Today The Mixed Up Files is thrilled to welcome co-authors of the Maggie Malone series, Jenna McCarthy and Carolyn Evans. They were kind enough to chat with us about how they write as a team, about their characters, and (psssst) future Maggie Malone adventures. Maggie Malone Makes a Splash, the third book in their Middle Grade series, released on Cinco de Mayo! Congratulations and welcome, Ladies. Thanks so much for stopping by.
MUF: We’re curious how your collaborative process works. What does that look like for two authors co-writing a book?
Jenna: In school I was always the person who hated group projects, because I’m a total control freak. I didn’t think I’d enjoy the collaborative process, but Carolyn convinced me to give it a try, and it’s actually been amazing. She and I take turns writing chapters; when one of us is done, we send it to the other and we read it together on the phone. After we howl and squeal and tell the other how awesome she is, we discuss what we think should happen next, and then the other person gets to work on her chapter. It’s exciting to hand off a story mid-plot and then wait to see what your partner does with it. The best part is how seamlessly our voices blend; my kids are always trying to guess who wrote what, and they’re often wrong—which tells me we’re doing a great job! We rarely disagree, but in the event we do, we have a “three veto” policy per book, which essentially means if there’s an impasse, we each get to fight for (and keep) only the three things we feel most strongly about. This way, you push for only what’s most important to you. You know your partner is serious about something when she throws down a veto—and you respect it. Fortunately, Carolyn and I see pretty eye-to-eye on all things Maggie so we rarely have to play the veto card.
MUF: What is it like to spend time with the same characters through more than one book, as you create your series? Are there challenges about that? Do you get tired of them, or do you feel you get to know them better?
Carolyn: Jenna and I both love getting to know these characters throughout the series and have more fun with them over time. Frank the genie is probably my favorite character and he just gets funnier, grittier (did I mention he’s a cowboy genie?) and more honest, the longer Maggie knows him. We have had a little trouble keeping our minor characters straight between books (was Willis Freedman the long-eared donkey in the Christmas pageant or was that Carl Lumberton?) but lucky for me, Jenna is crazy organized and keeps a running character cheat sheet for us to refer back to. Also, the main part of each book is Maggie’s day in someone else’s shoes, which inevitably involves her meeting new people, so there are always fun, fresh characters to create in every book.
Can you tell us the inspiration for Maggie? Did it come from more than one place?
Carolyn: Jenna and I wanted to collaborate on a series of books for kids, but we weren’t sure exactly what we wanted to write together. We talked on the phone a lot and I mentioned to Jenna that I had been working on an idea for a series that involved a boy main character. I believe she said something like, “No way, man. I got nothing when it comes to boys,” because she has two little girls.” Plus, she’s not a fan of potty humor like I am, so I said, “Fine. What else could we do?” She remembered that she had played around with the idea of magic shoes, but hadn’t come up with what the magic of the shoes should be. I think I said something about that girl in the blue gingham dress from Kansas who had a pair of magic shoes so we might want to steer clear of that kind of magic and also those types of shoes. Jenna agreed. We considered flip-flops and probably clogs, but in the end decided that the magical shoes should be boots.
But we still weren’t sure what the magic of the boots would be. One day I was meditating (I do that a lot, but probably not as much as I should) when the idea of “spending a day in someone else’s shoes” kind of dropped into my head. I love it when that happens. Ideas sometimes drop into my head when I’m in the shower, too, but we don’t have to talk about that. So that’s how the idea for Maggie’s Magical Boots came together. As for Maggie herself, Jenna’s daughter, Sophie, helped us decide on her look—the crazy curly strawberry blonde hair and green—not blue—eyes. Sophie is also an excellent editor for both content (“This makes no sense to me!” or “I’ve never heard this word before in my entire eleven-year-old life!”) and grammar (“You said this word twice!” or “Don’t you mean ‘petal’ and not ‘pedal’?). Thanks Sophie!
You both write a wide array of books, for different ages. Which is more challenging, to write for adults, or for middle grade readers?
Jenna: I wouldn’t say one is necessarily more challenging than the other, but they’re definitely challenging in their own ways. With middle grade readers, it’s extremely important to get the voice right, and not to use “old lady” words or expressions. (Our kids proofread everything we write for that very reason; if they were reading this, I’m pretty sure they’d tell me not to use the phrase “old lady!”) Because Maggie appeals to a broad age range, there’s also an issue of vocabulary. As writers, we love big words and aren’t afraid to use them, so we always include a glossary in the back in case younger readers are being introduced to a word for the first time. Finally, it was and is extremely important to Carolyn and me that our books have not only strong female characters but also some sort of positive messaging. The trick with that is to do it in a way that readers don’t feel like they’re being lectured or patronized. Throughout the series, we have Maggie facing all sorts of challenges—from bullies to burglars—and no matter whose life she’s in, she never backs down and she always stays true to herself and who she is. Hopefully kids will absorb that messaging and use it in their own lives. [*Crosses fingers.*]
This is your third book featuring Maggie Malone, right? Can we expect to see more in this fun series?
Jenna: Yes, Maggie Malone Makes a Splash is the third in the series so far. We’ve dreamed up all sorts of exciting adventures for Maggie, and on our website (maggiemalonebooks.com) we invite our readers to suggest lives for her to step into. We’ve gotten lots of incredibly inspired ideas from creative fans and I won’t give them all away, but let’s just say President of the United States is a very popular request. I wanted Maggie to try out being a dog for a day—I could just see her riding in the back seat of the family car with her tongue hanging out and her ears flapping in the breeze, and groaning about having to eat Barker’s Super Duper Gluten-free Kibble again—but Carolyn put the kibosh on that one!
Thank you so much for joining us today, Jenna and Carolyn! Best of luck on the new release!
About the Authors:
Jenna McCarthy is a writer, speaker, and aspiring drummer who has wanted magical boots since she learned to walk. She lives with her husband, daughters, cats, and dogs in sunny South California.
Carolyn Evans is an author, speaker, and singer/song-writers who once opened for Pat Benatar- you can ask your mom who that is. She loves traveling to faraway places but is just as happy at home with her husband and kids, living by a river in South Carolina and dreaming up grand adventures for Maggie Malone.
In fourth grade, Valerie Stein touched an ancient artifact from an archaeological dig. Though she never got to travel the world in search of buried treasure, she ended up journeying to new and exciting places between the pages of books. Now she spends her time researching history, in museums and libraries, which is like archaeology but without the dirt. Valerie’s book, The Best of It: A Journal of Life, Love and Dying, was published in 2009. Both her current work and an upcoming middle grade series are historical fiction set in Washington State. Valerie is Proprietor of Homeostasis Press. She blogs at the Best of It.
Research. This word used to scare me. In fact, there was a time when I thought research was only something that non-fiction or historical fiction authors had to do—an arduous process involving hours spent in musty stacks, chasing down obscure citations. At writing conferences when there was a session on research, I would make sure to steer clear of this sort of workshop. Perhaps my fear came from deep seeded trauma over writing up my bibliographies for research reports in school. Yet over the years, I have come to learn to love research and it has become an important part of my writing process.
