Author Interviews

Interview and Giveaway with Jen Swann Downey

By on June 17, 2016   /   Author Interviews, Book Lists, Fiction, For Kids, For Librarians, For Parents, For Teachers, For Writers, Giveaways, News, Writing  

swordinthestacks

It’s our pleasure here at the Mixed Up Files to interview the fabulously funny Jen Swann Downey, author of THE NINJA LIBRARIANS series. The second installment, SWORD IN THE STACKS, has just released from Sourcebooks Jaberwocky. After stumbling upon the secret society of time-traveling ninja librarians, Dorrie has finally joined Petrarch’s Library as an apprentice! One day, she’ll actually go on missions to rescue people whose words have gotten them into trouble. For now she’s taking some interesting classes:
• First and Last Aid: When Nobody Else is Coming
• Spears, Axes, and Cats: Throwing Objects with Precision and Flair
• Codes, Invisible Inks, and Smoke Signals: Keeping Secrets 101

But on a training mission to 1912 England, Dorrie finds herself dangerously close to a member of the Stronghold – the Library’s biggest enemy. This is her opportunity! Dorrie can spy on the enemy, find the missing key…and become a real Lybrarian!

But if she makes a mistake, Dorrie could lead their enemy right to the very place she’s trying to save…and everyone she cares about.

It’s been a couple of years since the Ninja Librarians first began their adventures. What was the genesis of the idea for this series? I think the seed for the series was planted when I saw the phrase “Petrarch’s Library” scrawled on a notebook I found in our never-very-organized, and always-very-clutterful house. Everyone in the family denied being the scrawler, but the phrase ignited my imagination, especially after I looked it up and found it associated with a collection of books that the 14th century humanist and poet, Petrarch, had carried around with him when he traveled on the back of a donkey. That made me laugh, because the phrase had suggested some sort of grand magnificent library. But then I thought, well, even a small collection of books IS a sort of imaginary grand magnificent place because each of the books is a doorway into a different world of ideas, and knowledge, and story.

Suddenly I was imagining “Petrarch’s Library” as a solid, if sprawling building, made out of library chambers from different times and places knitted together by magic into one incredible super-library.

Since I was a kid, I always had the feeling that librarians were masquerading at doing something mundane while actually doing something incredible, mysterious and magical. It seemed reasonable that the work of librarians who staffed the imaginary Petrarch’s Library would defend and protect the flow of information in shall we say, some additional warrior-ish direct action ways!

Dorrie and Marcus have hair-raising adventures in lots of locations throughout history. Tell us a little bit about your research process. You are so kind to dignify my flailing attempts at understanding and conveying history as “a research process”. : )   I love history. I’m quite sure I don’t do any justice to any standards of academic research, but I love rolling around in the past in any way I can. For these first two books, once I settled on a place and time that would figure in the story, I would spend far too much on used books from Amazon to get a general sense of the “wherein” and then do more particular research as I needed to know more. I stare at paintings and statues, read historians’ accounts, and most satisfyingly of all – read uninterpreted original source material. For instance, parts of SWORD IN THE STACKS take place in 1912 London. I loved reading newspapers from the era to get a feel for the time, and how various sectors of society felt about the suffrage question.

The overarching theme of these books seems to be freedom of speech, a very relevant issue-not just for libraries. What do you hope readers will take away from this series? Since I was a young kid, I’ve been awed by those who have spoken “truth to power” often at great cost to themselves.  I am enjoying, through these fantasy adventures, posing questions about what exactly we mean by intellectual freedom, why it might have value, and what it means to uphold such a principle in every day life.

I hope readers who may not have thought about these things in a while, or lately, or ever, will join me in that questioning. About how for instance, a chasm can exist between theoretical support for the principle of intellectual freedom and the actions we take or don’t take when confronted with speech/writing we find dangerous, stupid, hurtful, or otherwise offensive.  It’s tempting to ignore cases of censorship of viewpoints we don’t share, or viewpoints we actively disagree with.

What are some of the challenges to series writing? Are sequels easier than writing the first book? When I wrote the first book, I chose to devote a good deal of my efforts to world-building. I reveled in (and gnashed my teeth at!) the challenges of making the clear rich fantasy vision of the alternate world inside my head and heart come alive for readers. When I began the second, I felt both tantalized and scared by the fact that the world now existed. My new main job would be to create a compelling story for Dorris and the rest of the Library’s inhabitants to live out WITHIN that world, and I wasn’t sure I could come up with enough story! I felt like a kid who, determined to build a club-house, bends all will to the task, and after much effort succeeds in nailing on the last shingle, but then isn’t quite sure what to DO with the clubhouse!

As I began to imagine Dorris’s story for the second book, it was hard not to think about the possibility of a “disappointing” sequel, which generated Fear and Self-Consciousness. I don’t know about you, but those two cats do not fuel creative flow for me!  I had to take back ownership of the book-writing somehow, and make it a creative act that wasn’t about pleasing others, but myself. Which sounds very vague. My specific strategy was to give myself a specific craft challenge.  I was very aware of the flaws I perceived via hindsight in my first book, especially in terms of plotting. The task I set for myself was to do a better job of plotting. One that I could feel was an improvement over the plotting in book one, even a small improvement. That if I could do that, no matter what else I achieved or didn’t with the book, I could feel good about that.  Somehow that really grounded and motivated me all at once.

You have an amazingly imaginative sense of humor. Please tell us about what kind of kid you were and how you grew to be such a wieldy wordsmith. Oh gosh. What kind of kid was I? I’m sure I was a trial to many neighbors and teachers.  I was a big time pretend kid.  I read a lot. A lot! But I was also loud and boisterous and a tree climber and a creek wader. I was an idiot. I had no sense of perspective. I always had a big plan: Bike to NYC, join the circus, run a restaurant out of our moldy basement.  I lectured the older teens on the block about smoking. I reveled in attics, basements, garages, storm drains, and all the rest of the unclaimed territories in which new civilizations could be erected. I took to writing early, mostly for its usefulness in writing ransom notes. I wrote letters, indignant childhood diary entries, purple poetry, and yearning paeans to each person I fell in love with, but didn’t really write stories until I was deep into matron-hood.

What’s your favorite part of being a children’s author? Writing for people who still believe that anything is possible.

If you could travel back in time to when you were first beginning to write toward publication, what advice would you give yourself or aspiring writers? Don’t rush. Don’t rush. Don’t rush. When you’re sure that your manuscript is in stellar shape, and you’re positive that the very first agent, or second at least, will fall in instant love with it…STOP.  Freeze your computer in a block of ice.  Lock it in a safe and swallow the key. Hire a cadre of badgers to bury it in the forest (wrapped nicely in protective plastic, naturally) but DON’T SEND OUT THE MANUSCRIPT.  Give yourself at least a month. Work on something else.  Another story. A macrame project. Anything. But give yourself time to be able to see the manuscript anew. When you were sure that there was nothing left to improve. Then send it out, and good luck!

Do you have any exciting plans for this summer, or do you do most of your traveling in books? My exciting plans include excavating the garden out of the weeds (I should have it ready to go just in time for the first snowstorm), teaching the family’s new dog not to pull all the arms out of all the family sockets whenever during our walks he sees a squirrel, or a cat, or a popsicle stick, or anything really;  and yes, exploring the Mongol Empire from my book-page origami airplane. You know…just in case Dorris and Marcus and Ebba have to maybe perhaps possibly visit there…..

And finally, what exactly are all seventeen uses for a flaming arrow? Or does one have to become a lybrarian to find out? We denizens of Petrarch’s Library believe in the free flow of useful information and would be more than happy to share:

The Seventeen Uses of a Flaming Arrow

1. Lighting surprise party birthday cake candles.
2. Severing a rope down which your enemy has only made it halfway     down.
3. “Safely” igniting explosives.
4. Illuminating dark archive passages in an exhilarating manner.
5. Beginning a useful stampede at a royal ball.
6. Trimming the hedges.
7. Checking depth of fetid well into which one is about to spelunk.
8. Low-tech signal flare.
9. Simultaneously catching and cooking your supper.
10. Instant wound cauterizer.
11. Encouraging tediously bad actors to exit stage left.
12. Quickly disposing of outdated curtains.
13. Entertainment of small children or easily pleased adults.
14. Testing air quality in an underground cavern.
15. Keeping angry book-burners at bay.
16. Impromptu fondu maker.
17. The ultimate literary exclamation point.  : )
We are giving away a hot-off-the-press copy of THE NINJA LIBRARIANS: SWORD IN THE STACKS to one lucky winner! All you have to do is tell us an 18th use for a flaming arrow in the comments below!

JenSwannDowneyJen Swann Downey’s non-fiction pieces have appeared in New York Magazine, the Washington Post, Women’s Day, and other publications. She is the author of the middle-grade novel, THE NINJA LIBRARIANS: THE ACCIDENTAL KEYHAND. Her second novel, THE NINJA LIBRARIANS: SWORD IN THE STACKS is also now available from Sourcebooks. Jen divides her time between libraries and other places, and will never stop looking for lickable wallpaper.

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MG? YA? Definitely a giveaway.

By on June 13, 2016   /   Author Interviews, Book Lists, Diversity, Fiction, For Librarians, For Parents, For Teachers, MUF Contributor Books  

My new novel, “Every Single Second”,  published this month. It deals with heavy-duty issues: gun violence, post traumatic stress, race and class divides, belief in God (or not). I was ready for lots of questions about this book! It’s funny that I never anticipated one of the most interesting things I’d be asked: why did you make this middle grade instead of young adult?

every single second cover

That question rests, I think, on the assumption that some issues are just too much for MG to handle. For sure, none of my earlier books went places as dark as this new one. For sure, while I was writing it, I sometimes wished I wasn’t. Those days, I took long, heavy-hearted walks, feeling like the  girl I met on one of my school visits. When I described the book’s plot, she put her hands over her eyes.

Yet on that same school visit, and many times afterward, middle grade kids came up to me wanting to know how soon the book would be available. They helped me remember why I needed to tell this story. Ducking hard issues doesn’t make them go away. I’m pretty sure it helps them endure.

While I was writing, Tamir Rice, a twelve year old, was shot and killed by police here in Cleveland. His neighborhood is only a few miles from mine, but it might as well be another country. On paper, our city is wonderfully diverse and multi-cultural. In reality, we live in highly segregated communities. This is how things were fifty years ago, and, heart-breaking as it is to contemplate, how things still are (if anything, after the foreclosure crisis segregation is even worse here).

I don’t know how, or if, these walls will ever be knocked down. But I knew I could try to tell the story of kids living on opposite sides. No one is more passionate about what’s right and what’s wrong, about fairness and justice, than middle graders. In my book, the violence takes place off-stage. But what leads up to it, and its consequences, are (I hope) fully explored.

all rise fortowers fallingcounting thyme

More and more middle grade books are taking on sensitive issues. Just look at some of the most recent titles. Donna Gephart’s “Lily and Dunkin” features a transgender girl and a bipolar boy. “All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook”, by Leslie Connor, is about incarceration. Melanie Conklin’s “Counting Thyme” is about cancer. Nora Raleigh Baskin’s “Nine Ten: A September 11 Story” and Jewell Parker Rhodes’s “Towers Falling” take on national tragedy. Kate Messner’s “The Seventh Wish” is about drug addiction.

Middle grade kids dealing with these things in their own lives will find themselves on the pages of these stories. They’ll know they’re not alone. Their problems can be talked about without shame or stigma.  Could there be a greater gift?  Other kids  will be exposed to things they may never have thought about or tried to understand. As one of the characters in “Every Single Second” says, “I didn’t get it before. I never knew anybody like her, with a family like that, and problems like that.”

Middle grade readers brim with hope. Empathy is in their DNA. There could be no better, more open-hearted and receptive audience for books about the hard issues.  It’s such an honor and privilege to work for them!

If you’d like to win a signed copy of “Every Single Second”, please leave a comment below. More book recs especially welcome!

Tricia is lucky enough to have been a Mixed Up Files member for many years. You can find out more about her and her books at www.triciaspringstubb.com

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Interview with Dorian Cirrone and Two Great Giveaways

By on June 6, 2016   /   Author Interviews, For Writers, Giveaways  

Dorian Cirrone author photo - The First Last DayI’m thrilled to interview Mixed-Up Files member Dorian Cirrone! She always shares a wealth of writing knowledge, and I’m excited to celebrate her new middle grade novel, The First Last Day. Congratulations, Dorian! I’d love to know how you came up with the idea for this novel.

First, let me say thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to talk about my new book and my favorite topic, the craft of writing.

I got the idea for the novel during the summer of 2007, when I was lying in bed thinking about how it was probably the last time both my kids would be home together. My daughter was going to start her senior year of college, and I knew she might not be living with us ever again. At that moment, I wished summer didn’t have to end. When it occurred to me that I’d had similar feelings about summer when I was a child, I decided the whole premise might make a good children’s book. I thought about the novel A Portrait of Dorian Gray, one I was very familiar with because my mother named me after the character. In the novel, Dorian Gray’s image in a painting grows older while he stays young. For that reason, I decided to make my main character an artist. But because that novel’s ending was way too gruesome, I changed the plot and made it so Haleigh’s painting causes her to live the same day over and over, like in the movie Groundhog Day.

How did The First Last Day change during revisions?

The novel that’s being published barely resembles the original version. I revised the manuscript over a period of about seven years. During that time, I would have my agent send it out once in a while, and then after a few rejections, I would revise and/or let it sit for long periods of time before going back to it. Even though I had already published four books, getting this one right was tricky. While the manuscript sat idle in my computer, I read a lot, wrote other things, studied tons of books on the writing craft, attended workshops, and put together material for workshops I taught. Finally, I came to the conclusion that the whole thing needed to be overhauled. The first version, which was written in third person past tense, was not a mystery at all. Once I decided to change it to first person and make it a mystery, things started to come together. The voice became more engaging in first person, and the plot became more complex. I added three major characters and a few minor ones as suspects who might have given Haleigh the magic paints. And in the final version, the person who gave Haleigh the paints is totally different with different motivation. Much was taken out of the original version of the novel, and most of the second half was added. Even after that major revision, I kept refining the language over time so it was true to Haleigh’s voice.Brett in a cow suit

I also made Kevin a little more quirky, and turned him into a sci-fi film buff. And I added his cow suit and the cow puns that he and Haleigh exchange. It might seem unbelievable, but Kevin is slightly based on my daughter’s best friend, Brett, who used to wear a cow suit for fun—all the way up until college!

I absolutely loved The First Last Day and can’t believe it didn’t start out as a mystery! All your hard work over the past seven years definitely shows. Your characters are beautifully fleshed out and you had so many sensory details, I definitely felt like I experienced the Jersey Shore. As a writer, I know details like this don’t appear in a book without putting a lot of thought into them. Do you have any tricks to share about adding details like these to a book or story?

During the writing and revising, I paid a lot of attention to what I thought Haleigh would smell, taste, touch, and hear. I had spent some time at the Jersey Shore one summer and visited a couple of other times, so those things were something I experienced personally. There’s really no trick except to put yourself in your character’s shoes and figure out what he or she might be experiencing at each moment. The tricky part is that you have to take your adult author self out of the equation and be true to what the character would honestly notice in each scene. Sometimes that’s harder than it seems. One thing I paid attention to in this novel was the sensation of touch because I think it’s one of those overlooked senses that can make a story more vivid and help the reader identify even more with a character. I looked for opportunities where Haleigh would realistically experience tactile sensations. And I don’t want to sound all English major-y, but I also tried to incorporate a lot of the sensory imagery into the novel’s themes. For example, Haleigh’s fingertips tingle when she runs them across the rough surface of the mysterious blank canvas for the first time. This not only gives readers a chance to feel what Haleigh is feeling, but it also creates tension. Since readers already have an idea from the flap copy that the canvas is magical, they know even more than Haleigh does what that tingling sensation foreshadows. In addition, when she traces the outline of a fish imbedded in a rock with her finger, the action connects with her being an artist. Later when Kevin’s grandmother talks about fossils being nature’s way of reminding us to remember the past, the relationship between nature, fossils, art, and memory all come together.

Those were some of my favorite moments in the book! I especially loved what Kevin’s grandmother said about fossils. It gave me chills.

You’ve done a great job writing middle grade, chapter books, and young adult novels. What advice do you have for people who are switching between categories?

The thing about switching is that you have to read many more books to familiarize yourself with not only what’s already been written in a specific category but also what the characters care about and what their issues are at certain ages. For example, in my young adult novels, the characters are much more concerned about romantic relationships and future plans for college and a profession. While Haleigh in The First Last Day is also worried about what will happen in the future and whether her relationship with Kevin will change, it’s more about friendship and family rather than love and success. I’ve read that kids in elementary school and early middle school are more concerned with fitting in and finding their place within the family and school, whereas teens care more about being independent and finding an identity apart from family and other institutions. I think that’s pretty accurate. Then, of course, there’s voice. And the only way to really get the distinction between a middle grade voice and a teen voice is to read—a lot.

Thanks, Dorian! You always give great advice. Do you have a writing exercise to share with everyone?

Before I even start to write, I like to know about my main character’s backstory and how it will relate to his or her motivation for taking the journey toward a specific goal. That backstory is so important for understanding why a character does certain things and acts certain ways. It also helps your audience identify and empathize. Here are three questions to ask your main character:

  1. If you could go back in time and change one incident in your life, what would it be?
  2. How would you change it?
  3. How do you think your life would have been if that incident hadn’t happened or if you’d reacted in a different way?

I love this exercise, and can’t wait to use it. Thank you so much for all your great advice and for celebrating your new middle grade novel, The First Last Day, on the Mixed-Up Files.

Dorian Cirrone worked as a door-to-door survey taker, a dance teacher, a choreographer, a journalist, and a college writing instructor before writing books for young readers. She is also the author of several poems, stories, chapter books, and young adult novels. She has never been trapped in a time loop, but because she has lived in south Florida most of her life, sometimes she feels caught in an endless summer.

You can find more of Dorian’s advice on her blog (she has great giveaways there, too). Plus you can find Dorian on her website, Facebook, and Twitter. Teachers and librarians can contact Dorian via her website to request an Educator’s Guide for The First Last Day.

Great news! Dorian has generously donated TWO amazing giveaways. Enter the Rafflecopter widgets below for a chance to win: 

  1. A signed copy of The First Last Day. If a teacher or librarian wins this, Dorian would be happy to send up to 30 bookmarks, too!

The First Last Day Cover

When Haleigh finds a mysterious set of oil paints in her backpack, she uses them to paint a picture of her last day at the Jersey Shore. The next morning, she wakes up and discovers that her wish for an endless summer has come true. She’s caught in a time loop, and nothing has to change.

But Haleigh soon learns that staying in one place and time comes with a price, and she has to make a choice: do nothing and miss out on some good things the future has to offer, or find the secret of the time loop and possibly face some bad things. As she and Kevin set out to find the source of the magic paints, Haleigh wonders if she’s making the biggest mistake of her life.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

  1. A critique of up to 10 pages of a middle grade novel, young adult novel, or picture book.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Winners will be announced on June 14th. Good luck, everyone!

*Anyone can win the 10 page critique, but the signed book is only available in the United States.

Mindy Alyse Weiss writes humorous middle grade novels with heart and quirky picture books. She’s constantly inspired by her two daughters, an adventurous Bullmasador adopted from The Humane Society, and an adorable Beagle/Pointer mix who was rescued from the Everglades. Visit Mindy’s Twitter, Facebook, or blog to read more about her writing life, conference experiences, and writing tips.

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