Whenever I read a new dystopia, I wonder about the influences of classic dystopias on current authors. I love teaching dystopias in my classroom, and wonder which of the books I teach will inspire my students to write their own stories some day.
Ann Aguirre, author of Enclave, stopped by to talk about the classic dystopias that inspire her writing.
The first dystopian I ever read was LORD OF THE FLIES. I read it for a school assignment, and it made a large impression on me. I've wondered ever since I read whether children would always devolve to such savage behavior. I wondered if Mr. Golding was, perhaps, a touch pessimistic, and I wanted to create a world where the darkness came from excess order, more like 1984, as opposed to complete chaos and a devolution to primitive instincts.
In high school, I fell in love with A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ. The premise that a butcher's shopping list could become a a religious artifact charmed me utterly. It is a brilliant book and one I could read over and over again. (And I have.)
In college, I read my next dystopian, A HANDMAID'S TALE. I studied it and analyzed it for my Gender Studies class. It is a haunting story, and I suspect some of those themes pervade my Razorland books as well.
Beyond these three works, my inspiration has largely come from films.
Thanks, Ann! I've read (and taught) both Lord of the Flies and The Handmaid's Tale, but have never even heard of A Canticle for Leibowitz. Looks like I have some reading to do!
Stop by the Teen Book Scene for more Enclave tour information.
Hello, everyone! Thanks to Mrs. DeRaps for inviting me to talk about my novel Through Her Eyes that will be in bookstores on April 5th.
Through Her Eyes was a lot of fun to write for many reasons, one of them being that the main character, Tansy, is the daughter of a horror writer. Tansy’s mom, Millie, writes under the pseudonym Millicent Moon, and Tansy describes her as “the female version of Stephen King, minus the mega bucks and movie deals.”
When the idea for this story started brewing in my mind, I knew I wanted Tansy’s mother to be a writer, partially because I wanted to step into Tansy’s skin and experience vicariously what it might be like for my kids to have me for a mom! Children of writers have to put up with having a parent whose mind is always “in the clouds,” a parent who stays up into the wee hours of the morning working, or who rises hours before the sun to start banging away on a laptop. They have to put up with their friends’ teasing about “Mom’s embarrassing book covers.” (At least my kids did. I wrote romance novels for a while early in my career, so I had a cover or two that my sons wished they could hide from their friends!)
Through Her Eyes is a ghost story, so having Millie write horror seemed a natural fit. Besides, I’ve always been intrigued by the workings of a horror writer’s mind. For example, I used to think that Stephen King was brilliant, but that he must also be a tiny bit mentally disturbed to come up with the stories he does! Then I read his book On Writing, and although I still think he’s brilliant, I also think he’s a perfectly sane, extremely loving family man, who is incredibly wise. Why did I ever think anything else? As I said, I used to write romance novels, but that doesn’t mean I’m a hopeless romantic. (A romantic, perhaps, but not a hopeless!)
Tansy struggles with that same preconception – people believing her mom is a nutcase because of what she does for a living. She also struggles with embarrassment over the covers of the novels, and some of the titles completely mortify her. Tearsof Blood and The Screaming Meemies, for instance. Tansy has to deal with a bit of teasing from classmates, too. One guy at her new school nicknames her “Zombie Girl,” because zombies play leading roles in most of her mom’s books.
I enjoy scary books, and I really love spine-chilling movies, as well; not so much the slash and dash kind, but the sort with a ripple of psychological suspense in them. The sort of movies and stories that don’t just terrify the audience, but make us think and question and try to figure out what’s going on. Books and movies in the genre that I’ve loved probably influenced me, at least in a small way, to make Tansy’s mom a horror novelist. During my twenties, I went on a Stephen King and Dean Koontz book binge, and I still read their novels from time to time; they’re the kings of the genre, in my opinion. If I’m in the mood for a horror novel with writing that’s a bit more on the lush side, I often turn to the writer I consider the queen of the genre – Ann Rice. Her novel The Mummy is a particular favorite. Of course, the YA market also has many great horror titles, and in these my taste also tends to run more toward the psychologically creepy more than to vampires, werewolves and such, although I enjoy a good story in that vein, too. Some of my YA favorites are older titles, and a few of them are marketed to readers even younger than the typical YA booklover. I particularly enjoyed Coraline, by Neil Gaiman; The Folk Keeper, by Franny Billingsly; and Jade Green, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Owl in Love, by Patrice Kindl is also very unique and intriguing – it’s humorous as well as creepy, and it might very well have been the first shape-shifter novel.
As for movies that influenced me, my favorite chill-raisers are The Mothman Prophecies, Identity, and The Sixth Sense. Oh, and Shadow of the Vampire, which came out in 2000 is by far one of the creepiest movies I’ve ever seen!
I hope readers of Through Her Eyes will experience a few chills of the same sort these wonderful books and movies induced in me! I invite you to stop by my website www.jenniferarcher.net and my blog www.jenniferarcher.blogspot.com to check out the book trailer and other information about Through Her Eyes, as well as my other novels.
Savita Kahlan is the author of the chilling thriller, The Long Weekend. This book is absolutely terrifying, due to the subject matter and the author's skill at creating a tense, suspenseful situation where the lives of two boys are at stake. Though this book is thoroughly disturbing, I know that it takes a great writer to develop this type of character/ reader connection. I am highly impressed and completely freaked out.
For her tour stop at DeRaps Reads, I asked Ms. Kahlan to share a bit about a nightmare that she's had. As many of you know from previous posts, I have nightmares almost every night. In fact, I just had a horrific one last night, based on a book I'm currently reading. I'm glad to report that it wasn't as terrifying as Ms. Kahlan's, which you can read about here.
My Nightmare
“It’s dark and the streetlamps emit little light. I’m crouched behind a car, hiding. I’m alone. The street is eerily quiet and deserted, the houses on either side are abandoned. I don’t know how I ended up here all by myself with not a single living soul in sight. I’m catching my breath, thinking maybe I’m safe for a while. I’ve been running all night, running and hiding, running and hiding. Am I doomed never to see the light of day breaking over the horizon, the sweet chorus of birdsong, the rattle and clink of the milkman? I can hear a distant rattle and clink, but it’s not the milkman making early deliveries of bottles of milk. This is the rattle and clink of something else, something that may have once been human, but any humanity it once had has been lost for an age and it has no recollection of what it was like to be human.
The dreaded sound is distant, but I won’t be fooled by that. They almost had me before – yes, there is more than one, more than ten, perhaps twenty or more. I did not stop to count each contorted, disfigured being as they defied their stuttering gait, their misshapen limbs, and robot-like seethed across the fast dwindling space that separated them from me. I begin to move, slowly at first using the parked cars as my shield, then quicker as a glimpse of a rotting arm from the other side of the car. I begin to run. They’re closing in on me. Their guttural cries, their agonised moaning, their strange wheezing, the rattle and clink of the chains that once held them dragging across the ground, it all becomes louder. I run into an abandoned house, hoping to find help, but there is no one there, no weapons, nothing I can use to defend myself. I hear the shuffle of footsteps scraping across floorboards. They’ve followed me. I stifle a scream, my hand stuffed in my mouth, my heart beating so fast I think it might explode...”
And this is when I hope to wake up from the nightmare! Sometimes I do, sweating and panting and clutching at the duvet, other times the nightmare continues...
* * *
And that's just a sample of the quality of Ms. Kalhan's terrifically terrifying writing. The Long Weekend is sure to have you feeling disturbed--even the most jaded of readers will have some heightened sense of fear or fright!
Ms. Kalhan is giving away one copy of her book to one lucky commenter. You have one week to enter this INTERNATIONAL giveaway (closes March 4th). Please leave a comment reacting to Ms. Kalhan's nightmare or describe one of your own. Make sure to leave an email where you can be reached if you are the winner.
Recently, I received a request from author Laura Kreitzer, who asked if I'd be interested in giving her some room to talk about an important issue: Human trafficking. At the time, I was actually teaching Patricia McCormick's novel in verse Sold to my sophomore students. We've finished that book and are on to another human rights topic now, but I still think about the character Lakshmi in that book and her horrific story. Here is what Ms. Kreitzer has to say about this issue:
Hello Literary-Folk!
My name is Laura Kreitzer, and I’m the author of the Timeless Series and the Summer Chronicles. This week I would like to alert everyone on a colossal crisis that’s gone unnoticed in the world: human trafficking. That’s why I’ve asked hundreds of blogs to be involved with spreading the word on this issue that’s become close to my heart.
As an author, and someone whose life is put in the spotlight, I keep most people at a distance. Only a handful of my friends know the whole me and the events from my past. But this week I’d like to share with you a part of myself that the outside world doesn’t see (and a part of me I don’t like to share). I was emotionally abused for five years by someone I thought loved me, my mind beaten into submission. Though the turmoil I went through doesn’t penetrate as deep as someone forced into slavery on the worldwide market for human trafficking, I can sadly relate in some ways: imprisoned, my life dictated down to what I wore, ate, where I went, whom I spoke to, where I worked, when I slept, bending to his every whim. He did not sway, even when I cried through some of the more traumatic things he had me do. I was a slave in my own home. In my desperation for freedom, I held out a gun and asked him to just end my suffering. I was desperate.
I can’t even imagine how many women (and men) in the world are in a similar situation. What’s even worse, I had it mild compared to the children that are sold for labor or sex. Surprisingly, the good ol’ U.S.A. is reported to be the host to two million slaves. Did you know this? Because I certainly did not; not until I was preparing to write my newest novel: Phantom Universe. The main character, Summer Waverly, was stolen as a child and sold as a slave to the captain of a modern-day pirate ship. From a loved child who only knew “time-out” as punishment, to being whipped into silence was something I knew nothing about. So I researched deeply into human trafficking and the psychological effects of torture of various types that one would endure in these circumstances. I felt shaken at my findings and knew I had to tell Summer’s story. (Read a sneak peek here.)
A storm began to brew in my mind; transforming, morphing, twisting, and expanding into this massive, black cloud. I had to bring this tragic atrocity to the forefront. My own emotional experiences, mixed with the research I did on human trafficking, made me feel an intense connection with Summer, and to all women who’ve been through this kind of brutality. The cloud ruptured and rained all over my computer one day. It took one month to write Phantom Universe, the first in the Summer Chronicles. I was so consumed by the story that I wrote nearly nonstop, only breaking for necessary tasks like eating, showering, and occasionally—very occasionally—sleeping.
Though the book I’ve written would be classified as Science Fiction, or as I’d like to call it, Dystopian, the emotions and psychological aspects are not Science Fiction—they're real. Reviewers have said many amazing things about Summer, this character who is so real in my mind and who I cried along with as the words poured from my soul onto my screen.
“I admired Summer's strength and ability to adapt,” says CiCi’s Theories. “I felt tied to her emotions,” Jennifer Murgia, author or Angel Star admits. And Tahlia Newland, author of Lethal Inheritance, remarks, “Summer is strong and smart in mind [. . .]”
Through her overwhelmingly horrendous past, Summer goes on more than just a physical journey in Phantom Universe, she goes on a psychological one as well; growing beyond her mute state to persevere and survive in a new world beyond the whip she’s so frightened of.
Now that the release date is here, I’m excited and terrified to share this story with everyone. I’m emotionally tied in every way to the words I’ve written, because they’re more than words. More than just a story on a page. Beyond the fictional aspects, there’s a real issue that needs to be addressed: human trafficking must be stopped. We shouldn’t sit idly by while this continues to plague us. Our world’s children—our nation’s children—are being affected. It’s time we take action!
Earlier this month Phantom Universe hit Barnes and Noble’s top 100 Best Selling list. I’ve decided to donate 10% of my sales from Phantom Universe, until the end of February, to the DNA Foundation.
“DNA hopes to help abolish modern day slavery, deter perpetrators, and free the many innocent and exploited victims. We are committed to forcing sex slavery out of the shadows and into the spotlight.
Freedom is a basic human right and slavery is one of the greatest threats to that freedom. No one has the right to enslave another person.”
I ask that you spread the word to everyone you know. Look around on the DNA Foundation website and find a way to get involved in ending human trafficking. Take action today. Everyone has a voice—you have a voice. Will you have the courage to use it?
Recently, I had what Oprah would most likely deem an "Aha" moment. It came after I watched and listened to an amazing performance by our school’s concert band. It was held in our school's gym, with about 800 people watching. As I listened to the music, I looked around at the crowd and saw dozens of students playing air drums and other instruments. This got me thinking about the number of students who could benefit from music education. But, with shrinking budgets, this will not happen any time soon.
I knew that Ms. Sara Bennett Wealer was going to drop by DeRaps Reads for a guest post and knew that her book dealt with two former friends who compete musically. So, I figured Ms. Bennett Wealer might have an opinion or two about the state of music education in our schools. And, I was right!
When people talk about cutting back on music in public education, I often feel like they’re speaking a foreign language. Music was such an important part of my own educational experience that the idea of curtailing or eliminating it just doesn’t compute. Music gave me confidence. It opened new worlds. It made me excited to go to school and kept me motivated when other subjects had me discouraged.
I often think that the people who want to cut music from public education aren’t thinking about it the right way. They act like music is an “extra” when, really, music can be an integral part of the learning experience.
In fact, you could create an entire curriculum with music as the glue that holds each subject together:
Languages – How many of us learned French by singing Frere Jacques? I remember my German lessons because our teacher taught us “Du, du liegst mir im hertzen.” Heck, music is its own language, and one that few people end up regretting having learned.
Literature/Poetry – From lyrics and librettos to symphonies and operas based on myth, legend and classic literature, your lesson plan is almost written for you!
History/Cultures – You can explore everything from daily living, religion and folklore to major historical events by looking at the music people were singing with and for one another.
Science – How do the parts of the body work together to give you your voice? What are the physics of pitch? The mechanics of how a trombone works? How do animals in nature use musical sounds to communicate?
Math – This is a biggie for me. A friend of mine told me his daughter’s school was teaching math by having the children stomp out rhyhms on the floor, and I was so jealous! If someone had taught me that way I might not have grown up terrified of numbers.
I remember the first time I really, truly understood math – it happened when I was singing Bach’s B-Minor Mass with a symphony chorus. When rehearsals first started, I HATED the piece. It was painful and tedious and hard, with all sorts of changing rhythms, byzantine fugues and harmonies, just a brick wall that I couldn’t get my brain around. I tried to fake it – tried to follow the people next to me, tried to limp along, and I ended up with a headache, a sore throat and a tongue-lashing from my director.
I was forced to face the music – I HAD to count. I had to do the math. I had to work the problem, no shortcuts. So I coaxed my brain into really analyzing and reading, and…
…Seriously? It got way trippy. After a couple more rehearsals, things suddenly clicked! And I felt like I had literally walked into the music. The music took on three dimensions, like I was inside of it – almost like being in an architectural geometric structure. I could feel and hear and see and understand what the numbers were creating, and it was so much more than just digits on a page. It was a gorgeous masterpiece that I love to this day.
Why, oh why couldn’t I have had that experience at age15?
With today’s focus on standardized testing, I worry that this kind of creative thinking just isn’t being done when it comes to music in public schools. But perhaps we need it more than ever.
Music can get test-weary kids out of their seats. It can help them experience what they’re learning, not just memorize it. It can bring concepts to life.
Perhaps, instead of putting music in a separate classroom, we should make every classroom musical. Maybe then we’d see that it’s not an “extra” at all!
And, now for the giveaway. I am so very jealous that one of you is going to win this amazing prize pack. One lucky commenter with a US address will win:
A copy of Rival
~AND~
This cute necklace!
How awesome is that?! To enter, simply comment with an answer to this question:
How has music been important or influential in your life?
Details:
Open to US entrants only
Contest Ends 2/20/2011
Please leave an email address so that I can contact you if you win!
Michael Northrop, the author of the snowy survival tale, Trapped, stopped by to give his Top Ten Wintry Movies. I haven't seen all of these, but in some (The Shining and Fargo) I can see where he got some gruesome inspiration for his book. Here is Mr. Northrop's list:
The Shining
Fargo
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
The Thing
Pale Rider
The Dead (based on a brilliant story by James Joyce)
The only art that I love to study *almost* as much as my precious books are songs. To me, song lyrics are a special type of poetry and the vocals and instruments work together to create atsounding meaning. Love music. And, I love connecting the songs I love to book plots.
Here are Pam Bachorz's picks for a soundtrack to her new book, Drought.
--THE OLD APARTMENT (Barenaked Ladies): A song about an abusive relationship about a man and a woman, which we see between DROUGHT's villain (Darwin West) and my main character's mother (Ruby). The rage and sorrow in this song played a major part in my development of Darwin West.
--LOOK AFTER YOU (The Fray): While I was writing DROUGHT, I tweeted asking for people's favorite love songs, and this was one of the suggestions. The song is sung by a dude, obviously, but it makes me think of how Ruby's allegiance starts to shift from her family to her new love, Ford: "You've begun to feel like home...what's mine is yours to leave or take..."
--DARK BLUE (Jack's Mannequin): This was another suggestion from Twitter. When I listen to this song, I picture Ruby and Ford, alone together. They're both overwhelmed by the feelings they've got for each other: "this flood is slowly rising up, swallowing the ground beneath my feet... tell me how anybody thinks under this condition..."
--FALLING SLOWLY (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova): I love the tentative, beautiful sound of this love song. Perfect for falling in love the first time, like Ruby is. I also hear Ford's voice in here, urging Ruby: "Raise your hopeful voice, you have a choice..."
--IF THERE WAS NO YOU (Brandi Carlile): Brandi C. is a major muse for me. There are some lyrics in here that make me think of the climax of the story. But I won't ruin it for everyone!
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Because this is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard, here's a video for Falling Slowly. If you've never seen the movie Once, then you're missing something great. Really and truly.
Recently, I had the opportunity to interview one of the main characters of Marina Budhos' book Tell Us We're Home. This book is about a strong friendship between three girls who find themselves united by a common thread: they are all the poor, immigrant children of maids in a wealthy New Jersey suburb. This book has been called a YA version of Kathryn Stockett's The Help. Here's my interview with Maria.
Hello Maria!
I am sorry to admit that you were not always my favorite person in this story. I was upset at you for much of this book because I did not always agree with the choices that you were making and the way that you treated some of the people in your life, particularly your mother. But, by the end of the book, I felt as though you has changed the most and I felt like I was super proud of you. How has this transformation affected your life for the better?
The biggest change is I feel more confident. I’m not trying to please everyone all the time. I think I kind of romanticized some kids, especially the American kids, like Tash. Lola says I had stars in my eyes. And maybe she was right. It feels good to be a little more grounded. Sometimes it’s a little harder, though. I don’t get lost in my fantasy-head as much anymore. And I feel as if I can see through some of the phony kids more. But that’s probably good stuff—it’s what you need getting through high school.
I am not from an area of the United States that is even remotely like the one described in this story. I live in a rural part of the country where most people are very poor. There are some immigrants living and traveling through our state, but not in the isolated area where I live. Do you wish that you lived in an area where the average white people were less wealthy? Do you think that would have made a difference in the treatment that you and your family received in this story?
I can’t say I wish I lived in an area where the average white people are less wealthy, because I don’t know what that’s like. I think it’s true that where I live I learned there really are all these levels to people. What street you live on, what kind of car your parents drive, what camp they send you to—it all means something. It’s a lot to understand and decode for someone coming from the outside. So maybe in that way it might have been different if we were on the same economic level as everyone else. But still, no matter what, it’s hard being different in any area, especially when a lot of people in my family don’t speak very good English. And the impression I get is people have a lot of prejudice against Mexicans these days, so it’s especially hard for us.
I was appalled at some of the events that took place surrounding the treatment of day laborers and young men like your cousin, Renaldo, especially the game of "Jumping Mexicans." What would you like to say to those people who are willing to hurt another person just because of their nationality or immigrant status?
To realize that we are no different than all of you. In fact, we have to do a lot of scary and hard things, just to be regular. Like my cousin standing around in a parking lot, hoping someone picks him for a job and doesn’t throw a can at him. Or my mother having to ride a bus really late at night, sometimes not in great neighborhoods. Ever since the stuff with Renaldo, I’ve done some reading, and I’ve learned that a lot of people feel we’re taking jobs away from ‘hard working Americans.’ But I just wish they’d see how hard we work. My uncle, he works all the time. If his boss needs him for an extra job, he never says no. The lights are on in our house all the time because somebody is always coming home from a shift, or a double shift, or some extra job. I just want people to understand that.
I love that you're a bit of a revolutionary by the end of this book. Who are your heroes?
My biggest hero right now is Sonia Sotamayor! Can you believe we have a Latina Supreme Court judge! No, seriously, she’s my hero for other reasons. She is calm and reasonable, and she got where she did through so much hard work. I loved that story of her arriving at Princeton and she realized she was so far behind and she took the summer studying and reading all the books that the rich kids had already covered. And now look at where she is!
You're in high school now. What are your plans, if any, for college? Will you continue to fight for human rights?
I think I learned that I am a fighter. I didn’t know that about myself. I hate hurting people’s feelings or having any big conflicts. But I learned so much recently by being, well, not all that nice. That sometimes you do hurt feelings. And it hurts you inside, too. But it’s worse to keep it all bottled up inside you. Maybe that’s what human rights means. That after a certain point, even those of us who want to stay nice, we can’t stand it any more. We have to burst out. We have to fight for what’s wrong. We have to speak the truth.
I want to go to college, of course. But right now I’m trying to focus on high school and not getting too distracted. (There are a lot of cute guys, here, hey!) But seriously, I’ve got a lot on my plate: doing my work, and being a part of clubs, and helping my family. It is different for me. I still have a lot of responsibilities at home. And Mami, she’s proud of me, and she wants me to go to college, but I don’t think she wants me to go away for college, like most of these American kids do. That would be too hard. So I’m taking it day by day. Change comes little by little, I guess.
And, I always try to bring every interview that I do back to my classroom. Right now we're studying the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in my sophomore English class. Do you feel that young people have the power to change the world for the better?
I totally do. But it isn’t easy. And I think I learned something too. It’s not enough to just want to change the world. You have to ask Why do I want to change the world? Am I doing it because it makes me look good, or I feel a little better for a while? Or it makes me look cool in the eyes of other kids? That’s not enough. You really have to want change because you think it will be something better for everyone. Because you have a vision of what the world can be.
* * *
Wow. Thanks to Maria (and Marina Budhos) for this incredibly powerful interview. I love it when authors are able to capture the beauty, pain and truth of real life in their writing. This book, Tell Us We're Home, is painfully truthful, but ultimately inspiring. Thanks again!
Giveaway details: I have one copy of this book ready to send off to one US resident. To enter, simply comment on this review explaining why you'd like to read this book. This giveaway closes February 7th at midnight (EST). Make sure to leave an email with your comment so that I can hunt you down if you win!
Today I'm lucky enough to have C. Lee McKenzie, author of The Princess of Las Pulgas visiting. She's been kind enough to answer a few of my questions and she's offering up a copy of her book to one lucky commenter. Here's what we talked about:
In this book, Carlie grows up in a wealthy, privileged lifestyle for much of her life and is then forced to move to a much poorer area. This is an interesting topic to me because I teach in a very poor school. Though we lack resources, our students are rich in their spirits. I learn great life lessons from their courage every day. Is this true of any of the characters in this novel?
I think it’s true of several characters in Princess. Carlie certainly learns about courage from K.T. and that’s the last person on earth she expects to learn anything from. Carlie judges K.T. based on her tattoos, her “rappy-head shifting” behavior and her “in-your-face” attitude. Then she finds out that K.T’s behavior is a way to protect herself from terrible memories and mean kids.
Juan learns about Carlie’s own courageous fight to survive in this strange new place and without her loving father to guide her. He assumes she’s just a preppy Channing girl when she’s so much more.
Everyone finds out about Mr. Smith’s courage. He gives up a prime teaching position in an up scale school because he’s “needed” in Las Pulgas. I love Mr. Smith.
I love that you’ve included an English teacher in your novel who is a positive role model and inspiring to his students. Often, adults are portrayed as negligent and irresponsible in YA lit. Was it important to you to have a positive adult figure in your book?
I try to have positive adult role models in all my books. They don’t have to be perfect and they deliberately aren’t because I like to show that it’s never too late for people to reach their full potential. I like to show that it’s not only teens who struggle to find a place they fit. Being an adult doesn’t automatically bestow wisdom upon us; it often only bestows power.
Because I’m a super nerd, I absolutely love Shakespeare. I have taught Othello and absolutely adore this play. There is so much wisdom and craziness in it! And, it’s perfect for teens because of the jealousy and love triangle elements. Why did you choose to include this play in your novel?
I love Othello and, at the same time, I hate that jealous, sad, pathetic Moor. I’m like Carlie; I want to rewrite the play and let Desdemona set that guy straight. Alas, that can’t happen. I also chose this play because of the separation of the father from the daughter at the beginning of the play. Carlie has a hard time saying her lines because she hates to say goodbye to her father a second time. That offered opportunities to bring up how Carlie still grieved, but was trying to recover.
I have a fascination with the Spanish language. I don’t speak it, but desperately want to. I was definitely attracted to your use of Spanish in your title. Do you speak Spanish? Or, are you like me and just wish that you could?
I used to be able to get by when I was in a Spanish speaking country. Now, I don’t know. I spent a summer in Valencia and by the end of my time there, I was able to carry on a fair conversation. It’s so easy not to use the language when you’re in the US that I don’t use it. Still on a trip to Nicaragua last year I manage to wrangle a few fresh lobsters from a fisherman and he even gave me a local discount. How about that?
What’s up next for you? Do you have another book in the works, or is it time for a break?
I’ve finished my third novel. At least, I’ve stopped writing and put “The End” at the bottom. There may be rewrites in my future. This one will be a bit different; it has a male protagonist, but it has a few adults that I admire as well as a couple less admirable ones. I really like this main character, but then I always fall in love them. They’re like my kids, and since I’ve only had boys, I’m very fond of this guy, Hutch McQueen. He’s so lost at the beginning that he makes my heart ache. I had to figure out how to save him.
Thanks for the interview! If you'd like to find out more about this book, check out this video trailer:
And, on to the part you've all been waiting for! The giveaway! To enter, please comment on this interview and tell us why you'd like to read this book or remark on some aspect of this interview. Make sure to leave your email so we can contact you if you win!
We all know that authors have very little, if any, say in the design for their cover. I think that I always imagined authors as having much more artistic license in choosing the fonts, layouts, and images for their covers. I mean, what if you hate your own book cover? Surely this has happened. Fortunately for Julia Karr, she has one of the most stunning covers I've seen. Perfect for a dystopia, don't you think? Well, here's what she has to say about it:
My editor and I both had a similar idea of what we thought the cover of XVI would look like. I spent a lot of time daydreaming exactly how the Penguin design team would work it out. Then, I got an email from my editor with the subject line: XVI cover! I was terrified to open it.
Before I opened the file, I read what she had to say, which was along the lines of “this is nothing like what we thought it would be!” My hand was shaking as I clicked open the .jpg. Then - O.M.G.! I was thrilled beyond belief!
There was minor tweaking of the shading, but other than that - the cover has remained the same.
Interesting story about the cover: The model of XVI contacted me on Twitter! It turns out that she was not only the model, but she also did the photography! It’s a self-portrait of her as a teen! She wrote a fabulous blog post about it shortly after we corresponded! [ http://dearcrissy.com/my-first-book-cover/ ]http://dearcrissy.com/my-first-book-cover/ How cool is that?!
Thanks for stopping buy, Ms. Karr. I just finished your book and loved it!
As part of my first blogiversary, I am going to giveaway a *shiny* new copy of XVI to one lucky commenter! Many of you regular readers know that I love a good dystopia, and this book definitely meets that criteria. This giveaway is open internationally (wherever the Book Depository ships). This giveaway will close on January 31st at midnight (EST).
To enter, simply leave a comment stating why you'd like to read this book or what you love about dystopias. Make sure to leave an email where I can reach you if you win!
Extra Entry Points
+2 Follower (new or old)
+2 Comment on my book review of XVI
(please include all points in one comment)
Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Kelsa, the main character of Hilari Bell's new novel, Trickster's Girl. I am also giving away my ARC of this novel to one lucky commenter, so stay tuned.
I love a strong female lead! You persevere where most would give up. Where did you get this strength of character?
My dad taught me a lot of things, and one of them was to love nature and the world around me. He would never have given up--he didn't, until cancer killed him. And when I found out that one of the reasons his cancer was so virulent was because the leys were dying, I couldn't quit. Not as long as there was any chance I could succeed.
Your passion for the environment is one of the main reasons that you decide to help Raven in his quest. Most of us will not have this opportunity. What are a few things that we can change about the way that we treat the Earth so that we can avoid environmental devastation?
Global warming was one of the greatest threats to the world--just a hundred years ago the Florida islands weren't islands! And there were people, congressmen, who denied the existence of human-caused climate change right up till the tides started rising--can you believe it? Just paying attention to what's going on, and voting for people who will pass laws that protect the environment is a good start. And frankly, not grousing too much when your energy bills rise, or your gas taxes go up, because for our long term survival those things need to happen. And who wouldn't by an electric car? Those people in the past were idiots--and they thought way too short-term.
I've been thinking about how security-crazed your world is. I know that right now, politicians and officials have tried to use increased security as a means of making us feel "safe." Do you feel safer with cameras everywhere, DNA testing, your PIDs (Personal Identification Cards), or do you feel restrained by these security measures?
I have to say, I do feel safer. I know that Raven argued that people were still committing crimes, they just went off the grid to do it--and him wanting to keep that gun was just crazy! But I used the grid, and the fact that there might be cops watching those cameras to protect myself several times. Of course when I had to break into the museum, having to fool those cameras was a big nuisance. But I managed. My dad also taught me to think.
I am impressed with your ability to calmly outwit many of your enemies. How do you stay level-headed in the face of serious danger?
I wasn't calm! I was scared to death all of those times. But in an emergency, you either freeze or the adrenaline puts your brain on fast-forward. You start looking at everything as a means to help you run, and only if your exit is blocked do you start looking for weapons. There was a guy once, an actor, who pulled an injured man off the subway tracks just before a train ran him down. I saw the actor being interviewed later on the news, and the reporter said that after he'd lifted the man to safety the actor told the people around him, "Call 911 and alert the transit authority." The reporter commented that that was pretty precise vocabulary in an emergency situation. I mean, who says "alert the transit authority"? The actor laughed and said he had no idea where those words came from, that he'd never talked like that in his life. It was adrenaline working on his brain, making his thought processes, and speech, very precise and directed. So I guess it affects a lot of people like that.
I've been wondering: What was it like to watch Raven transform? Was it gross or cool to watch?
At first it was totally gross! I was horrified. After that it was always kind of stomach turning, but eventually I'd seen it happen often enough that it didn't bother me the way it had at first. But it was always weird. People are meant to stay the shape they are, and watching that change was always creepy, even when I was more used to it.
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Thanks for the interview, Kelsa! And, thanks to Hilari Bell and Teen Book Scene, I have a (used) ARC of this book for one of you. I did spill a tiny bit of coffee on it, so it's not a perfect copy. But, it's still very readable and definitely not ruined.
To enter, just leave a comment stating why you'd like to read this book AND
an email address so that I can contact you if you win.
Open to US residents only. Closes on January 17th at midnight (EST).
Today's assignment from the Persnickety Snark asks bloggers to think about the great author moments they've had in 2010. I haven't actually met any authors because I live in the middle of nowhere, but I have had a lot of great author interactions over email and through my blog. So, rather than talk about in-the-flesh moments, I'm going to pay tribute to those authors who have contributed to this blog or my classroom in some way.
All of these ladies contributed greatly to this book blog. I loved interacting with them and learning more about the people behind these awesome books. My recommendation of their books to my students are much more honest and well-rounded after having had conversations with these women.
Thanks, ladies. You are a huge inspiration to me and my students. And, you're always welcome here!
Holly Cupala's Tell Me A Secret is a gripping novel about a teen girl named Miranda who has lost a sister and is finding out that her friends, boyfriend, and parents are not the people she thought they were. And, she's just found out that she's pregnant. Rather than find support among the people who know her best, Mirandafinds the advice and help she needs to stay strong in an online chat room for women who are expecting. She poses as an older girl who has it all figured out--which could not be further from the truth.
In this online forum, Miranda meets a woman named Nik, who really helps her to feel strong and supported. Like Miranda, I fell in love with Nik and was so very excited to interview her. Here is our little chat, which contains some spoilers if you have not read this book. Make sure to enter the giveaway for the Tell Me A Secret magnets at the bottom of this post, which will be sent to you by Holly Cupala herself!
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I have to say that I was moved by your relationship with Miranda. As a teacher of at-risk youth, I often work with teen parents. How were you able to be so available but so lovingly firm with Miranda?
Thank you, Hattie! I have a feeling we would get along well. I’m not sure if I was firm with Miranda, but I think she deserved for someone to tell her the truth. She had herself so mixed up in confusion—in things her family told her, in what she believed, in all those memories she wrapped herself up in—that I’m not sure she could really see what was going on. I’m glad I could be there for her.
There were times as I read Tell Me a Secret when I wished that you were Miranda's mother. You seemed to be calm and caring when Miranda needed that the most. What advice do you have for mothers of teen girls?
It’s easier to trust someone outside of your family sometimes, someone who isn’t all wrapped up in the family patterns. But no one can replace a girl’s mother. You can’t control your daughter, but you can be her advisor. You can show her with your actions and not your words. You can listen and respect her opinion. You can be a place of safety.
You have all of these wise sayings for Miranda when she's going through hard times. Where do these come from? Are they something you heard growing up, or lessons you've learned along the way?
Wisdom comes from all over—you know it when you see it. I had a friend who said, “It’s the grit that makes the pearl,” and I’ve found that to be true. When I was going through a hard time myself, a wise woman told me the reasons for difficult events might not be in the past—they may be in the future, for how we respond and what we do with those experiences. It gave me hope in a dark time. I’ve never forgotten that.
I am so sorry that you lost your baby, Micah James. How are you doing now? Do you plan on trying to have a baby again?
By the time you read this, I might be on that road again. You never know. I’m hopeful about the future, as always. I’ll keep you posted, Hattie!
What's your relationship with Miranda like now that she's in college and is living at home?
Miranda has grown up quite a lot since all of this started. I see her trying to make it on her own, but also relying a lot more on the people who care about her. She’s a good employee, even if she hates every minute at the bank. She’s a pretty resilient girl, even if she doesn’t think so.
Any words of wisdom for a struggling pregnant (or not pregnant) teen who might be reading this post?
If I could take you aside and hug you, I would. Hold onto that little thread of faith you have—in yourself, in the future, in what you know is true. Don’t give up. Find friends. In the end, the hard things in life are what matter the most.
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Thanks, Nik! Now, you all have a chance to win a set of Tell Me a Secret magnets, which Holly Cupala will send to you herself. (She sends the best stuff!) If you'd like to win this gift from Ms. Cupala, just leave a comment about this book or this interview and leave an email address so that we can contact you (Closes 12/ 13). Thanks for reading!
Anna Levine's Freefall takes place in Isreal, where all teens complete mandatory military service. I was intrigued by this setting and this culture, so I asked Ms. Levine to explain her choice to set her book in this locale. Here's what she had to say:
Israel is my inspiration. I’ve lived here for years, but still don’t get it. When I wander through the streets of Jerusalem (inevitably getting lost because the roads twist and turn on each other) I am overwhelmed by the sights, sounds, smells and commotion. I love the way the populations mix and go about their business in the most normal way possible. I guess I want to capture the magic of this city which gets a lot of bad press, but if you live here you realize how the people, the culture and the flavors all blend together.
I use Israel as my setting because I live here and want to capture the pulse of the country, but in truth, I write about characters, about teens struggling to find themselves, assert their individuality, find love and acceptance among their friends and family, like teens do everywhere.
For this author guest post, I asked Catherine Ryan Hyde to write about her choice of including a trangered character in her novel Jumpstart the World. Here's what she had to say:
As some of you may know already, I grew up with a transgender sibling. When I was about 13 or 14, I had to learn to call my sister my brother and switch from “she” to “he.”
I managed. I don’t mean to make it sound like the trouble was all mine. Sometimes I think people make too much of their own discomfort as a friend or relative of someone in transition. Really you are not being asked to do anything but accept change. Maybe I’m lucky, because I got a good early lesson in acceptance. That’s the kind of lesson that comes in handy as life unfolds.
This is actually not the first time I’ve included a transgender character in one of my books. Pay It Forward---yes, Pay It Forward—contains the character of a transgender teen. Gordy is his name. He’s a teenage boy with a female gender expression, not really in transition yet, but presenting himself as female whenever he can get around his angry stepfather. Unfortunately, his character never made it into the movie, so most people don’t know about Gordy. See, that’s another good reason to read the book instead of just seeing the movie, for those interested in LGBT characters in fiction.
I knew why I wrote him into that book, too. I was so outraged by the violence and abuse faced by transgender people. The way someone will cross over from the other side of the street to start trouble. To get in their faces, push them. Ask them, “What are you?” (Uh, a human being?) Call them “it.” When it happens to someone you care about, it’s pretty damned unbearable. So I wanted to make that point. Okay, it seems strange to you, fine. Walk the other way. Why would you even take it on as a personal problem? You’re a total stranger. What’s your point of engagement? Why do you even care?
Not too long after I wrote Pay It Forward I met my friend Doug (I dedicated the book to him). I read an article about a local transgender man (female to male) in the newspaper. I was so impressed by the courage it takes to come out like that in a small-town setting. I didn’t know him at all, but I knew he’d just done a radio interview with a guy I know, so I got his email address and sent him a note of support. I wanted to applaud him for that article. In case he got any other, less supportive, notes. He wrote back, and we’ve been friends ever since.
One thing has been experienced in common by both these transgender people in my life: the fear and helplessness involved in a hospital stay. When you read Jumpstart the World, if you do, you’ll see how that came into play.
I think I’m pretty disturbed by how much misunderstanding remains around the subject of transgender. And I want to make a small contribution to clearing it up. It’s hard for me to believe that many people still think it’s a mental illness, but there are those who still do. Transgender people are not so disturbed that they don’t know what gender they are. Transgender people are not so disturbed that they don’t know what gender they are. A transgender person is someone whose insides don’t match their outsides. It could have happened to you. As it turns out, it didn’t. But if it had, you’d understand, and you’d wish others would be open to understanding. Or at least accepting.
So that’s why I wrote about the subject on more than one occasion. Because I know from experience that when you know a transgender person, acceptance is not hard. So, after this, maybe you’ll know Frank (from Jumpstart the World). And maybe that will help just a little. Maybe that will add a little understanding and acceptance to the issue. I hope so. I think it’s overdue.
Thanks to Catherine Ryan Hyde for visiting this blog and for writing such amazing books!
Recently, I had the opportunity to interview one of the most realistic characters I've ever met. His name is Jace, and his story is told in Swati Avasthi's novel Split. It's a fantastic read. It's a must-read.
I am an English teacher and students sometimes use writing assignments as a place to open up about their troubles. If a teacher were paying close attention to you, would they suspect that something was going on at home? Did you give off signs that others missed?
Probably not. I was pretty decent at hiding it. Practice makes silent. The what-happens-at-home-stays-at-home policy wasn’t just to protect my dad; it was a survival strategy for me, too. Schoolbecame a sort of sanctuary for me. For hours upon hours, I was a regular kid.
Could my teachers have figured it out if I wrote something about it? Well, there's the rub. I would never written anything about it. If I did, I’d have shredded it.
So, maybe that’s how they could have figured it out -- from what was not there.
Suspicious Absence: I never took a picture of my parents, my houses (not even when we moved), or a self-portrait.
Your father is a judge, which is an interesting profession for someone who is so violent and controlling. Do you think that your experiences with you father have colored your relationship with authority figures?
Colored? Too mild. Try damaged. Authority figures who think that they've earned my respect because they are in a black robe, carry a badge, or even just stand in front of a blackboard, aren't the ones I'm wild about.
Authority figures who don't inspire mouthy comments are the ones who have earned my respect. Christian is sort of an 'authority figure'.’ I listen to what he has to say because he's got good judgment and gets me. He doesn't force me to accept rules, anymore. Instead, he explains why. Like I call him if I'm going to be late; I get that he worries if I'm not home. That’s the kind of authority figure that works for me -- the kind that works with me.
What would you say are the warning signs that a girl should look for when dating a boy or man who is a potential abuser? What clues should your girlfriend or your mother have taken as a sign to get help?
I wish my mom had paid attention early. When my mom and dad started dating, she'd never have put up with his crap. No one starts out as a victim; they are groomed into it.
Insults graduated to name-calling graduated to a fight where he grabbed her arm. When she tried to call him out on it, he'd call her his very own, little drama queen, all affectionately. He could charm and demean her all at once.
He eroded her barriers slowly. Like how he got her to quit her friends. He would sulk when they were with her friends and turn on the charm around his. She got the message. You want the happy version? Hang out with him in his style with his friends. And one day when she was mad at Lindsay, he told her Lindsay was never good enough for her anyway. So...
Warning Sign No. 1: He wants you all to himself -- to the point of isolating you from friends and your family.
Warning Sign No. 2: He controls things that have nothing to do with him.
Do a mother-check. If someone told your mom what to wear on her date, or that she should be less this or more that, wouldn’t you tell that creep he should go … (PG-version) jump off a cliff?
Warning Sign No. 3: He wants to know where you are all the time.
I used to walk Lauren from one class to another, saying she deserved the royal treatment. It was actually an excuse to make sure she wasn't flirting with other guys. If he can’t let you out of his sight, it’s not romantic. It’s creepy.
Warning Sign No. 4: You start excusing his behavior.
He’s got you groomed. He’s erased those boundaries, the lines in the sand.
My advice: you're no one's cure. And why should you be? I get that it's great to be needed, but you can be needed in better ways -- ways that are about who you are, not who you aren't. Is there help for you? Do you feel like you're doomed to be an abuser if you grow up in a home like yours or are you able to change?
God, I hope so. Deeply, deeply hope so.
Whenever I get discouraged and start thinking I am doomed, that I'm genetically pre-conditioned into repeating my dad's *&$& ups, I remember Christian. He didn't come out of my house with his fists raised. It would be easy just say, "Yes, I'm doomed," and let my fists find their home. Saying I'm doomed is just another way of letting me off the hook.
I'm not doomed. I may have to work hard -- maybe all my life -- to control my temper. But I choose what I do.
And if it means that all my life I am vigilant – they’re worse things. I've seen them. Hell, I've been them. Vigilance is an easy price for what I get in return.
I am moved your story and imagine that there are many other readers who feel similarly. What can we do to help end domestic violence and teen dating violence?
If anyone tells you they know the answer to this, check that you have your wallet.
We can start talking to guys. It’s up to us guys to tell other guys that hitting someone you love is seriously messed up. We need guys like Christian. Remember that argument between him and Mirriam, the one eavesdropped on? Christian didn't back down; he backed away. Backing away and starting clean -- that's not unmanly. That's manning up.
Now not all abusers are guys and not all victims are girls. Which is another reason we need to talk to guys. Face it; it’s hard as a guy to admit anyone is beating on you, much less his girlfriend. So, we've gotta talk to guys about that, too.
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I have to admit that I got a little emotional just reading Jace's answers to these questions. It was hard for me to write these questions; I did not take this task lightly. If this were another book, another subject, I would've had some fun and played around a little. I could not do that here. And, Jace wouldn't have wanted me to. I've read this book twice, and know Jace. He's serious. He's angry. He's not someone you want to joke with. So, I spend a week or two thinking up these questions. And, Jace answered them. His voice and his character are present in these answers. If you are at all curious about this book, please read it. If you are a secondary teacher, please make this book available to your students. And, if you or someone you know is being abused, please find help.
Ms. Avasthi is raising money for the Family Violence Prevention Fund. Here are two of the amazing items that are being auctioned through this project:
I am so very excited to have had the opportunity to interview Mindi Scott, whose gritty new novel Freefall, is due to hit stores early next month. It's about a teen boy who finds his best friend dead and the aftermath of this discovery. I haven't read it yet, but have heard tons of stellar reviews, comparing this new voice to the likes of John Green. And I love John Green. Here's what Ms. Scott had to say:
The main character of Freefall is a male. You're (obviously) not. How did it feel to write from the point of view of a teen boy?
At first it was harder than writing a girl and I had to reviseevery single sentenceto get it right. But over time, it became very natural. The whole process helped me realize that when I’d written girls before, I’d relied a little too much on my own perspective. With Seth, I couldn’t ever do that. Writing a character who was so different from me has really changed my approach to voice and point of view. For the better!
I'm a high school English teacher, so I'm always wanting to know whether or not authors have been inspired to write by someone or something that happened in high school. Any positive or negative school experiences that have influenced your writing?
Mrs. Zbaraschuk, an English teacher I had during my senior year, was very complimentary of what I turned in for her class, which inspired me to want to keep writing! Also, I will say that the content of my writing is constantly inspired by things that happened while I was in high school. There were a lot of highs and lows for me in those days and I never run out of ways to use those emotions for my fiction.
Any advice for teen writers?
think that reading books in a variety of genres to learn what you enjoy writing is a great way to get started. That’s what I did! What is your favorite YA book right now? If there's more than one, I completely understand!
I really, really love THE DEATHDAY LETTER by Shaun David Hutchinson.
Three words that best describe Freefall are:
Honest, emotional, exhilarating. (I stole all of those descriptions from reviews of the book!)
* * * Want to see more? Here's a book trailer for Freefall:
Thanks, Mindi! I can't wait to read this book! And, it counts toward the Contemps Reading Challenge, of which I am partaking. And, I know that a bunch of you are, too.
