Susan Fletcher on Dragon Chronicles Book 4: Ancient, Strange and Lovely

Atheneum, 2010

Happy New Year, one and all! Today, Susan Fletcher joins me to talk about the publication of Book 4 in her Dragon Chronicles series: Ancient, Strange, and Lovely, (Atheneum, 2010). Personally, I can think of no better way of ushering in 2011. 

A consummate crafter of award-winning historical fiction and fantasy, Susan teaches in the Vermont College of Fine Arts’ MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program. This is fitting, as her body of work successfully spans the often arbitrary divide between middle grade and young adult classifications. Her skill at writing is matched only by her genuine gift for teaching. Susan shared with me the particular difficulties she has encountered in writing and gave me much to chew on in this delicious (and nutritious) interview. Pull up a chair, tuck your napkin into your shirt and dig in!

 

AB: Congratulations on the publication of the fourth book in your dragon chronicles series, Ancient, Strange and Lovely.  I was delightfully absorbed by your imagining of a near future earth, especially with teens who have developed creative, if unattractive, body art that highlights and protests the spread of environmental toxins. What were the challenges of writing a novel set in the near future?

SF: The near-future technology was incredibly difficult to write about; everything else was the kind of challenge I enjoy.   I’ll talk about technology issues later (see questions #4, re: “torture.”)   Meanwhile, the body art, especially the skwebbing (skin + webbing) was really a hoot to invent and think about.  I concocted a new rock subgenre (eco rock), some eco rock groups (i.e., Mutant Tide, Radioactive Fish), and parts of songs (i.e., “Cryptid Rant,” “Dragon Dreams,” and “Philange Web Salute.”)  I cooked up a super-encrypted eBay-like site for poachers and imagined some of the crazy (and disgusting) things they might be selling.  I extrapolated from some of the environmental problems we’re having now to imagine bad stuff that might happen in the near future.  This wasn’t exactly what you might call “fun,” because it’s scary to contemplate.  But it was interesting.  I had the best time, though, imagining how people would respond to the environmental problems.  Especially kids.

AB: What led you to write this story for young readers in particular?

SF: Ancient, Strange and Lovely is a funny kind of sequel to the books in my Dragon Chronicles series: Dragon’s Milk, Flight of the Dragon Kyn, and Sign of the Dove.  The earlier books have a medieval setting and extremely long-lived dragons.  I’d always wanted to bring the series up to the present or near future, but I didn’t know exactly how to do that until…  Well.  More on that in question #7.  A funny thing about age groups.  When the earlier three books came out originally, they were listed for ages 10 -14.  When they came out in paperback, they were listed for ages 8-12.  And Ancient, Strange and Lovely, though the main characters are in high school, is listed for ages 8-12.  These are marketing decisions, I think.   I like to imagine that kids might enjoy this story well into high school.

The lovely Susan Fletcher

AB: In your rich world building, your main character Bryn uses some terms you invented, including “’tants” and words you re-appropriated, such as ‘seismic’. For me it was reminiscent of the slang argot of Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange. I loved the not-too-distant future lexicon. How did you go about coining words? What was your process? Did you enjoy it?

SF:  I had a blast coining new words, but it was also really hard.  Slang is so tricky!  If you use current slang, you run the risk of dating yourself.  If you make up your own slang, you run the risk of sounding fake.  One option was to strip out nearly all of the slang…but it was clear to me that some of my characters wouldn’t speak in Standard English.  They just wouldn’t.   I’m not talking only about the poorly-educated characters.  I’m talking, too, about the brightest characters, the ones who are most alive. They would play with language, almost revel in it.  So I knew I’d have to deal with slang.  I kept three running lists of words: technology words, words evocative of mystery, and current slang that I’d overheard or heard in movies or TV.  I experimented, combined words in unexpected ways, played with them.  I read the manuscript aloud, just listening to how it sounded.  I changed it over and over, sort of feeling for what felt right.  The final result is a combination of Standard English, invented slang, and current slang that I thought might be around for, like, decades.

AB: Ha! I think you're right about 'like' not going anywhere for awhile. On your website,  you say that Ancient, Strange and Lovely was “excruciatingly hard to write. I’m talking torture. So with the fun and the torture happening at the exact same time, it was like when you eat ice cream too fast and it freezes the inside of your nose.” On behalf of readers everywhere, thank you for enduring this ‘torture’. What made it so difficult?

SF: Technology is changing so fast that it not only marfles my mind – it defies even the experts’ attempts to predict the tools we’ll all be using in the next five to seven years.  I was constantly scanning through technology magazines to try to keep up with what might be coming down the pike.  But even if you know what technology is coming, you don’t know what’s going to “take.”  You don’t know how things are going to be adopted, and by whom.  You don’t know if something’s going to out-and-out tank.  The iPad, for instance, was introduced not long after I’d made the final changes to my book.  I wondered if Bryn ought to have taken a tablet down to her basement, for example, instead of a laptop.  But it was too late to make the change.  The problem with the near future is…  My book will (I hope!) still be in print when some of these issues shake out.  So I worried that in a few years the book might be dated or anachronistic.  My brilliant editor, Karen Wojtyla, suggested a solution.  It’s an alternative near-future, right?  I wasn’t predicting the near-future; I was simply suggesting one way it might pan out.  After that, I was able to relax – at least, a bit!

AB: How long have you been writing? What was the timeline between the third book in the Dragon Chronicles series, Sign of the Dove, and Ancient, Strange and Lovely?

 

SF: I’ve been writing forever.  Professionally, I started out writing advertising copy, moved to writing for national magazines, then to writing novels for kids and young adults (my favorite).   My first novel came out in 1988; the third novel in the Dragon Chronicles (Sign of the Dove) came out in 1996.

AB:  Your stories generally involve a young heroine who, rises to whatever challenge confronts her courageously. In Ancient, Strange and Lovely, I enjoyed the way you vary the point of view, alternating from Bryn's first-hand account, to a close-in third perspective of other characters. I haven't seen much of this in MG/ YA fiction. Could you tell us why you chose this method of storytelling?

 

The third book in the series.

SF: I’ve never tried changing points of view before.  Well, there was just a little bit of it with the harper character in Sign of the Dove, but that’s about it.  I can’t remember exactly how I decided to vary the point of view so frequently in Ancient, Strange and Lovely.  I do remember that when I started moving my focus to other perspectives, it felt incredibly liberating.  Seriously, it was a blast.  In my other books, when something happened that my protagonist didn’t know about, I had to use all the craft I possessed to bring in that information unobtrusively.  This time, I just shifted to a new perspective and vamped.  Stuff came out that I had no idea was in there.  I think that this technique may work best for books in which rather complex events outside the protagonist influence the direction of the story.  I’m thinking of Philip Pullman’s Sally Lockhart series and His Dark Materials series, for instance.  Or Nancy Farmer’s The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm.

As to the first person…  I started out writing Bryn’s parts in third person, but they felt kind of leaden to me.  When I switched to first person, Bryn came alive. My agent felt uncertain about the combination of first and third person.  My editor had no problem with it.  At some point, I think, you’ve just got to trust the way in which the book comes to you most alive.  No matter what the rules say, if it’s alive…that’s right.

AB:  There is an underlying theme of environmental stewardship which runs throughout The Dragon Chronicles series. Was this something that was initially intentional on your part? Has writing this novel in the near future helped you explore different facets of environmentalism?

SF:  Way back when I was writing Dragon’s Milk, the story sort of bent, all on its own, in the direction of endangered species.  It was a discovered theme, not deliberate.  But it was at that early point that the idea of the relationship between humans and the environment became integral to the series.  Two questions that I explored throughout were: What do we lose when an animal goes extinct?  And how does that loss diminish us?

I was pretty jazzed about taking the series into the near future -- re-exploring the theme of environmental stewardship in light of what we know today.  But for a long time, I couldn’t find a way in…until one day my daughter, a microbiologist, told me about a rare lizard whose spit has microbes that might be able to clean up some seriously wicked toxins.  Returning to the questions I’d asked myself in the earlier books, I began to think about the idea of interconnectedness.  If this lizard has microbes in its spit that might get rid of environmental toxins, who’s to say that dragons might not have similar microbes – only better?  Who’s to say that they might not really help us to clean up some of the environmental messes we’ve made?

So if dragons disappear, you lose more than just the cool flying-and-flaming thing.  You lose the ability to clean up the environment, too.

AB: I understand that you work with a critique group. How is that helpful to you? Aside from the critique group, what and/or who has been most helpful to you in developing your craft?

SF:  I’ve been in a critique group for more than 25 years.  Some of us have grown up together, as writers.  I have learned so much from these smart, sensitive people!   I hear their voices as I write and revise, particularly the ones who were there very early on.  For example, I can still hear Eloise McGraw saying that each book teaches you how to write that book, but not necessarily the next.  Ellen Howard’s examples of emotional honesty and depth are always with me; they’re what I’m striving for.  I feel Margaret Bechard’s finely-tuned bullshit meter go off when I’m trying to persuade myself that a piece is good enough, but I know in my heart that there’s something wrong about it.  When I despair of ever getting it right, I think of Winnie Morris bringing a piece back to the group again and again – vastly improved each time -- until we can’t find a single critical thing to say about it.  At first, I processed everything through the group.  Now, I tend to go through a first draft before I show my chapters to anybody.

The other thing that’s been helpful is to reread favorite writers to try to penetrate their secrets.  First I read the book, and let myself savor the whole range of emotional experience.  Then I go coldly back and ask:  How did she do that?

AB: Are you able to read much current middle grade/ YA  fiction? If so,

what are some books published in the last 5-10 years that you've enjoyed?

What makes you like them so much?

SF: I don’t have time to read as much as I’d like to!  But definitely: I read.  Some of the kids’ and YA books I’ve enjoyed over this period are: The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey; Skellig, by David Almond; The Crimson Cap, by Ellen Howard; The Underneath, by Kathi Appelt; Spacer and Rat, by Margaret Bechard; Thursday’s Child, by Sonya Hartnett; This Full House, by Virginia Euwer Wolff; The Tale of Despereaux, by Kate DiCamillo; The Ear, the Eye and the Arm, by Nancy Farmer; Feed, by M.T. Anderson; Airborn, by Kenneth Oppel; Runt, by Marion Dane Bauer; One Crazy Summer, by Rita Williams Garcia, and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.  I could go on.  This is just kind of a random sampling, books that are springing to mind at this moment.  Different qualities endear.  Some I love most for their deep exploration of a theme: The Monstrumologist, Feed.  For others, it’s a kind of mythic quality, books that don’t seem created, but feel as if they’ve always been in the world: The Underneath, Skellig, Thursday’s Child, Runt.  In others, I’ve fallen head over heels for their characters:  One Crazy Summer, This Full House.  And always, always, it’s the quality of the prose.

AB: What about writing comes easiest for you? What is most difficult about the craft?

SF: Sometimes, the words just come to me.  I wish I could figure out a way to make this happen on command.  There are parts of my books that have been written in the shower, or in airplanes, or in the car, or on walks, or while I’m in the middle of writing something else entirely.  There is an epilogue in Dragon’s Milk; there are many passages in Shadow Spinner; there is nearly my entire picture book, Dadblamed Union Army Cow.  There are more scattered passages like this throughout all my other books.  They just came into my head; I wrote them down.  Later, when I look at the finished books, I see that I hardly had to revise these passages -- these gifts -- at all.  For the most part, though, for me, writing is hard labor.  I don’t mean to over-dramatize it – no drops of blood springing from my fevered brow or anything like that.  It’s just work.   (My earlier comments re: torture notwithstanding!) The hardest part for me is when I’m partway through the marathon that is a novel, when I’ve done a whole bunch and there’s still a whole bunch more to do.  Trying to scrape up the requisite stamina and faith.

AB: You tend to engage in very thorough, often hands-on research for your writing projects. Could you tell us what went into preparing for Ancient, Strange and Lovely?

ALA Best Books for Young Adults

SF:  For Ancient, Strange and Lovely, I didn’t have the travel adventures that I did, say, for Alphabet of Dreams.  It was one of those books where I didn’t so much go out to find things as stay alert to stray stories and bits of information that crossed into my world.   There was the story my daughter told me about a lizard with a symbiotic microbe that cleaned up environmental toxins.  There was the newspaper article about a webcam, a thief, and a lawn dwarf named O’Merkley.  There was the lapidary store that I wandered into in Seattle, where I learned how to crack open a fossilized dragon egg. There was the story my hairdresser told me about people who engage in online trade in really creepy stuff, like shrunken heads.  There was a friend who wrote a book about an Alutiiq healer on a remote Alaskan island. All of these things, when they crossed my path, provided answers to questions the novel was asking.  All were serendipitous.

AB: In the meantime, what advice would you offer a writer who is just starting out?

SF:  I’m kind of old school on this one.  There is so much emphasis these days on marketing, platforms, new technologies.  The thing is, I’ve already worked in advertising.  I left that to do this.  I came to writing novels because I love to read them.   I’m talking about reading as in living a story, stepping inside of a book character’s world and breathing along with him, falling in love with him, breaking my heart over him, busting out of the tight little time-and-place box I live in and experiencing stuff I’d never imagined.  There’s a kind of magic in making that happen.  It’s sorcery.  And, ever since I first experienced this, I wanted to perform that kind of magic, too.

So I’d say, first, put your energy into learning how to perform that sorcery, to perform it as well as you possibly can.  Read and study books you love.  Take classes.  Go to conferences.  Read craft books and blogs like this one.  Write and rewrite your novel until you can feel the magic happening.  And then do the marketing.

Having said that, I want to say that marketing has become an important component in sustaining a career as a writer.  And I am very grateful, indeed, Amy, for this opportunity to chime in on your awesome blog!

AB: Thank you, Susan! It's an honor to interview you. Now, I must go and Google the lawn dwarf named O'Merkley forthwith.

April Henry : Face of a Writer

April Henry doesn't have much time for time sucks like social networking. She's too busy writing dozens of witty mysteries and fast-paced thrillers for young adult and, well- old, fully-mature adult audiences.

The first in her Triple Threat Club series, Face of Betrayal, co-written with Lis Wiehl, was on the New York Times bestseller list for four weeks. April's first young adult novel, Shock Point (Putnam, 2006) was an ALA Quick Pick, a Top 10 Books for Teens nominee, and a New York Library's Books for the Teen Age book.  Her books have been short-listed for the Agatha Award, the Anthony Award, and the Oregon Book Award. They have been translated into Japanese, Spanish, Dutch, German, and French.

April's next YA Girl, Stolen (Henry Holt, 2010), about a blind teen who is kidnapped, will be out on shelves in the fall. I read an advance release copy that grabbed hold of me so tightly that I imagined being blind for the next two days until I nailed my knee on a door jamb while pretending, thus jolting myself back into reality. Embarrassing, but sadly true.

 April took time to answer some questions about what it's like to write different genres, how she conducted research for Girl, Stolen, and surprisingly, confides that she herself once engaged in an act of thievery as well!

AB: You and Fox News legal analyst Lis Wiehl have formed a successful partnership co-authoring the New York Times bestselling Triple Threat Series. Lis brings her experiences as a federal prosecutor, reporter, and daughter of an FBI agent. You bring your skills at crafting a compelling narrative. How did this opportunity arise for the two of you?

AH: Lis's agent originally contacted my agent, and then after that it was kind of like an arranged marriage, where we had to figure out if we liked each other or not.  Thankfully, we did.  Lis is very down to earth and so stunningly beautiful that when you first meet her you have trouble talking. Our first book in the series, Face of Betrayal (Thomas Nelson, 2010), is about three women (an FBI agent, a reporter and a federal prosecutor) who set out to solve the mystery of a missing Senate page. Our second book Hand of Fate (Thomas Nelson, 2010) was released in April. The three colleagues must uncover who killed a polarizing radio talk show host.

AB: You did a lot of research for Girl, Stolen, including working with guide dogs and blind consultants, one of whom is a high schooler. What was your favorite part of the process of constructing this page-turner?

AH: Setting up cliff hangers for most of the endings.  Oh, and after I talked to an opthalmologist and learned that most people blinded by this type of injury have a blurry sliver of sight left, I spent a lot of time walking around my house with my hands over my eyes letting in just one faint crack of light on the outside edge of my left eye.  Oh, and being blindfolded and walking a guide dog.  Actually, I enjoyed the whole process.

AB: How does writing YA differ from adult material for you?

AH: YAs are shorter (I normally aim for 50,000 words vs. 80,000 or 90,000 for the adult market), and as a result may have fewer suplots.  Right now, all my books are fairly clean.  After being asked by a teenager in Texas why I used "the b word" in Shock Point, I asked that it be taken out in the paperback.  Writing about sex or having a lot of swear words in your YA means your book might be challenged - and that a librarian could risk his or her job fighting for it.  I'm not saying writers shouldn't do it - we should just do it for a reason.  

Also, in YA, all your point-of-view characters should be teenagers.  And there's a strong preference for the book to be told from a first-person POV, to help teenagers relate even more strongly to the character.

Teen fans are incredibly enthusiastic, whereas adults have been around the block a few times and are more jaded.  

AB: In a mystery, the reader and the sleuth discover clues to the who-done-it together. In thrillers, we read to the end to see if the main character makes it out in one piece. How does writing mysteries differ from thrillers? What, if anything, are the challenges for you to write both of these different genres?

AH: Right now, my YAs are all thrillers, which are so fun to write.  You don't have to plot that much, you can just throw problems at the character and watch what they do to get out of them.  The challenge is that sometimes you don't have any idea how they will get out, or what your kick-ass cliffhanger chapter ending will lead to, i.e, you write, "She opened the door and gasped."  Then you have to figure out what comes next.  

 

AB: Do you currently write novels full-time? Is there anything you miss about your medical writing position at Kaiser?

AH: I do write full time.  I miss paid vacations, great health insurance, automatic contributions to a retirement plan, sick days, and some of my co-workers.  The work, not so much.  Although I'm still proud of a pamphlet I wrote on necrotizing jaw fascitis (an infection in your jaw bone that some women who take osteoporosis drugs get) that passed the government standard of meeting a sixth grade reading level.

AB: What for you is challenging about being a full-time writer? What marketing and self-promotion do you find helpful?

AH: You have to live on faith, or at least I have to, because you can't count on regular paychecks or even regular royalty checks.  Most of my publishing houses (I currently have three!) want you to Twitter, Facebook, blog, have a great website, etc.  I love blogging, and I do Twitter and Facebook because I feel I should.  They would probably be more enjoyable if I spent more time on them, but I'm on deadline right now and can't afford the time suck.

AB: Describe a book tour. Are you on one now? Do you have one coming up?

AH: Book tours are scarcer than hen's teeth these days.  With the decline and consolidation of newspapers and TV, there's fewer places to talk about your books, in addition to speaking at bookstores.  The last book I got toured for was in 2001 or 2002.  That being said, the publisher for my next YA, Girl, Stolen, will have a Northwest tour.

AB: As a child, you sent one of your stories to Roald Dahl, who liked it so much he passed  it on to a magazine editor who had it published. I’m assuming you enjoyed reading Roald Dahl books as a child. What other books did you enjoy reading as a kid? As a young adult?

AH: I loved The Silver Crown by Robert C. O'Brien so much that I stole it.  (As an adult, I paid the school's library back many times over.)  I also was thrilled by Enchantress from the Stars by Sylvia Engdahl.  There wasn't a lot of YA when I was a kid, so what happened was that I read a lot of sci-fi meant for kids, and then went upstairs and read the same authors in the adult section.  Let me just say that Robert Heinlein and and Robert Silverberg addressed very different issues in their two types of books.  In the books for kids, it was boys in space with slide rules.  In books for adults, it was often group sex on distant planets.  

AB: What do you enjoy reading now?

AH: I read mysteries, literary novels, and YA.  The sad thing is that the longer I've been writing, the fewer books I can enjoy whole-heartedly.  I was really looking forward to Scott Turow's follow up to Presumed Innocent, called Innocent, but I'm 100 pages in and it's not grabbing me yet.  Next up is Anna Quindlen's Every Last One, and then Michael Grant's third in the Gone trilogy.  

AB: I’ve read that you’re experimenting with e-book sales of your out-of-print books. How does this work? How’s it going? Any observations you’d like to share about the e-book industry?

AH: I had old files for almost all my books, so I followed the steps listed on Amazon (for Kindles) and on Smashwords.com (for all other readers) and put them up, linking them to their original Amazon pages.  Some people, most notably Lee Goldberg and JA Konrath, make tons of money.  I think the most I've made is $200 in one month, but I also haven't put any energy into promoting them.  

AB: How about your next YA thriller, The Girl in the Mini Cooper?

AH: It's about a girl who doesn't return from delivering pizzas.  It was inspired by a thirty-year old case that happened in Salem.  In my book, two of the girl's co-workers team up to figure out what really happened to her.  I should get my editorial letter for it really soon.  

AB: Anything else in the wings that we can look forward to?

AH: The next book with Lis is about a really scary sociopath - and it was inspired by a real-life case Lis prosecuted here in Portland.  It's called Heart of Ice.  And this summer I hope to wrap up another YA thriller called Finish Her Off.

AB: Thanks for your time, April! One last question: what do you hope to write about in the future?

AH: I'd like to do something with a paranormal element, but not vampires, werewolves, or fallen angels.  More like special powers.  

Suzanne Young: So Many Books

 

Suzanne Young doesn't mess around. She writes. And writes. And writes! She should win an award for most prolific YA author, like, ever. Her debut and first in her comedic series, THE NAUGHTY LIST (Razor Bill, 2010) hit the shelves in February. The second in the series, SO MANY BOYS comes out on June 10th, to be followed by A GOOD BOY IS HARD TO FIND this fall. 

THE NAUGHTY LIST series begins with a racy, frothy and witty tale of Tessa Crimson. Tessa's a perky cheerleading captain by day, but heads a secret spy-for-hire society (SOS- The Society of Smitten Kittens) by night. Their mission? To catch cheating boyfriends in the act and bring justice to the girls of Washington High. But before we continue, you should know that Suzanne's got (at least) two more books coming out next year in which she explores two completely different genres: deep, paranormal fantasy and raw, realistic fiction.

Read on to find out how IMing can lead to a novel, why middle schoolers in Arizona were incredibly lucky, and how to win a copy of SO MANY BOYS!

AB: Congratulations on the publication of your first book in your SOS Series:  THE NAUGHTY LIST, which I read in the span of one two-hour bath and found hysterically funny.  How long did it take from kernel of an idea to the shelves of bookstores near us?

SY:  I started THE NAUGHTY LIST late one night while IMing with a friend. I thought the idea of ninja cheerleaders would be hilarious. At the time, I had no idea I was writing a book. I wrote a draft in 2008 and set it aside for several months. Then out of the blue I picked it back up and revised it. It sold soon after, but didn’t hit the shelves until a year and half later. All and all, about two years from idea to shelf.

AB:  I’ve been told I talk like a sailor, and that’s part of my charm. So I was surprised to find that I really liked your main character, Tessa Crimson, a perky cheerleader-spy who abhors vulgarity, preferring to utter her own euphemisms such as “Fiddlesticks!” and, my personal favorite, “Sticker Shock!” Why did you choose to write Tessa’s character this way? (Was it fun to come up with her sayings?)

SY: Um, yeah, it was fun. And if you think you talk like a sailor, let's just say that I am your captain! This is probably why coming up with Tessa’s ridiculous sayings was so much fun for me. It was purely accidental; a few "dang it’s" and one "strawberry smoothie!" and the language took on a life of its own.

AB: The second in the series, SO MANY BOYS is coming out on June 10^th and I’m ready for more. Tell us about it.

SY: I think readers will be surprised at the turn this series will take. SO MANY BOYS starts off three months after THE NAUGHTY LIST ends. Turns out, someone has hacked into the database and now a "copy kitten" is on the loose, enacting vengeance in the name of SOS. It’s up to Tessa to figure out how to save her squad’s rep. Oh… and there are some boys….  Click here to find out how to win a copy!

AB: A GOOD BOY IS HARD TO FIND, the third in the series, hits bookstores next Thanksgiving, just in time for Christmas shopping. What’s it about? Boys?!? And, as an aside, you write very convincingly about straight teen characters. May I ask: are you yourself straight? 

SY: I am what my mom used to call "Boy Crazy". A GOOD BOY IS HARD TO FIND picks up right after SO MANY BOYS, and man… has the smoothie hit the fan. There will be in-fighting, kissing, and poorly-timed broken bones. Not to mention ESPN. 

AB: While THE NAUGHTY LIST is your first novel published, I bet you’ve been writing for some time. How many “graveyard novels” did you write before polishing this gem?

SY: I’ve been writing short stories since I was in 7^th grade—but honestly, they were awful. I started writing seriously in 2007 and I completed four novels before I wrote THE NAUGHTY LIST. Before I sold it, I completed three other books. My novel graveyard is overflowing with started stories. I’m addicted to drafting.

AB: Have you always wanted to be a writer?

SY: No, I wanted to be a FBI agent, but I fell into writing. Actually I was a language arts teacher for years. I’d never realized that writing could be a career. I consider myself unbelievably lucky.

AB: Before becoming a full-time writer, you taught writing at a Title I school in Arizona. Do you think that teaching writing to teens helped you in your journey as a writer as well? Do you miss teaching?

SY: I absolutely miss teaching. The kids I taught at that school are among my favorite in the world. Teaching teens to write helped me learn to write. I had to strip the process down and always keep it interesting for them. I still try to do that in my own writing.

AB: You are an active member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). You even volunteer to do live blogging at their conferences. When did you first become involved in SCBWI/ the greater kidlit community?

SY: I had not been lucky enough to know about SCBWI before getting published—I was still really new to the community. It was actually an author friend who told me I should attend a conference. I hit up the 2008 LA conference and WOW! What a blast!! After that I went to the Western Washington Conference, the NY one, and soon the LA summer conference again. I’m so excited to be part of Team Blog which is a fantastic way to follow the events if you can’t be there yourself. 

Honestly, anyone who’s an aspiring writer for kids and/or teens should really be a member of SCBWI. Even though I already had a book deal when I joined, it was at a conference that I met agents and editors who helped me with my next book deal. The connections you make are amazing.

AB: You’ll have had 5 books published in the next year and a half. This strikes me as notable- likely some sort of record in YA authorship. I think the Young Adult Library Services Association will need to invent an award for you. What about the craft of writing appeals to you? What do you find most challenging as a writer?

SY: Like I said, I am addicted to drafting. I do it constantly, even if the story isn’t going to go anywhere. I love being lost in my head, in this new world I create. But the challenge is my patience. I have none. So sometimes when nothing it going on, it feels like backward progress. It’s taken me a long time to get used to the pacing of the industry.

 

AB: I’m getting super pumped about your upcoming paranormal fantasy A NEED SO BEAUTIFUL (Balzer & Bray, 2011). Could you give us the teaser for this one?

SY: I’d love to! A NEED SO BEAUTIFUL is about seventeen-year-old Charlotte Cassidy. Against her will she’s compelled to help people—perform good deeds. But soon she realizes that each time she does, her own existence begins to fade. But there are worse things than being Forgotten. And if Charlotte turns away from the light, she’ll see what lurks in the shadows.

Favorite line: “There is no such thing as me.”

AB: How about for your darker realistic fiction novel DELINQUENTS? 

I wrote DELINQUENTS immediately after THE NAUGHTY LIST, but it couldn’t be more different .Here's a bit about it:

After jamming her pencil through her boyfriend’s hand in math class, Savannah Sutton is sent to a school for juvenile delinquents. She was just trying to protect Evan, her mentally handicapped little brother. Somebody had to. A year in another school won’t solve her problems at home, or the real possibility of losing custody of Evan altogether. And even with her troubled new friends, friends more loyal than any she ever had before, Savannah can’t escape the wrath of her ex. He wants an apology, and he’ll break her arm to get it. 

Favorite line: “Don’t you think your boyfriend would be jealous that I’m charming the hell out of you right here in our local McDonald’s?”

AB: Thanks for taking the time to talk about your huge body of work! What are you currently working on?

SY: I’m working on revisions for A NEED SO BEAUTIFUL and DELINQUENTS. As well as writing a new novel titled SICK AND TWISTED. I like to stay busy.

Debut YA Author L.K. Madigan: Flash Burnout

Have you ever wondered what it's like to be a teenage guy? Or, maybe you are a teenage guy and you've wondered what it's like to read solid fiction about one. In her debut novel Flash Burnout, Portland author L.K. Madigan has deftly captured the voice of Blake. 

Blake's an affable fifteen year-old who just wants to spend time with his girlfriend - that is, when he's not busy secretly helping another girl friend with her problems at home. With snapshots of hilarious real dialog interspersed with a gallery of poignant scenarios, L.K. Madigan brings into focus tough questions of love, sex, drug addiction and friendship.

School Library Journal called Flash Burnout "an exceptional novel, ....thought-provoking on many levels." The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)  wholeheartedly agreed, and in January,  presented L.K. Madigan with the 2010 William C. Morris Award, which honors a book written for young adults by a previously unpublished author.

L.K. Madigan took time from her writing to talk with me about the inspiration for Flash Burnout, her upcoming novel The Mermaid's Mirror, "Eyebrows of Fabulosity" and exactly how many words aspiring writers have to write before the magic happens.

AB: Congratulations on winning the William C. Morris award for Flash Burnout!  What was your initial inspiration for writing this book?

LKM: I wish I had a simple answer to the question of inspiration, but the book was born through a series of events:

Dissatisfaction with an earlier manuscript;

The phrase, “She had the most heartbroken eyes in the world” circling around in my head;

and a conversation with a medical examiner friend about the number of meth cases he was seeing.

A teenage boy’s voice started talking in my head. (Yes, it gets loud in there.) He was talking about a girl he knew, but it wasn’t his girlfriend … it was his girl friend. The better he got to know her, the more he learned about her troubled life, including her meth-addicted mother. How much was he willing to risk in order to help?

AB: I love the cover of Flash Burnout. It really sets the stage for a book about a teen dude with a penchant for photography and a girl(s) problem. One thing I noticed, however, is that the protagonist on the cover appears Asian-American. I seem to recall Blake and his family being described somewhat differently. What are your impressions of the cover?

LKM: I loved the cover immediately – it tells a story. I never really noticed that the model appears Asian. I was more focused on his Eyebrows of Fabulosity! I sent my editor a photo of a teen family member as inspiration for Blake, and his mom swears she can “see Zach’s eyebrows” in the photo. Blake’s ethnicity is incidental – the only mention of his heritage is his Italian-American grandparents. It’s quite possible he has an Asian forebear.

AB: Your second novel The Mermaid’s Mirror will be out this fall. Could you give us a little taste of what it’s like?

LKM: It’s a contemporary fantasy with a girl main character, so it’s the polar opposite of Flash Burnout. It’s about … wait for it … a girl surfer who finds a mermaid. Here’s the pitch in less than 50 words:

Sixteen-year-old Lena wants to learn to surf, despite her father’s objections. Something lures Lena to the sea … an ancient, powerful magic. One morning she catches sight of this magic: a beautiful woman – with a silvery tail.

AB: What inspired you to make writing for young readers your career focus?

LKM: During college and throughout my twenties, I tried my hand at “literary fiction,” writing a coming-of-age novel and some short stories. Then I got busy with life, and writing took a backseat. After I had my son, I started reading children’s books. I fell in love with them … so deceptively simple! I took a summer class in Writing for Children, thinking I wanted to write picture books and easy readers. But I couldn’t stop thinking about an idea I had for a novel – about a girl surfer and a mermaid. I started writing the story, and it felt so right. I always felt a kind of self-consciousness when I wrote adult literary fiction – writing for a younger audience just flowed. I was able to lose myself in the characters completely.

AB: What kind of young reader were you?

LKM: Avid. Books on my lap at the dinner table … books in bed long after I was supposed to turn off the light … a stack of books checked out from the library every week … Scholastic book orders lovingly turned in and eagerly awaited …

AB: What advice do you have for those interested in writing YA?

LKM: Read as much in the genre as you can. Which is the fun part – YA literature is full of treasures! Then – here’s the hard part – you have to sit down and write your book. There’s a photography quote in Flash Burnout by Henri Cartier-Bresson: “Your first ten thousand photographs are your worst.” We writers put it this way: “Your first million words are crap.” So get started writing those million words … because it’s only through actual writing that you will find your voice.

AB: Do you find the time to keep reading? Do you have any favorites of the year?

LKM: Yes, I always find time to read! Some of my recent favorites (excluding books by close friends) have been Harmonic Feedback, by Tara Kelly (it comes out in May, and full disclosure: we share an agent), How to Say Goodbye in Robot, by Natalie Standiford, Leaving Gee's Bend, by Irene Latham, and Dirty Little Secrets, by C.J. Omololu. 

AB: Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions! Just one more before we wrap it up: After Flash Burnout and The Mermaid’s Mirror, what can your fans look forward to next?

LKM: I’m working on another contemporary realistic YA with a boy narrator. It takes place six months later at the same high school in Portland as the one in Flash Burnout, so Blake and some other characters make appearances. I don’t have a contract for this book, so we’ll see whether or not my editor likes it.

Thanks for having me, Amy!

Here's three great reasons why you should read Flash Burnout on Novel Novice.

Not Your Mother's Lisa Schroeder

 OK Portlanders: let's get one thing clear, here, as there seems to be some confusion. There are two fantastic artists, both named Lisa Schroeder, who call Portland home. One Lisa Schroeder nurtures bellies with her delectable restaurant fare at Mother's Bistro & Bar and Mama Mia Trattoria. Her medium is "Mother Food". 

Then there's "not your 'Mother's'" Lisa Schroeder. Her medium is the written word. Author of six kid lit/YA titles, this Lisa Schroeder broke out on the YA scene with the publication of her popular 2008 novel-in-verse I Heart You, You Haunt Me (Simon Pulse, 2008).  Then she followed up with Far From You (Simon Pulse, 2009) and her new release Chasing Brooklyn (Simon Pulse 2010) In these, Lisa nurtures readers with spare, tightly woven verse exploring teen love, loss, ghosts, and healing.

Oh. And now for cupcakes. (Did I mention cupcakes?) Lisa's most recent novel is her foray into middle-grade fiction and her first NOT-in-verse novel. In it, she explores cupcake baking, travel, and mother-daughter relationships.

AB: Congratulations on the publication of your first middle grade fiction book It’s Raining Cupcakes (Simon Aladdin, 2010). Could you tell us about it? What was your initial inspiration for writing this book?

LS: Thank you! It's Raining Cupcakes is about twelve-year-old Isabel who dreams of traveling and seeing the world. When she hears of a baking contest hosted by a magazine where the finalists go to New York City to compete, Isabel decides to enter. Only problem is that her best friend, Sophie, is entering too, and things always seem to go her way. And with Isabel's mom getting ready to open a cupcake shop, she has certain ideas as to what kind of recipe Isabel should enter. It's a book about family, friendship and making dreams come true.

I wrote this book when I was in between YA projects, and the world seemed pretty gloomy at that time, with the recession in full force. I wanted to write about something happy. So I thought - what's something that makes people smile when they just hear the word? And cupcakes came to mind. Cupcake shops have become really popular in the past few years, and I thought, how fun to set a story in or around a cupcake shop. And that's how it started.

AB: You write YA novels-in-verse that deal with themes of love and loss. Could you tell us what in particular inspired you to write Chasing Brooklyn?

LS: Chasing Brooklyn came about because I had many readers who loved I Heart You, You Haunt Me and were asking me for another book "just like that." As you know, you can't really write another book "just like that" but I tried to give them the same elements (love, loss, healing and hope) and put it inside a very different book. It's told from two points of view - Nico and Brooklyn - which is something I've never done before. It was challenging, but I'm really proud of how it turned out, and reader feedback so far has been very positive, so that makes me happy.

AB: I’m also excited to see that your picture book Little Chimp’s Big Day (Sterling, 2010) is coming out this fall. You write in many different genres. What do you like about the picture book format? Where did the idea for this story come from?

LS: Yes, looks like it will be released September 7th! I sold this book quite a long time ago, when my focus was the picture book genre, but it took time to find the illustrator, and then it took her time to do the illustrations. But I think it's been worth the wait. Lisa McCue is an amazing illustrator, and this book is SO adorable. I can't wait for people to see it. Seeing your words paired with illustrations really is one of the best parts of writing a picture book. It's challenging trying to tell a story in 500 words or less, and it's not something that's easy to do. I've kind of moved on at this point, taking that task of telling a story in as few words as possible and transferring it to my verse novels. 

This book came about when I was brainstorming in my idea notebook and this line popped into my head:

In a jungle, in a tree, sits a little chimpanzee

And that is how the book begins! 

AB: What inspired you to make writing for young readers your career focus? What do you love about writing for young readers? What are its challenges?

LS: Adults are just so boring! Sorry, adults who are reading this interview. In a way, writing for young readers lets me experience those youthful years all over again. It's just so much fun (most of the time). The biggest challenge for me is mostly coming up with new and fresh ideas that might be commercial enough to get noticed these days in what has become a very competitive market.

AB: Could you describe your work space and your writing process?

 

LS: I have a small office in our home with an ancient desktop that doesn't allow a lot of web surfing unless I want to wait 15 minutes for a page to load (which I don't). So when it's time to write, I go in there, shut the door and open up the document. I have written most of my books on that computer, even though I bought a laptop a few years back. Going into my office says "work" to me, and I think there is something to be said for having a special spot where you write and can avoid distractions (for the most part).

As far as my writing process, I usually have a few seeds of ideas that I've jotted down in my special little notebook that is just for ideas. Usually I begin writing when I'm so excited about the idea, I can't wait any longer. So I'll write some pages and see how it goes. Generally, I know fairly quickly if there is enough there for a whole book. I've recently begun using the 9 box plotting method once I've started in and have decided this IS the book I want to write. You can read about that method here at fellow kidlit/ YA author C.J. Omololu's blog.

AB: What kind of young reader were you?

LS: I was an avid reader growing up, especially during the middle grade years. I loved books so much then, and the books have stuck with me all this time. That's just so amazing to me. And it's why I want to continue to write MG novels, if I can. YA is where it's hot right now, and I've found a readership there that I'm extremely thankful for. And verse novels seem to be a nice fit for me. But I love the more innocent stories around family and friendship that you often find in middle grade novels. And knowing that a book you write could be the start of a path down a love of reading for a child? Wow.

AB: What advice do you have for writers?

LS: Play, experiment, figure out what YOU are good at and do that. It's so easy to get caught up in what's selling and what might be the next big thing, but I really think you have to find your strengths and go with that. I started out writing picture books and despite a couple of sales there, I know now it's probably not where I really belong as an author. I'm thankful for the experience and for the beautiful books that came about as a result, but over the years, I've learned where my strengths lie and I want to focus on those.

AB: How have you seen the business change since I Heart You, You Haunt Me? If so, what do you think of those changes?

LS: Mostly, it has exploded. I mean, when I Heart You came out in January 2008, the book stores were just in the process of moving the teen books out of the kid's section and giving them their own dedicated section. In just two years, I can't believe how many more YA books there are on the shelves. It is really incredible. As a reader, I love it. They say we are in the golden age of YA literature, and isn't it just so cool to think about being a part of that and getting to read SO MANY awesome books? As a writer, it scares me because more and more, I feel like publishing is becoming like the Hunger Games, where only the strongest will survive, and what if I'm not strong enough?

AB: Do you find the time to keep reading? Do you have any favorites of the year?

LS: I'm always reading at least one book, and usually a couple at the same time. Right now I'm about six chapters into The Year the Swallows Came Early by Katherine Fitzmaurice and it's so wonderful. My kind of book! Another MG novel I keep raving about is Barbara O'Conner's The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis.  Some favorite YA reads include Breathing by Cheryl Renée Herbsman and How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford.

AB: Lisa, thanks so much for your time. One last questions: what can your fans look forward to next?

LS: At this point, I'm not really sure. I have a couple of things on submission right now, so I'm in that wait-and-see mode. I will make any announcements of sales in the coming days and weeks on my blog. 

Thanks so much for having me here, Amy!