What's Your Wish?

Her wish is secret. What's yours?

It's technically been summer for two days now and I'm sick of cold weather, cloudy skies, and wool socks. Enough already- this is bumming me out. I need some vitamin D.

But you know what made me happy today? I saw a true harbinger of warm weather in my yard: our first dandelion. Thank the gods! For me, dandelions conjure all sorts of greatness. Rub them under your chin, and a child can tell you whether or not you like butter. (I do.) You can saute their greens. (I have. In butter.) Ray Bradbury made his into wine. (I could, I guess.) But here's the very best thing: you can make a wish on them. And Carolyn Conahan wrote the loveliest picture book about it: The Big Wish (Chronicle, 2011). Can you tell from the picture how much my daughter loves it?

Carolyn told me all about her idea and a bit about how she got it all down on paper. Plus, she gave me and her artistic daughters such a wise piece of advice which I'll share with you now. Read on, and don't forget to make your own wish!

AB: Please tell me about The Big Wish. What kernel of an idea set you off and running with this story? When did you first get the idea?

CC:Out walking in my neighborhood one morning, I came on a yard that was all dandelions, from side to side to side. Tall, vigorous dandelions, like someone had been tending them, fussing over them. Growing them on purpose. But why would someone grow dandelions? I answered my own question: For the wishes, of course. But so many–they must be going for the world record!  I loved the idea of a world record wish. It got me thinking about how all different people might wish all different things. And wondering: If you had the chance to make such a wish, (For the record. For the world!) what would you pick? How would you pick? 

Daydreamy, isn't it?

AB: For this book, which types of ideas came first: images or words?

CC: The sight of those dandelions on that slope of yard really struck me. So of course I doodled some notes and noodled with a few color sketches. But I try to get the story more or less worked out before I get too, too, involved with the drawings. I have a tendency to go off on tangents and draw a lot of pictures I can't use when the story changes direction. (Very sad.) I won't say it's a complete waste of time, because fun and useful ideas happen in the process, but it drains away energy, too. I like to finish a project once in a while.

AB: Could you talk about your process for creating the illustrations for The Big Wish? What medium/ media do you use?

CC: I bought a LOT of yellow paint, and I slopped it around with some green and blue for that weedy, sunny yard, springy-summer sky sort of look. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.) I tried out different looks for the place and the people, sketching characters on the bus, and around the neighborhood. That was fun.

Media is watercolor on paper. (I like watercolors for portability and easy clean-up.)

Dynamic wish-making!

AB: Could you talk a bit about the stylistic choices you make for your book illustrations?

CC: Ohhhhh. That sounds so serious and decisive, which I am not. Of course I want the illustrations to suit the story, to harmonize with it, or deepen it, or pack it up and take it exciting new places... or all those things. Every story has it’s own feel and “voice” so the pictures should, too. I wouldn’t like to do the same thing over and over.

AB: Who are some of the editors/ art directors you’ve worked with?

Depends on how far you want to go back, and if you want to count editors for whom I did revisions which did not result in a contract. No? O.K. Fine. I've worked with Marianne Carus, Debbie Vetter, Gail Pyszka, Julia Messina, Ron McCutchan, Lonnie Plecha, Karen Kohn, Sue Beck, and Kristin Scribner (among other people) at Cricket. Meredith Mundy Wasinger, Mark McVeigh, and Sarah Pope at Dutton Books. (I almost-but-not-quite-maybe-someday worked with Meredith again at Sterling) Nancy Koupal was the editor, and my husband, Mark, designed the books I illustrated for SDSHSP.  Emily Mitchell and Susan Sherman at Charlesbridge. Julie Romeis, and Kristine Brogno at Chronicle. Nice people, one and all! I've been lucky. 

AB: Correction: WE, your fans, have been lucky, Carolyn! I also love the work you do for Cricket Magazine. Can you tell us a bit about that, too?

Bug antics in Cricket Magazine.

CC: I draw the comic and the bugs making comments in the margins, and I illustrate the crossword (crossbird) puzzle. They are a splendid, funny, creative and dedicated group of people. I feel lucky to be working with them. It's been very good for me.

AB: What about the picture book medium appeals to you? Any interest in exploring the graphic novel format?

CC: I like words and pictures together, telling stories. I'm working on a couple of stories that I hope to do as graphic novels.

AB: What sorts of things inspired you to write and illustrate? Did you always want to do both? Did you want to do this when you were a kid? If not, what did you ‘wish’ you’d be doing?

CC: Good ideas inspire me to write and illustrate. Yes, I’ve always wanted to do both. When I draw, I am thinking of stories. When I write, I see pictures. This is pretty much all I ever wanted to do, except for a brief period when I enjoyed riding horses at top speed over jumps cross-country. But this sport (Eventing) requires buckets of money and I had none. 

AB: Did you study to become an illustrator? A writer? If so, where and how?

CC: Not really. I studied (more or less) a combined program at Reed college and the Pacific Northwest College of Art, but it was loosely organized at that time (or I was) so I was never quite sure what was required when. I think my educational “plan” at that time was to avoid acquiring any marketable skills. 

AB: Good grief. You just put into words my own previously unvoiced life plan. Ah well. Do you stay in touch with any of the teachers or students? How have they (either teachers and/or students) helped teach you how to write and illustrate for kids? What were the major lessons that you took away from PNCA?

CC: I actually haven’t kept in touch with people I knew at PNCA. I was still in my feral child stage at that time, not well socialized. (Still working on that.)

Love these pups.

AB: Come on, Carolyn- you're social enough, and besides: I like you! Can you give us a run down of the books you've worked on?

CC: Way back, I illustrated 3 books in a series for Capstone, which fell into a deep dark hole during a company reorganization and never saw the light of day, then 3 books in a series for Morehouse.

Discontented, yet proud.

Then I wrote and illustrated The Twelve Days of Christmas Dogs, published by Dutton. (Fall 2005)
I illustrated The Discontented Gopher, by L.Frank Baum, and The Prairie-Dog Prince, by Eva Katharine Gibson, both published by The South Dakota State Historical Society Press. (2006 and 2008)
Then I illustrated Bubble Homes and Fish Farts by Fiona Bayrock, for Charlesbridge (Spring 2009)
And that brings us to The Big Wish, which landed on shelves in May. Yay! 

AB: We proudly display your dogs, prairie critters, and farts on our shelves.Can you tell us a bit about you path to publication?

CC: It was long. And meandering. And long. Once I started meeting regularly with a critique group and going to conferences, I started making progress, too. Learning my craft, and proper practices, making good friends and useful connections. 

AB: What did you read as a kid?

CC: Books. (Sorry, couldn’t resist that one, either.) Good books, bad books, comic books, billboards, signboards, newspapers and magazines. Cereal boxes.

Lush pictures; great science.

AB: Which artists have influenced you? What did you like looking at as a child? What impressed you?

CC:  When I was a kid I loved field guides. The field guide to birds, (eastern, western, european, etc...) and mammals, reptiles and amphibians, clouds, native plants, animal tracks... I wanted a pet jaguarundi. 

AB: What current authors and illustrators do you enjoy these days?

CC: There are so many! So many of them are local...  and I've been reading a lot of Catherynne Valente. But, in a disgustingly mom-ish sort of way (feel free to avert your eyes) I have to say my daughters are my favorite writer/artistic types these days. G is working on her master's at M.I.T.,  and writes fantasy/science fiction. She enjoyed spring break at the Dell Awards with her pack of prize-wining young writer friends. K is writing and illustrating and type-setting and printing and binding her stories at Reed, where she also dances with a flaming sword. (That’s it, I'm done. You can look now.)

AB: Carolyn, that’s far from disgusting- that’s truly fantastic. What’s the best piece of advice you wish your daughters will heed? The one you wish you had taken to heart when you were young?

CC: Don't be so determined to take every mistake personally. 

AB: That is a wise wish, Carolyn. Thanks for sharing it with us. 

Read Carolyn's inspired manifesto: In Defense of Dandelions.  You'll be glad you did.

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.

Adios, Nirvana - ¡Hola, Conrad Wesselhoeft!

“If Stalin or Hitler arrested me and tossed me into one of those camps, I would carve words with my fingernails. If they cut off my fingers, I would write with my teeth. If they pulled out my teeth, I would blink my words to any listening bird. If they cut off my eyelids, I would fart code into the troposphere. You’d have to kill me to stop me from writing. It’s how I breathe.”  - Jonathan in Adios, Nirvana

Jonathan is not the frontrunner of the thicks- that was Telly's role. He’s always played second string to Telly; his idol, his mentor, his twin. But Telly is dead, and Jonathan’s adrift in sea where his thicks refuse to let him sink.  Jonathan, a 'poet savante' is afraid that what he's always searched for on his odyssey through poetry, music and life will never be found, now that Telly's gone.

Will Jonathan find his voice? Don't you hope so? (I mean, he had me at 'fart code into the troposphere'.)

Really. Conrad Wesselhoeft  went and bashed his heart out into his moving, at times absurdly funny debut novel Adios, Nirvana. For me, he's such a welcome new voice on the YA scene. And he's kindly stopped by for questions.

AB:  Conrad, I loved this book and wrapped my heart around Jonathan, the main character. He’s a bit of a navel-gazer, flirts casually with suicide, speaks in boy teen, calls things ‘pussy’ and ‘faggy’, but writes to breathe. He abuses his body with alcohol and crap food, and erodes his sleep cycle with an unending stream of Red Bull. He’s not without his faults, thank the gods, but is endearing for his depth of character and his painful odyssey through profound grief. Was it difficult to create a character that rings so true?

CW: Jonathan is reeling from grief. Not only has he lost his twin brother, he’s lost his best friend and mentor. Once I understood that grief burned at his core, I began to hear his voice clearly. You’d think that voice would sound mournful, but in fact it’s feisty, arrogant, rebellious, at times even joyous. The point is, the voice of grief has many inflections. Jonathan literally stands on the edge several times—of bridges and scaffoldings—but he wants to live; he wants to get better. He just doesn’t know how. That’s where his “Thicks” and David come in. They basically provide the safety net. Jonathan was easy to hear in my head but not easy to create. Everything about writing is difficult for me. It doesn’t seem to get easier—well, maybe a little.

 AB: What led you to write this story?

CW: I stumbled upon this quote in a newspaper column: “In darkness, it slowly came to me that what happens to a man isn’t nearly as important as how he meets it.” The author of the quote was Victor Riesel, a labor journalist who was blinded when a mobster flung sulfuric acid in his face.” I jotted Riesel’s words in my journal, then added, spur of the moment: “Story about a young man who becomes a stenographer/writer of a blind man’s life, and in so doing exorcises his own demons.” 

In 2007, my agent, Erin Murphy, asked to see some of my ideas for future projects. I sent her a long list. The idea for Adios was buried near the bottom, barely an afterthought, yet it was this idea that spoke loudest to Erin. So the fermentation process began with a nudge from her.

AB: What was the time line between idea to publication?

CW: About five years. The first draft took just over a year.

AB: What led you to write for young readers in particular? What about Young Adult fiction appeals to you?

CW: Years ago, I spent a day with Scott O’Dell, the acclaimed young-adult novelist (“Island of the Blue Dolphins,” “Sing Down the Moon,” and many more.) “I’ve forsaken (writing for) adults,” he told me, “because they’re not going to change, though they may try awfully hard. But children can and do change.” I’m still clinging to hope for adults, but I do agree with Scott that books can profoundly affect children’s lives for the better. 

AB: What help, if any, did your background in journalism lend you in the writing of Adios, Nirvana?

CW: Journalism teaches many of the necessary skills—strong leads, accuracy, probing, editing, fact-checking, and more—but it doesn’t teach invention; that you have to learn yourself, or with the help of trusted writing teachers and friends. Also, journalism squeezes your diaphragm so that you sound like everybody else. There comes a time when you simply have to loosen up and say it your way.

AB: How would you describe your writing process?

CW: I’m a basher. (Kurt Vonnegut divided all writers into two groups, “bashers” and “swoopers.” Bashers are painfully slow, yet meticulous; swoopers are fast, yet a bit sloppy.) As soon as my kids leave for school, I set up my laptop in the kitchen, pour some coffee, and get to work. I bash and bash. Only when I’ve bashed all the bumps down to practically dust do I move to the next chapter. I wish I bashed less and swooped more. The best I can hope for is “swashing.”

AB: Better than 'booping', I guess.  What is most challenging to you about the craft of novel writing?

CW: The architecture. It’s like building a house: you have a million things to work out, from the tiniest bolts to the biggest beams. You especially want to make sure that the high beam is solidly in place—in other words, that the overarching story is strong. It’s not enough to write vivid characters. Those characters have to move about within a strong structure.  

 AB:  What have you loved reading? What are some works that you’ve admired that have inspired your spare, vivid writing style? 

CW: Up until my early teens, I chose books based on subjects, my favorites being the Civil War, the American West, and carrier combat in the Pacific. When I was sixteen, I read “The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories” and a bell dinged. I sensed that Hemingway knew a lot about life that I didn’t, so I better pay attention. From then on, I became interested in the idea of writing as a form of creative expression. How something was said became as important as what was said.

AB: Who are your favorite writers? What book is on your bedside table?

CW: My favorite writers are Hemingway, Steinbeck, W. Somerset Maugham, Willa Cather, Jack Kerouac, Louis L’Amour, Charles Bukowski, Larry McMurtry, Richard Hugo, and probably lots more. My favorite YA writers are Scott O’Dell, Jean Craighead George, Marguerite Henry, Holly Cupala, and probably lots more.

I keep Kit Carson’s autobiography on my bedside table. It’s the world’s driest memoir and most perfect sleep aid.

 

AB: What advice would you offer to writers just starting out?

CW: Abide by the three P’s and one B: Practice, patience, and perseverance. (The greatest of these is perseverance: Never give up!) The “B” is believe in yourself, because at first editors and agents won’t believe in you. They will probably say “No” many times before they say “Yes.”

My favorite books on the craft are: “Hemingway on Writing,” by Larry W. Phillips; “Zen and the Writing Life,” by Peter Matthiessen; and “Story,” by Robert McKee. My favorite memoirs by writers are: “Education of a Wandering Man,” by Louis L’Amour; and “On Writing,” by Stephen King.

AB: Do you play music? Guitar? If so, what kind of music do you play and listen to?

CW: My dad bought me my first guitar—a Harmony acoustic—when I was about seventeen. I’ve always messed around, but I don’t read music. I keep various guitars planted on stands around the house—guitars should not be imprisoned in cases. Noodling on guitar is a good way to anchor and think. Playing with friends is pure joy. Jonathan (the protagonist) is a much better guitar player than I am. And Telly, his brother, was sublime. I listen to rock, folk, ballad, and blues.  I love the NPR show “American Roots.”   

AB: Did you ever have a mentor in your life? If so, in what ways did s/he help shape your life?

CW: Like David Cosgrove, who becomes a mentor for Jonathan, my dad was a Navy lieutenant in World War II and saw lots of action in the South Pacific, from Guadalcanal to Leyte Gulf to Okinawa. Fortunately, his ship didn’t sink, while David’s did. Also like David, my dad spent his last year and a half in a hospital environment, coping with multiple illnesses, but nonetheless alert, funny, and wise. His boyhood balanced Boston discipline with Cape Cod freedom. He had a strong work ethic, a strong play ethic, and a wide circle of friends. He grew up in a family of storytellers. It definitely rubbed off on him. 

 

AB: How many hours do you sleep, and how many do you really need?

CW: Hmmm. I guess I sleep about six-and-a-half or seven hours at night. Whenever possible, I catch a nap. If I have one real talent, it is for napping.

AB: Is there a back story here for why you chose to feature Eddie Vedder in your story? Do you know him?

CW: Eddie Vedder is a fellow West Seattle resident (“Mr. Wes C. Addle”), and though we have a friend in common, I’ve never met him. I do know, however, that he’s a big believer in the power of music to inspire children, plus a quiet giver to many worthy causes.  In the book, he’s portrayed as a musical mentor to Jonathan and Telly. One of my favorite scenes is when the boys visit him, and he and Telly jam on guitar while Jonathan sits “guitarless” on “the timid couch.” I’d always planned to change his name to something fictional, but left it in, as a kind of tribute. 

AB: Your flap copy mentions you worked as a tugboat hand in Singapore. How did this come about?

CW: I was nineteen and starved for adventure. I dropped out of college and got a job as an ordinary seaman aboard the Quenett, based in Singapore. We towed barges to Borneo, Sumatra, and Thailand, through fair and foul seas. It was the hardest physical labor of my life. Three books inspired me to take this step: “Tramping on Life,” by Harry Kemp; “Of Human Bondage,” by W. Somerset Maugham; and (dare I say it?) “My Wicked, Wicked Ways,” by Errol Flynn. All three books were about young men struggling with the idea of living a conventional life, and hungry to get out into the world. My crewmates were from New Zealand, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Plus two scrawny cats and a huge orange cat that had been hurled off a passing ship, for good reason: he was the incarnation of the devil. It was a great adventure, but eventually I had to decide whether to stay at sea or come home and finish college. I opted for college and was a better student when I returned. I’d grown up a lot.

  

AB:  You also spent time in Polynesia volunteering through the Peace Corps. Did you have to learn to speak any new languages? What led you there?

CW: I joined the Peace Corps right out of college, basically to buy time before committing to a career—and also because I hadn’t quite filled my belly with   adventure. I served for two years in Western Samoa (today it’s called simply Samoa). I taught English literature to high school students, using decades-old, abridged editions of such books as “The Time Machine,” “Great Expectations,” and “Silas Marner.” Most of my students had never been off the island, never known winter. Nor had they read widely or seen many movies, outside of martial arts epics from Hong Kong. So it was quite a leap for them to imagine the glowering streets of 19^th Century London, for example. However, the themes were universal—like redemption. Everybody got that. I’m sure my students taught me more than I taught them.  I learned a smattering of Samoan, just enough to get “cheeky.”

 

AB:  What do your kids like to read?

CW: My sixteen-year-old son recently devoured “The Outsiders” and “Ender’s Game.” His twin sister segued from re-readings of Harry Potter to “The Lovely Bones” and “Eat, Pray, Love.” When they were young, we did a lot of reading aloud. Our favorites included: “Goodnight, Moon”; “Paddle to the Sea”; “Island of the Blue Dolphins”; “Julie of the Wolves”;  “Bud, Not Buddy”; and “Anne of Green Gables.” Also, books by Lois Lowry and Louis Sachar. I think that the last book I read aloud to them was “Maniac Magee,” which we loved. I miss those days.

AB: In Adios, Nirvana, when Jonathan finally finds his voice musically, he's playing to for a full house, but really to one person in the back. Who’s watching you from the back auditorium when you’re on stage, so to speak? Anyone?

CW: For years, Simon Cowell watched me with withering eyes. These days, it’s someone more forgiving. Let’s say a cross between Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul, with a pinch of Betty White, for good measure.

AB: Where would you place yourself on the Odysseus/ Telemachus spectrum?

CW: If Odysseus is the man of action, and Telemachus the dreamer, then I’m more like Telemachus, he who puts the seashell to his ear and wanders away from “the ringing plains of windy Troy.”

AB: Conrad, thanks so much for lending me your time. One last question: what’s next on the agenda?

CW: I’m working on a YA novel set in the Southwest. I’m a bit superstitious about saying too much, so I’ll leave it at that.

Conrad Wesselhoeft will be featured at the PNBA Trade Show Celebration of Authors luncheon on Thursday, October 7th. He'll also appear at Wordstock Festival on Saturday, October 9th at 12pm on the McMenamins Stage, and again on Sunday, October 10th at 2pm on the Target Stage. Don't miss him.

Here's yet another fascinating interview with Conrad in the West Seattle Herald. 

Inara Scott Says: You've Been Recruited!

What if you were recruited to attend the world's most prestigious prep school? A training ground of sorts for the rich, the famous, and the powerful? Would you accept the full-ride? What do you think would be asked of you in return?

In Inara Scott's debut YA fantasy Delcroix Academy,  this is exactly what happens to Dancia Lewis. She's a girl who has spent her whole life blending in to the background. "Blending in" - not "fitting in". She avoids making eye contact or even making friends. Why? Because when she cares about people, watch out! Her paranormal powers will come to their rescue if ever they're in need. This might sound like a good thing. And it could be, except for one tiny detail: she has absolutely no control over how to use those powers. And people get hurt. Cars skid out of control. Bridges collapse. That sort of thing.

Why has Delcroix Academy recruited her, a wallflower B-student?  What, if anything, do they know about her powers? And why are two hot guys- a top student and a rebel- suddenly taking an interest in her?

Well, I'm not telling you. You've just been recruited to find out for yourself. In the meantime, let's find out what Inara Scott has to say about it all.

AB: Congratulations on the publication of your book, Delcroix Academy: The Candidates. You wrote this book at a time when domestic surveillance in our country is increasing. Could you tell us a bit about how you came to write this particular story?

IS: It's interesting you picked up on that -- I'm surprised how few people have! I was writing The Candidates in 2006-2007, when the war with Iraq was falling apart and the country was wrestling with big issues around preemptive actions against governments, surveillance of US citizens, and treatment of potential terrorists. I didn't write the story as a deliberate exploration of these topics, but there's no doubt they were a part of my thought process. And by the way, I don't have a black and white answer to whether these things are right or wrong. That's really what Delcroix Academy is about -- how mixed up and grey all these issues are.  

AB:  How long have you been writing? How long did you work on Delcroix Academy: The Candidates? What was the timeline between the kernel of the idea to publication?

IS: I've only been writing fiction since 2005, but for most of my life I've been writing in some way or another, including ten years in practice as an attorney. I wrote two adult romances before I started The Candidates in the fall of 2006. I sold the book to Disney-Hyperion in October of 2007, and it was released in August of 2010. So almost three years between sale and publication, which I can assure you is really really hard! 

AB: In real life, how are you like your protagonist Dancia Lewis? How are you different?

IS: I'd like to think I'm independent, strong, and caring, like Dancia. But my hair isn't nearly as cool as hers.

AB: On your website you mention that you “fear deep, intellectual books and love romance and fantasies.” Can you think of any book in particular that you ‘fear’ (ie. don’t want to read!) and an example of romance and fantasy that you would read over and over again?

IS: Oh man, there are way too many "good" books to mention -- most of them the ones literary folks like best! I simply don't enjoy reading about violence and despair, and for some reason "they" who decide what makes "good literature" often think that depressing stories with miserable characters are of greater literary merit than stories with happy endings. "They" also seem to believe that books written by men are of greater value than those written by women, but that's an entirely separate issue...

I've heard many people say depressing stories are "more realistic" but I think it's a matter of perspective. For example, when the terrible tsunami hit in 2007; you could see what followed as an example of the dark and meaningless nature of life, while at the same time, you could see incredible stories of hope and caring. I find the latter much more indicative of human nature than the former. 

AB: Ah. So you're an optimist with a penchant for seeing the good in people. Is that perhaps what led you to write for young readers in particular? What about YA appeals to you?

IS: For me, I like the openness of the genre, and the way readers demand a great story without pretension. 

AB: What book is currently on your bedside table?

IS: I must admit, here's a stack of them! I'm reading The Adventures of Huck Finn (for the first time), a Regency-era romance by Julia Quinn, the diary of a woman who was a doctor for the Viet Cong from 1968-1970, a book about shamans, and The Case for God, by Karen Armstrong. 

AB: What an eclectic selection, Inara! And here you are, writing about something completely different: a teen with supernatural powers. Which begs the question: do you yourself have any supernatural powers? If so, what? If not, then which powers would you like to have?

IS: Other than the fantastic ability to humiliate my children (which I think all mothers have), I am regrettably normal. If I could have one superpower it would be breathing underwater. My name means mermaid, and I always wanted to be a mermaid when I was little. 

  

AB: Well, mermaid- I mean, Inara, then I must ask: what advice would you offer writers who are just sticking their toes in the water?

IS: Keep writing; don't expect your first novel to be your best. To switch to a dryer metaphor, imagine you are a violin player -- would you expect to get it right the first time? Of course not, but sometimes we set unreasonable expectations for ourselves as writers. Practice, search for feedback, and don't let fear get in the way of achieving your dreams. 

AB: Can you give your burgeoning fan base a little teaser about your upcoming sequel, Delcroix Academy: The Watchers?

IS: All I can say right now is you can expect more romance, action, and danger. I'll let you know when "The Academy" authorizes me to say more.

Holly Cupala's 'Secret' is Out!

Wow. Wow. And again, wow! I snuck in the last 100 pages of Holly Cupala's YA debut Tell Me a Secret before the kids woke up and haven't stopped mulling it over.  It's a transcendent story that explores the fear of speaking the truth and the damage that secrets can cause.

As school begins in Seattle, Miranda (a.k.a Rand) has a secret. She knows she is pregnant, but her list of people to confide is has grown desperately short. After a summer away, she feels distant from her boyfriend and jealous of how close he and her new best friend have become.  Rand's parents are remote and damaged; her mother is sanctimonious and resolutely caught up in appearances. If only her sister Xanda were still alive, Rand might have a confidant. But no one has ever told Rand how Xanda died, and pain from from this secret grows inside Rand just as steadily as her baby.

AB: Holly, congratulations on the publication of Tell Me a Secret! (HarperTeen, 2010) I admire the way you depicted Rand unwittingly using people as crutches to avoid the pain of growth with such emotional honesty.

HC: Thank you for letting me know the book was meaningful to you. One of my favorite things is how each person sees something a little different - readers bring so much to the story.

AB: Amazingly, you made me feel compassion for Rand's mother. She reminded me of Beth Jarrett in Ordinary People - initially cold, pretentious and crippled by fear of revealing emotion and family shame to others. 

HC: Thanks. I loved the mother, too, in the end (though I didn't for much of the time I was writing her!). I was glad to figure out that her causticity was as much internal as external. I think of it as her journey, too.

AB: Could you tell us a bit about how you came to write this particular story?

HC:  I honestly didn’t expect to write suspenseful teen novels about social issues…it took a momentous event in my own life which temporarily derailed my writing hopes. I might not have returned if the entire novel hadn’t come to me in a split second, and I realized it was a story I was meant to write. I wouldn’t want to go through the events that led me here again, but I’m grateful to have found stories meaningful to me and to readers.

 

AB: In Tell Me a Secret, your protagonist Rand comes to terms with her secret as well as her sister's in ways that lead to a shift in some of her preconceived notions about life, family, and even race.  Did you write with the intention of exploring these themes, or did it just evolve that way?

HC: As I was writing, I kept hitting on some deeper layer and think, “Aha! This is the theme!” But then it would happen again…so I do think the ideas evolved as I got to know the characters, their secrets, even things they kept from themselves. Some of the details were there from the very beginning, and others developed over time.

Holly Cupala, lovely in pink.

AB: How long have you been writing? How long did you work on Tell Me a Secret, in particular? 

HC: Tell Me a Secret came very slowly, like drawing a web—just a few thousand words at first, before our daughter was born. Then I picked it up again when she was almost a year old…for one day a week! Precious and precarious time—I worried I was wasting it, and worried for the story, and worried for pretty much everything. So when I received the SCBWI Work-In-Progress Grant from Judy Blume, it was a signpost. I nearly finished the story in time for the SCBWI winter conference, where it created some buzz. Then I had to finish it! Luckily a very kind neighbor watched my toddler for a couple of days a week so I could finish. From idea to sale, it was four years.

  

AB: You won a work-in-progress grant from SCBWI for Tell Me a Secret (working title "Brimstone Soup"). When you submitted the WIP, how far along were you in your work?

HC: I think I had around 17K words at that point (but I can’t remember exactly!). I cleaned up and submitted the first 10 pages, about 2500 words, and ended on a gasp! kind of note. I wrote up some tips on applying for the grant here on my blog. 

AB: Could you tell us the story of how you joined forces with your agent extraordinaire Edward Necarsulmer IV?

I met him at the SCBWI Writer’s Intensive. Several other agents had the full manuscript (and one made an offer), but Edward was just so passionate about the story, and we hit it off right away. He’s been amazing to work with, and I couldn’t have asked for a better fit.

AB: You often mention how delighted you are with your editor at HarperTeen, Catherine Onder. What, in your opinion, makes for a great writer/editor working relationship?

HC:  For me as a writer, having an editor who brings brilliant ideas to the table and is always willing to hear my thoughts makes for a great working relationship. Plus she really loved the story and has championed it. I feel like I’ve been so incredibly lucky in this department— Catherine has been a dream editor, truly. 

AB: You've compiled a gorgeous trip hop playlist for Tell Me a Secret on your website. Were those songs you listened to while writing it? What are you intending by sharing those songs with your readers?

HC: Yes! And thank you! Many of those songs are from our friends’ bands. Splashdown and Symbion Project have been kind enough to let us use some of their music in the TMAS trailer . It’s been amazing to work with them, and I’m really excited to bring their music to a whole different audience. I have even woven secret music references into the novel itself!

 

AB: I understand that you developed your craft by joining SCBWI and forming a critique group. Could you tell us how your critique group has helped you develop your craft?

HC: I could sing the praises of the writers who helped me shape Tell Me a Secret: Janet Lee Carey, Justina Chen, Molly Blaisdell, Peggy King Anderson, Judy Bodmer, Dawn Knight and others who offered thoughtful feedback. They didn’t just see the novel as it was, but as it could be.

 

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 it/them so much?

HC: I confess, it hasn’t been as much of a year for reading as I would like! But I’ve been privileged to meet and read the work of so many contemporaries: Ellen Hopkins, Deb Caletti (both of whom very kindly endorsed Tell Me a Secret), Laurie Halse Anderson, Sara Zarr, Rachel Cohn, Mitali Perkins…and authors I discovered this year—Beth Kephart, Stephanie Kuehnert, Holly Schindler, L.K. Madigan and others. I’m really looking forward to books by Denise Jaden, Daisy Whitney...so many, really! I wish I could mention them all!

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

HC: I’m not 100% sure about this (only having completed two novels, unless you count the two I wrote in eighth grade!), but so far the internal dialogue and emotions are vastly easier for me to write than external details and dialogue. But when I’m in the moment, those seem to flow out of the internal.

AB: What "secret" advice would you offer a writer who is just starting out?

HC: Don’t be too hard on yourself! As my friends Kirby Larson and Randy Powell say, “Write through the bad stuff.”

 AB: Can you tell us a bit about your upcoming novel, slated for the fall of 2011, about a runaway who hits the streets of Seattle? What inspired you to tell this story?

HC: I think it was Sid Fleischman who said it takes two ideas to spark a story. I had this idea about a runaway for quite some time (actually, I thought she was going to fake homelessness), and one day I was sitting in church and read in the bulletin that the youth department was collecting toiletries and backpacks for the street teens who hung out one block over. All of a sudden, the entire story hit me—sort of like Tell Me a Secret did, like a movie trailer in my mind. I started writing as fast as I could (with apologies to Pastor James for not listening to the sermon!). When I got home, I wrote out a fifteen page outline. I started researching and writing notes, and the story grew. What was really incredible to me were some of the ways the research corroborated the random ideas I’d had…in some very chilling ways. I can’t wait to show it to you!

AB: Do show it to me, please! What’s next for you? What are you working on currently?

HC: Street Creed is slated for Fall 2011, and we’re working on edits right now. Then I have a couple of other irons in the fire…maybe to be revealed soon!