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Writing Across Age Bands – A Conversation with Author Julie Buxbaum

 

writing across age bands, author Julie Buxbaum's young adult novel Tell Me Three Things on a table outside

I will forever fangirl over Julie Buxbaum. My love for her work began in July of 2016. This picture was the start of my love affair with stories crafted by Julie. And on that day, her work sparked the inspiration that sent me on my writing journey. Her skillful abilities in writing across age bands helped unbox my dreams of writing books for children of all ages.

Julie Buxbaum is the New York Times best-selling author of Tell Me Three Things, her young adult debut, What to Say Next, Hope and Other Punchlines, and most recently, the very popular middle-grade series The Area 51 Files. She’s also the author of two critically acclaimed novels for adults: The Opposite of Love and After You. Her work has been translated into twenty-five languages. Julie’s writing has appeared in various publications, including The New York Times. She’s a former lawyer and a graduate of Harvard Law School. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, two children, and more books than is reasonable.

Your debut and sophomore books were both critically acclaimed adult novels. They were followed by your incredibly successful young adult books that include NYT bestselling novelson writing across age bands, profile of Julie Buxbaum smiling, author. writing across age bands Tell Me Three Things (my favorite YA of all time) and What To Say Next. In 2022, you again expanded your readership’s age band with the release of the first book in The Area 51 Files series for middle-grade readers. Did you start your writing career aware that you would be writing across age bands?

Nope. I never expected to write across age ranges or genres. When I first started out, I couldn’t think beyond the first book. I didn’t even let myself imagine that writing would become my long-term career. But over the past sixteen or seventeen years that I’ve been doing this, my life, and who I am as a person, have fundamentally changed, and so it feels natural and organic that my interests keep shifting. At the moment, my son is a middle-grade reader and I very much wanted to write a series for him. He’s the reason I ended up turning to The Area 51 Files.

 

Your popularity transcends generations, something that is not easy to achieve. Will we soon see your name on the shelves for early readers?

Thank you! I would love to write a picture book! No plans for one at the moment, but you never know when inspiration will strike. I do have an idea that has been percolating for years, but I’ve never been able to crack it.

 

You’ve proven that writers do not have to confine themselves to any genre or age group to find success. For the writer out there reading this, looking for advice on crossing readership age brackets, what is one thing that you’ve learned that surprised you the most about writing across age bands and categories?

Writing is writing. I find it is equally hard to write for young people as it is to write for sophisticated adults. On the other hand, it’s also equally fun! Each genre requires me to lean on a slightly different skill set, and I find my instinct sort of guides me toward what I’m best equipped to write at the time.

For example, during the height of the pandemic, I wasn’t in the right mind space to dig into serious material, so I wrote The Area 51 Files, which was pure joy. My YA and adult editors would have never let me get away with so many fart jokes! And it was just what I needed to help me get through what was otherwise a not-so-happy time. Which is to say, I think it’s helpful for writers to be adaptable and responsive to their own needs when deciding what they want to work on.

 

Regardless of the characters’ age, wit and humor are consistently present in your writing. My favorite thing in your stories is the clever banter within the dialogue. Do you have any tips for writers transitioning from writing teen or adult characters to exploring middle-grade novel ideas?

I approach my MG much like I imagine Pixar writers approach their movies. That is with the idea that I’m writing for two audiences at once. I’m writing directly to the middle-grade reader who may be reading on their own before bedtime—and I want my book to be a delicious, funny, adventurous delight for them. But I’m also writing to the parent whose lap they may possibly be sitting on.

So I try to have my humor work on multiple levels. My MG books are 95% jokes that kids will hopefully find hilarious, and then there are maybe 5% written as a wink for the grown-ups. Also, I think it helps to remember that kids are so freakin’ funny, and so they are always down for a good joke. No one makes me laugh as much as my ten and thirteen-year-old kids. They have perfect comic timing.

Also, this might sound like conflicting advice, but I think it’s super important never to write down to your audience. Kids these days are smart and sophisticated. At the same time, especially when writing middle grade, it’s important to always remember your readership and be mindful of their need for movement in the text to keep them engaged. You need to consistently be turning the dial up on every front because it’s hard to compete with the X-box!

 

To those that aren’t writers, it can seem like things come easy to successful authors such as yourself. After having written for teens and adults, did doubt ever enter your mind while drafting your middle-grade novels?

I doubt myself with every single book! After I wrote The Opposite of Love and After You (both adult novels), I spent two years working on a novel that will forever live in a drawer. You never know what’s going to work until it works (or in some cases doesn’t). Each time I sit down to write a new project, it feels like starting all over again, because each idea is fundamentally different and its own animal. That’s both my favorite and least favorite thing about being a writer. It’s always exciting and challenging, but it never gets easy. I’ve just gotten used to doubt being baked into the process.

 

Parents are never supposed to admit which child is their favorite. I suppose the same may be said of authors and their book babies, but, (IL lowers her voice to a whisper), do you have a favorite between writing adult, young adult, or middle-grade novels?

Honestly, I love them all! I find what I like writing the most has way more to do with where I am in my life, than the genres themselves. When the world shut down, writing middle grade felt like getting to go outside and play and laugh. At the moment, I’m working on middle grade and adult at the same time, because my brain and life have a little more room to breathe. Both feed different parts of my soul, so right now, it’s like asking me to pick between chocolate and coffee. I can’t live without either.

((If you enjoyed Writing Across Age Bands – A Conversation with Julie Buxbaum, you’ll love this piece.))

Want to Buy the Book?

You can find all of Julie’s books here

https://www.juliebuxbaum.com/books.

To buy The Area 51 Files for your middle grader, click here (

https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-area-51-files-julie-buxbaum/18234858?ean=9780593429464)

And pre-order the next in the series here

(https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-big-flush-julie-buxbaum/18993218?ean=9780593429501.)

 

WNDMG Wednesday -Interview with Kaela Rivera

We Need Diverse MG Logo hands holding reading globe with stars and spirals floating around

We Need Diverse MG Logo hands holding reading globe with stars and spirals floating around

Interview with Kaela Rivera

I absolutely fangirled when Kaela Rivera agreed to let me interview her for the MUFMGA.

Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls and Cece Rios and the King of Fears

When you read this introduction to Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls and Cece Rios and the King of Fears, I bet you’ll see why I am such a huge fan.

Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls
When a powerful desert spirit kidnaps her sister, Cece Rios must learn
forbidden magic to get her back, in this own voices middle grade fantasy perfect for fans of The Storm Runner and Aru Shah and the End of Time.

Cece Rios and the King of Fears

In its thrilling sequel, Cece and her sister Juana must journey into the stronghold of Devil’s alley to challenge the criatura king El Cucuy if they, and their criatura friends, have any hopes of staying alive. 

Can’t you just feel the excitement and tension? Plus, I love a good story that touches on a type of mythology we don’t read about often—or should I say often enough?

 

Tzitzimitl

Your story places a lot of emphasis on Tzitzimitl. What is it about this Aztec God that captured your attention?

Tzitzimitl

One of my favorite things about Mesoamerican mythology is this emphasis on exploring and understanding duality. It reminds me that our ancestors were wrestling with our own duality as people, just as we do now. How we can be both beautiful and dangerous, healing and painful, loving and wrathful. That theme is perfectly captured in the legend of Tzitzimitl, a creature who’s almost demon, almost goddess.

In myth, Tzitzimitl is both the protector of children and pregnant women and also a wrathful warrior who attacks the earth whenever there’s an eclipse. She devours and destroys when her loyalties call upon it, but she also protects and uses her power to have mercy on humans. Her character is of great importance throughout the series because I wanted Cece, my main character, to learn that both good and evil wars inside people. It’s our job as we wrestle with them to choose which one wins.

That is such interesting insight. It’s not always a black and white world, and your readers can learn to appreciate that right along with Cece.

381_01_2.jpg (608×600)

Los Cinco Soles (The Five Suns)

Aztec Mythology

Did you spend much time studying Aztec mythology and/or culture before you wrote your books?

I’d studied all kinds of folklore and mythology before writing Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls, but very little of it had been from Latin America, despite my heritage. That changed when I went to visit my abuelo when I was in college, and he told me stories about curanderas and brujas and La Llorona. I came home with a desire to learn more, and after researching all kinds of folktales and myths, inspiration struck, and I started writing Cece.

prepara-la-escoba-llega-el-primer-desfile-de-brujas-a-la-cdmx

Las Brujas (The witches)

In fact, one of the reasons I love to write is because it’s one of the best ways to learn. Want to know more about folklore? Write an article or story about it, and you’ll find yourself encountering all kinds of questions that send you hunting excitedly for answers. That process also connected me more and more with my culture, something I’ll forever be grateful to my abuelo for inspiring.

Abuelitos and abuelitas are truly wonderful!

 

Monsters/Monstruos

Chupacabra

What do you think are the scariest Aztec monsters?

Honestly, so many Aztec monsters are terrifying! Most Latin American monsters are; in fact, most monsters from mythology across the world is—a testament to the kinds of fears our ancestors wrestled with in even harsher times. But like the horror genre itself, there’s a distinct morality about the terror in Latin American mythology and folklore. There’s usually a reason why something became terrifying, or why terror was inflicted.

In Cece Rios and the King of Fears, I got to include a few of my favorites, including Alux. In the story, he’s a dark criatura, but in actual tradition aluxes were small, magical beings similar to how those of European descent might think of dwarves or fairies or elves. But they had a ferocious side, and they could curse or harm people if they trespassed on their homes, good will, or even nature itself. I took that inspiration into my series because I think the exploration of nature itself being both benign and dangerous is fascinating.

 

Huichol

Another one of my other favorite legendary beings comes from Huichol tradition (the Huichol are direct descendant of the Aztecs): Tukákame

Tukákame

He’s something between a demon and a zombie—an animated corpse that burns at the touch of water and has skeleton birds for minions. He eats human flesh, and he seemed like an appropriate way of exploring destruction in the second book, though I did that more symbolically than outright.

Buñelos

I see that you know how to make buñelos which are amazing. What other Mexican foods do you like to make (or eat!)?

Yes, I adore buñelos! I’m quite happy to say I’ve gotten pretty great at timing exactly how long they need to fry for, too.

I also like making enchilada sauce from scratch. Well, “like” might be a strong word—it takes a few hours, so I’m sometimes reluctant to start, but chile sauce really does taste better when it’s fresh, not from a can.

Spanish rice and refried beans are also a classic, so I can’t not mention them (or I won’t, at least, hah!). Spanish rice with garlic smashed with the side of a knife? Mmm. The smell fills up your whole kitchen, and I love that. Refried beans that taste fresh, not canned? All half-smashed by hand in a pan? An absolute must.

 

This is one I don’t make myself, but I also really like gansitos. My friend introduced them to me a bit later in life, and now I can’t quite get over the perfect blend of cinnamon, vanilla cake, chocolate, and raspberry filling. It might be junk food, but it’s my junk food. I even had them at Cece Rios and the King of Fears’ launch party!

I see from your website that you’re part British, part Mexican-American. Any plans of focusing on your British roots for upcoming stories?

I do, actually! Well, I suppose I should say I have plans to combine my heritages together in my stories, to embrace the mix I was born with. I have a YA fantasy that will combine the Victorian language of flowers, and certain aspects of British culture, with an Aztec kingdom steeped in old magic. Plus, a playful middle-grade written with a narrator that nods toward old British fairytales, but focused on latine main characters and setting.

This has been so fascinating. I hope you’ll come back when Cece Rios and the Queen of Brujas comes out, and if any readers are interested in learning more about Kaela Rivera, you can find her and her recipe for buñelos at:

https://www.instagram.com/kaelacub/

https://twitter.com/Kaela_Rivera_

https://www.kaelarivera.com/

Interested in learning more about mythology. Check out

Check out this interview with author Karla Arenas Valenti and learn about her book which is named after the fun game Lotería

What Is A Coming-of-Age Novel?

What is a “Coming of Age” novel? The term has been applied to books ranging from Little Women to A Clockwork Orange! Still, we all know what the category is supposed to mean. It’s for books in which a young character, over time, undergoes experiences or grapples with personal or social conflicts and grows in the process. But take out the word “young” and you have the main character of most novels. The one with the most potential for change or growth.

“Coming-of-age” sets an unfortunate us-and-them tone. It suggests that we adults, having put away childish things, can  observe the young from a safe, settled, and wise distance. We forget that the young are us. Not just who we used to be, but part of who we are now. We may then miss or dismiss some great stories we need to know, perhaps even some heroes.

A successful novel only needs to be to be an engaging story. But a hopeful thing takes place when we identify with the novel’s main character. We get practice in empathy then, and that can change lives. What if that main character is a kind of outsider whom we might have avoided or made fun of in our daily life? Now in the novel we see him, not as a “kind” but as an individual, and we realize just what he or she is up against, what the stakes are.

Mark Haddon’s brilliant novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time created great sympathy and understanding for people with autism. Since then we have seen a number of popular young adult and middle-grade novels with autistic heroes. These include Siobahn Dowd’s The London Eye Mystery, Francisco X. Stork’s Marcelo in the Real World, and Katherine Erskine’s Mockingbird. Their main characters have Asperger’s and persevere in  complicated quests.

A similar thing has happened with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and dyslexia. Seeing the world from the point-of-view of Jack Gantos’s off-the-wall Joey Pigza was a revelation to readers. Then came the poignantly humorous series about dyslexic Hank Zipzer by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver (“The Fonz” is himself dyslexic, not diagnosed until adulthood). It’s his dyslexia and ADHD that get Percy, the main character of the wildly popular Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, in so much trouble at school. But these turn out to be abilities in disguise. They’re actually assets in his true role as a demi-god. Imagine the recognition and relief with which a dyslexic or ADHD student reads these books. But his classmates are reading them too. Suddenly their fellow-students’ actions may make perfect sense to them, so that they can laugh with and for them, rather than at them.

Doesn’t this increased empathy argue for having stories about every possible way of being human? And against the current impulse toward censorship or restriction of children’s access to such books?

We all have some sense of being an outsider, regardless of our background or circumstances. At around age eight or nine, we realize that we have both an inner and an outer life. We soon discover that who we feel ourselves to be cannot always be reconciled with and who others expect, even command, us to be.

Novels that focus on a young person’s struggle between those worlds remind us of our own continuing struggle to reconcile them, regardless of age. Something more important than “coming of age” or even “growing up” goes on in them. The main characters in these stories hold to something in their inner life–a dream, a conviction, a quest, a desire, a quality of self-that they believe to be essential to them.

It’s so essential that they can’t afford to give it up or give in, no matter how much pressure or ridicule they may experience from others. Sometimes very powerful others claim to know better for them or at least know better about how the world works. So they’re is tempted and discouraged along the way, and they may sustain great losses. But they gradually find the courage to be true to themselves and to bring that essential something forward with them.

Think of ten-year-old runaway orphan Bud Caldwell in Christopher Paul Curtis’s Depression era novel Bud, Not Buddy who survives neglect and abuse and hunger by clinging to three things: 1) his s dead mother’s love and assurance that he is Bud, not Buddy 2) a beat-up cardboard suitcase containing certain old playbills and rocks he believes are clues to the identity and whereabouts of his father and 3) a wry compendium he has created from his young experiences called, “Bud Caldwell’s Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making A Better Liar Out of Yourself.”

Or magical nine-year-old Thomas, in Guus Kuijer’s The Book of Everything, who “sees things others don’t see.” Tropical fish in the canals. His father regards much of what Thomas says and does as the workings of the devil. He  tries to beat it out of his son  with a spoon. When asked what he wants to be when he grows up, Thomas says. “ I want to be Happy.” His father scoffs, but a neighbor, widely regarded as a witch, thinks it’s a very good idea. She gives him books, music, companionship, and a powerful thought. That to be happy it is first necessary not to be afraid.

Remembering that thought, Thomas stands  up to his father and  inspires his sister and mother to do the same. Everyone is happier as a result, except for the now small, confused, and fear-driven father. Even Thomas’s friend Jesus doesn’t hold out much hope for change in him.

There is no guarantee that characters in these books will prevail, however much they may deserve to. Lizzie Bright, the straight-thinking free spirit in Gary Schmidt’s Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, liberates her friend Turner ’s thoughts and spirit from his rigid upbringing. But she ends up being banished by the greedy and bigoted white townspeople to an institution for the feeble-minded.   She dies there before Turner can rescue her.

Much is at stake in novels like this, and not just for the characters. We pull hard for them. We long to hope that the world can be wise enough to bend to their courage and make room for them. And for us.

For that story, any category may be too small.