn’t hide anything or have anything over on anyone. He is unafraid of being hurt by rejection, because in his mind, his love is enough. It’s a matter of confidence.

What is the essence of a character? There are myriad ways to reply, but to continue on this theme, let’s say confidence. I don’t just mean confidence as a character living out his or her life in the text, but as he or she relates to the writer outside the text. The characters I like best are the ones I have confidence in, the reliable ones, the ones that can help me do my job of conveying meaning, moving the story. Ironically, if they can remain true to the convictions you have assigned, they become less predictable, more interesting. They write themselves. In my novel, I would say Evie, Jack and Rob wrote themselves.

Are you skeptical of the American high school experience? Evie describes how school spirit, sports spirit and America spirit “got totally mixed up.” While participating in high school programs, she sometimes feels like “part of a giant out-of-control science experiment.” Was this true for you in high school? Is it the same for kids in high school today?
High school is a necessity for individuals, families and the nation, and receiving an education is a right and a privilege that American citizens deserve. But at the same time, these constructs I just named—individual, family, nation, education, right, privilege, America and citizenship—are not hollow. They need to be as meaningful in practice as in theory. The “out-of-control science experiment” phrase relates in part to the institutional lip service that gets paid to these concepts, whereas very little of it trickles down to the kids. It’s no secret to say that high school experiences are mixed at best. Many young people feel desperation, shame, anxiety, etc. while attending school. One main reason for this is that definitions of “success” in high school are too narrow. Typically, they relate to academics, sports or beauty. I was very fortunate to have had serious and meaningful experiences in the arts while in high school. Through the arts, my friends and I were able to cultivate, maintain and share the dignity, pride, faith, hope and political mindfulness that came naturally to us, and that come naturally to most teenagers. Unfortunately, such alternatives are not always available.

Who do you see as the audience for your book? Is it overwhelmingly female? Do you think men will be interested in this story?
I see Anthropology as a literary novel, and as such, accessible to both men and women. However, I am aware of the fact that more women will read it than men. Having said that, many of the book’s strongest fans have been men, so I believe that if they give it a try, they’ll love it. It contains an examination of men in this culture as well as one of women, and I tried to be sensitive in my approach to the social pressures placed upon men. The male characters in the book—Jack, Denny, Rob, Rourke, even Mark—are not two-dimensional devices. They are fully-realized. Of course male readers might feel self-conscious about carrying around a book with the title Anthropology of an American Girl, but I think it’s a great way to impress women!

Evie frequently considers the unique experience of being female. For example, “Every woman knows the feeling of being a stack of roving flesh.” Or, an “American girl” should possess “independence and blind courage.” Is Evie’s love for—even obsession with—certain men at odds with her social commentary? Is Evie a feminist?
Well, the book is not so polemical as that, and Evie is a very democratic protagonist. Through her, I was able to write around issues, more or less, rather than travel from one position to another. Perhaps I’d say she is a “feminist in training,” or to be more accurate, a “good citizen in training”—which incorporates feminism. She matures from that “stack of roving flesh” competing with the girls around her to a young woman who is genuinely concerned with others, and with women in particular. As the story progresses, Evie becomes mindful of the abuses women sometimes suffer, but she also comes to understand the abuses they level against themselves. She does this by living, observing, asking questions. She uses her internal time well. Thinking things through is a skill, I believe, that many of the best people cultivate.

And I think her love for men is accurate. I think the number and range of men she connects with is accurate. I think the vacillating negligence, absence, allegiance, cruelty, adoration, etc. of the men, and her willingness to love them despite it all, is accurate. There would have been no way for me to comment on the slippery slope women experience without demanding that Evie pass through it. Many girls waste their time on men. I certainly did!

In Anthropology of an American Girl, I was struck by your frequent use of italics to give certain phrases emphasis. What do italics add to the tone of your book? When you were writing, were you conscious of this technique?
This is very much a story about voice. It felt right to me that the words would be “heard” by the reader in a certain way. How Eveline hears, processes and speaks, are expressive of intention, direction and state of mind. It aided authenticity.

A notable characteristic of your writing is the use of simile: “The sun set . . . returning to us slow, like honey from an overturned jar.” “Some people exist quite well in injury. It’s like having gills to breathe underwater.” “The first time I saw you . . . it was like seeing a river.” How do these analogies serve your descriptions? Why do you so often describe what something is like?
First of all, I was writing from the point of view of a 17-year-old artist. I wrote as I thought she would see. If, instead, I’d written, “We watched the sunset,” or “Some people refuse to get over their own pain,” the words would have been stripped of her softness. They would have seemed too absolute. She does not know things so absolutely. Also, the similes make for a scenic space inside her head. I feel Eveline comes across as self-contained—unusual and content with that. Her inner vision is her defense. It’s like whistling or singing or breathing deeply when you are upset. She “paints” a place. At times, her interior image is at odds with her surroundings, and that interests me.

Secondly, I do happen to think and write visually, and I often see things before I can say them. So, I see the sunset like spilling honey. I see people existing well in injury as having special survival tools for their own special environment. Just this morning I was thinking of people who are oppressively cheerful as being secretly depressed. You know, those sorts who are happy to the point of evading the practical and emotional reality of others, themselves, the world at large. But before being able to articulate what I meant, I could see a sheer drinking glass full to the brim, lapping over its own edge. My impression was of something fragile, fluid and full to its own capacity. Something that had no room to let anything else in.

Why did you set Anthropology of an American Girl in the 1970s and 1980s? I couldn’t help but think of placing blame for our current financial crisis when Evie thinks: “blaming groups shows that you yourself are not involved but that you are intellectually connected.” Do you think your book has contemporary relevance?
I set it in the time I came of age because it felt more authentic to follow my own path. But I also believe the transformations of that time require exploration, and that they hold lessons for the present. One underlying question was: What happened to the idealism of the 1960s? Obviously, it was replaced by neo-conservatism, but why? I wanted to look at both the left and the right and try to understand the ways in which individual Americans are manipulated.

As teenagers who had been children in the 1960s, we were all too aware in the early and mid 1970s of corporate, political and environmental inequities. We were outspoken, and our conversations were deep and free. We were concerned about excessive deregulation of corporations (of the sort that has almost certainly led to the oil spill in the Gulf), environmental destruction, human rights. We had lived through the gas crisis. We were ready for solar power. It would have been a good time for increased sacrifice. But instead, the opposite happened. By the early 1980s, personal pleasure became the mode. Topics of consequence vanished; it became unpopular to be anti-establishment. It got to the point where you were mocked for thinking or speaking too seriously. Remember the old television show “Family Ties” with Michael J. Fox? The liberal, hippie parents were nice but irrelevant fodder for jokes, and the conservative son was the lead, the center, the star, the protagonist. It was a strange and depressing transition, and certainly, the “art” of the time bears this out. It reflects the pervasive selfishness, inwardness, markets—television, film, popular music. It all dated badly. It didn’t think beyond itself.

What is your next book about? Will you continue to work with a major publishing house?
I am currently writing a story about an extended family set in the Bronx in the 1960s. My idea is to write about a Vietnam veteran who returns home emotionally and physically ruined by his experience, but is eventually reconstituted through his relationship with a strange and extraordinary woman. It’s going to be another romance set over another cultural exploration. I think it will have something for everyone. And, I would love to continue working with Speigel & Grau. I feel as though I have found home.

Author photo by Doug Young.

Self-published in 2003, Hilary Thayer Hamann’s re-released Anthropology of an American Girl is a coming-of-age story rich with visual descriptions and commentary on life in the 1980s. Through high school in East Hampton and early adulthood in New York City, protagonist Eveline Auerbach confronts the…

Mystery & SuspenseSuspense

Chevy Stevens

Interview by Eliza Borné

Chevy Stevens has received a bigger reception for her first novel than many authors will ever see: fast-paced thriller Still Missing has a first print run of 150,000 copies, and at the time of this interview, rights have been sold in 16 countries. If you start the novel, it’s easy to identify the root of the buzz: the story itself, which zips by in a can’t-put-it-down blur.

Protagonist Annie O’Sullivan is a successful real estate agent and a confident, independent woman—and in short order she’s abducted at an open house by a charming potential buyer. For more than a year, The Freak holds her captive in a cabin, dictating everything from Annie’s clothing, to her food, to her bathroom schedule. Because the narrative is told in a series of flashbacks, the reader knows all along that Annie gets out alive. She tells her story throughout appointments with her psychiatrist, although the action comes back to the present when an investigator starts to work on the case.

Readers will root for Annie’s fierce resolve—and be blown away by a shocking twist at the end. If that’s not enough to hook you, read on for more from Stevens herself, who answered questions on her early success, writing brutally violent scenes and a Realtor’s worst nightmare.

Still Missing is an incredibly intense novel with viscerally painful scenes of violence and rape. Was it difficult for you to write the graphic passages? Did you do any research to get inside the mind of a woman who has been abducted and abused?
It was very difficult to go into the more intense scenes, whether they were physical or emotional, and afterward I would feel drained for hours. When I wrote terrifying scenes my heart was racing, and when I worked on parts where Annie was sad, vulnerable or simply unable to connect with someone, I hurt along with her.

I didn’t do any research on abduction cases and tried to avoid reading about anything that was remotely related as I wanted the story to come from inside me. I did some online research about PTSD and the five stages of grief, but the majority came from my own imagination and personal life experiences.

The reader knows from the beginning of Still Missing that Annie will get away from her captor—the story is told in a series of post-abduction sessions with her psychiatrist. Why did you choose this structure?
I didn’t actually choose the structure so much as it just came out that way. When I first heard my character’s voice in my head, she was telling her story to a therapist, so when I started writing I just began with a session. It was always in first person and I never considered writing any other way.

You have said that the idea for Still Missing came to you when you worked as a real estate agent: you would imagine horrible scenarios—like being abducted during an open house. Did your dark imagination ever interfere with your work? 
I wouldn’t say it interfered with my work, but it made me more careful. When I hosted open houses I avoided showing basements and if I wasn’t sure of someone, I stood in the doorway. I always had my cell phone in hand, ready to dial, and I avoided meeting clients at homes if I hadn’t met them at my office first. In most situations I just tried to listen to my instincts and I did pass on a couple of clients who made me uncomfortable.

Have any real estate agents read Still Missing . . . then accused you of inducing nightmares?
I haven’t heard from any real estate agents as of yet, but I think it’s a fear a lot of female Realtors already have. Most of them are very careful—as all women should be when they are alone and in a vulnerable situation. Annie’s nightmare starts with an open house, but tragically many women are hurt in parking lots, walking home or simply going for a morning jog.

The tagline for Still Missing is “The truth doesn't always set you free.” Is this true for Annie? Would she have been better off if she hadn’t solved the mystery of her abduction?
Good question. It was a painful truth and she’s going to be dealing with it for a long time, but I think when there’s a tragedy a lot of people need to know why it happened before they can move on. That’s why some mothers of murder victims want to talk to the killer after he’s been caught. As horrific as the answers may be, it gives them something to move forward from.

The Freak makes Annie read him Pat Conroy’s The Prince of Tides, a book that prominently features a psychiatrist character (not to mention brutal rape). Were you inspired by that novel—or any others—when you were writing Still Missing?
I loved The Prince of Tides for its honesty, but it didn’t inspire any aspect of Still Missing. In this case, I needed a book that I felt The Freak—and Annie—might connect with and remembered The Prince of Tides as being a powerful book that dealt with family dysfunction. I’ve always been attracted to stories about twisted family dynamics and survivors of crime—of people overcoming any form of abuse.

Still Missing has a 150,000-copy first printing and rights have been sold in several countries. How does it feel for your first novel to be such an international success?
Yes, Still Missing has now sold to 16 countries in addition to North America, which has been very exciting. It means a lot to me that Annie’s story is connecting with people around the world. I feel it’s a testimony to the human spirit’s desire to overcome the injustices that so many people face in their lives. On a personal note, I love the idea of many cultures experiencing a bit of the West Coast of Canada. [Still Missing takes place on Vancouver Island.] And I’ve found it fascinating to see all the different covers.

You have said that you didn’t consider genre conventions when you wrote Still Missing. In BookPage, however, the novel is reviewed as part of a “Women in Mystery” feature—paying homage to the women writers who have been in the “vanguard of suspense fiction.” Do you consider yourself to be a successor to writers such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, or is your style something totally different?
It’s an honor to see those names anywhere near mine! I have huge respect for all the women writers who have paved the way for the rest of us, but I try not to emulate anyone or compare my style to theirs. I was just telling the story in my voice as it came to me and hoping it connected with others.

Still Missing includes a twist at the 11th hour. Were you aware of this story turn from the beginning, or did it come to you later in the writing process?
The twist wasn’t in my mind when I first sat down to write, but it did happen organically in my first draft. Subsequent rewrites were to make sure that the foundation was there all along.

You have already signed a deal to write two sequels to Still Missing. Will the plot of your next book, Never Knowing, be a direct continuation of Still Missing? Will it star Annie O’Sullivan? Can you give any details?
Never Knowing isn’t a direct sequel, but it does have the same therapist, Nadine, who we met in Still Missing. Sara, the main character in Never Knowing, has a different dynamic with Nadine than Annie did, and also a unique energy of her own, so it’s interesting for me to see how that drives the story forward.

 

Photo courtesy of Suzanne Teresa.

Chevy Stevens has received a bigger reception for her first novel than many authors will ever see: fast-paced thriller Still Missing has a first print run of 150,000 copies, and at the time of this interview, rights have been sold in 16 countries. If…

Children's & YAMiddle Grade

Megan McDonald

Interview by Eliza Borné

Megan McDonald’s Judy Moody series has sold millions of copies, captivating early readers with the oddball adventures of a feisty third-grader. In the series’ ninth installment, Judy Moody, Girl Detective, Judy and her little brother, Stink, find themselves in the middle of a mystery: Mr. Chips (a dog) has gone missing! Luckily, Judy is a student of Nancy Drew, and it doesn’t take her long to start looking for clues.

The popular series will reach an even larger audience when Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer—the movie—is released next summer.

McDonald took a few minutes to give us her take on the new book, Judy’s resilience and the upcoming film adaptation.

Was your personality like Judy’s when you were in third grade?
Do I have to admit it? I’m moody! Judy and I are a lot alike—we both have messy hair, can turn anything—a Band-Aid, sock monkey, scabs, ABC gum—into a collection, and yes, I once went to school in my pajamas. I would like to think that Judy and I are both a good friend and a good sister, despite our shortcomings. And . . . our favorite color is purple.

How were you different?
Judy is a bossy BIG sister (based on my four older sisters!) and I’m the youngest, like Stink. I think Judy is much more outspoken and sure of herself than I was at her age. She has a strong voice, and is not afraid to speak up with creative ideas. She is not crushed by disappointment—she picks herself up and keeps going, even though lots of things don’t turn out the way she’d hoped. Judy certainly has her failings, and one of them was spelling. I, on the other hand, was a Spelling Bee champ from way back. Can you spell pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis?

In your opinion, what is Judy’s best quality?
Resilience. Call it lively, spirited, energetic, feisty, or go-getting . . . I set a lot of obstacles in Judy’s way, but she always meets the challenge, and in the end, overcomes them with humor and imagination.

Judy has a lot of opinions on “Rule Number One” of being a good detective. (From “A good detective does not get in a bad mood,” to “Never give up!”) In your opinion, what’s the real Rule Number One of being a good detective?
My own favorite Rule Number One is: NEVER leave home without your S.O.S. lipstick! (For writing a HELP message in red in case you find yourself in danger.)

Rule Number One-est of Them All: TRUST YOUR INNER NANCY DREW!

What’s your favorite Nancy Drew mystery? Why is Judy so drawn to the girl detective?
2010 marks the 80th anniversary of my girlhood favorite—Nancy Drew! Who doesn’t remember Nancy and her blue convertible Roadster, taking on ghosts, villains and jewel thieves of every stripe! The clever, gutsy, independent teenage sleuth has impacted generations of women, from Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Sandra Day O’Connor to Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey and Diane Sawyer. My favorite Nancy Drew book would have to be . . . #21: Secret in the Old Attic. A dead man’s letters, secret clues, an unpublished musical manuscript . . . great stuff!

When I was a girl reading Nancy Drew, she felt so grown up and independent to me. She had all these amazing adventures in faraway settings, AND she knew how to drive—a convertible, no less! I think Judy is drawn to that same spirit of adventure—the idea that there’s a mystery, with a dash of danger, around every corner.

Judy takes her place next to a slew of beloved kid heroines, from Ramona Quimby to Harriet the Spy. Has your writing been inspired at all by other authors or characters?
Katherine Paterson inspired and mentored me at a young age, long before I ever became published. She still inspires me as a person, and as a writer.

As for characters who had an important impact on me—Jo March, Ellen Tebbitts, Harriet the Spy, and of course, Nancy Drew.

Of all the Judy Moody books, is there one that sticks out as your favorite? Why?
If I had to pick one, my favorite would be Judy Moody Saves the World. I love the books that show the big-hearted side of Judy Moody, and who doesn’t think the planet needs a little saving right now?

Young readers have a lot of entertainment options, from smartphones, to the Wii, to over-booked after-school activities. In spite of so many distractions, why are kids excited about Judy Moody?
She’s funny, and makes us laugh. We see ourselves in her. Judy can always be trusted to TRY and do the right thing, but her adventures along the way are hilarious and true, like life. I do worry that reading has to compete so much with technology, sports and other activities, but I believe there’s nothing better than curling up with a good book. Reading feeds the imagination; my hope is that kids will always make room for a good story.

How did you react when you learned that Judy Moody is being turned into a movie? Are there any actors you envision as Judy and Stink?
I’m Joyful-on-top-of-Spaghetti-and-the-World that Judy Moody is being made into a movie—Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer. A feature film will reach countless new Judy Moody readers. I’m kind of hoping that Judy and Stink will be actors we haven’t seen much of yet—so that they really embody and become the characters in the books.

For the movie, you share a screenwriting credit with Kathy Waugh. How is the screenwriting process different from writing a book?
Wildly different. Screenwriting is completely visual—I had to constantly play each scene like a movie in my head. The biggest challenge for me in scripting a movie is that the characters always have to be doing something—in action. I LOVE most of all to write dialogue, and there are rarely more than a few lines of dialogue at a time in the script. It was quite an education for me.

What are you working on now? Can you give us a hint about Judy’s next adventure?
Look for an on-set, behind-the-scenes, Judy Moody Goes to Hollywood kind of diary . . . Her next adventure? The good news is . . . it’s about BAD news. Judy gets tired of all the bad news in the world, and starts her own GOOD NEWS newspaper. The bad news is . . . I can’t tell you any more because it’s a work in progress!

Megan McDonald’s Judy Moody series has sold millions of copies, captivating early readers with the oddball adventures of a feisty third-grader. In the series’ ninth installment, Judy Moody, Girl Detective, Judy and her little brother, Stink, find themselves in the middle of a mystery: Mr.…

Children's & YAMiddle Grade

Kate DiCamillo

Interview by Eliza Borné

Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo and #1 New York Times best-selling author Alison McGhee will make kids smile, giggle and demand pancakes with Bink & Gollie, the story of two best friends.

Bink is short and blonde and Gollie is tall and brunette, and the girls are different in other ways, too. Bink lives in a cottage at the bottom of a tree. Gollie lives in a modern tree house. Bink is loud and enjoys making unusual purchases, such as crazy rainbow socks or a fish to carry around. Gollie is level-headed and loves making pancakes. Together they make marvelous companions, sharing hilarious banter and a love for roller skates.

Bink & Gollie is the first collaboration between DiCamillo and McGhee—who were friends before they became co-authors. The two authors took the time to answer some questions from BookPage on working together, adventures with friends and how the authors and the characters have plenty in common.

How long have you known each other? How did the idea for this story come about?
Kate: Alison and I have known each other since the summer of 2001. One evening we were sitting around talking about how we wished we had a good story to work on. Alison said: Why don’t we work on a story together? I said: A story about what? And Alison said: A story about a short girl and a tall girl.

Alison: If memory serves me correctly, and it doesn’t always, Kate and I met in the fall of 2001 at the former Figlio’s restaurant in Minneapolis. We were laughing within a minute of meeting—always a good sign.

Can you explain the logistics of the collaboration?
Kate: Every morning for, I don’t know how long, I came over to Alison’s house and we sat in her office and wrote the stories “out loud” together. We yelled at each other and made each other laugh. It was a lot of fun.

Alison: I remember wanting to write a book with someone, the someone being Kate, and we decided to write about two friends. We had no idea how to begin this project—neither of us had ever collaborated with another writer—and I’m pretty sure that we began by giving our two friends a sock, just to see what they’d do with it. And it went from there.

We wrote the whole thing together. We set specific two-hour time slots to work on it, and the rule was that we were never allowed to work on it when we were apart. Sometimes we’d start to zip revision ideas back and forth over email, but that was breaking the rules, so we’d stop ourselves immediately.

Sometimes we were stumped, sometimes everything flowed easily, sometimes we argued, but we almost always laughed and laughed and laughed.

How old are Bink and Gollie? Their parents are never in the picture—will they show up in future books?
Kate: I don’t know what Alison thinks, but I very strongly doubt that we will ever see the parents of Bink or Gollie. However, I do think it would be fun to make Tony Fucile draw portraits of the parental units and have those portraits sitting on Bink’s mantel or in Gollie’s kitchen. Glowering. A little.

Alison: I’m not exactly sure how old the girls are, but I can pretty much guarantee that their parents will never show up. That would mess up the fun. I do, however, very much like Kate’s idea of having Tony draw their portraits.

You’re very clever about explaining the meaning of certain words in the dialogue (such as “compromise”). Do you hope that kids will learn new vocabulary by reading Bink & Gollie?
Kate: What would make me happiest is if kids read these books and think: there is so much to love in the world; and words are so much fun.

Alison: I don't care if they do or not. May God strike me down with a hammer on the head before I write a book with a teach-y goal! What I hope is that the book delights children. What I hope is that they laugh and laugh and laugh, just as we did when we wrote them.

Have either of you ever worked with a co-author before? How is this experience different from writing a book by yourself?
Kate: I’ve never worked with a co-author before. Writing for me is a pretty scary thing, so it was a huge comfort to have someone in the room working with me. It became less like work and more like play.

Alison: I had never worked with another writer before. I loved the experience, loved loved loved it. It was so comforting to have someone else there doing the work with me—writing is such a lonely thing to do.

Growing up, did either of you have a friendship like the one portrayed in Bink & Gollie? What’s the weirdest adventure you ever went on?
Kate: The weirdest adventure? They’ve all been weird. And yes, I have had many friendships that are similar to Bink and Gollie’s. I’m always looking for someone to feed me. And to make me laugh.

Alison: Growing up, my best friend Cindy was very short, whereas I was very tall, but the dynamic was very different from Bink & Gollie’s friendship. What’s my weirdest adventure? Yikes, there’ve been so very many. Perhaps the pig+vegetable+Taiwanese-army-guys boat ride to the island off the coast of Taiwan qualifies as the weirdest. Or at least the most seasick.

Bink is short and blonde and Gollie is tall and brunette—not totally unlike the authors! Any other similarities between the two of you and Bink and Gollie?
Kate: Like Bink, I am short, loud and perpetually hungry. Also I (like Bink) tend to be a tiny bit clueless.

Alison: Like Gollie, I love adventurous travel. I also love pancakes, and making pancakes for other people. You would definitely find me in the airy treetop as opposed to below ground. We're both good in a crisis. And beyond that, Gollie and I are less self-assured than we look on the surface.

The illustrations are just wonderful, and certain details really add to the story. (For example, Gollie’s modern house in the tree’s branches versus Bink’s little cottage at the tree’s base.) How closely did you work with Tony Fucile? Did he have free rein to illustrate as he wished, or did you give him suggestions?
Kate: We made some illustrator notes on the text (that Bink is short and Gollie is tall, that we thought that Bink would live at the bottom of the tree and that Gollie would live at the top) but most of what you see is just the sheer, absolute, happy genius of Tony Fucile.
Alison: Beyond telling Tony that Gollie was tall and Bink was short, and giving him a few personality tips, Tony had free rein. And didn't he do a glorious job?

What are you working on now? Do have any individual projects planned?
Kate: I’m at work on a novel. I’m hoping that it’s a funny novel. Some days it seems funny. Other days it doesn’t.

Alison: For children: I’m writing a picture book about the Big Dipper and a novel about a cricket, a firefly and a vole. For grownups: I’m writing poems.

Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo and #1 New York Times best-selling author Alison McGhee will make kids smile, giggle and demand pancakes with Bink & Gollie, the story of two best friends.

YA FictionYA

Kody Keplinger

Interview by Eliza Borné

For those who don’t spend much time around high schoolers, “Duff” is short for “designated ugly fat friend”—what über-hot Wesley Rush calls Bianca Piper as compared to her two beautiful best friends. But in a moment of lapsed judgment, Bianca kisses Wesley, and then the two start surreptitiously hooking up—an escape for Bianca from conflict at home.

Although The Duff contains steamy scenes and a love triangle sure to keep the pages turning, author Kody Keplinger addresses more serious themes, too: body image, alcoholism and the sacrifices of friendship. She also has a knack for writing in an authentic teen voice.

No wonder, considering she wrote The Duff when she was 17 years old. (She is now a 19-year-old student at Ithaca College.)

Keplinger’s youth piqued our interest in this much buzzed-about teen novel, but the quality of her writing compelled us to keep reading and ask the author a few questions.

Bianca eventually comes to the realization that every girl feels like a “label” at some point: prude, tease, ditz, Duff, etc. Do you think this is true?
Oh, yes, I definitely think so. I have never met a girl who didn’t feel labeled as something, even if the label was only in her head. Sometimes there are multiple labels—I’ve felt like the “Duff” so many times, but on top of that I’ve felt like the “party pooper” or the “drama queen,” too. Both because I was called these things and because, at other times, I just convinced myself it was true. I think every girl has been there. Sometimes others label us, and sometimes we label ourselves. It’s sad and frustrating, but I think that’s one thing we all have in common.

A high point in the story is when Bianca and her friends start referring to themselves as Duffs in casual conversation.
I’m a big fan of that scene myself, because it’s something my friends and I actually do now. One of us will say, “Looks like I’m the Duff tonight, but next week, you better let me have the spotlight.” It’s a joke, and having the word reclaimed and reused in a non-hurtful way is so empowering.

I think it’s important for girls to reclaim these labels and turn them into something else for many reasons. One is that by reclaiming the word, it makes it harder for others to use it in a cruel way. “Drama Queen” is a label that was originally meant to be hurtful. Meant for a girl who starts too much drama or is overdramatic. Now, I hear girls use it in other ways, and many girls admit to being “drama queens.” Now it’s a weak insult, so I feel like the phrase has really been reclaimed.

If we take them back for ourselves, the words can’t be used to hurt us anymore. The labels may never go away, but we can change their meanings.

Bianca comes to terms with her various relationships as she’s reading Wuthering Heights. Are teens today interested in classics as well as contemporary YA?
You know, I didn’t even consider that as I was writing The Duff. When I wrote the book, it was for fun, with no idea that it would wind up getting published. But all throughout high school, I was obsessed with the classics. Particularly anything by Jane Austen. So allusions to classics in contemporary fiction always made me smile.

I was taking AP Lit when I wrote The Duff and in that class we read both The Scarlet Letter and Wuthering Heights. I’d read both before, but they meant so much more to me at 17 than they had when I first read them at 14. I worked both of them into The Duff because, if I was reading these books and finally understanding them as a senior, I figured Bianca may be, too.

Also, I’m seeing so many YA books out there right now with allusions to classics. Even Twilight has some classic lit references, so I think some of these famous stories that are commonly read in high school are prime material for the characters in—and readers of—young adult literature to relate to.

One of the major plot points in the novel is a love triangle. Did you know from the beginning who Bianca would end up with? Do you think she made the right choice?
I absolutely did not know who Bianca would end up with. I wrote The Duff without any sort of outline or plan. At first, I just knew that I wanted to have an “enemies with benefits” relationship. I knew that my “Duff” character would be tough and cynical. I hadn’t even planned on a love triangle forming, but my characters surprised me. I wrote blindly, but by the time I was halfway into the book, I knew who Bianca had to choose. Her choice didn’t really shock me—it shocked me more that I hadn’t realized from page one who she would have to choose. Do I think she made the right choice? Absolutely, and I hope readers will agree. (Though, I admit, I do love the other boy involved.)

When did you start working on The Duff? Was it difficult to balance writing with being a full-time student?
I started writing The Duff in January of 2009, when I was halfway through my senior year of high school. Honestly, I didn’t see writing as a challenge with being a student. Probably because I was always writing. I’ve been writing since I can remember—for fun more than anything—so I just knew how to make time for it. Add that in with not having cable or internet at home, and writing became my chief form of entertainment. I did school work, and then spent the rest of my time writing. Usually, I’d write while watching TV—one of our five channels—so I had some background noise. That’s how I do homework, too. So I can honestly say that about half of The Duff was written while I was on my living room floor watching “Gossip Girl.”

Do you think teens are more inclined to read books written by their peers?
You know, I really don’t know. A lot of books I read as a teenager, I had no idea how old the author was. The only book I ever read already knowing the author had been a teen when she wrote it was The Outsiders, and that was a classic in its own right already. Had I known of other teen authors at the time—I say at the time because now I just read everything that comes into my path—I might have jumped on it. But during high school, I didn’t ever look up or see the need to look up an author’s age.

In the end it’s going to depend on how much a reader actually cares about what they are reading. Some readers are the types to research books online or in the library and find out facts like that—I was never one. I just took recommendations from my librarian, and usually info on the author never came up. I think in some cases teens will be more likely to read books by other teens, but in a lot of cases, a teenager may not even know the author is a teenager unless they read the “About the Author.” Everyone is different on how they decide what to read, I think.

Are there any other books or authors that inspired your writing?
I think I was most inspired by Sarah Dessen and Judy Blume. Blume’s honesty and Dessen’s prose were always things I loved. But I drew a lot of inspiration from television and movies, too. I don’t know if I ever would have written The Duff had I not watched “Gossip Girl” obsessively during my senior year—and, um, still. There are a few references to the “Gossip Girl” TV show within the book, even, because it captivated me so much. I knew I wanted to write something that conveyed the tension and chemistry some of those characters had.

I’m reading so much more now, and I continually draw inspiration from new things. Books that make me go “Whoa, I want to know how they did that!” Elizabeth Scott, Simone Elkeles, Stephanie Kuehnert, Carolyn Mackler and Lauren Oliver have really inspired me as of late. I’m reading their books obsessively and hoping that one day my writing will be as enthralling.

What are you working on now?
I’m working on a few things! I find my problem is that I have too many ideas and not enough time to write them—which is actually saying something because I do tend to write first drafts pretty fast. But I’ll have another book out in Fall 2011. It hasn’t been titled yet, and I don’t want to give anything away, but it takes place in the same town that The Duff took place in, as many of my newer projects do. I just can’t seem to leave Hamilton High School behind.

For those who don’t spend much time around high schoolers, “Duff” is short for “designated ugly fat friend”—what über-hot Wesley Rush calls Bianca Piper as compared to her two beautiful best friends. But in a moment of lapsed judgment, Bianca kisses Wesley, and then the…

Kate Braestrup

Interview by Eliza Borné

Memoirist and chaplain Kate Braestrup is the author of Here If You Need Me, a beloved memoir about losing a loved one and life after tragedy: Braestrup was a young mother of four when her husband, a Maine state trooper, was killed in a car accident.

Marriage and Other Acts of Charity, her second memoir, is another BookPage favorite; when it came out in January, reviewer Linda Stankard called it a “richly enlightening first-person narrative . . . And what a story it is!”

In a feature exclusive to BookPageXTRA, Braestrup answers questions about her favorite memoirs, the popularity of the genre and Beginner’s Grace, her new book out in November.

What qualities do you believe make a successful memoir?
The easiest answer is that interesting lives make for interesting memoirs, but that isn’t really true. When bad things happen to good writers, any writer can recognize a story even in the midst of her suffering, and the temptation is to write the book too soon. Writing about one’s unusual, bizarre or traumatic experience may be therapeutic, but it won’t necessarily yield a work that satisfies a reader.

In a memoir (as in any other form of creative literature) the task of the writer is to tell an individual tale with such precision, clarity and specificity that the reader can experience the universal through it. A memoir is, by definition, “about me,” but the best memoirs succeed by being about us.

What are your favorite memoirs?
I first read Gerald Durrell’s My Family and Other Animals and Birds, Beasts and Relatives when I was nine. He combined a passion for animals and the natural world with an obvious affection for the rich (and funny!) possibilities of the English language, and I found his books irresistible. Hugues de Montalembert’s 2009 Invisible is a wonder: It is the brief, spare, compelling story of an artist attacked in a random crime and permanently blinded: de Montalembert’s story is, in itself, sufficiently sensational but was, thankfully, written by one who allowed time to pass before he shared it.

What is it about writing memoirs that you find compelling? Your first book, the novel Onion, was followed by two memoirs. Do you think you’ll ever return to writing fiction?
My first memoir, Here If You Need Me, is subtitled “A True Story,” but in it, a reader will not be told all the facts of my life. No genealogical data, no date or place of birth, few of the sorts of hard facts considered obligatory in an autobiography. The fascinating challenge of a memoir lies in the form’s demand for complete honesty without complete, exhaustive (and exhausting!) detail.

Oddly enough, it’s easy to describe evil in a novel. Even really outrageous evil strikes the modern reader as entirely believable. It is genuine virtue that seems to us implausible, and thus requires an explicit assertion of factuality: “Yes,” I find myself saying. “People really are generous, brave, routinely compassionate!”

I don’t come across a lot of genuine evil in my personal life, which is the only life I am authorized to really thoroughly exploit. I see the deluded, ignorant and pathetic at times, but seldom the wicked. When writing fiction, I don’t have to stick to real life: In fiction, one is allowed and even encouraged to lie as lavishly as the tale demands, which can be a great deal of fun even if, in the end, the untrue story asserts its own, dour demand for both truthfulness and careful editing. So I’m looking forward to getting back to fiction once I’ve finished with the present set of projects.

Why do you think it is so fascinating to read about other people’s relationships?
We’re all a bunch of voyeurs and gossips . . . or perhaps I should say that we are instinctively driven to try to extract wisdom from the successes and failures of others. In the dark, Darwinian struggles we call our “relationships,” the genes of the nosy must surely prevail over those of the uninquisitive. How inefficient would it be, after all, if every single soul was required to re-invent every single emotional wheel? We construct what we know of life and love not only from our relatives and friends, but from the grander tribulations of Abraham and Sarah, Bill and Hilary or—what the heck—from Brangelina.

Has the process of writing about your own life, relationships and beliefs changed the way you think about any of them?
My husband, a teacher for many years, claims you always teach best what you need to learn most. If nothing else, writing compels the formal organization, composition and consideration of ideas that might otherwise disguise themselves prettily as my personal intuition or unique cleverness. Pinned and humbled on the page, these are either revealed as half-baked foolishness or as the same reasonable conclusions that other human souls have arrived at, again and again, since the days when we were scratching in the dust with sticks. As a reader, I love the feeling I get when a familiar but elusive thought has been named, at last, by an author, and my favorite comments from readers describe the same communion.

Both of your memoirs are as much about the Maine game wardens you work with as about yourself. What have been the wardens’ reactions to being written about?
They have been very encouraging and generous all the way around. I think some good things have happened as a result of my writing: More people now know and understand what game wardens do, and are moved to express gratitude when they encounter a warden in the woods or—quite often—in the grocery store or diner! Since law enforcement officers often feel misunderstood and unappreciated by the communities they serve, this has been a good and healthy thing. The hardest part of having an author for a chaplain is simply that my responsibilities to my publisher and readers take me away from Maine, so I am 'Not Here If You Need Me' more often than before.

Tell us about your new book, Beginner’s Grace, out in November. What’s it about? Why did you decide to write it?
Beginner’s Grace was first imagined as a practical guide to prayer for people who were drawn to the idea of prayer, but didn’t really know how to go about doing it. As I worked on the book, however, I realized that the first question I had to answer (for myself, if for no one else) was “why pray at all? What’s the point?” Funnily enough, I realized that I had never been given an adequate answer to this question. I grew up in a secular family that did not pray, and went to Seminary with people who presumed I already knew not only why and how, but what to expect in the way of an answer. Beginner’s Grace turned out to be a much more interesting book than the one I thought I was going to write! It’s still a practical guide to prayer (theory is fine, but I need action!) but it also offers anecdotes, jokes and meditations that illustrate why and how a sane, reasonably rational, 21st century person can include the ancient practice of prayer in her life.

Author photo by Kelly Campbell.

Memoirist and chaplain Kate Braestrup is the author of Here If You Need Me, a beloved memoir about losing a loved one and life after tragedy: Braestrup was a young mother of four when her husband, a Maine state trooper, was killed in a…

FictionAudio

Julia Glass

Interview by Eliza Borné

Fans of Julia Glass’ beloved Three Junes will feel a sense of familiarity when they dive into The Widower’s Tale, the author’s fourth novel. The stories share similar plot points: in both, the matriarch of a family dies young, leaving a husband and children behind. In both, a widower unexpectedly falls for another woman. In both, Glass creates a slowly unfolding, yet fully rendered, portrait of a family.

But don’t think this book is just a rehash of past work. The tone is more satiric—you can look forward to amusing passages on everything from freeganism to “books as bytes.” And the protagonist, 70-year-old Percy Darling, is distinct from Paul McLeod, the widower of Three Junes.

“There's a way in which you cannot create good fiction without inflicting pain on your characters.”

In a telephone conversation from her home in Marblehead, Massachusetts, Glass said, “When I started writing The Widower’s Tale, I was trying to describe Percy’s character, and I said he’s like a cross between Paul McLeod and Malachy Burns. He has that razor edge to his wit.” Never matter if you haven’t read Glass’s National Book Award-winning debut from 2002—although if you have, you’ll understand why that combination will be a delight to fans. Paul, an elderly Scottish newspaper publisher, is a bit hapless. Music critic Malachy is cranky and clever.

Glass “always begins a story with a character,” and she says her best ones are pulled from some corner of her soul.

In this story, Percy was that character. He is also the center of the tale, which chronologically begins when his wife, Poppy, drowns in a pond. Percy is left to raise his two daughters, Clover and Trudy, who grew up to be very different women. As an adult 30 years after her mother’s death, Clover has a free spirit and big heart, although she’s also troubled, having walked out on her husband and two children during a breakdown. Trudy is chief of breast oncology at a major hospital and is organized and serious.

Percy was born out of several of Glass’ experiences—one being a consciousness of her “resistance to the modern world.” (“I’m like the only writer on the planet who doesn’t have a website and refuses to join Facebook,” she says.) She also drew from her move to Massachusetts, her home state and the setting for The Widower’s Tale, after years of living in New York.

When she returned to her hometown, Glass at first felt like the place hadn’t changed—“very rural, quite privileged, but with a kind of faux-rustic liberal quality to it.” In the time she lived there, she discovered that it had become more affluent than it was during her childhood. “There were certain . . . I call them millennial attitudes that had taken hold,” she said. “I found myself disturbed that this very hallowed place in my life had changed.” Percy is similarly disturbed by the changes in Matlock, his fictional town—or “enclave,” as he quips in the book.

In Glass’ words, her novel is about “the fear of change as juxtaposed against the yearning for change.” For Percy, a retired Harvard librarian, the impetus for change in his life is the opening of Elves & Fairies, a progressive preschool that moves into the barn in his backyard. When the preschool moves in, Percy’s solitary life is disturbed and he falls in love with the mother of a student. Percy’s world is further rocked when the woman is diagnosed with cancer.

Because Glass didn’t want to write about only “looking at the world as this relentlessly changing place from the point of view of someone old and curmudgeonly,” she asked herself, what is the flip side of that coin?

“Whether you’re talking about global warming or pollution or the ocean or automotive technology, the sense that we must change or we’re doomed seems to me far stronger than it has been at any other time in my life,” she said.

The character who embodies this attitude is Robert, Trudy’s 20-year-old son. Robert is a pre-med student at Harvard and becomes involved with a radical environmental group. By the end of the novel, his life is completely altered. Without giving too much away, Glass explains, “Sometimes bad things happen to good characters, and Robert is a good character. He suffers a very benign character flaw, which is that he’s easily drawn in by other people’s passion.”

Like in each of Glass’ three previous novels, The Widower’s Tale is told from multiple perspectives, including Percy’s and Robert’s. Though Glass considered telling the story from a sister’s voice, she ultimately decided that much of the book is about “the absence of a woman in Percy’s life.” So, there are no female narrators.

Parts of the story are also told by Ira, a gay man who teaches at Elves & Fairies, and by Celestino, an illegal immigrant who does yard work in Matlock. Both of these characters become intertwined with Percy’s family and home, and both face discrimination and heartbreak.

When asked about forcing Percy and the people in his universe to suffer, Glass joked that “characters are like voodoo dolls.” She explained: “You stick in the pins, maybe you take the pins out. But there’s a way in which you cannot create good fiction without inflicting pain on your characters.”

That said, The Widower’s Tale ends hopefully. “That’s important to me,” said Glass. “This novel has ultimately less darkness and tragedy than a couple of my other books. I think it’s more comic. But even the best comic novels include sorrow and heartbreak; that’s what gives a kind of pungent edge to the humor.”

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Want more on The Widower's Tale? Check out Eliza Borné's 'behind the interview' blog post.

Author photo by Dennis Cowley.

Fans of Julia Glass’ beloved Three Junes will feel a sense of familiarity when they dive into The Widower’s Tale, the author’s fourth novel. The stories share similar plot points: in both, the matriarch of a family dies young, leaving a husband and children…

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