Interview with Markus Zusak, Author of The Book Thief and I Am the Messenger

Posted on by

Markus Zusak

Markus Zusak is a storyteller. Whether standing in front of a group that’s come to hear him speak or writing the words to a book, he has the uncanny ability to weave a story that keeps people on the edges of their seats until the very end. Part of Zusak’s appeal is his ability to be so down-to-earth and humble in the face of the enormous popularity of his most recent work, The Book Thief.

My daughter, Madeleine, and I had the wonderful opportunity to experience Zusak’s charm in person when I interviewed him before a bookstore appearance in Portland, where he stopped over on a tour to promote the release of The Book Thief in paperback. Zusak was generous with his time, and we were able to talk about writing in general as well as specifics about two of his works, I Am the Messenger and The Book Thief. (From a November 2007 interview.)

How did you know you wanted to be a writer?

MZ: I read some books that were the right books for me. I read them and I didn’t even notice turning the pages anymore. I thought, “That’s what I want to do with my life.” There are two magic acts I want to pull off when I write. One is creating a feeling that when you’re inside a book, you believe everything you’re reading even when you know it’s not true. And the second is an extension of that, which is you know it’s not true, you know it’s not real, but you believe it anyway. And it’s that believing of the story that isn’t real that attracted me to writing and storytelling in general.

I was sixteen when I tried to write my first book. And it could easily be entered into a competition for the worst book ever written. I only wrote eight pages. That’s what happens every time I write a book now. I write eight pages that aren’t very good at all. Then I go through it the next time and the next time, pull the gems out and start again.

Do you read very much?

MZ: It’s insane to be a writer and not be a reader. When I’m writing I’m more likely to be reading four or five books at once, just in bits and pieces rather than subjecting myself to a really brilliant book and thinking, “Well what’s the point of me writing anything?” I’m more likely to read a book through when I take a break from writing.

Do you have any favorites?

MZ: What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (by Peter Hedges). That’s a real favorite, because I really love character. I also like Catch-22 (Joseph Heller). When I was first shown the book I was sixteen and I couldn’t get into it. I picked it up again and read it later on. But I was at least exposed to the book at school.

The Book Thief was written from an angle that you rarely see, that of ordinary German people living under the Nazi regime. Why did you choose to write that story?

MZ: There are a few reasons, but the main one is that those are the stories I knew. My mom is German my father is Austrian. I grew up hearing those stories. One of my mum’s stories was about something that happened when she was six. She heard a noise that sounded like cattle being herded down the street. It was people being herded to a concentration camp. There was an old man who couldn’t keep up, and a boy gave him a piece of bread. They were both whipped, one for giving the bread, one for taking it. When you see a soldier chase a boy down and beat him to the ground for being kind to somebody, when you see that when you’re six, what could you possibly make of that?

You don’t really think of humor when you think of that time, but there were a lot of funny stories as well. I knew about my dad “jigging” as we say in Australia the Hitler Youth meetings, because he had a friend who suffered at the hands of the leaders. So they just said, “We’re not going. We’re going to go to the river instead and get dirty enough to fool our parents.” Another story I knew was about Hitler’s birthday, and my mother’s foster father refused to fly the Nazi flag. His wife said to him, “You’re going to fly the flag or else they’re going to come for us.” These are the stories I knew, and I thought, “I haven’t seen that on all the documentaries. I’m going to use these because this hasn’t necessarily been done a lot.”

Did you think of this as a book about the Holocaust?

MZ: I never thought of this as a Holocaust book, ever. When you think of World War II and what happened in Germany, you immediately think Holocaust and concentration camps. Once I started researching I kept uncovering more and more things like the beautiful acts that some Germans did such as hiding their Jewish friends in their basements. And the more I’d see of this the bigger the book got and instead of a 100 page novella that I was thinking about, I ended up with a 580 page book. All my books are important to me, but this is the one that is everything to me because of where it came from.

How did you decide to use Death as the narrator?

MZ: The decision to use Death as a narrator only came off the second time around; if I had stuck to publishing deadlines Liesel would probably be the narrator. I went from Death as narrator to Liesel telling the story herself to even trying third person. The real breakthrough was when I thought of the last line of the book. I was in down in Tasmania and there was water everywhere around me. I was reminded of the last line of a book called “A River Runs Through It,” which is, “I am haunted by waters.” I thought, “Aaaahhh, Death is afraid of us and haunted by us, because he is on hand to see all the terrible things we do to each other. It makes sense that he is telling the story to prove to himself that humans can be beautiful and selfless as well.”

How did you conduct your research?

MZ: To begin I interviewed my parents, did some reading and then started writing. So I had a base of the story, then I’d do more research and I’d do more writing. I finished the manuscript and then I went to Germany to check everything. And I didn’t really have to change anything. A few new things came up, but on the whole everything was pretty much right. That world of Germany was in my head the way English is in my head, because of the stories I heard growing up. It was like I could reach for it the same way I can reach for a word to use. I researched to pick up the little things. I don’t want Orville from the south Australia apple growers association writing to me saying, “You know those apples they stole in part three, that wouldn’t have been right, because they wouldn’t have been ripe.” These things are important, because you want to write with integrity.

Is there anything that surprised you in the research?

MZ: When I find research really rewarding is when one piece of information gives you an idea for a story. That’s when it’s great. Not just to show what you know. Like when the kids play ball in the street I thought, “I’m going to try to find football players or soccer players from that time that they may have idolized.” I walked into the library and just lying there was a book on the Olympics. I saw this picture of Jesse Owens, and I thought, “I don’t need any more; I’ve got Jesse Owens.” And the very moment that Rudy paints himself black with charcoal and becomes Jesse Owens he becomes my favorite character and the one I cried for the most when I was writing the ending. I deliberately wrote that he was going to die earlier that he did to prepare the reader and myself for writing that at the end. Also everything Rudy does after that moment, when you know he’s going to die at the age of 14, everything is in the shadow of that.

Did you find it difficult to find the voice for a young female character?

MZ: That was why I used Death as the narrator, because when I had Liesel writing the book she was the most Australian sounding German girl in the history of writing. The voice of Liesel definitely does come through though, and you see things from her point of view.

I was curious about the special relationship between Liesel and Hans. It’s unusual to have the father as the emotional support in a household while the mother is unapproachable. Why did you create the relationship that way?

MZ: That was the experience of my mother’s childhood. Hans is a cross between my mother’s foster father and my father’s father. Some of the things that happened to him actually happened to my grandmother on my dad’s side. I didn’t even consider doing it another way.

Have your parents read the book?

MZ: My parents became insufferable while I was writing the book, because it kept getting longer and longer. They kept asking, “When’s the book going to be finished?” Finally I just had to banish the discussion. Now, my mum’s read the book three times. She’s listened to the audio as well. When my dad read it he swore at me and said, “You made me cry.” I couldn’t say anything but thank you.

I was struck by your interesting use of metaphor relating colors to sounds.

MZ: I think it was particularly appropriate for this book. Death was almost breathing colors in to distract himself from all the misery that surrounds him. That in a way was a metaphor for the idea that this book is about people doing beautiful things in a really ugly time. And that’s what Death is trying to seek out.

The Book Thief was released in Australia for an adult audience, but in the U.S. it’s been promoted as a young adult book. What type of reader were you thinking of when you were writing?

MZ: I thought no one would read this; I thought it would be my least read book by a mile. You think about a book set in Nazi Germany and it’s 500 pages long and you write about Death and everyone dies. It’s not exactly a book you recommend to your friends, especially if they’ve had a bad day. I look back and realize that I forgot the audience as I was writing. What I wanted to do, what I’ve always wanted to do was write someone’s favorite book. I’m aiming for that top shelf when I write, and it doesn’t matter if it’s in the kid’s section or the biography section or whatever. It’s more ambitious than writing a young adult book or an adult book. People know when your heart is in a book, and I think people can tell that my heart is in this book more so than any of my other books.

If you didn’t think anyone was going to read it, it must be quite a surprise that it’s been translated into several different languages and been on the bestseller list in several different countries. How does that feel?

MZ: It still astonishes me. It’s really ridiculous in a sweet way when people line up to get the book signed and they want to get a photo. The fact that there are people who really want to read this book and have loved it is really humbling and makes me want to write a better book next time. People say to me, “Don’t put so much pressure on yourself; you don’t have to write a better book. It just has to be a different book.“ And I say, “Every time I wrote a book previously I thought I had to write a better book so why not this time as well?”

Let’s talk for a minute about I Am the Messenger, which is very different from The Book Thief. It’s set in Australia and features a group of young people just starting out on their own. Did you put something of yourself into the main character, Ed?

MZ: It’s unavoidable I guess when you write anything. There’s probably a piece of me in Liesel and a piece of me in Death. If you look at Ed or even at Cameron Wolfe, the protagonist of my first two books, there’s definitely a lot of me in them. I think I was a lot like Ed. I lacked confidence severely for a long time, and that was a fundamental part of Ed’s character. Underneath it all I wanted Ed to be like a superhero, but without superhero powers. I think that’s when you find out who you really are. What if you had to do amazing things and you had to reach into your humanness for that? That’s what Ed is doing in that book.

Again, your idea for the premise of the book seems so out of the ordinary. How did you come up with the idea for I Am the Messenger?

MZ: That was a simple thing. My wife gave me the idea. We were eating fish and chips in the park, and we looked across the road and saw a bank. Outside the bank was a 15-minute parking zone. We both knew that it usually takes a lot longer than that when you’re in the bank. And my wife said to me, “What if you were in that bank and it’s getting robbed and your car is in a 15-minute parking zone. How would you get out to move your car?” That first chapter came out of that, and it was one of the easiest things I’ve ever written.

I often ask two questions when I’m writing. One is, What is the worst thing that can happen?” The other is, “What is the unexpected thing?” From a bank robber’s point of view, the worst thing that can happen is that the police show up. The unexpected thing is that they don’t come in the bank. They get the double-parked car at the bakery across the road to move on, and then all of a sudden that’s the next problem, because that was his get-away car. The very thing that saves him is his next problem.

What are you working on now?

MZ: I’m working on a book called Bridge of Clay. This is the book I’ve always wanted to write. It’s about a boy building a bridge. His name is Clay. There’s the idea of clay being something you can mold into anything, but it needs to be set with fire. There’s a unique structure again.

Interview with Author Christina Hamlett

Posted on by
Christina Hamlett photo

Christina Hamlett

Christina Hamlett knows a lot about the stage. Besides writing collections of one-act plays, she’s also spent time in front of an audience and behind the curtains as an actress and a director. But that’s not all she’s known for. Her writing credits to date include 25 books, 125 plays and musicals, and five optioned screenplays as well as hundreds of articles in a multitude of publications.

Here, Christina tells readers at Mother Daughter Book Club.com a little bit about herself, her books and her home office. And she adds some new ideas for things you can do to spice up your club meetings. (From a March 2008 interview.)

How did you decide you wanted to be a writer?

CH: I’ve been writing stories ever since I first learned how to read. To begin with, I was an only child in a wealthy family. The latter obviously exposed me to the best of the arts, a quality education and extensive travels. The bigger influence, however, was that – in the absence of siblings – I entertained myself by becoming a voracious reader and developing a vivid imagination. (I used to write dialogue for my Barbie dolls and put on puppet shows with my marionettes.) I also had an abundance of dysfunctional relatives who proved to be great fodder for what would become future humor columns in my repertoire. While the particulars of a person’s upbringing obviously have an influence on their career choices and opportunities, the important thing is to simply decide what it is that makes you happiest and figure out how to pursue it. I always knew that writing was exactly what I wanted to do when I grew up. What I didn’t realize is that I’d create the opportunities to establish myself as a playwright, novelist, screenwriter and magazine/newspaper columnist. The fact I enjoyed acting, too, eventually led me to not only perform in community productions but also establish my own touring theater company.

How did your experience of performing and directing influence your own writing as well as your analysis of writing by your clients and students?

CH: Being onstage probably taught me more about character development, dialogue, structure and pacing than I’ve ever learned from any fiction or screenwriting class. To this day, I still walk around the house reading my work out loud to hear how it flows. In the evening and on weekends, I recruit my husband to test script dialogue with me. (Since we’ve both done lots of acting and are adept at doing accents, I’m pretty sure our neighbors think at least 17 other people are living with us…) Theater also taught me economy of expression. Among the biggest mistakes I read in new screenplays, for instance, is a tendency to rely heavily on the glitz of expensive sets and technical effects to carry the story. When these elements are stripped away, there’s rarely a compelling plot underneath. In novels, novice writers tend to err with an excess of flowery descriptions and incorporation of historical/technical detail. Both of these significantly slog the pace and keep a reader from really bonding with the characters. Unlike books—which can be peopled with casts of thousands—the physical constraints of a stage force one to determine the minimum number of characters, locations and props needed in order to deliver a solid story. Interestingly, my clients who majored in Theater Arts and/or did stints in community theater/summer stock tend to write more tightly focused scripts, novels and short stories, have better developed characters, and construct more plausible dialogue than anyone else.

A lot of your writing is directed to a young adult audience. Do you feel a particularly strong connection to that age group?

CH: Absolutely! The energy, the enthusiasm and the imagination that children and teens bring to the table is priceless and, in truth, are among the things that keep me perpetually young. I also believe that – in the pursuit of any artistic endeavor – it’s much easier to learn things correctly when one is young than to have to unlearn bad practices as an adult. That’s what gets me so excited about the screenwriting books I’ve specifically targeted to high school students and, even more so, the plays I have written that introduce young people to the fun of live performance and the discipline of true teamwork. It warms my heart when I hear one of them say that my words have not only given them the encouragement to try something new but also to want to learn more. Last but not least, I think books like Movie Girl impart the message to kids that they are not alone in their geekiness or angst or confusion; through the gentle humor that ripples through these pages, they will come away with the confidence that there really is life after high school.

Your  latest book, Movie Girl, melds a lot of your areas of interest together. Did you blend real-life experiences into the fictional for the book?

CH: For as long as I can remember, I have always been at least one of the characters in every book I’ve written. Laurie Preston, however, most accurately captures who I was when I was 15 (including being ignored by senior hottie boys who – if they knew how I turned out – would now be whacking themselves in the forehead with 2×4’s). Laurie’s parents and grandmother are also based on real individuals, and I’m always amused when reviewers comment that they’d love to go hang out for a day at Laurie’s house. I’m pretty sure that if I ever divulged the real Peter and Liz’ address, there would be legions of fans camped on their front lawn every morning and – like the woman who owned the Minneapolis house Mary Tyler Moore’s 1970’s character supposedly lived in – would have to sell it and move away.

I understand Movie Girl is the first in a series. How many books do you have planned and when can we expect to see the next one?

CH: The next three books are already on the drafting table—First Date, The List, and Basement Band. First Date—which picks up right after Movie Girl—will be out this summer. Having a very long memory of what it was like to be in high school, this series has the potential to continue indefinitely. I tell people that it’s because my characters have the ability to “age” in dog-years or, perhaps more accurately, cartoon-years.

What are some of your favorite books?

CH: When I was growing up I was hooked on Nancy Drew. A lot of my allowance, in fact, went to the purchase of her latest plucky adventures. Long past my bedtime, I’d read them under the covers with my Girl Scout flashlight (which probably accounts for why I have such bad eyesight as an adult). I still enjoy mysteries today, as well as historical novels, Sophie Kinsella’s wacky chic-lit books, and biographies. To date, however, my favorite book of all time is Terry Brooks’ Magic Kingdom for Sale.  It’s clever, it’s smart, it’s magical, and everyone to whom I have ever recommended it has loved it as much as I do.

What’s the best part of being an author?

CH: I have a blissfully short commute from the kitchen to my home office, can work all day in my bathrobe, and love getting feedback from readers – especially high school students from around the world who have acted for the first time in one of my plays. The downside is that I’m a much more demanding boss than anyone I ever worked for and, thus, have a hard time playing hooky with myself.

What does your home office look like?

CH: The French doors are flanked by a suit of armor and a black velvet dragon named Mischief. Holding court in the middle of my Oriental rug is Viktor the Siberian tiger (one of 310 stuffed animals I have collected throughout my life). My L-shaped oak desk has a high, 6-foot-long hutch with lots of cubbyholes and cabinets that prompted one of my friends to remark that it reminds her of a really quirky Advent calendar! My love of books is evidenced by all the bookcases behind me and my love of photography (we travel a lot) is reflected in the fact that virtually every square inch of wall space has something hanging on it. (I suspect that one day the drywall will completely collapse from the weight of all the frames.) A life-size standing cutout of Captain Jack Sparrow literally has my back. Since my office is in view of our dining room, I often turn on the miniature white lights in my silk ficus tree when we have dinner parties; they throw off just enough light that guests who haven’t been here before have been known to freak out that there’s a pirate standing in the shadows by my chair.

Is there anything else you’re working on now?

CH: In addition to several new plays and my ongoing ghostwriting assignments with The Penn Group in Manhattan, the project I’m most excited about now is a collaborative venture with my husband called Consumed with Passion. It’s an anthology of 12 romantic short stories – one for every month – that each revolve around a wonderful meal. I’m writing the stories and Mark is writing the recipes. If it catches on – and we already have a waiting list of people who want to buy it – we plan to do a new anthology each year and even open it up to a competition that invites other food-loving writers to participate.

Do you have any advice for members of mother-daughter book clubs?

CH: I think diversity of material is what makes these meetings fun. This means that each member of the group gets to choose a title before the cycle repeats and that everyone is willing to have an open mind, especially with genres and topics they wouldn’t ordinarily seek out. (I recall, for instance, that one of the best art appreciation courses I took in college required us to choose an artist whose work we personally didn’t like and to be able to objectively discuss the strengths and weaknesses.) In addition, my experience as a former Girl Scout leader taught me the value of incorporating related activities into our various discussions. For books, this can include things such as (1) planning/preparing a menu of what the fictional characters might eat, (2) acting out favorite scenes, (3)  staging a “talk show” in which the characters are interviewed about their actions, (4) watching film adaptations of selected books and comparing which one was better, (5) creating biographies of favorite characters that go beyond what the author has already told us (i.e., favorite toy as a child, greatest fear, what he/she would do with a million dollars, etc.), (6) developing crossword puzzles to not only test knowledge of the book in a fun way but also increase vocabulary. It’s crucial, too, that all members respect whomever has the floor and not interrupt until she is finished.

Christina’s Website. Movie Girl Website.

Interview with Judy M. Miller on Parenting Your Adoptive Child: Tweens, Teens and Beyond

Posted on by

Judy M. Miller is an adoptive parent and adoption advocate living in the Midwest with her husband and four children. She has mentored prospective adoptive and adoptive parents for over a decade about adoption—its joys and issues. She is a member of Adoption Voices (moderating a group for parents of tween and teen adoptees), AdoptionParenting, AdoptionParentingTweens, Families with Children from China, and Our Chinese Daughters Foundation.

Judy is a columnist for the adoption network, Grown in My Heart. Her essays and articles appear in adoption and parenting magazines. Judy’s stories are featured in A Cup of Comfort for Adoptive Families (Adams Media), Pieces of Me: Who Do I Want to Be? (EMK Press), and Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanks Mom (Chicken Soup for the Soul). She recently presented on “Finding Our Stories Online” at Story Circle Network’s Stories of the Heart. Judy facilitates classes for adoptive parents of tweens and teens at Parenting Your Adopted Child: Tweens, Teens and Beyond.

I became acquainted with Judy last fall when she hosted me on The International Mom’s Blog. I’m happy to feature more information about her and the work she’s doing for parents of adopted children. Here she talks about a new class she’s created to help parents with their adopted tweens and teens.

 

What prompted you to create a class on parenting adopted children?

I was moved to create Parenting Your Adopted Child: Tweens, Teens & Beyond for several reasons, but the main reason was that many parenting classes target waiting parents or parents who have recently adopted infants and young children.  There are few classes for adoptive parents of kids entering tweens and teens.

I created Parenting Your Adopted Child: Tweens, Teens & Beyond because I observed the hunger adoptive parents have to connect and share with other adoptive parents. I know from personal experience that this hunger to connect with other adoptive parents never goes away and is especially needed when parenting is most challenging—before and during adolescence.

I also found that as I became a more experienced adoptive parent, I had countless requests for my “expertise” for over a decade and fell into a mentoring role for other adoptive parents and parents beginning the adoption process. I believe we glean the most from our own tribe, from collective experiences as adoptive parents, adoptees, and birth parents. Parenting Your Adopted Child: Tweens, Teens & Beyond was created in this spirit.

Why teens and tweens? Why not parenting young adopted children or school-age adopted children?

Issues inherent in adoption typically begin to surface when the child realizes they are becoming independent from their parents. Questions many parents assumed had been addressed when their child was younger often resurface. Most adoptive parents aren’t aware of this or prepared for it. Parenting Your Adopted Child: Tweens, Teens & Beyond is a class that helps the adoptive parent navigate these parental challenges, which are compounded by the complexities of adoption. I often say that parenting is not adoptive parenting. Parenting adopted children is adoptive parenting—more is required of the adoptive parent in parenting the adopted child.

Who would be helped by your class the most?

Parenting Your Adopted Child: Tweens, Teens & Beyond is for parents who have children between the ages 6 and 18. During these years kids begin to understand what they have gained and lost by being adopted. Parents find themselves challenged with a lot of questions as in “Why did my birth mother give me up?” “What did I do to be given up?” and “Why did you adopt me?”

I even have one parent who is considering taking the class now even though both of her children are under the age of five. This parent wants to be proactive, prepared as much as she can be. She sees this class as the next step in parenting her adopted children. I think it’s always a good idea to be as informed and prepared as you can be as an adoptive parent.

Aren’t there already ample resources available on this topic?

Wonderful books, articles and resources are on parenting adopted teens are available, but reading takes time and digesting the facts takes even more. Many adoptive parents don’t have the benefit of having the “conversations” with other adoptive parents, who best understand what they and their child are experiencing. There are a few online classes for adoptive parents of adolescents, with little, if any, interaction with the other adoptive parents in the group. And, of course, there are online forums, but discussions there tend to go off on tangents and are not private.

Although I have a library of resources to draw from, my preference has always been to connect with others in the adoption community—adoptive parents, well-seasoned adoptive parents, and older adoptees for insight and perspective. So, I’ve created an e-mail class that offers the benefits of all the resources, my experiences parenting four kids, and the wisdom of the group.

If someone has never taken an e-class before, can you explain what they can expect in terms of their time commitment to the class?

I send course material out weekly via Microsoft Word Document. The workbooks cover different topics related to parenting the adopted tween/teen. The beauty of the class is that participants meet each other virtually through the class introduction and sharing of weekly class work. Participating parents do weekly assignment at their convenience, when it fits into their busy life. The weekly time commitment is only a couple of hours per week but, of course, the parents can reflect on what they are learning and discussing as much as they like. The class lasts six weeks and the class materials can be referred back to as needed in the future.

The next Parenting Your Adopted Child: Tweens, Teens & Beyond begins April 7th. Class is limited to 12 participants. Parents can find out more and register here. http://judymmiller.com/.

Judy Miller with her family

Interview with Author Heather Vogel Frederick

Posted on by

Heather Vogel Frederick

Heather Vogel Frederick’s fictional book The Mother Daughter Book Club, was reviewed in the last issue of my newsletter. She’s also written The Voyage of Patience Goodspeed, The Education of Patience Goodspeed, and the Spy Mice series. Lucky for me, Heather lives not far from where I do in Portland, so we were able to meet for lunch and talk about her writing, her love of reading and what’s next. (From an interview in July 2008.)

How did you know you wanted to be a writer?

HVF: I’ve known it was what I wanted to do since I was six. My dad taught me to read when I was four. I got my library card as soon as I could sign my name and I can still remember going to the East Lexington, Massachusetts, library and very proudly getting my library card. It was another year or two until I realized that books didn’t just appear magically on the shelves.

How did you know you wanted to write books for children?

HVF: It was spring quarter, my senior year in college, and I needed one more credit to graduate. I was looking through the catalog when I saw a children’s literature class. I thought hey, easy A, this will be fun. That class changed my life. The woman who taught it was a children’s librarian, and a teacher and a writer herself. She had written text books about teaching children to read. I didn’t think of children’s books as something someone would aspire to write, but she reintroduced me to writers from my own childhood and new writers of that time. I remember reading The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper and having an epiphany thinking this is great literature. From that moment on I knew that would be my niche.

But you started out writing as a journalist, not as a book author?

HVF: I went to work for the Christian Science Monitor. I started off as a copy kid and then became a cub reporter and an assistant editor and a staff writer. I wrote features. It was great training ground. I learned how to write on deadline. I learned how to interview people. I learned how to research. I learned how to be edited without having a hissy fit. All those things that professional writers know and understand. Eventually, when my son, Ian, was born I wanted to be home with him. So I worked out an arrangement where I became the children’s book review editor. At the same time I started freelancing for other organizations like Publisher’s Weekly magazine. I didn’t have much time beyond mothering and doing that to work on fiction but it was always there in the back of my mind, like little flames flickering away.

How did you come to write The Voyage of Patience Goodspeed?

HVF: When my youngest son was in first grade I finally had a little extra time. My initial foray was into fantasy, but it was just going nowhere. I was getting discouraged. On a different note I was doing some family genealogical research, and I called my great uncle Billy one day when I was tracing the family history. He said, “Do you know that your great great grandfather ran off to sea to be a whaler when he was 15 years old?” He sent me a bunch of material including a receipt for the whaling gear for a 15-year-old boy. I started reading about the American whaling industry and I found out that whaling voyages followed whale migrations while they tried to fill up the hold of the ship with oil. A lot of times they would be gone 3 – 5 years at a time. Since these captains were gone such a long time a lot of them brought their wives and raised their kids at sea. And I thought what a great setting for a children’s book. So that was the genesis of what came to be my first book The Voyage of Patience Goodspeed, which followed a 12-year-old girl who goes off with her dad and she learns to navigate.

You’ve written historical fiction, fantasy and current fiction. Why so many different styles?

HVF: They all seems to have connections to my life. There was the family connection with Patience. Spy Mice was an homage to my misspent youth, because I spent a lot of time watching spy-fi TV. The Mother-Daughter Book Club is set in my hometown of Concord, Massachusetts.

Do you feel a particular resonance with middle grade readers?

HVF: There’s this magic window for kids between eight or nine and maybe about 12 where you still have their attention before they get off into young adult and adult fiction. My books can be read by kids who are younger, they can be read by kids who are older, but I think there’s something about 11 year olds that’s great.

Why do you think it’s important to write for that age range?

HVF: There’s such a push in our world today to thrust our kids further than they need to be. Whether it’s in pop music or fashion or what they’re seeing in movies. I’m really whole heartedly for defending our kids, and maintaining that sense of purity that comes with childhood without being in such a rush to push them on.  Let them still be kids.

I understand you have two sons. What inspired you to write a book about mother-daughter book clubs?

HVF: The spark for the idea was from my editor. She called me up one day and said there are mother-daughter book clubs all over the country and wouldn’t it be fun to write a book about one. You could set it in Concord, your home town and have the club read little women. It sounded great to me.

So how did you take the idea and make it into your own story?

HVF: I was one of three daughters. I mined our rich childhood vigorously. I had a world class mother too, so there are strong mother/daughter connections there. But it is at the height of irony that I wrote a book with a pink cover.

What was it like writing about your hometown?

HVF: It was fun. There’s a lot of things taken right out of my own childhood and adolescence. I got a chance to go back and re-visit and walk around the town. It’s such a beautiful place. I appreciated that even when I was living there as a child and young woman.

Do you plan to write more about the mother-daughter book club?

HVF: There will be four books in the series. The second one will be out in September. It’s called Much Ado About Anne, and the club will be reading the Anne of Green Gables Series.

What are your thoughts about real mother-daughter book clubs?

HVF: I think it’s the best idea that’s come down the pike in a long time, and I’m incredibly jealous that I don’t have a daughter. Because I’d start one in a heartbeat. I know a group where the girls are in college and when they come home for the holidays they still want to have book club meetings. It’s truly special to have something like that to share and look back on. Even with my sons, we did a lot of reading together growing up as a family. Bonding over books is something that helps create a very strong connection.

I understand you’re willing to meet with mother-daughter book clubs?

HVF: Yes, and I’ve met with clubs both on the phone and in person. I think it’s a fun way for the moms to visit and the girls to interact. And it’s been really great for me to get feedback from book clubs across the country who say we loved your book and now we’re going to read Little Women. It makes me so happy to spotlight books like this and help keep them alive.

If you’d like to contact Frederick about meeting with your book club, send her a message through her Web site at www.heathervogelfrederick.com.

Interview with Author Mary E. Pearson

Posted on by
Mary E. Pearson photo

Mary E. Pearson

Mary Pearson is author of several books for teen readers, the latest of which is The Adoration of Jenna Fox. I recently read this along with my daughter’s mother-daughter book club, and when we finished our discussion we thought of questions we would like to ask Pearson. Below you’ll find our questions along with her answers. (From a July 2008 interview.)

Why did you choose to write about ethics in medicine?

MP: I am not sure that I exactly “chose” to write about ethics. I think the question of ethics naturally arose out of the situation and story. When I write, I like to explore gray areas and various viewpoints and I think the particulars of this story and situation, just happened to be ripe with ethical questions.

Why did you decide to place the story in a future time?

MP: Years ago, when my own daughter was facing a life-threatening illness but was saved by modern medicine that hadn’t been available fifty years earlier, I wondered how far medicine would progress in another fifty years. I didn’t think of it as an idea for a story at the time, but that niggling question stayed with me.

Was there something particular you wanted to say to a teen audience about the issues?

MP: No. I don’t write to “tell” teens anything. For me, when I write, it is more a matter of exploring things that I am curious about. And I write from the teen perspective because I find the teen years to be so pivotal and life changing. Teens are adults, albeit young ones, who are experiencing so many firsts and making decisions that can affect them for the rest of their lives.

Do you have strong opinions of your own on the topic?

MP: Yes and no. How’s that for wishy washy? I do believe in the sacredness of human life. I do understand a parent’s desperate need to save their child. I do believe in change and progress. But I also believe in some limits and control. The dilemma comes in who decides what. That’s the part I don’t know. The only thing I really do know, is that probably none of us knows for sure what we would do in an impossible situation.

What kind of research did you have to conduct to write the story in a way that would make sense to readers who aren’t knowledgeable about medical terms?

MP: In some respects, making it “accessible” was easy since it is all written from seventeen year-old Jenna’s point of view. When I was researching the anatomy and workings of the brain, I had to choose key brain anatomy phrases so it wouldn’t be too jargony and I tried to keep those to a minimum. I didn’t want it to read like a medical encyclopedia even though much of the story revolved around medical technology. It was a balancing act to include enough but not too much.

Have you spent time with people who have had experimental medical treatments? How about with people who rejected experimental medical treatments?

MP: Yes and yes. I have a friend who was given six months to live after a diagnosis of metastasized melanoma. She did some research of her own and found some experimental clinical trials that were being conducted at a local university. It was tough going, months of uncertainty, but she had nothing to lose. And finally one of the treatments worked. That was over ten years ago and she is alive and well today.

As far as rejecting experimental treatment, my husband and I rejected it for our own daughter who was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma. It was a horribly difficult decision for us. The experimental treatment was shorter, and also had the “possibility” of fewer of the long lasting side effects of chemo and radiation, but it didn’t have a long proven track record. However, the standard treatment did have a proven track record with a great degree of success. We felt we just couldn’t take a chance when her life was at stake, so we went with the tried and true. That was eight years ago and she is well and healthy now so we feel we made the right decision.

Do you think you would make the same decision Jenna’s parents did?

MP: Honestly, I don’t know. I think I would. I think most parents would do anything to save their child.  But there is also the uncertainty of how much hell you will be putting your child through. I think until we are actually faced with such horrific decisions, it is impossible to judge.

Did you change your views while you were writing the book?

MP: I’m not sure I had a view before I began the book. Just questions. And maybe that is what I was left with too, perhaps along with a greater degree of empathy for those facing the unknown.

In your opinion, what makes this a good book to read and discuss with a group in a book club?

MP: Ha! You’re asking the author to judge her own book! But I will give it a try. I think because there is so much gray area in this book and opposing opinions, it gives each reader the opportunity to weigh in with their own. There are no right or wrong opinions, but certainly there will be strong ones. We’re talking about life and death here, and the essence of our humanity. These are huge topics that affect us all, and everyone is bound to have their own ideas about what we should or shouldn’t do.

Anything else you’d like us to know?

MP: I’m truly honored that you chose to read my book for your book club, and I do hope it provided you all with some interesting discussions. I wish I could have eavesdropped!

Interview with Patricia McCormick, Author of Sold

Posted on by
Patricia McCormick photo

Patricia McCormick

Patricia McCormick has received much acclaim for the novels she’s written about important topics that  people often find uncomfortable talking about. Her latest, Sold, tells the story of a young girl from Nepal who is sold into the sex slave industry in India. In Cut, she wrote about a young girl who cut herself to deal with feelings of guilt she has over her brother’s illness. And in My Brother’s Keeper, a boy covers for his brother who increasingly experiences problems as he travels further down a path of drug abuse.

Yet McCormick writes about these topics to enlighten, so reading her work doesn’t feel preachy. The topics she covers are often best discussed in a group, such as a mother-daughter book club, where readers can talk about their thoughts on the subject while discussing a character in her book. Recently, I spoke with McCormick about what she chooses to write about as well as how she came to be a writer. (From an August 2008 interview.)

How did you decide to become a professional writer?

PM: I had a job at a daily newspaper in New Jersey that I just loved. It was such a thrill to see my work immediately the next day and see that it had an impact. But then there came a point when I wanted more of a challenge. I tried business writing which was not for me. I was doing movie and book reviews and I found I didn’t want to be the person reviewing the books, I wanted to be the person writing them.

What made you want to write fiction as opposed to non-fiction?

PM: You can do a lot with journalism and you can do a lot with creative non-fiction, but fiction feels like the biggest canvas to tell a story.
Your books deal with very difficult subjects. Things that people maybe don’t want to talk about too much.

What’s the advantage do you see of talking about those things in a fictionalized way?

PM: If you have a conversation about a fictional girl and her mother, or a fictional girl and her father they are one or two or ten steps removed from your situation, but you can still see similarities. So I think it’s a much safer way to talk about things that people aren’t comfortable talking about. Everybody is affected when something happens like in Cut or My Brother’s Keeper. They don’t know how to talk about it. And, if you’re cutting, you might think you’re the only one in the world doing it, and it’s really hard to ask for help. But if you’re reading about it in a book it’s easier to ask for help. I’ve heard from so many kids who’ve said that they just went in and put the book down or made a point of letting their parents know they were reading this book as a way of saying, “that’s me, that’s what’s going on in my life.”

That must be very rewarding.

PM: Oh it is. I love when I hear from librarians who say, “I needed a book just like this for one of my kids,” or when they tell me it’s one of their most stolen books.

What draws you to the topics you talk about?

PM: My Brother’s Keeper is a story I kind of lived through. I lived with family members who have substance abuse problems, and my thinking there was the person who’s got the problem with substance abuse attracts a lot of attention, but there are so many other people affected by it who should have a voice too.
As for Cut, I was really fascinated by this issue and by the idea that somebody could be so hurt or angry or lonely or frustrated or numbed-out but couldn’t tell anybody so they take it out on their bodies.

With Sold, I heard about trafficking and I just couldn’t believe that people sold their children. There’s great journalism about trafficking, but I think when you turn it into fiction and when you really sink into the experience of another human being experiencing this, it calls on your empathy.

Did you hope to inspire people to action with this book?

PM: I very much had the idea of activating people. I had opportunities to intervene while I was doing the research, but I was thwarted in the things I wanted to do. Then I thought, “what I can do is write a book.” So I couldn’t write it fast enough. I wanted everyone to know immediately about this. I’ve been really amazed at the response. Kids of this generation tend to be very socially aware and care about issues of social justice and are activists. They want to raise money and they want to find out more. Even kids you wouldn’t anticipate having any kind of connection to an issue like this. I went to a juvenile facility, and I though, “why are these girls going to care about some girl in a mud hut?” But they were really moved. And I think it’s because they know what it’s like in some cases to be betrayed by a family member. Or to be sexualized inappropriately. Kids are really shocked that this is happening to their peers.

How do people best channel their desire for action?

PM: We’re physically far removed from the problem, so the best way to help is through our donations. The organizations I list in the back of the book really helped me, and I can vouch that the money really goes to help the girls. Five dollars can buy a girl her first new dress when she leaves the brothel. It’s such a huge benefit to her to put on something clean and modest. People can also talk about the issue. Trafficking happens here in the United States. Either with kids coming in from foreign countries or kids who run away here and are trafficked once they lose their bearings and run out of money.

You went to Nepal and India to conduct research for Sold. What was that like?

PM: I would collect information and I would think, “oh this is powerful, I can put this in the book.” But the other half of my brain would think,” oh my god look at what’s happening in front of you.” I tried to keep a professional screen between my feelings and the work I was doing. But I would go to my hotel room at night and I would just shake. I trembled with rage and sadness and frustration.

I could only write about it for a couple of hours a day. What made it more bearable is that I didn’t have to use graphic language. Because Lakshmi was a child, I tried to put it through her frame of reference, and she wouldn’t totally know what was happening to her. She wouldn’t use what we would consider offensive language. In some ways that made it more poignant.

What are you working on now?

PM: It’s a book about a soldier in Iraq. When you think about it it’s absolutely audacious that a 52-year-old woman in Manhattan could write about that experience. And I am really worried about getting it right and making it authentic, but there’s something that was so compelling to me about that experience that I could not, not write it.

Anything you’d like to share for readers at Mother Daughter Book Club.com?

PM: I’m so envious of people who have mother daughter book clubs. I have a 25-year-old daughter and we read a lot together and she is my first editor. I wish the idea had been around when she was younger. It’s so wonderful when people can talk about a book in an open non-judgmental way. A book is an amazing way to see an experience that’s not yours. I think so many kids think they have to figure out by themselves. But real growth comes from staying and working things out with the people at hand.

Interview with Laura Whitcomb, Author of A Certain Slant of Light

Posted on by
Laura Whitcomb photo

Laura Whitcomb

Laura Whitcomb is author of A Certain Slant of Light, a young adult novel that unfolds through the eyes of Helen, a spirit who died long ago but maintains contact with the living world by clinging to a host. When Helen meets James, another spirit who has learned to inhabit a body vacated by the soul of its teen owner, the two embark on a relationship that explores life, death and love against all expectations. Recently, Mother Daughter Book Club.com interviewed Ms. Whitcomb about A Certain Slant of Light and her other works. (From an interview in February 2007.)

The subject matter of A Certain Slant of Light is a bit mature, and it’s recommended for an audience of 9th grade and older. Did you have a young adult audience in mind when you were writing?

LW: Actually I was just trying to write the best story I could think of in the best way I could tell it. My agent sent it out to both adult and YA editors. After it sold as YA, it made sense to me – even though the ghosts were in their twenties when they died, the bodies they took over were teens. The characters had to deal with teen life.

Both Helen and James are spirits with unresolved issues, do you believe spirits exist all around us?

LW: I don’t know if there are ghosts, but I believe many people experience hauntings, and I believe that our spirits/souls go on to new things after we die. I wouldn’t be surprised if some souls had to heal in order to pass on to what comes after this earthly life.

Why did you decide to have the spirits of Helen and James – who died as adults – inhabit teen bodies?

LW: It started out as just one scene. I didn’t know if the scene would turn into a novel, or just be a short story. If I were a ghost, attached to a host, I would want to be around books. Since I used to teach English, I thought I’d have my ghost’s host be an English teacher too, and so when I had her be seen by someone, I chose someone who’d be right there in his class, and that person was a high school student. At first that was my only reason to choose a teen. But it worked well for me as the story progressed – it created lots of conflict.

Was there a reason you placed the flesh-and-blood lives of Helen and James in two different times in history?

LW: Well, I thought it would be too much of a coincidence if they died around the same time.

Helen makes references to other literary figures, like Emily Dickinson, that her spirit was attached to in the past. Why did she attach herself to those writers and teachers in her spirit life when it seems she wasn’t part of that world when she was alive?

LW: Helen loves books. She was a reader, rather than a writer, when she was alive, but it was her love of literature that drew her to her hosts once she was dead. She wanted to dwell in the beautiful worlds that novels, poems, and plays offer because her own existence was so limited.

A Certain Slant of Light leaves us hopeful in the end not only for Helen and James, but also for Jenny and Billy, whose bodies they inhabit. Do you plan a sequel focusing on Jenny and Billy?

LW: No, I don’t have a plan to write a sequel. But one never knows!

You’ve attended a mother-daughter book club meeting where A Certain Slant of Light was being discussed. What was it like hearing readers’ comments about your book?

LW: It’s always interesting to hear people talk about something you wrote. I was impressed by the sophistication of the questions and comments from both generations. It feels great to have your work be the fuel for such lively conversation. One of the women even made a point that I hadn’t ever thought of. She said, “I don’t think Jenny ever would’ve come back to Cathy’s house if Dan had still been there.” Hey, that was pretty smart! (Wish I’d thought of it.)

You’ve also written a non-fiction book for writers on how to write and sell a novel. Did you find big differences in the process of writing fiction and non-fiction?

LW: The non-fiction book, called Your First Novel, which I co-authored with my agent Ann Rittenberg, had much more structure to start with, so I was writing it to fit a plan. A Certain Slant of Light was my original story, and at first I didn’t even have an outline, so it was more of a creative process. One the other hand, there are a lot of similarities. As examples, both books are meant to excite the reader and are about learning the rules of a new world.

Do you have another novel in the works?

LW: The publisher of A Certain Slant of Light, Houghton Mifflin, bought my new YA novel, The Fetch (due out in 2008,) on a summary and sample chapter. I’m just finishing it now. This one might be a series. I think I’d really enjoy that. My agent’s also about to send out another of my novels, Judas Cross, which will probably be an adult novel rather than YA.

Interview with Kirby Larson, Author of Hattie Big Sky

Posted on by
Kirby Larson photo

Kirby Larson

Kirby Larson wasn’t expecting to write historical fiction when the story of Hattie Inez Brooks found her. Her books before Hattie Big Sky were written for younger readers, but as Larson says, “You never know where life is going to take you. Sometimes there’s a story that takes hold of your heart and there you go.” And readers have been happy to go with her. Recently Larson talked with Mother Daughter Book Club.com by phone from her home near Seattle, Washington. (From an interview in August 2007.)

Where did you grow up?

KL: I grew up almost entirely in Washington State. My family moved around a lot so I ended up going to five grade schools, two junior highs and two high schools, but it was all in Washington State.

How old were you when you started to write?

KL: Kids always ask me that. I’ve been writing for about 20 years, and I started when my children were small.

What attracted you to writing?

KL: I’ve always been a bookworm. As I mentioned, I moved around a lot, and one of the problems with being the new kid is it takes a while to make new friends. But I always had my books. There came a point when I wanted to try writing my own stories, but I didn’t know when I was younger that writing fiction could be an option for people (for a career). I wrote for newspapers and magazines, but not with the idea that I was going to write fiction.

How did you decide to try your hand at fiction?

KL: I remember the moment I decided I wanted to try writing something for kids. My two children were small, and we used to go to the library all time. We checked out a picture book by Arnold Lobel called Ming Lo Moves the Mountain. When we read it I had my son on one side of me and my daughter on the other, and we were sitting on our couch. When I turned the last page it was like a switch went off inside me. I said to myself, “I want to learn how to write a book that will touch other people the way this book has touched me.” That same day I called a really good friend of mine and asked her if we could trade babysitting. I’d go to the library while she had my kids twice a week for two hours and I wrote on a yellow pad with a pen or pencil. I did that for a couple of years.

Your earlier books are written for younger audiences. How did you decide to start writing for an older audience and write Hattie?

KL: I had no idea I was going to write the book. The book found me through my grandma, who was living in an adult care home near the end of her life. I was spending a lot of time with her, because I was one of her caretakers. We were sitting there one day when out of the blue she said to me, “The only time mom was ever afraid was in the winter when the wild horses stampeded.” I said, “Grandma what are you talking about?” But she didn’t even know she’d said that to me. I knew she was talking about her mom, my great-grandmother Hattie Inez Brooks.

So I started talking to my aunts, and my mom’s oldest sister said, “You know we did hear a story that Hattie homesteaded by herself.” I knew Hattie as this tiny little woman with white hair and thick glasses. I couldn’t imagine her as a homesteader. But I had a friend who was into genealogy research and she found the Montana Bureau of Land Management Web site that listed a claim number for Hattie. I sent that number to the National Archives, and within a couple of months I had all of Hattie’s homestead documents. I found out that she not only went to Montana, but she proved up on a claim there!

I was so fascinated about how a young woman could do this I started reading journals and diaries, and everything else I could find on that time period and on homesteading in eastern Montana. Before I knew it, there was a story there, and that started me on a three-year research journey. So I didn’t sit down to write a novel, in fact I would have been petrified if I would have told myself, “okay today you’re going to start working on a historical novel.”

Do you expect that you will write novels for older readers again?

KL: Of course. But I also have chapter books and picture books that I love and would love to find a home for. I still want to tell those stories. I don’t see myself writing in any one genre; I see myself writing stories in the form that best fit them. And sometimes that’s a novel and sometimes that’s a picture book.

It sounds like a fun career to be able to follow what your heart is telling you at the moment.

KL: I feel so fortunate that I’m able to do this. It’s lonely, too, because you’re sitting in your office most of the time not knowing whether your story will connect with anyone else. But I think if you find your passion and you go with it you are rewarded.

What is the most fun you have as an author?

KL: I think it’s twofold: fun for me is in feeling like I nailed something, like I really got the story right. With Hattie I feel like I really got the time period right, and I got her voice right. The other thing is, I get e-mails from people everyday who loved her story. Here I am sitting in my little office in Kenmore, Washington, and someone in Missouri or Kentucky or Vermont or Maine is reading my book and connecting with it. It’s mind-boggling.

Hattie was homesteading during Word War I. Did you feel like there was any correlation between the struggle that was going on in the broader world and the struggle that was going on with Hattie?

KL: Absolutely. When I first got the idea for Hattie it was just going to be a homestead novel. But the more I read about that time period, the more I became aware of the really strong anti-German sentiment and that people suffered harsh consequences not only for being German Americans, but also other folks who might question the treatment of German Americans or might question our being in the war at that time. It was also the struggle of answering the question, “How do you be a good citizen?” It was similar to the issue I was wrestling with in my own personal life in 2001 and 2002 when I was writing the book, which was when we first got into Iraq. I think writing about a different time period allowed me to explore some of the questions that were going on in my own life.

How much of what you knew of the real Hattie and her personality did you put into the character in the book?

KL: She died when I was 10, and I loved her to death but I didn’t know her as a person. If I had to pick one person who is most Hattie-like I think it would be my grandmother.

How did you feel when Hattie Big Sky was named a Newbery Honor Book?

KL: I burst into tears. I got the call very early in the morning. First I was speechless. I couldn’t even respond at first; then I was in tears. It’s such a significant honor. I read a lot so I know the books they were considering and to think that Hattie would have been selected was beyond imagining. I call this book a love letter to my grandmother who died before the book came out. I felt like there was so much of my connection with her caught up in this book, and to have that acknowledged by someone else was an emotional overload for me.

I understand you visited a mother daughter book club meeting with your daughter?

KL: Yes. It was really a fun evening. I am so impressed with the commitment that moms are making now to this concept. I think it’s an important way for moms to be together with girls, especially when they are pre-teen. You can talk about some tough issues that may be affecting your daughters, but since they are a character’s issues it’s a safe way to bring them up. I loved how the girls had their questions to ask and the moms had their questions to ask. They were all interacting as if they were equal. And I think it’s nice to have other adult women in your life when you’re growing up. I can see these book clubs working on a lot of different levels to help girls get through those tough pre-teen and teen years.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...