Author Interviews

A Giveaway & Chat with Terra Elan McVoy, Author of Drive Me Crazy

By on April 30, 2015   /   Author Interviews, Book Lists, Fiction, Giveaways  

As much as I love Terra’s young adult books, I did a happy dance when I learned that her next book would be for middle-grade readers. So I was thrilled to talk to Terra about writing for a younger audience, friendship, road trips, and, of course, Drive Me Crazy.

JA: After writing so many wonderful YA books, what made you decide to try middle-grade?

TEM: I’ve wanted to write middle grade for a long time, in part because books were especially vital to me during that phase of my life. I also thought switching things up a bit would help me continue to grow as a writer. Prior to now, all the stories I had in my head were aimed toward teenagers, but finally the right project came up at the right time!

Photo of Terra Elan McVoy

Photo credit: Jamie Allen

JA: How is the process of crafting a middle-grade voice different from a YA voice? Did your research differ in any way?

TEM: For me the biggest difference is there’s definitely far less self-analysis in middle grade. When Lana is scared, she’s just scared—she doesn’t have a big monologue with herself about why. If Cassie’s angry, she’s angry, and she doesn’t try to rationalize or justify it. Also, there’s far less romantic turmoil, and that was admittedly refreshing.

Since this is for slightly younger readers though, I also needed to make the stops and activities lively and kid-friendly. This wasn’t something I was used to thinking about, but once I got used to it, was a lot of fun. I researched actual places in California that might be interesting (Hearst Castle, for example), but had fun making up things like a musical-themed restaurant, too!

JA: What inspired this particular story? Which character came to you first?

There was a lot that inspired Drive Me Crazy, but three relationships in particular get the most credit. Very first is the connection I have with my editor, best friend, and writing collaborator, Anica Rissi. Every novel I’ve done, including this one, stems from some conversation (probably multiple conversations) we’ve had. Drive Me Crazy specifically emerged from a talk about middle grade books, and what my writing one might look like. Anica told me a horribly embarrassing story from her own history about a girl who’s diary had been found and read aloud on the bus, and that seemed too good a tale not to be used somehow. Luckily she was sweet and generous enough to let me run with something that came from her actual life, and we went on from there.

There were other relationships we thought I could work with too, including the close one I have with my cousin Meg. There’s a special bond you have, being cousins, and I wanted to explore that, at least a little. Similarly, I had history to till with my oldest and dearest friend, whom I met when we were in second grade. In middle school we went our separate ways for awhile (quite awhile—until our senior year, really), because she wanted to be a certain way and I wanted to be another. Though Cassie and Lana are quite different than we were, the tension between girls going through changes at that age was interesting to me. Luckily I knew from experience that it can be worked out, and was interested in traversing a similar arc in a book.

The characters all began as initial descriptions or ideas, and then evolved slowly, but I think the one who emerged as her own person first was Grandma Tess. She’s so feisty and unpredictable—a lot of fun to write!

JA: Lana and Cassie are very different characters. Do you identify with one more than the other?

TEM: It’s funny—throughout the writing of Drive Me Crazy I would go back and forth between whom I related to most. When I was in middle school myself, I think I was more of a Lana: earnest, very concerned about my friends, close to her family. But I also loved clothes and was obsessed with fashion, so in some ways I was dying to be stylish, sophisticated and culturally savvy like Cassie, too. I struggled with both those identities at the same time then, and in some ways still do!

A photo of the cover of Drive Me Crazy

JA: What’s the best road trip you’ve ever taken?

Hands down the best road trip I’ve taken was from San Francisco to Tallahassee, FL, with my good friend Tom. I was moving back to my hometown after a fantastic year of living in San Francisco, and needed someone to help me drive back all my stuff. Tom met me in California, and we drove down the state, through Arizona, into Petrified Forest land (we saw an amazing sunset there), and all the way across Texas, into Louisiana. We stayed in New Orleans one night, and were tempted to stay put! When we crossed the border into Florida, I wanted to see the Gulf right away, and Tom suggested a detour to Pensacola beach. Seeing the coast, plus the beloved familiar green of the Florida panhandle was such a wonderful welcome after all the desert we’d crossed, and made for a great homecoming.

JA: Do you think you’ll do any more middle-grade? Any hints about what your next project might be?

TEM: As I said, I’ve been interested in middle grade for awhile, and I’m very excited to be working right now on the companion book to Drive Me Crazy. This is All Your Fault, Cassie Parker will come out in summer 2016. It’s the tale of Fiona Coppleton, Cassie’s former best friend. They have a very nasty break at the beginning of Drive Me Crazy, and though we hear a lot about Fiona from Cassie’s perspective, This is All Your Fault, Cassie Parker narrates everything from Fiona’s side.

I’ve got another middle grade idea up my sleeve too, but that one’s nowhere near book form yet. I have to say I am really enjoying writing for both of these differing age groups, though!

JA: What recent middle-grade is on your shelf? Any favorites to recommend to our readership?

My current To Read pile is stacked high with a lot of young adult right now, but one middle grade that has snuck in there is Rules for Stealing Stars by Corey Ann Haydu (releasing in September). I’m also reading Rebecca Stead’s Goodbye Stranger, a tween-based novel coming out in August. Her middle grade When You Reach Me, is definitely a favorite of mine, and if you haven’t read it you should—perfect combo of realism with a twist of magic. One Came Home by Amy Timberlake also has one of the strongest narrative voices I’ve ever read (in any age bracket), and Katherine Applegate’s Home of the Brave is one I think pretty much everyone should read. Of course I still stand by my classic faves too, like the Ramona books, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, Peter Pan, or any adventure in Oz!

Thanks for your time, Terra, and best of luck with Drive Me Crazy.

And now it’s your turn, dear reader. Tell us about your favorite road trip in the comments below and you’ll be entered to win a copy of Drive Me Crazy!

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A Chat (& a Giveaway!) with Tracey Baptiste about her new book, The Jumbies

By on April 28, 2015   /   Author Interviews, Book Lists, Fiction, For Teachers, Giveaways  

Tracey Baptiste has written numerous nonfiction books for children and the YA novel Angel’s Grace. The Jumbies, a creepy tale that captures the spirit and folklore of Baptiste’s native Trinidad, is her first middle-grade novel. Tracy took time out to chat with us about telling the stories from her childhood, writing for the middle-grade audience, and books from her childhood that inspired her.

JA: Tracey, you’ve written for both middle-grade and the young- adult audiences. Can you tell us a little bit about how the process differs between middle-grade and YA? Do you prefer writing for one audience over the other?

TB: My first novel, Angel’s Grace, was billed as YA, but the protagonist, Grace, was only thirteen, just two years older than Corinne in The Jumbies. I actually think my wheelhouse is in younger teens and tweens, and the process of writing for both is the same for me: hard. But I do think about the difference in age for one reading audience over another. For instance, there is a scene in The Jumbies where Severine eats a creature in the forest. My editor and I had some back and forth over making sure this wasn’t too scary, but I thought there were scarier bits, like the centipedes that run all over Severine’s body. Crawly bugs seem much more frightening to me than a wriggly snack. But maybe it’s just me. I’m working on something now that seems like it should be for an older audience because of the themes, but I like the protagonist as a twelve year old. I’ll have to see how this one shakes out and what my editor and agent have to say when it’s in good enough shape to show them.

A photo of Tracey Baptiste

Photo credit: Latifah Abdur Photography

JA: You’ve written a lot of non-fiction. How does that research process differ from the research process for fiction?

TB: Nonfiction is definitely a different approach. First of all, it’s a relief to have all or most of the facts before I start. With fiction there’s a lot of groping around in the dark trying to figure it out. It’s exciting to get my hands on facts and then turn them into a narrative, and researching can be exhilarating when you find a piece of information that makes the rest of the pieces you found click together. The trick with nonfiction, though, is choosing how to shape the narrative while still presenting a balanced and unbiased viewpoint. When I research for fiction, usually the entire story is written, and there are these holes with weird notes to myself like: find out if tuba players have any slang they use among themselves.

JA: I read another interview in which you said you’d worked on The Jumbies for more than ten years. Can you talk about how you persevered through rewriting (to make it “more epic”), receiving rejections by the first few editors who saw it, and making an agency change? You never gave up, and I know I’m not the only one who is so glad you didn’t!

TB: Well thanks!

I’ve come to realize that part of my process is working on something for a while and then putting it away for a longer while, and then coming back to it. I am not a fast writer and I tend to work on multiple projects at a time. But getting The Jumbies into the hands of the right editor really was a long slog. I wish I could say I handled all the uncertainty with bravery and grace, but alas, I was pretty miserable for long periods and it definitely extended the length of time that I wasn’t writing. I think at one point I quit writing for over a year. But this story kept pulling me back in. I also have to credit my husband and my mom for their unwavering support. After a rejection, I would turn them for encouragement, and then I’d look at the story again and think about what didn’t work, and what could be bigger and better. As far the direction I was given to make it more epic, I just kept thinking about how far I could push things. How hard could I make this on Corinne? How far could she go to save everyone?

When I made the decision to leave my previous agency, it was just about the working relationship. I learned a lot of things about my needs as a writer between my first novel and my second. And what I needed was an agent who was also a writer, and understood what I was dealing with. I found that in Marie Lamba, and it’s a great working relationship with the added bonus that we like each other outside of work as well.

A photo of Tracey Baptiste's book, The Jumbies

JA: What advice do you have for teachers and librarians who want to tie The Jumbies in to a larger unit on folk tales or Caribbean culture?

TB: It’s important to know more about the culture of jumbies, and for that I’ve made a “field guide” which is available on the Algonquin YR site. Jumbie stories were part of everyday conversations when I was growing up. I still don’t answer when I hear my name called at night. I ask if someone is calling me even though I’m too old now to be snatched up by a jumbie. It’s just habit. The other thing to realize is the Caribbean, and Trinidad in particular, has a very rich literary history. I grew up reading novels written by people in my own culture, so teachers and librarians may also want to offer some titles like Herbert de Lisser’s The White Witch of Rosehall or Jean D’Costa’s Escape to Last Man Peak, or my favorite, V. S. Naipaul’s Miguel Street. All of these were required reading when I was at school.

JA: Have your children been to Trinidad? Have you shared the stories of your childhood with them and what do they think? Do they like scary stories?

TB: Yes! They go to Trinidad often and they complain when they don’t get a chance to go (like last summer when they complained EVERY SINGLE DAY). Both my husband and I are from Trinidad so there is plenty of family for them to visit over the summer. I am sure the family keeps them well entertained with stories from when their dad and I were kids. I hope they do like scary stories because The Jumbies is now required reading at my house.

JA: What are you working on next?

TB: I’m working on a story about a future society that has too much technology for their own good. I’m also working on two picture books, one about an unlikely superhero and another about a kid visiting with her grandfather.

JA: What other middle-grade books are on your bookshelf at present? Any recent favorites that you can recommend?

I have Kat Yeh’s The Truth About Twinkie Pie, which my daughter read and loved but I haven’t had a chance to read yet. I also have C. Taylor Butler’s The Lost Tribes, which I’m planning to read aloud to both of the kids, and Ramin Ganeshram’s Stir It Up, which was released back in 2011, but I haven’t gotten to it yet. (I’m also a slow reader, it seems!)

MG books on a shelf

A peek at Tracey’s bookshelf!

Thank you for spending time with From the Mixed-Up Files, Tracey, and best of luck with The Jumbies!

Readers, leave a comment below with your favorite spooky story to win a copy of The Jumbies!

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Interview and Giveaway with Molly Burnham, author of TEDDY MARS: ALMOST A WORLD RECORD BREAKER

By on April 9, 2015   /   Author Interviews  

 

I am THRILLED to have debut middle-grade author Molly Burnham on our blog.  In fact, you might say I could set the WORLD RECORD in thrillsy-ness because Molly is the author of TEDDY MARS: ALMOST A WORLD RECORD BREAKER!

TM1-cover

Teddy is determined to set a world record, no matter what it takes!  What world record do you think you could conquer?  Do you have a favorite world record?  Did you do any unusual research for this book?

Teddy is the kid I wish I had been: persistent, determined, and obsessed. I’m certain I don’t have the qualities required to break a record on my own. Although one friend suggested I break the record for sleeping in a sweater for the most days in a row (I do sleep in a sweater all winter because I’m always cold).

Really, I’d like to do a community event-it’s part of my punk ethic-something where a group needs to chip in. I do better with loads of people around (this is true for many parts of my life except writing). So I think it would be a record for the largest group to pick up trash, or paint a mural, or create a park, or paint a school, or build a library.

I have to say, I don’t have a favorite record. I really appreciate the creativity of everyone who breaks a record. There are definitely records that don’t appeal to me as much, like having the most Twitter followers. It just doesn’t seem as amazing as running in flippers, or eating jellybeans with chopsticks.

Some of Teddy’s ideas are pretty outlandish – including a scheme involving pigeons and POOP.  Where did you get these ideas?  Did you have to go through a lot of ideas to get to the gems?

First off, I try to hang out with kids as much as possible. They are geniuses and they are hilarious. They remind me of all the creative ways we might approach life. Second off, I keep my eyes open for moments of funniness in everyone (including myself) like the fart scene with all the relatives. That came because my husband and I seem to fart a lot lately. (I definitely didn’t farted as much when I was a kid.) I thought it would be even funnier to have a whole family of grown-ups farting.  Because what’s funnier than that? And, yes, sometimes I go through a lot of ideas to find the best one. I often sketch these out in drawings instead of writing them down, because the book is very slapstick humor, and pictures help me with that.

Molly as a totally terrific seafaring kid!

Molly as a totally terrific seafaring kid!

When/how did the idea for Teddy first come to you?  Did the situation or the character come first?

Aspects of the story had been swirling in my brain for some time. I had taught third grade and was struck by how the students still loved The Guinness Book of World Records, and how much I had loved it as a kid. So I was interested in writing about a kid who loved the book. I also thought a lot about siblings and about feeling seen by your family. That came from my experience as a child, as well as with my children who sometimes do not feel like I see them, or understand them.

The first sentence came out of me like a satisfying burp. One day I was writing in my kitchen, at the time we had a cat and an enclosed cat box, and I thought, what if a kid liked climbing into a cat box? Right away Teddy started speaking, and he wouldn’t let go. After that, it was up to me to follow him and the rest of the characters around until the story was written.

Teddy has many siblings, including a little brother known as THE DESTRUCTOR, who is always ruining Teddy’s plans.  Did you come from a large family?  As a writer, was it hard to portray these dynamics/manage all the characters?  Do you use charts, index cards, Scrivener?

I come from a small family, just an older sister. I do have a number of friends from large families, and my husband has quite a few siblings. I found in talking with them that the emotions are very similar in whatever family size you’re from, but how much attention is paid to you changes with the amount of children. Although, I would say, as a child of the 1970’s, I don’t think parents paid a lot of attention to us no matter how small the family. But I’ll be curious how my kids reflect on their childhood. Most of the characters are little bits of me, or people I know, and then a lot of imagination.

I start writing by hand in notebooks. I keep those around and scribble in them. I love sticky notes for writing notes to myself, but I don’t carefully post them on a bulletin board. I don’t even own a bulletin board. I just make piles on my desk. Mostly my rule about writing is to not have any rules.  I have to embrace the chaos in my own life. Sometimes I write all day, sometimes my kids are sick, sometimes I have to go to the dentist, sometimes I get up at five in the morning, and sometimes I stay up late. I really don’t have any rules. (I tried Scrivener, but it’s too organized for me).

I do have a treadmill desk, and I walk when I’m writing. But when I’m editing I sit. Or else I feel like I’ll throw up.

Molly Burnham

Author Molly Burnham – NOT throwing up

 

Teddy has some fabulous tips on how to set a world record.  What are your tips for writing a FUNNY book?

I wish I could answer this question better than to say I read a lot of funny books. Then I keep them close to me so that whenever I get serious (which can happen rather more easily than I’d like) I open one of those books and read a passage and then remember I’m writing a funny book and revise with that in mind. Right now I have a Junie B. Jones book on my desk and Emily Jenkins’ book Toys Go Out. I also watch funny TV shows.

 What’s next for you?

There are two more Teddy Mars books coming out. The second book, Teddy Mars Almost a Winner, is with Trevor Spencer (the extraordinary illustrator) right now. And I’m working on the third book. I have lots of other stories I’d like to offer the world. But Teddy Mars is my priority right now.

Thanks, Molly!  If you have a world-record contender in your life who would like a copy of TEDDY MARS: ALMOST A WORLD RECORD BREAKER, leave a comment about what world record YOU’D like to break!

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