7 Questions For: Author Elana K. Arnold

Elana K Arnold writes books for and about children and teens. She holds a master’s degree in Creative Writing/Fiction from the University of California, Davis where she has taught Creative Writing and Adolescent Literature. Her most recent YA novel, What Girls are Made Of, was a finalist for the National Book Award, and her middle grade novel, A Boy Called Bat, is a 2018 Global Read Aloud selection and a Junior Library Guild Selection.

A parent and educator living in Huntington Beach, California, Elana is a frequent speaker at schools, libraries, and writers’ conferences. Currently, Elana is the caretaker of seven pets, only three of which have fur.

Click here to read my review of A Boy Called Bat.

And now Elana K. Arnold faces the 7 Questions:


Question Seven: What are your top three favorite books?

Ahh, this is a mean question. This is like asking which are my top three favorite pets. I will pick three books, but don’t tell the others.

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

Question Six: How much time do you spend each week writing? Reading?

I write 15-20 hours per week; I read about 10 hours per week (and wish that number was greater!). I spend another 10-15 hours per week doing “business-y” stuff like writing emails, communicating with editors, planning school visits. And I spend countless hours wandering in my brain, dreaming, considering my works in progress and ideas for future books.

Question Five: What was the path that led you to publication?

I was a voracious reader growing up, and I began writing stories of my own at a fairly young age. I went to graduate school to pursue fiction writing, but the experience drained me, and after I graduated, I didn’t write for a long time. Instead, I returned to my childhood love of reading everything.

When I returned to writing, I did so from a different place—rather than trying to write “literature,” as had been my goal as a graduate student, I just wanted to tell a good story, all the way to the end. I finished the manuscript of my first novel, SACRED, in 2010, and with it, I found an agent and then my first publisher, Random House. I have been actively writing and publishing ever since.


Question Four: Do you believe writers are born, taught or both? Which was true for you?

For me, both. I loved reading so much that the only thing that could be better, I thought, would be to create my own stories. And it was wonderful, until I allowed myself to believe that only a very narrow definition of “good writing” mattered, a false belief often perpetuated in writing programs.
Then, I was frozen and full of doubt. I think writers can be taught, but I also think they can be “un-taught,” and it’s incredibly important that teachers leave space for writers to grow.


Question Three: What is your favorite thing about writing? What is your least favorite thing?

Telling a story is a way for me to live another life, and it’s a way for me to share my questions about being human as well as my core beliefs. I love this about writing. I suppose a “least favorite” thing has more to do with the business of writing than the art or craft—the wheels of publishing move so desperately slowly!

Question Two: What one bit of wisdom would you impart to an aspiring writer? (feel free to include as many other bits of wisdom as you like)

Here’s a brief list:

• Practice finishing things. Beginnings are usually more fun, but a story needs a middle and an end. Don’t worry about length—just get to the end.

• Read widely, and by people who have different lived experiences than yours.

• Stay curious. An artist’s job is to notice what’s happening and deeply care.

• Consider getting a pet. Maybe several.

Question One: If you could have lunch with any writer, living or dead, who would it be? Why?

Today, I’d say Nora Ephron, because I appreciate the way she plumbs the depths of her personal stories to find humor. If you ask me tomorrow, I’m sure I’ll have a different name. There are so many authors I admire!

elanakarnold.com

7 Questions For: Author Jerry Gordon

Jerry Gordon makes stuff by making stuff up. He is the author of the apocalyptic thriller, Breaking the World.

He is also the Bram Stoker and Black Quill Award-nominated co-editor of the Dark Faith, Invocations, and Streets of Shadows anthologies. His short stories and essays have appeared in numerous venues, including Apex Magazine and Shroud.

When he's not writing and editing, he runs a software company and teaches. You can find him blurring genre lines at jerrygordon.net and on Twitter @jerrylgordon.

And now Jerry Gordon faces the 7 Questions:

Question Seven: What are your top three favorite books?

I don’t know that I could pick three favorites. I might be able to put together a top twenty if you didn’t hold me to a specific order. How about three books that occupy a special place in my heart?

The Mist by Stephen King
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Question Six: How much time do you spend each week writing? Reading?

On an average weekday, I write for 2-3 hours and read fiction about half as much. I like to write early in the morning when I'm fresh and distraction free. If I wait, a thousand things conspire to rob me of the time. Reading, on the other hand, weaves its way throughout my day. I read at lunch and bedtime and listen to audiobooks in the car and gym. I try to stay away from weekend writing when deadlines allow. That's family-first time.

Question Five: What was the path that led you to publication?

Like most, I started writing novels in a vacuum. I didn’t know other writers or have any sense of how the craft and business worked (outside of a handful of outdated and sometimes misguided books). The path to publication, for me, started with attending professional writing conferences and workshops. I quickly found my "writing family" and started to learn how the business worked.

I set aside my early attempts at novels and refocused on short fiction, which is a great way to accelerate your craft. Then I co-edited several high-profile anthologies with fellow writer and editor, Maurice Broaddus. The first of which, Dark Faith, was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. I took all those lessons back to writing long fiction.

My debut novel, Breaking the World, was released in April by Apex Publications.

Question Four: Do you believe writers are born, taught or both? Which was true for you?

I've met a small minority of writers that seem naturally gifted, but most of us have to work at it. I always felt like a natural storyteller that had to learn the craft. Ideas and structure come easy to me. The line-by-line trench warfare of writing a novel took a lot of effort. There aren't many shortcuts. You learn by doing.

Question Three: What is your favorite thing about writing? What is your least favorite thing?

I love being a generalist. I'm interested in just about everything, and writing gives me an outlet to explore the world without committing to a specialty. I've researched cults, government black sites, digital privacy, artificial intelligence, pandemics, missile dispersal patterns, and a host of other topics that have me on a government watch list somewhere.

My least favorite thing? Live promotional interviews. Between anthologies and novels, I've probably done a hundred of them (and enjoyed half a dozen). I almost always feel like a pretentious tool talking about myself and my work. It doesn't help that I'm a perfectionist and live interviews are rarely perfect.

Question Two: What one bit of wisdom would you impart to an aspiring writer? (feel free to include as many other bits of wisdom as you like)

Study the stuff you love. Pick apart and try to fix the things you don't. Develop a sense of what works for you and other people. Then read things and write things and talk to people that shatter your preconceptions. There's no shortcut. Becoming a writer is like becoming a person. It's the journey that makes you.

Question One: If you could have lunch with any writer, living or dead, who would it be? Why??

Lunch with a writer is a pretty boring thing. How about dinner and drinks? There are so many amazing choices: Twain, Bradbury, Dickens... If you pressed me, I'd pick Shakespeare. We know so little about him as a person, and most of our preconceptions are a byproduct of four hundred years of literary criticism. I'd love to meet the man behind the work, the starving and uncertain artist. We could have a few too many pints and talk writing and life well past the chimes of midnight.

jerrygordon.net

7 Questions For: Author M.T. Anderson

M.T. Anderson is the author of the Pals in Peril series; The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, which won the National Book Award; The Game of Sunken Places; Burger Wuss; Thirsty; and Feed, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book, and the winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Young Adults. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

Visit him at MT-Anderson.com.

Click here to read my review of  The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge.

And now M.T. Anderson faces the 7 Questions:


Question Seven: What are your top three favorite books?

Now that's unfair. How can I play favorites? For the sake of saying something, I'll go with Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine, Nabokov's Pale Fire, and Woolf's To the Lighthouse.

But I honestly think it's too bad we think so much in terms of "best" and "favorite." Books have different uses for us at different times in our lives (and even at different times of the day!). There are some nights when I'm lying in bed with the rain falling outside, and it's cozy inside, and I want it to feel like I'm on vacation, and so the thing that moves me most is a book of "true" local ghost stories. But in the light of day, those same stories might seem trivial. Books are like people: we should make an effort to love as many of them as possible.

Question Six: How much time do you spend each week writing? Reading?

It depends on the week! A lot of the time, I'm traveling. That wasn't something I was expecting as an author.

When I'm in the midst of working hard on a novel, I'll probably spend about three or four hours a day writing. But that doesn't reflect the time when, for example, when I'm jogging before I write. That's when some of the most important work actually gets done: thinking through the plot, imagining things from the characters' points of view, just getting myself into the mood of the scene I'm supposed to be writing that day.


Question Five: What was the path that led you to publication?

I got a job at a publishing company -- my publisher, Candlewick Press! I was twenty-two, and I spent the next couple of years in their photocopy room. Then one day I handed my novel Thirsty to an editor there -- and it was accepted!

Question Four: Do you believe writers are born, taught or both? Which was true for you?

I definitely believe that writing can be taught. You need a teacher who can tell you which instincts to trust, a teacher who will encourage you to write like yourself, and not what you think you should be writing like.


Question Three: What is your favorite thing about writing? What is your least favorite thing?

I love that feeling of satisfaction when you come up with a phrase that perfectly catches the emotion you want to produce, and suddenly, you feel like you've really conveyed something about how the world feels.

My least favorite thing is all the need for self-promotion these days. I'm from New England, and we are not a people who enjoy self-promotion.

Question Two: What one bit of wisdom would you impart to an aspiring writer? (feel free to include as many other bits of wisdom as you like)

Alternate working on two things, to give yourself long rests from each one between drafts. Give yourself time to forget the project a little -- a couple of months even. You'll come back to it able to see around problems that seemed insurmountable.

Question One: If you could have lunch with any writer, living or dead, who would it be? Why?

Herodotus. The guy had been everywhere and seen everything. Or he hadn't been everywhere but was really good at lying. Either way, that would be a fascinating lunch.

Except I'm really not that into Greek food.

MT-Anderson.com

7 Questions For: Author T.R. Simon

T. R. Simon is the co-author, with Victoria Bond, of the 2011 John Steptoe New Talent Author Award winner Zora and Me. She is also the co-author, with Richard Simon, of Oskar and the Eight Blessings, illustrated by Mark Siegel and winner of the National Jewish Book Award for Children’s Literature.

T. R. Simon lives in Westchester County, New York.

Click here to read my review of  Zora And Me: The Cursed Ground

And now T.R. Simon faces the 7 Questions:

Question Seven: What are your top three favorite books?

Song Yet Sung by  James McBride

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

Question Six: How much time do you spend each week writing? Reading?

I spend a great deal of time reading and some time writing, unless I'm in the middle of a project. Then I generally write at least 6 hours a day 6 days a week.

Question Five: What was the path that led you to publication?

I wanted to write books for my daughter, ones she could read while she was young as well as share later when she has her own children. I always wanted to be the child of writers (I am not) and in the spirit of giving our children what we ourselves want, I became a writer for my daughter. To this end I wrote with publication in mind. I'm lucky to know publishing professionals, so the actual process of finding an agent was probably easier for me than for most aspiring writers.

Question Four: Do you believe writers are born, taught or both? Which was true for you?

Writers are taught. Some people have a great ear for language, a great eye for detail, and/or an innate sense of story timing. But even with these gifts, the structure of story must be learned and the craft of writing must be honed, refined, and continually tested, retested, and improved upon. If nothing else, you're constantly learning as a person and that learning, that experience, and wisdom you are accruing is something you must continually bring to bear in your writing.

My students love to start the semester by telling me that some folks are just naturally gifted writers. By the end of the semester their writing and storytelling has generally improved and they are usually less wedded to the idea that writing is a gift from the heavens. Becoming a writer requires hard work and practice, just like becoming a professional athlete, a lawyer, doctor, or an astronaut. And the real truth about writing is  that there is always room for improvement. Your mind is the classroom and the canvas, and the world is your teacher, so class is always in session and the chance of getting better is always there!

Question Three: What is your favorite thing about writing? What is your least favorite thing?

My favorite thing about writing is closing my laptop at the end of a writing shift. Seriously. Writing is hard-- it requires absolute concentration, a keen psychological eye, patience, and a willingness to sit with difficult feelings and ideas. My husband (also a writer) calls writing a zen cauldron, and I agree with him. The process is rarely comfortable, but what you gain from the practice is life changing and makes life worth living.

Question Two: What one bit of wisdom would you impart to an aspiring writer? (feel free to include as many other bits of wisdom as you like)

Every book you read is a teacher. Every story you hear is a teacher. Every experience and feeling you have is a teacher. The great beauty of being a writer is that you are also a lifelong learner. You are a student of anything and everything in the world. It also gives you the courage, as well as a good excuse, to chat with random strangers and ask deeply probing questions. Zora Neale Hurston said, "No, I do not weep at the world-- I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife." I love that quote because it bears testimony to the fact that life is hard, but that the creation of art is one of the most powerful tools at our disposal to deal with that hardship productively, to survive. And not just survive, but to make whatever life gives you a glorious journey of intellectual discovery.

Question One: If you could have lunch with any writer, living or dead, who would it be? Why??

Toni Morrison. Her fiction is beyond compare, but so is her non-fiction. She is probably the most brilliant thinker living on race and meaning. Everything she writes comes from a place of deep understanding and profound insight. Her books are bottomless, her interviews are bottomless, I can only imagine what it's like to actually be able to ask her questions, to have her explain how she came to certain conclusions, how she found the seed for characters like Pilot, Son, Sethe.

zoraandme.com

7 Questions For: Author Meg Medina

Meg Medina is an award-winning Cuban American author who writes picture books, middle grade, and YA fiction.

Her most recent young adult novel, Burn Baby Burn, has earned numerous distinctions including being long listed for the 2016 National Book Award and shortlisted for the Kirkus Prize. She is the 2016 recipient of the Pura Belpré honor medal for her picture book, Mango, Abuela and Me, and the 2014 Pura Belpré Award winner for her young adult novel, Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your As*, which was also the winner of the 2013 CYBILS Fiction award and the International Latino Book Award. Meg also earned the 2012 Ezra Jack Keats New Writers medal for her picture book Tía Isa Wants a Car.

Meg’s other books are The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind , a 2012 Bank Street Best Book and CBI Recommended Read in the UK; and Milagros: Girl from Away. Her newest middle grade novel is Merci Suárez Changes Gears (Candlewick Press, 2018).

Meg’s work examines how cultures intersect, as seen through the eyes of young people. She brings to audiences stories that speak to both what is unique in Latino culture and to the qualities that are universal. Her favorite protagonists are strong girls.

In March 2014, she was recognized as one of the CNN 10 Visionary Women in America. In November 2014, she was named one of Latino Stories Top Ten Latino Authors to Watch.  In 2017, she was named, along with Gigi Amateau, to the Southerners of the Year list by Southern Living Magazine.

When she is not writing, Meg works on community projects that support girls, Latino youth and/or literacy. She lives with her family in Richmond, Virginia.

Meg discusses all her books on National Public Radio. Click here for Meg on NPR’s Virginia Currents.

Click here to read my review of Merci Suárez Changes Gears.

And now Meg Medina faces the 7 Questions:


Question Seven: What are your top three favorite books?

Oh boy, this changes all the time as I read new books by exciting new authors.

For craft:  Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

For voice: One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams Garcia


For all around impact on me as a person:  Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White and The House of Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

Question Six: How much time do you spend each week writing? Reading?

It fluctuates, of course, but words are at the center of how I move through the world pretty much all day long. I read the paper and have coffee every morning in my quiet kitchen for about 30 minutes, and I end the day by reading in bed every night for about an hour – unless the book is fabulous and then I read until I physically can’t do it anymore.

In my daytime hours I am writing, writing, writing.  Sometimes it’s up to four hours of composing a new work or editing it. Sometimes it’s writing answers to Q and A requests or writing a blog post for my own site or someone else’s. At times, I’m reviewing work for different publications. It’s all about words and books, though.

Question Five: What was the path that led you to publication?

The short answer is yearning and a sudden, reckless decision. It took me a long time to decide to take the risk and try to write a novel. I lacked the courage to try my hand at a career that felt so difficult to break into.  I’d been a teacher, and later, a freelance journalist where I wrote for magazines and   newspapers. The last job I had was writing press releases and printed materials for a school that served kids with learning disabilities.All were terrific jobs, but none of that felt exactly right.

So, on my 40th birthday, I stood up and quit my job at that school, deciding that my career in writing was now or never. Luckily it worked out for me. I wrote the novel for about a year, and then searched for an agent with my copy of The Writer’s Digest Guide to Chidlren’s Literary Markets, a process that took about six months. After that, I began publishing books pretty regularly.

Question Four: Do you believe writers are born, taught or both? Which was true for you?

I think it depends what you mean by writers.  I think we can absolutely teach people to be competent writers who can get their thoughts on a page in a way that’s engaging and memorable. But writing with a capital W, the writing of books that become part of the children’s canon and that move readers for generations….that I think does take a special kind of person who comes with certain gifts or leanings.  It’s someone with not only the eye for detail and the ability to turn phrases, but also a person who has the heart for understanding people at their best and worst.


Question Three: What is your favorite thing about writing? What is your least favorite thing?

My favorite thing is when the characters that have been living inside of me start to feel real not just for me, but for readers. The feeling of connection is so powerful.

My least favorite thing is all the self-doubt that happens as you’re drafting, all those days when you’re sure you can’t do it, when you’re positive that you’re a hack, that this will be your worst book ever.

Question Two: What one bit of wisdom would you impart to an aspiring writer? (feel free to include as many other bits of wisdom as you like)

Great writing has swing; it’s intuitive and springs from your emotional truths more than from your technical skills. So, yes, spend as much time as you can reading the very best books and studying them to improve your craft. But don’t forget to invest just as much time going inside your own memories and mining your own experiences to rediscover who you were as a kid and what that kid from long ago has to say about growing up now. Say things the way you truly feel them.

Question One: If you could have lunch with any writer, living or dead, who would it be? Why?

I’d want to have lunch with Sandra Cisneros.  So many of us Latinx writers are, in fact, standing on her shoulders. She named us in her writing. She drew our families as we were in our beauty and despair. She pointed the way on how to make our bicultural lives visible in books and in doing so opened the door for so many of us who followed. And for that gift I am forever grateful to her.

megmedina.com

7 Questions For: Author Tomi Adeyemi

Tomi Adeyemi is a Nigerian-American writer and creative writing coach based in San Diego, California. After graduating Harvard University with an honors degree in English literature, she received a fellowship that allowed her to study West African mythology and culture in Salvador, Brazil. When she’s not working on her novels or watching Scandal, she can be found blogging and teaching creative writing to her 4,500 subscribers at tomiadeyemi.com. Her website has been named one of the 101 best websites for writers by Writer’s Digest.

Her debut West African YA Fantasy novel is CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE (Holt Books for Young Readers/Macmillan). The CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE movie is in development at Fox 2000/Temple Hill Productions with Karen Rosenfelt and Marty Bowen (Twilight, Maze Runner, The Fault In Our Stars) producing it.

If you want to know everything important about her and her stories, you can read this blog post: Why I Write, Telling A Story That Matters.

If you're an aspiring author, check out her writing tips and free writing resource library here.

Click here to read my review of Children of Blood and Bone.

And now Tomi Adeyemi faces the 7 Questions:


Question Seven: What are your top three favorite books?

Some of my favorite YA books are Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older, An Ember In The Ashes by Sabaa Tahir and The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo.

Question Six: How much time do you spend each week writing? Reading?

I spend about 30-40 hours a week writing, squeezing in reading whenever I can!


Question Five: What was the path that led you to publication?

It’s been a wild ride! I’ve been writing my whole life and working on books with the hope of getting published for 5 to 6 years. The first book I tried to get published took me 4 years, but didn’t go anywhere.

However, I learned everything that I needed to learn about writing and publishing with that book, so it will actually always be the most valuable book I ever wrote for everything that it taught me!

With this book, the process was fast, but it was intense. The final product is almost 600 pages that were rewritten more times than I can count over an intense 18 month period, so it was a labor, but I am very proud of the final product!

Question Four: Do you believe writers are born, taught or both? Which was true for you?

 I think writers are born with the desire to write, but it's a lifelong education on how to actually do it.


Question Three: What is your favorite thing about writing? What is your least favorite thing?

The most fun part is outlining. It’s pure inspiration and imagination without any of the hard work of getting it on the page.

The hardest part is revision. It’s the most rewarding part, but I’m the type of person who cares about every single word on the page and when you have 140,000 words in your book, it’s a process that can drive you insane!

Question Two: What one bit of wisdom would you impart to an aspiring writer? (feel free to include as many other bits of wisdom as you like)

Don’t give up, and know that nothing is wasted. Also read, read, read!

Question One: If you could have lunch with any writer, living or dead, who would it be? Why?

I love Dan Fogelman! He is so talented, I'd love to pick his brain.

tomiadeyemi.com

7 Questions For: Author Louis Sachar

Newbery Award–winning author Louis Sachar is the creator of the entertaining Marvin Redpost books as well as the much-loved There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom, winner of 17 child-voted state awards.

Louis Sachar’s book Holes, winner of the 1999 Newbery Medal, the National Book Award, and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, is also an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, an ALA Quick Pick, an ALA Notable Book, and was made into a major motion picture.

After graduating high school, Sachar attended Antioch College for a semester before transferring to University of California, Berkeley, during which time he began helping at an elementary school in return for college credit. Sachar later recalled,

“I thought it over and decided it was a pretty good deal. College credits, no homework, no term papers, no tests, all I had to do was help out in a second/third grade class at Hillside Elementary School. Besides helping out in a classroom, I also became the Noontime Supervisor, or 'Louis the Yard Teacher' as I was known to the kids. It became my favorite college class, and a life changing experience.”

Sachar graduated from UC Berkeley in 1976 with a degree in Economics, and began working on Sideways Stories From Wayside School, a children's book set at an elementary school with supernatural elements. Although the book's students were named after children from Hillside and there is a presumably autobiographical character named "Louis the Yard Teacher," Sachar has said that he draws very little from personal experience, explaining that "....my personal experiences are kind of boring. I have to make up what I put in my books."

Sachar wrote the book at night over the course of nine months, during which he worked during the day in a Connecticut sweater warehouse. After being fired from the warehouse, Sachar decided to go to law school, around which time Sideways Stories From Wayside School was accepted for publication. The book was released in 1978; though it was not widely distributed and subsequently did not sell very well, Sachar began to accumulate a fan base among young readers.[6] Sachar graduated from University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1980 and did part-time legal work while continuing to write children's books. By 1989, his books were selling well enough that Sachar was able to begin writing full-time.

Sachar married Carla Askew, an elementary school counselor, in 1985. They live in Austin, Texas, and have a daughter, Sherre, born January 19, 1987. Sachar has mentioned both his wife and daughter in his books; Carla was the inspiration for the counselor in There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom (1988), and Stanley's lawyer in Holes.

When asked about whether he thought children have changed over the years, Sachar responded: "I've actually been writing since 1976, and my first book is still in print and doing very well. ... I don't think kids have changed."

Click here to read my review of Fuzzy Mud

Click here to read my review of Holes.

And now Louis Sachar faces the 7 Questions:


Question Seven: What are your top three favorite books?

The Unconsoled -- Kazuo Ishaguro
East of Eden  -- John Steinbeck
Clockers  -- Richard Price.

If I answered this at a different time or day, I probably would have chosen three others.

Question Six: How much time do you spend each week writing? Reading?

Maybe ten hours writing. Some weeks very little reading. Others, quite a bit.

Question Five: What was the path that led you to publication?

During my last year of college, for an easy 3 units, I signed up to be a teacher's aide at a nearby elementary school.  It turned out to be my favorite class.  I loved being with the kids.  When I graduated, I decided to try writing a book about the kids I knew there.  That became Sideways Stories From Wayside School.

I mailed the manuscript to ten different publishers. One accepted it.

Question Four: Do you believe writers are born, taught or both? Which was true for you?

I think writers mostly teach themselves. It takes a lot of perseverance and a love of literature. I suppose writers are born with certain qualities that, if exposed to good writing, would choose to pursue it for themselves.


Question Three: What is your favorite thing about writing? What is your least favorite thing?

The freedom to let a story take me places I never expected; the way characters become real to me.

Least favorite thing?  The isolation. I have worked on plays and a movie, and I enjoyed the collaboration with other talented people. I don't have that when writing novels.  Yes, I enjoy working with an editor but it's not the same thing.

Question Two: What one bit of wisdom would you impart to an aspiring writer? (feel free to include as many other bits of wisdom as you like)

Don't expect too much from yourself. The first draft is always awful. The fun part is after the first draft is written, when you begin the process of turning it into something. My second drafts are also awful.  It's not until I get to the third or fourth draft of a book that I start to think it might be good.

Question One: If you could have lunch with any writer, living or dead, who would it be? Why?

Kazuo Ishaguro.  He's always been one of my favorite writers, and I am thrilled that he just won the Nobel Prize.

louissachar.com

7 Questions For: Author Gennifer Choldenko

Gennifer Choldenko is best known for her Tales from Alcatraz series, which has sold more than 2 million copies. Book #1: Al Capone Does My Shirts was a Newbery Honor Book and the recipient of twenty other awards. Book #4: Al Capone Throws Me a Curve is due out in 2018. BookPage said of her most recent novel, Chasing Secrets: “Choldenko’s ability to research obscure yet intriguing topics is uncanny, and as she did with the popular Al Capone trilogy she turns a tough topic into a high interest read … a compelling work of historical fiction.” Gennifer lives with her loyal husband and naughty dog in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In her own words: There’s a Lego in my bum which fits with the Lego in my chair and when I sit down to write, I hear the satisfying snap of the two pieces fitting together. I love words, dictionaries, thesauruses, sharp pencils, the smell of book ink and the delicious art of carving out sentences on clean white paper. I love to slip into another person’s skin and feel what it’s like to live another life. I love when characters come to me out of nowhere and make me cry so hard my mascara runs or laugh until my stomach hurts. I love the crazy fun and infinite possibility of storytelling.

What prepared me for a life of writing fiction? Though I have a BA from Brandeis University in English and American Literature and a BFA in illustration from Rhode Island School of Design, the true answer is probably genes. I come from a long line of Irish storytellers on my father’s side and theatre people on my mother’s. I always knew I loved to write, but it took me a long time to summon the courage to chase the dream. I finally went for it when I realized I would prefer to be a failure at something I wanted to do, then a success at something I didn’t. 

While I was pretending I wasn’t a writer, trying to be a nice person with a nice quiet job somewhere, I sold lingerie, lipstick and lamp shades. I wrote junk mail. I taught visually and hearing-impaired kids horseback riding. I held a prestigious job in rubbish removal and I worked in a factory wearing a paper gown while wielding a large mallet on small serving packages of ketchup. 

One Third Nerd, my funniest novel yet, is due out in January 2019. My most famous novel, Al Capone Does My Shirts, garnered 20 awards, one of which was the Newbery Honor. The Tales of Alcatraz series has sold more than 2 million copies. What will probably be the last book in the series: Al Capone Throws Me a Curve is the best of the fifteen books I’ve written so far. 

I am a fitness fanatic; a book-obsessed, tennis-playing woman who thinks like a twelve-year-old. If I ever get the good fortune to meet you, offer me coffee and I will be your friend for life.

Click here to read my review of  Al Capone Throws Me a Curve

And now Gennifer Choldenko faces the 7 Questions:

Question Seven: What are your top three favorite books?

Charlotte’s Web, Holes, All the Light We Cannot See

(In my view, All the Light We Cannot See is YA.)

In the competition for top fourth book: El Deafo, A Little Princess, The Watsons Go to Birmingham, Harriet the Spy, The Book Thief, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

Question Six: How much time do you spend each week writing? Reading?

The last six months, I’ve been writing seven days a week, which I really enjoy. On weekend days, I generally write for two hours; during the week, four to five hours.  Sometimes I read during my writing time. Today, I spent less time writing because my ideas for my newest book feel thin.  I haven’t done a good enough job researching.  So I worked on finding the information I need.

As for reading for pure pleasure: two hours.  I read during breakfast and lunch.  I am a huge fan of audio books.  I “read with my ears” while I walk the dog, do errands, clean the house and drive. Right now, I’m listening to Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.

Question Five: What was the path that led you to publication?

I’ve always loved to write.  For seven years, I made a living writing advertising.  But then writing advertising started to make me hate myself.  I just couldn’t do it anymore.  I tried writing fiction for adults, but I found that boring.  Who cares about adults?  After a few wrong turns, I finally figured out what energized me was writing for kids.  I am twelve on the inside and I care passionately about things that other twelve-year-olds care about.  

Question Four: Do you believe writers are born, taught or both? Which was true for you?

There are three intrinsicqualities that have to come together to make a writer: talent, personality andambition.  My brother is a talented writer, but he’s such a people person he can’t handle the alone time.  My daughter is immensely talented but she hates how subjective the writing process is.  She prefers math and science, where the answers are clear.

Once you have talent, a writerly personality and ambition, then you need to figure out how to build your skill set. And that is a lifelong endeavor.

Question Three: What is your favorite thing about writing? What is your least favorite thing?

Wow, I have so many favorite things.  I love the endorphin high I get when a new idea pops in my head.  I love when a scene comes to me and I can’t type fast enough to get it all down.  I love revising.  (My license plate?  REWRITZ.)  I love when my characters talk to me and I become so involved in their stories that I don’t want to leave my fictional world.  Really there’s no part of writing I don’t like, but there is a part of the writing business I dislike.  I’m terrified when a book launches.  It feels like I’ve sent my kindergarten age child out on the streets to fend for herself.

Question Two: What one bit of wisdom would you impart to an aspiring writer? (feel free to include as many other bits of wisdom as you like)

1.Don’t beat up your muse.  Be grateful for every gift she gives.

2. Revel in the process.  It isn’t about getting through it or getting it over with.

3. Every year ask yourself what part of your writing skill set needs work.  Then strategize how to up your game.

Question One: If you could have lunch with any writer, living or dead, who would it be? Why??

Frank L. Baum and JK Rowling.  I don’t think Frank L. Baum is the best writer, but his imagination was incredible.  He fired off every cylinder.  J.K. Rowling is both a terrific writer and she is intensely imaginative.  What would Frank and Joanne order?  What would they say to each other?  I would love to hear them discuss how their ideas came to them. 

gennifercholdenko.com

A Survey Of Cannibals

Sorry to have been away, Esteemed Reader. I've been bogged down by finishing my newest book and teaching my first fiction workshop, which has been a wonderful experience, but has taken away from my usual blogging time. I'll be back to regular posting soon, but today I have something fun to share with you.

One of my best friends, Jody Sparks, recently surveyed my beloved critique group, the YA Cannibals. If a book can be said to be an author's child, these folks are the co-parents to each of my babies (even if they won't admit to helping out with The Book of David, they're thanked in the back).

If there's one thing I've been trying to impress upon my workshop class, it's that they need writer friends to support and critique them. To my delight, my students are doing that for each other.  It's with them in mind that I offer up this collection of my favorite writers because they're my writing family. If you don't have writer friends like this in your life, go find some.

Alexander, Shannon Lee

Shannon Lee Alexander is the author of Love and Other Unknown Variables and Life After Juliet. She's a wife and mother (of two kids and one yellow terrier named Harriet Potter). She is passionate about coffee, books, and cancer research. She spent most of her time in high school hiding out in the theater with the drammies and techies. Math still makes her break out in a sweat. She currently lives in Indianapolis with her family.

Find her at www.shannonleealexander.com

Sign up for Shannon's newsletter at http://eepurl.com/09Igj

Click here to see her face The 7 Questions.

1. How do you tackle working on craft? Do you use specific techniques like craft books, classes, critique group work, writing exercises, etc.? Or do you just read, write, notice improvement? Or something else? Explain.

I like to read craft books. Some are helpful and some I don’t finish because they are doing more harm to my psyche and process than good. I also listen carefully to critiques, trying to understand how I can improve my writing (not just one particular book) from comments. I’d love to take more classes, have even considered an MFA in writing just for the ability to go back to class, but haven’t pursued that yet. Some of that is financial and some is time commitment. Some of it is fear.

I also mark up my favorite books, so I can easily go back and find bits that spoke to me and try to figure out why. What was the author doing here that really spoke to me? Can I make improvements to do the same or is this specific to a person/type of writing? As you can see, I ask myself a lot of questions when I read! :)


2. What's the best criticism you've ever gotten? Did it lead to a craft breakthrough?

Agent Laura Rennert telling me the stakes weren’t high enough for Charlie Hanson changed my writing life. That was my first big critique/rejection. I’m glad I listened and made changes. I still struggle with raising the stakes! But at least I know that’s a hurdle for me and go into any story prepared to meet it.


3. Tell me about a craft break-through you've had.

I feel like maybe I’m waiting on this still. I don’t know that I’ve had a breakthrough. Sounds awesome though. Sign me up for sure.


4. If the idea of having craft break-throughs doesn't resonate, then tell me how you notice when your writing improves.

If I’m improving, I think it’s in very small and almost unnoticeable ways. I know I must be getting better at this whole thing, but it’s not in some dramatic way. Instead, it’s more like I doubt myself less. Or my instincts for telling the story are more closely aligning with the ways people enjoy hearing stories (so while I’m still not a plotter, my stories ramble less and move forward more). And I think my characters are becoming more diverse and rich in texture and development. Again, all of this is small stuff, like grains of sand, but it’ll build up over time.

5. Name each cannibal and which aspect of craft you think they are best at--only one craft aspect per cannibal. There's no list to choose from. You just have to free write it.

Jody—characters I fall in love with

Sarah—characters I want to simultaneously strangle and protect

Lisa—give me your skill for using everyday words so beautifully

Rob—intricate plots with lots of moving pieces

Josh—willing to reinvent his own worlds

Laura—hook, line, and sinker! Laura’s ideas for story hooks dazzle me.

August—characters that contain entire worlds within themselves (I’m still reeling in the best sort of way from reading his last submission!)

Fipps, Lisa

I am an avid reader and just finished writing a YA novel in verse and am working to get it published. I have been the Director of Marketing and Community Engagement at a public library since 2011, after transitioning from a 19-year career in journalism in Indiana and Texas.

1. How do you tackle working on craft? Do you use specific techniques like craft books, classes, critique group work, writing exercises, etc.? Or do you just read, write, notice improvement? Or something else? Explain.

I read. A lot. Three books a week, on average. I read for the good details -- word choices, verbs -- and bad details -- tropes, convenient characters. If I'm struggling or just want to improve an element of my writing, I seek out classes (Chautauqua and three times at Highlights), conferences, and craft books. I find classes/workshops are costly and time-consuming, BUT the biggest changes in my writing have come from them.

At conferences, because I've been in SCBWI for 18 years now, I usually learn less but get radically inspired. Critique groups are, for me, crucial. I know Linda Sue Park doesn't use one. She hates people trying to tell her what her book should be because then she gets lost in their ideas for her work. That's what you have to be mindful of.

I also just love to play, play, play with words. Having been in journalism and on deadlines for 20 years, I know how to sit down and write pretty clean copy grammatically on the first draft. That's very helpful. It allows me to spend more time experimenting. I also write fairly fast because of my previous career. What slows me down is word choice. I can get bogged down for hours looking for one, perfect word. I won't let a poem go if there are word choices I don't love.

2. What's the best criticism you've ever gotten? Did it lead to a craft breakthrough? 

That's a hard one. I guess the best criticism was actuallysomething that was most encouraging to me. It was from Stephen Roxburgh during the Highlights Foundation Writers’ Workshop in Chautauqua. He's honest. Brutally so. I was terrified. He saw a story I have since shelved that will be my third novel.

We were sitting at a park bench on the corner of South and Park (LOL), and he said, "This is damn brilliant." I literally almost vomited. Yes, he said there was all kinds of work to be done (and I’ve since changed it from prose to free verse to create more work), but he said the emotion and power I can get from words and the pictures I create were brilliant. I was just at the stage of deciding IF I could become a YA author or if I was only cut out to be a journalist for the rest of my life. So those words were life-changing and dream-affirming.

Then when Sonya Sones, whom I adore, liked my work, I thought, "Okay. I'm a poet." So those aren't necessarily criticisms, but they were, for me, essential. Without them, I’m not sure I would have had the courage to pursue writing YA novels. But Patti Gauch's words of "go there," so simple, so true, so needed in good writing, stays in my head. It makes me take chances.

3. Tell me about a craft break-through you've had. 

I'd say at the Masters in Voice Workshop at Highlights with Patti Gauch in 2016. Studying how other authors "go there," was essential for me. At Chautauqua in 2009, Patti had said, "push, push, push." I did from then on. But I didn't "go there," until 2016. Those two words say to me, go to where you are afraid to go. Say words you're afraid to use. Rip open the heart -- mine and the reader's.


4. If the idea of having craft break-throughs doesn't resonate, then tell me how you notice when your writing improves. 

I can usually tell if my writing’s improving based onif I am truly happy with a poem. I am my own worst critic. When I'm revising and willing to scroll past a poem, or I re-read it just for pleasure, I know I've done well. I also know I've done well if my fellow YA Cannibals "get it."


5. Name each cannibal and which aspect of craft you think they are best at--only one craft aspect per cannibal. There's no list to choose from. You just have to free write it.

Rob - I try to imagine what he's going to find wrong with it because he will always call out something that doesn't ring true.

Josh - He's great with action details.

Shannon - She's wonderful with word choice and actions not true to a character.

Virginia - She's the detailer of the group, catching every little comma.

Auggie - He keeps me outside of boxes, freeing me to write. He's also tough, but funny, making me notice my errors more.

Sarah - She's great at talking out plots.

Laura - I'm not used to her style yet. Sorry.

Jody - She sees the whole picture and the dovetails and asks, what if?

Kent, Rob(ert)

Robert Kent is the author of the horror novels The Book of David and All Together Now: A Zombie Story, and the novellas Pizza Delivery and All Right Now: A Short Zombie Story.

Under the name Rob Kent, he writes middle grade novels such as Banneker Bones and the Giant Robot Bees and the upcoming Banneker Bones and the Alligator People.

Rob(ert) Kent holds degrees in Literature and Creative Writing from Indiana University and owns over 900 Batman action figures. He lives with his family in Indianapolis where he teaches courses at the Indiana Writers Center and is hard at work on his next book.

Click here to see him face the 7 Questions, which he also wrote.

1. How do you tackle working on craft? Do you use specific techniques like craft books, classes, critique group work, writing exercises, etc.? Or do you just read, write, notice improvement? Or something else? Explain.

I’ve tried a little bit of everything, which is what I recommend writers do early in their career. You can’t know whether or not something is effective for you unless you give it a shot. I’ve got a pretty good understanding of how I write and what works for me at this stage, but no one’s a monolith and I occasionally try new things to keep writing fresh.

At this stage, I only do writing exercises if I’m at a conference and it would be rude not to. If I’m going to sit down and do the work of writing, I want a shot at selling what I wrote later. I absolutely attend classes when I can, with the caveat that I always read something the instructor wrote ahead of time to make sure I consider them worth listening to. I’m always shocked at the number of students who pay money to attend a class taught by me without first having read one of my books.

As for craft books, I read stacks of them when I was younger. Now I tend to read more about book marketing. I find the best teachers of craft to be other people's books. But I keep the audiobooks for Story by Robert McKee and On Writing by Stephen King handy and listen to them at least once a year. And I never miss an interview or guest post at middlegradeninja.com:)

2. What's the best criticism you've ever gotten? Did it lead to a craft breakthrough?

That's a tough one because I've been given a lot of great criticism. One thing that comes to mind was not a criticism of craft, but a criticism of my behavior outside of writing. When I was brand new to writing, I wanted to tell everyone how excited I was to be writing... at length. I would raise my hand at every opportunity in class and sometimes I would talk over other students because I was just so excited and, also, annoying.

My mentor, the great writer Will Allison, told me to talk less and listen more. He told me I was a good writer and that anyone who read what I wrote would know that, so there was no need to tell them in advance. And while I was talking, I was missing a lot of opportunities to hear important lessons other writers had to share. Also, other writers are more willing to give you a hand when you're not an obnoxious egomaniac.

Now when I have over-talkers in my classes, I give them the same advice. But I get it. Most of us have been that guy and learning to not be that guy is a very necessary step toward maturing as a writer. When I meet an older writer who's still that guy, I'm embarrassed for them. If I had my way, I'd make a law that ever new writer be required to watch Barton Fink, which illustrates this common behavior and its pitfalls beautifully.


3. Tell me about a craft break-through you've had.

I've had many and expect to have more. What's the point in continuing to write if I don't expect to continue to grow and improve? I can't think of any one moment where I was suddenly struck by glowing insight that made a foggy world clear. Unfortunately, most craft improvement doesn't work that way. It's a gradual process of improvement over time that presents as a cumulative effect rather than a moment of pure insight.

But since that's unsatisfying, I'll share an anecdote:)

I had a writing instructor insist that I start a horror story at the first instance of violence, because the class agreed that the first five pages of the story was too slow and things didn't get interesting until the killer was threatening the protagonist. After that, the class was unanimous that the story was scary. I argued those first five pages were where we got to know the character so we would care about him when it mattered. But the instructor was a big deal author, so I cut those five pages.

When I submitted the story to a new workshop, no one found it scary. They didn't care about the character, so they didn't care what happened to him. I realized the big deal author, while not entirely wrong, hadn't been entirely right either. That's when it hit me that no one knows how to write perfectly all the time. We're all figuring this out as we go and doing the best we can.

I rewrote the five pages to three pages and opened with a promise of the violence to come, thus hooking the reader and keeping them hooked because they cared about the protagonist. That version of the story got published.


4. If the idea of having craft break-throughs doesn't resonate, then tell me how you notice when your writing improves.

I like each new book better than the previous, whatever the author's opinion of his own work does for you:) I have to believe my next book will be my best every time because it's  necessary to my finishing my next book (nobody's motivated to write their second-best book).

Even though, if I'm honest, I don't ever expect to top Banneker Bones and the Giant Robot Bees, which I wrote eight books ago. But with every new project, even sequels to previous projects, I try to push myself to do something I haven't done before. You can't make all readers happy all the time, so I try to make me happy. And why not? It's my name on the cover.


5. Name each cannibal and which aspect of craft you think they are best at--only one craft aspect per cannibal. There's no list to choose from. You just have to free write it.

This is a difficult question, partly because the other cannibals will read my answer, and partly because I depend on every cannibal for multiple aspects of craft. My critique partners are extremely talented. I also don't want to repeat the answers of the other Cannibals being surveyed. But if I must pick one aspect for each of them and only one:

Josh - Is great at sentence structure. I typically make all of Josh's changes because the man knows how to diagram a sentence. Often, I feel silly for not seeing the simpler version of a sentence that was hiding in my overwritten word pile.

Lisa - Is our resident poet and wordsmith. She always lets me know when I'm overusing the same word or phrase. She can also be counted on to select a better, more precise word than whatever low hanging-fruit I've reached for.

Shannon - Is especially good at catching little details, even when they involve a bit of research on her part. She has more than once saved me from embarrassing myself by finding factual inaccuracies in my stories.

Virginia - Is wonderful for moral support. She leaves smiley faces throughout my manuscripts, which lets me know what's working. This is crucial as constructive feedback is best tempered with positivity.

Auggie - Is great at pointing out potentially offensive aspects in my writing. I may argue that something I've written wasn't considered sexist or otherwise terrible when I was growing up, but that means nothing to Auggie with his younger read on things. Guess what, Grandpa Ninja? Times change and it's no longer cool to describe your characters as 'crying like a girl' even though your dear old gym teacher used that exact phrase at least 20 times per class. Just because society is sometimes accepting of a phrase doesn't mean it's acceptable.

Sarah - Is especially good at letting me know when I've gone too far, as I frequently do. Whether I'm too offensive for a YA audience or too blasphemous for a religious audience, Sarah lets me know when I've crossed the line. Though I rarely cross all the way back to the other side, I'll at least retract some:)

Jody - Is very good at making sure my story is comprehensible. She never fails to zero in on something I haven't clearly explained, or something that's likely to be confusing.

Laura - Is amazing at big picture/concept stuff. I would love to write a dinosaurs-in-Indiana story, but Laura already beat me to it. She's got some unpublished stuff I also wish I'd written, but now I can't. Sometimes I completely agree with suggestions Laura makes to re-frame the novels of others, and sometimes she comes up with an idea that's far better than what I had. Usually, I want to read Laura's version of someone else's novel.

Martin, Laura

Laura Martin believes in chasing dreams, and she brought that philosophy to her classroom for six years as a seventh-grade English teacher. She is the author of the Edge of Extinction series. When she isn’t writing stories about dinosaurs and underground civilizations, she can be found in the Indianapolis area with her dashing husband Josh, her two adorable kids London and Lincoln, and two opinionated bulldogs. You can visit her online at www.lauramartinbooks.com.

Her latest, Float, releases on May 29th.

Click here to see her face The 7 Questions.

1. How do you tackle working on craft? Do you use specific techniques like craft books, classes, critique group work, writing exercises, etc.? Or do you just read, write, notice improvement? Or something else? Explain.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure if I actually do work on craft. I did that A LOT leading up to getting a book published. I was a creative writing major, and I took an awesome community writing class which provided me with my first ever writing group, but since being published (and having kids…which happened pretty much simultaneously) I haven’t worked on craft as much as I’d like to.

What’s been most beneficial for me has been working with my editor on my books. The more I’ve revised, the easier it has become to spot my own personal weaknesses and improve them.


2. What's the best criticism you've ever gotten? Did it lead to a craft breakthrough?

The best criticism I ever got was from my writing professor at Butler University. He basically told me to just get over myself and write a good book, and if I could do that, the publishing thing would happen for me. And he was right!

He also told me that I needed to write another book while I was getting rejections for my first book. It gave me the distance from the first book to see what utter garbage it really was. A lot of times we get so wrapped up in our own writing we can’t see the good from the garbage without a little help.


3. Tell me about a craft break-through you've had.

My one big break-through was about making a novel exciting for young readers. I call it my frying pan-fire break-though. If your character just got out of the frying pan, it’s high time you threw them into the fire and vise versa. I did that a lot in my Edge of Extinction books…as soon as my characters were feeling safe, I made sure something showed up that made that feeling go away.


4. If the idea of having craft break-throughs doesn't resonate, then tell me how you notice when your writing improves.

My writing improves when I can get it in front of someone else, be that an editor or a writing group. I love hearing what people think of my writing. Creativity (for me at least) can’t happen in a bubble.


5. Name each cannibal and which aspect of craft you think they are best at--only one craft aspect per cannibal. There's no list to choose from. You just have to free write it.

This one is hard since I’m still new to the group, but here it goes!

Shannon—She really paints a wonderful picture with her writing. I FEEL like I’m sitting there watching her characters because she sets the stage so well.

Sarah—Her writing is so fun because she’s effortlessly funny. Even when she’s writing something serious, she makes me laugh.

Lisa—I will never be a poetry writer…but if I was, I’d like to write like Lisa. She makes you feel with five words what it takes me fifty…

Rob—He has really nailed the middle grade voice, something I feel I still struggle with. (note, Laura has not read Pizza Delivery--MG Ninja)

Josh—SORRY! I haven’t read anything of Josh’s yet!

August—He writes fabulous and unique descriptions and somehow manages to capture his character’s voices just by the way he describes them.

Jodi—She creates the best characters. They are unique and quirky and believable all at the same time.

Prokopy, Josh

Josh Prokopy is a stay-at-home dad with a love for young adult action adventure and mysteries set in exotic locales.  When not writing or looking after the house and kids, he loves to practice martial arts and brew great beer.  You can find his in-depth reviews of dozens of YA action adventure novels, good and bad, at www.yaactionadventurenovels.com


1. How do you tackle working on craft? Do you use specific techniques like craft books, classes, critique group work, writing exercises, etc.? Or do you just read, write, notice improvement? Or something else? Explain.

In the past I have read books on craft, taken online classes, and, of course, gone to conferences.  And early on I definitely got a lot out of that.  Before my first conference, I thought I’d written an amazing book (Just send it out right now.  They’d be crazy not to publish it.).  Within the first two sessions I knew how wrong I was.

But these days, most of what I do in terms of craft is just writing, getting those gut wrenching Cannibal critiques, and critiquing stuff for others.  That last one is huge, because I read so much differently and more carefully when I critique, and it’s a great opportunity to learn about writing in a way that just doesn’t happen when you’re reading for fun.


2. What's the best criticism you've ever gotten? Did it lead to a craft breakthrough?

The best criticism I ever got was actually from my first Cannibal’s critique when I learned that many of the actions and reactions my characters were having where not actually in character.  I was writing for convenience and for fitting into the plot as outlined – but what my characters were doing just didn’t fit with who they were.  The advice was to go back and really assess each action my characters were taking, to think about who they were and whether or not this was actually something they would do.  I have no doubt that my characters still do things for the convenience of my plot, but I try much harder now to root that out.


3. Tell me about a craft break-through you've had.

Not sure I can really identify any single break through.  It’s been more of a steady progression.


4. If the idea of having craft break-throughs doesn't resonate, then tell me how you notice when your writing improves.

Well, I suppose I always feel like each draft I write is better than the last one. But ultimately, the only way to really gauge improvement is to show that work to a group of people who aren’t afraid to tear it up.  That has its down sides, and after a harsh critique it can be incredibly hard to motivate and get back to writing – sometimes it requires an extended break.  But no matter how crappy the critiques make me feel, the end result is inevitably a much better manuscript.  Of course, to get that kind of outcome you have to show your work to other writers, to people who aren’t afraid to tear it up and will say more than, “that’s great” or make a few grammatical corrections.


5. Name each cannibal and which aspect of craft you think they are best at--only one craft aspect per cannibal. There's no list to choose from. You just have to free write it.

Rob – Creates incredibly compelling story lines.  Even if the characters are sometimes reprehensible, you can’t stop reading.

Shannon – She’s capable of huge emotional depth.

Lisa – Gorgeous use of language.  She can create rich emotional scenes with very few words.

Jody – Amazing character development.  It’s so easy to fall inside her characters’ heads.

Laura – Does a fantastic job with plotting.  Her stories are wonderfully paced and a joy to read.

Sparks, Jody

Jody Sparks Mugele was born and raised a Hoosier but spent some time in Tennessee, California, and Michigan before returning home 2011. She’s been married to her husband for twenty years. Jody has two kids, but sometimes others wander in and stay for a while. She used to do marketing writing, but now focuses on fiction. She’s also on the board of the Indianapolis chapter of PFLAG.


1. How do you tackle working on craft? Do you use specific techniques like craft books, classes, critique group work, writing exercises, etc.? Or do you just read, write, notice improvement? Or something else? Explain.

I do all those things, but find classes most useful. Once, I read a child psychology book because I needed it to develop an adult character who was a child psychologist, and that book actually turned out to be one of the more informing books on the craft writing for children. It really opened my eyes to specific developmental milestones I'd never thought of exploring.


2. What's the best criticism you've ever gotten? Did it lead to a craft breakthrough?

The best criticism I ever got was from Andrew Karre. I'd built a hero character who, at the end of the book, was discharged from the Navy dishonorably. Andrew challenged me to think about the current pulse and temperature of America (early 2000s, just after 9-11), and to ask myself how salable I thought the book would be. I was pretty sure I couldn't write the book without the dishonorable discharge, but I wanted to try.

I ended making enormous revisions and completely changing the course of the character's future with the Navy. And the story still worked. I felt like I was still being true to the heart of the book, which was about sacrifice. I realized I could write against my natural instincts and against some of my own values (I'm not anti-military, just for the record) to create a more marketable book. I still haven't sold it, but it is the book that helped me land my first agent.


3. Tell me about a craft break-through you've had.

My last breakthrough was with voice. I'd worked on it at Highlights. The next critique I received, all the smiley faces and compliments were directly related to work I'd done at that workshop. Nice to see the class had paid off. But it's not like I took the class because I felt I was struggling with voice. I just took it because it sounded really good. The best part is that I can take what I learned there and apply it to future manuscripts. Sometimes with craft work it's very hard to see the gains. But in this case, I could be deliberate in how I applied what I learned.


4. If the idea of having craft break-throughs doesn't resonate, then tell me how you notice when your writing improves.

Besides small break throughs like the one above, I've had one giant improvement that I've noticed. A couple years ago, I stopped writing "safe" books, which for me are contemporary YA books that are mostly hetero white middle class love-and-suffering stories.

But then I had this idea that was so funny to me that I wanted to write it just because it just seemed so fun. I said yes to everything including non-white characters, non-hetero characters, nudity, gender non-conforming characters, and a school setting that broke all the norms of a typical high school.

I pushed myself to write through fear and discomfort and the nice clear boundaries of a contemporary setting. It showed me a lot about discovering universal truths as well as empathy. That book is so far the best book I've written. I'm staying on this playground for as long as I can.


5. Name each cannibal and which aspect of craft you think they are best at--only one craft aspect per cannibal. There's no list to choose from. You just have to free write it.

Shannon—Her prose is like a walking into a bakery on a cold day. Just mmmmmmmmm.

Sarah—Action. No matter what her characters are doing, I'm into it. I want to know what happens next.

Lisa—Imagery and emotion. So efficient with language!

Rob—His plot puzzles satisfy! When there's a gun on the mantle in the first scene, that baby will go off in chapter three. The ending of his zombie novel is one of my favorite endings of a book in all of ever!

Josh—World building. No details left behind here. I want his stories as movies so I can SEE them.

Laura—Still learning Laura's writing, but I love the efficiency of her dialog. You get to know a lot about a character from their word choices. And she infers tone somehow, which is amazing!

August—Character building. He's so imaginative! He writes Stargirls and Tiny Coopers and Viking God Balders and Don Quixotes.



Not available for survey: Sarah J. Schmidt. Click here to see her face The 7 Questions.