An Interview with Carolee Dean

Q: Of which book are you the most proud? And why?

A: I'm proud of all my books for different reasons. COMFORT was my first novel, and at the time, just completing it felt like a miracle.  My second novel TAKE ME THERE is about a boy who's running from a gang in California after a botched initiation where someone dies. He goes to Texas looking for his father who is in prison to find out if badness is in his blood or if it is something he can outrun. Many teens have told me how strongly this book reflects their personal experience. I'm very proud of that, especially since the story is so different from MY personal experience.

My third novel, FORGET ME NOT, is about another tough subject, cyber bullying that leads to an attempted suicide. I wanted to approach it from a different angle without becoming overly dark and I wanted it to be hopeful without an overly cheerful ending. Ally, the main character, finds herself on an abandoned hallway with a group of teens who have killed themselves. She must decide whether to go back and walk through the pain that made her want to end her life or stay on the relative "safety" of the hallway.

FORGET ME NOT comes out this month (October) and there is a GHOST TOUR with prizes going on at my blog at http://caroleedeanbooks.blogspot.com

Q: Patty Campbell talks about the germ for a piece of writing being like the sand in the oyster.  What is your grain of sand?  Do you begin with character or setting or something else?

A: A germ of sand is a good metaphor, but I tend to think of my writing process more like a pot of soup. I encounter images, ideas, and experiences everyday that go into the pot to simmer. These very different tidbits bubble to the surface in combinations I never would have imagined.

Here are some of the "soups" I've cooked up and the images and experiences that helped create them.

COMFORT - My experiences as a Texas high school student preparing for the UIL  poetry interpretation competition... A cafe with terrible service and frozen food with a video running constantly of the owner's husband playing guitar... a classmate showing up to school with a black eye, telling everyone her father hit her because she thought if she embarrassed him, he wouldn't do it again...

TAKE ME THERE  - A local poet, Jimmy Santiago Baca, who taught himself to read and write in prison and became known around the world for his art... A boy who ended up in prison because he stopped at a fast gas so his friend could get cigarettes, not knowing his friend intended to rob the place at gunpoint... A girl left alone her senior year in a million dollar house because her parents were getting a divorce and wanted to move on with their lives... Texas high school football...

FORGET ME NOT - A girl sitting inside with her boyfriend during lunch, looking out the window at the kids on the quad as if she'd rather be anywhere but where she was... The raven who left a dead pigeon outside my office door... The boy in my seventh grade class who hung himself...

Q: Why do you write for teens?

A: I'm very lucky because I get to spend every day in high school. I work at a high school as a speech- language pathologist. Seeing what my students are going through reminds me of my own troubled adolescence. There are things that happen to us when we are young that we don't have the perspective to fully understand. When I go back and revisit those things now, it helps me process and understand what  happened. Every story I write for teens helps me grow up just a little bit more.

Q: What is one thing you would like your readers to know about you?

A: I have a strong sense of humor, despite the dark subjects I write about, which is why there are always humorous (or at least quirky) elements in my books - like the mother who wants to make her husband into a country and western superstar, even though he doesn't really want to be one... the grandmother who treats her pig like a household pet... and the boy who spends a month speaking in iambic pentameter when he returns home from the psychiatric hospital.

Q: In high school, where did you fall? (Prom Queen/King, Gamer Geek, Brainy/Book Nerd, Jock, Shy/Quiet Scholar, Skate Rat, Stoner, Class Clown, etc.)

A: I was very religious. My favorite book was the Bible. One story that stood out in my mind because it was so disturbing was the one about the man who cut his wife's dead body into twelve pieces and sent the  pieces to the twelve tribes of Israel. I could hardly believe my parents were letting me read such racy stories, and wondered if they were really reading them as closely as they claimed.

We moved to Lubbock when I was 15 so my father could attend preaching school and my senior year we moved to Happy, Texas where we lived next to the church on Main Street.

As I've gotten older, I've become more spiritual and less religious. My family sometimes wonders about the dark subjects I write about. If they had read the book of Judges a little closer, they might understand.

Thanks so much for your time Carolee! We look forward to seeing you at the festival.

Visit Carolee Dean's website or follow her on Twitter at @caroleeJDean

Introducing 2013 MCBF Author, Carolee Dean

Carolee Dean has made numerous appearances as a guest poet/author at schools, libraries, poetry events, and teacher conferences. In addition, she was a featured author at the 2002 Texas Book Festival. She holds a bachelor’s degree in music therapy and a master’s degree in communicative disorders. She has spent over a decade working in the public schools as a speech-language pathologist and has helped to sponsor poetry slam teams at both the middle school and high school levels.

In addition to working with students of all ages in the public schools, Carolee has also worked with teens in a psychiatric hospital and a head trauma rehabilitation unit. She teaches creative writing through a summer program.

In her first novel, Comfort, Carolee explores how words and poetry have the power to change one young man’s life. Comfort was published by Houghton Mifflin. It was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults, received awards from the International Reading Association and the Texas Institute of Letters, and was on the TAYSHAS (Texas Library Association) reading list.

In Take Me There (Simon Pulse, Summer 2010), she follows the journey of a budding young poet who cannot read or write, but dreams of using words to escape a life of crime and deprivation.
Forget Me Not (Simon Pulse, October 2012) is a paranormal verse novel that tells the story of a girl whose life is devastated when a scandalous photo of her is texted around the school.
       
Carolee lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with her husband and children. In addition to poetry, she loves hiking and biking along the beautiful Rio Grande River and skiing wherever there are mountains and snow. She is available for author/poet visits as well as educator workshops.

For more about Carolee, visit her website.

An Interview with David Macinnis GIll

Q: Of which book are you the most proud? And why?

A: I'm most proud of INVISIBLE SUN, which came out March 2012. It's very difficult to write a novel, but it's exponentially more difficult to write a sequel that both stands on its own as a story and adds to the mythology of the world created in the first book.

Q: Patty Campbell talks about the germ for a piece of writing being like the sand in the oyster.  What is your grain of sand?  Do you begin with character or setting or something else?

A: For me, the grain of sand is usually a premise that is so intriguing that a world and characters form around it. For Soul Enchilada, it was what would happen if a demon were interested in repossession? For Black Hole Sun, it was what kind of frontier would a terraformed Mars have?

Q: What do you hear from your readers?

A: Most readers write about how much they like the characters or how they are like the characters. They also want to know the plots for the next books!

Q: Why do you write for Young Adults?

A: I write for young adults because I'm fascinated by those moments that cause/allow/propel a child to become an adult.

Q: Who is your favorite character you have written or read about?

A: My favorite is and always will be Bug from Soul Enchilada. She's smart and feisty, humble and heroic, beautiful and completely unaware of it. I admire her.

Q: What is one thing you would like your readers to know about you?

A: I'm really 17 inside.

Q: In high school, where did you fall? (Prom Queen/King, Gamer Geek, Brainy/Book Nerd, Jock, Shy/Quiet Scholar, Skate Rat, Stoner, Class Clown, etc.)

A: Brainy book nerd geek with flair for politics who didn't find his voice until senior year and then wouldn't shut up.

Q: Do you have a pet (pets)?  Tell us about it (them) and how they help/hinder your writing.

A: I have two adopted dogs. They help my writing because they go on walks with me.

Q: What is the hardest part of waiting for a book from the end of your writing to when it is released?

A: Waiting for readers to find the book and then react to it. That seems to take a lifetime.

Q: How often do you dream about the writing you are working on?

A: When I'm drafting a first draft or revising, I often dream in the main character's voice. When that happens, I know that I understand my character.

Thank you so much for your time, David. We look forward to seeing you at the festival!
Learn more about David Macinnis Gill at his website.

Introducing 2013 MCBF Author, David Macinnis Gill

David Macin­nis Gill is the author of the debut novel, Soul Enchi­lada, from Greenwillow/Harper Collins. His sto­ries have appeared in sev­eral mag­a­zines, and his crit­i­cal biog­ra­phy, Gra­ham Sal­is­bury: Island Boy, was pub­lished by Scare­crow Press. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English/creative writ­ing and a doc­tor­ate in edu­ca­tion, both from the Uni­ver­sity of Ten­nessee, as well as a M.ED. from Tennessee-Chattanooga. David is the Past-President of ALAN (The Assem­bly on Lit­er­a­ture for Ado­les­cents) and an Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor at the Uni­ver­sity of North Car­olina at Wilm­ing­ton. He is rep­re­sented by Rose­mary Sti­mola of the Sti­mola Lit­er­ary Studio.

Read more at his website.

An Interview with Sophie Jordan

Q: Why do you write for Young Adults or Children or Adult?

A: I write both young adult and adult fiction because I love to read in both genres - bottom line. I was a reader first, before I ever started to write. It was only natural for me to write in the areas that I love to read so much.

Q: What is the hardest part of waiting for a book from the end of your writing to when it is released?

A: While I'm waiting for a book to release, I have moved on to writing a new book. By the time the book releases, I'm possibly even two projects ahead. It's super satisfying to hear from and meet with readers, but sometimes it feels strange to talk about a book I finished a year ago.

Q: What do you hear from your readers?

A: Mostly, they all want to know about the Firelight movie ... When is it going to happen? Is it going to happen? Who is going to play Will/Jacinda/Cassian? My answer is that the movie is scheduled to begin production in 2013! Yay! And stay tuned for casting and director announcements...

Q: Who is your favorite character you have written or read about?

A: Right now, I'm writing the story of a girl who lives in an age where genetic testing is the norm, and in her senior year of high school she is informed that she has tested positive for HTS (Homicidal Tendency Syndrome). Basically, she's told she's a sociopath. Without having ever done anything wrong, everything is ripped away from her. In so many ways, this character was/is me. She leads a very privileged life with great friends/family/boyfriend until the moment she's labeled an HTS carrier. It's like I'm writing me my senior year of high school ... with an obvious exception -- I never tested positive for a kill gene. But it's been so fascinating to write a girl that's so much like the girl I was ... and to imagine what would happen and how I would react in a world where genetic profiling was the standard. (UNINVITED will release in early 2014.)

Thank you so much for your time Sophie! We look forward to seeing you at the Festival!

To learn more about Sophie, visit her website.

Introducing 2013 MCBF Author, Sophie Jordan

Sophie Jordan grew up in the Texas hill country where she wove fantasies of dragons, warriors, and princesses. A former high school English teacher, she's a New York Times, USA Today and international bestselling author of young adult and romance fiction. Her novel, Firelight, has been optioned for film by Mandalay Entertainment and is set for production for 2013. When she's not writing, she spends her time overloading on caffeine (lattes and Diet cherry Coke preferred), talking plotlines with anyone who will listen (including her kids), and cramming her DVR with true-crime and reality-TV shows. You can visit her online at: www.sophiejordan.net

An Interview with Kimberley Griffiths Little

Q: Of which book are you the most proud? And why?

A: It’s impossible to pick a favorite book (like choosing a favorite child – unless you only have one!) because each one has a unique back story in the writing of it, and I wouldn’t have written it unless I’d been passionate about it, but at the moment, I’d probably say that I’m most proud of my novel, The Healing Spell (Scholastic, 2010) for several reasons. First, I spent more than 8 years researching, writing, and revising it. Second, I never gave up on trying to get it published. And third, The Healing Spell is a story I loved so very much because of the unique setting and the important themes of family and faith and forgiveness. It’s also important to me because of what the main character, Livie, goes through in the story, and the universal feelings of guilt and mother-daughter relationships and healing ourselves. Even after I’d shelve the manuscript after lots of rejections, I’d start thinking about it again because it kept drawing me back to it; this family and their life on the bayou. I guess the book just needed the right editor at the right time—which ended up happening in a bigger way than I ever expected—and now I get so much fan mail about it, which makes my heart very happy knowing that the story has affected other people in such powerful and emotional ways.

In 2014 I’ll probably say the same thing about my upcoming YA trilogy. It’s going to be a lead title with Harpercollins Fall 2014 – and it’s a project I’ve spent 10 years researching, a story about the world of the ancient goddess temples and the roots of belly dance—as well as a delicious romance. Sometimes I think I’m a slow learner, but finally selling that book in a major deal is enormously satisfying and exciting.

Q: Patty Campbell talks about the germ for a piece of writing being like the sand in the oyster.  What is your grain of sand?  Do you begin with character or setting or something else?

A: Setting has always been my jumping off place. I love to travel and explore unique spots in the world, and getting to know the history and people of an area. My mind will often start buzzing with story ideas. I love the research and challenge of bringing it to life.

Now I get fan mail from readers who think I actually grew up in Louisiana instead of just being a long-time visitor of the bayou and swamp country – it’s pretty exciting as well as satisfying to know that I met my goal and brought my recent books which are set there to such real life. I also adore castles (I stayed in a haunted tower room once in Scotland) and anything ancient and musty so those settings will definitely appear in future books!

Q: Why do you write for Children?

A: Books had such a huge impact on my life as I grew up, and they were like real friends to me due to the fact that I was extremely shy—and because books are better than real life, aren’t they? :-)

I started scribbling stories when I was about 8-9 years old. While I was still in college, I began the two year course at the Institute of Children’s Literature, and I knew without a doubt that I was meant to write for children and teens. Books for kids are powerful and meaningful and magical in countless ways—and can turn them into readers for life. What better job could I ever have?

Q: In high school, where did you fall? (Prom Queen/King, Gamer Geek, Brainy/Book Nerd, Jock, Shy/Quiet Scholar, Skate Rat, Stoner, Class Clown, etc.)

A: I’ll make up a new one from your list: Shy Book Nerd! That was me in spades, and I spoke so little when I was very young that my parents and teachers were worried about me. I was always lost in the world of a book and after I became an adult (I think I was even married by then) my mother confided to me that she’d received a letter from my 5th grade teacher when I was ten, Mr. Thiessen. He told her that he was worried I might be losing touch with reality because I had my head buried in a book so much of the time. I’d rather read than play during recess.

What is interesting about that story is that my parents never took away books – they encouraged reading and bought me books and took me to the library often. Of course, they also knew I *was* involved in church activities and had a few good friends (as well as 5 siblings!) and took piano lessons and dance lessons and was, in the end, fairly well grounded.  But books are definitely my BFF!

Q: How often do you dream about the writing you are working on?

A: I don’t tend to dream that much at night—and when I do my dreams are very peculiar indeed and don’t make any sense! But I’m a *huge* day-dreamer and I often have ideas that come right before I go to sleep at night, or when I’m first waking up in the morning; that semi-conscious state. I’ve had to train myself to keep paper, pen or notebook by my bed to write things down so I don’t forget. Of course, because I’m scattered and disorganized I often forget the notebook on my nightstand and, like a silly goose, I’ll lie there in bed and repeat my idea over and over again to myself so I won’t forget it in the morning. I’m lazy to get up once I’m cozy under the covers—especially in the winter time when it’s cold!

Thanks so much for your time Kimberley! We look forward to seeing you at the Festival!

To read more about Kimberley Griffiths Little, visit her website.