Book Lists

I met Kit on Twitter a few months back and we became instant friends.  When the time came for her book launch, it was a no brainer that I’d interview her here on The Mixed-Up Files!  And, as luck would have it, The Flame in the Mist released last weekend.

There’s evil a-coming from up on the hill
If the Mist doesn’t get you, the Agromonds will…
13 year old Jemma, the youngest inhabitant of gloomy Agromond Castle, is not who she thinks she is. She has no clue about her supernatural powers, nor that a prophecy claims she is the one who will save her country from the evil Agromond rulers and the sinister Mist they create. But when Jemma discovers the dire fate the Agromonds have planned for her, the truth begins to unravel. Taking Destiny into her own hands, she flees from the castle.
But the danger has only just begun. With her trusted friend Digby and her two telepathic golden rats, Noodle and Pie, Jemma faces both human and supernatural enemies. And then the evil takes a nastier turn…

Me:  I don’t have a set in stone, writing routine, but do you have a favorite time of day to write? 

Kit:  I LOVE to write first thing! Not pre-cup-of-tea first thing, but with steaming mug by my side, either in my indoor writing space (=comfy chair w/cool Ikea spotlight over my head) or, in summer, out on the deck. No checking email/FB/Twitter first. Just get up and get going.

Early in the morning, “Before the editor wakes”, as I’ve heard said (and it does seem to be true!), my thoughts are more unfettered, and I’m not looking over my own shoulder judging everything I write. That might also be because for years, I free-wrote first thing—you know, like Julia Cameron recommends to do in The Artist’s Way, with no thought, punctuation, anything. Just ideas flowing. So my brain is kind of used to that.

Me:  That’s fantastic. I really need to follow that advice.  I get too wrapped up in my social networking – then I’m easily distracted – and before I know it the afternoon has arrived with little writing accomplished.  Since you’re disciplined with writing in the morning, do you have a special routine to accompany it? 

Kit:  I’d like to say I do! But too often my ideal writing day gets waylaid by other things. When I do manage to discipline myself/make it happen, though, getting started early is It. That way, when I need to stop for any reason (like, say, breakfast), my muse is already primed and it’s easy to get back to whatever WIP. Another thing I do on those best-of days is turn off my Airport. I swear I can feel my brain synapses relaxing when I do that. Then I’ll check in with social media maybe once an hour. Taking brief breaks keeps me fresh, while also staying connected

Summer is my favorite season, period—but also for writing, because I move my “office” onto the deck. Once I’ve gotten started, just try and tear me away! I’ll work outside all day, as long as my laptop protected by shade. I don’t mean the capital-S Shade in The Flame in the Mist…Jemma’s nemesis would be the worst kind of monkey at my back, sneering at every move of my fingers, or hexing characters to do things against their will.

Me:  I love writing outside in the summer as well.  Usually my kids end up at the pool though and then I have to resort to putting pen to paper. Not my most favorite way to write, but it gets the job done.  Would you call yourself a plotter or panster? Given a choice would you chose cookies or cake? Slime or earwax? 

Kit:  Plotter and pantser! I always outline to some degree, but I try to keep it simple; a broad boundary within which the pantser in me is free to fly. That way, I’m often surprised what spills onto the page—things I hadn’t anticipated; actions a character makes that give the plot a twist, or create entirely new scenes. That was the case in The Flame in the Mist when Digby, Jemma’s friend and partner-against-evil, gets kidnapped and hauled off to an evil city called Blackwater.  Jemma goes in pursuit, which leads her to meet a new character and make another dreadful discovery about the Agromonds. It’s one of my favorite sections of the book, and came entirely from giving my inner pantser free rein. I kept Jemma’s ultimate destination in mind, though, which kept the over all plot headed in the direction it needed to go.

As for cookies or cake? It’s cookies. Unless you’re talking about my sister-in-law’s awesome chocolate cake. Then…watch out, waistline.

Slime or earwax? Hmm, depends where the slime is from. Some people think sushi is slimy, for example, in which case I say, Bring it on! Sushi beats chocolate for me every time. (Yes. I know. It’s unbelievable! But true.) Then there’s the slime of seaweed at the beach, and I love the beach. So it looks like slime is the hands-down winner there.

Me:  Your plotter/panster ways are just like mine!  Maybe we shall take over the world together….but with just a brief outline…we’ll see what happens once we get going!  Mwuhaha!  What would you say was the inspiration for your book?  

Kit:  Oh, so many! The premise came pretty much fully formed from the depths of my mind: Girl trapped in castle, evil family, Mist and mayhem…

My mind was (still is) full of influences that flavored the story. First was growing up in England, which has no shortage of half-timbered thatched cottages, castles and ancient churches. From early on, I was fascinated by ghosts and graveyards. One of my favorite sightseeing places when I was three was the ruins of Corfe Castle. When I was three….I know. Don’t ask. (The beach and playgrounds were just as compelling, mind you.)

Feed into that the classic literature that abounded: Dickens with the misty gloom of his settings (whether rural, like the Kent marshes in Great Expectations, or the London fog of e.g. Oliver Twist), not to mention ghosts (A Christmas Carol) all of which I loved since the abridged forms we read as schoolkids of 7 or 8. Then there’s the Brontés, and Wilkie Collins’s classic The Woman in White, and yes, even U.S. lit, with Henry James’s fab The Turn of the Screw. Images from all of them, as well as loads more, crept into a dark corner of my mind, ready to jump out at me with a loud “Boo!” when the time came.

More recent lit-loves were of course Harry Potter, and Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials triology. I adored Pullman’s 12-yr-old protagonist, Lyra Belacqua. She also reminds me of another childhood heroine, Scout Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird. Actually, I first came across Scout at 8, when my big sis took me to see the movie. I’d play in our garden (yard) for hours, pretending to be her and talking to myself in (what I thought was) an American accent. I seriously believe that between them, Scout and Just Dennis (called Dennis the Menace here?) seeded my curiosity about the States. It might totally be their fault that I moved here. (Ok, not totally, but…)

For all my draw to gloom, though, I much prefer light and sunshine! Gloom is where my mind likes to delve for material—but it’s only with a view to transformation. Dwelling in darkness is not good in my book (either literal or metaphorical); there’s way too much of it out there already. In The Flame in the Mist, there’s an ancient book-within-a-book called From Darknesse to Light, which becomes a guide to Jemma on her quest. The title of both pretty much states what reach for in life and in what I write. I believe that kidlit books can be like maps which help kids navigate through difficult times. There’s plenty of that in Harry Potter, for example: ways Harry and his friends act, as well as their loyalty to one another, that kids want to emulate and embody. I’d be honored to think that anything I wrote had even the tiniest effect in that way.

Me:  Wow.  What wonderful, creepy and spectacular influences!  Thanks for joining us today, Kit!

Kit:  Thanks so much for hosting me on the Mixed Up Files, Amie! This was fun.

Kit Grindstaff was born near London and grew up in the rolling countryside of England. After a brief brush with pop stardom (under her maiden name, Hain), she moved to New York and embarked on her career as a song writer. Kit now lives with her husband in the rolling countryside of Pennsylvania. The Flame In The Mist is her first novel.

 Find her on her Website, Facebook,Twitter,Goodreads, and purchase her book on Amazon.

Want a chance to win a copy of The Flame in the Mist?  All you have to do is enter below!  TWO – yes 2 – lucky winners will be drawn!  One will win a copy of her book and another will win a swag pack including parchment, bookmark, bookplate, and button!

So what are you waiting for?  Enter now by leaving a comment below and filling out the rafflecopter form!

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Amie Borst writes fairy tales with a twist.  Her first book, Cinderskella (co-authored by her 12 year old daughter), releases October 26th, 2013!

Hello Mixed-Up Filers!

Can it really be only five months since I last posted? Wow, time sure does fly! I admit, that it’s sometimes tough trying to keep up with this grueling every five-month schedule they have me on, but that’s why I get paid the big bucks, I guess.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, when I was debating what to write about for my Mixed-Up Files piece, I realized, that it also just so happened to be Holocaust Remembrance Day as well. I thought that would be a perfect thing to write about.

Why? And why write about it on a site dedicated to Middle-Grade books.

I know the usual reason given, is that we should familiarize ourselves with the events that happened in the past, so that they aren’t repeated again and that is very true. But, ethnic cleansing has happened again. In some places in the world it’s still happening. But, that’s too general an idea. The reason I decided to write about it today, is because I believe it is important to see what happens when hatred manifests itself. There is hatred around the world today, and it is too easy to make disparaging remarks about people. Or particular groups of people. When it becomes easy to make remarks of hatred or stereotypes against a group of people, then the next step after that becomes easier as well.

In Nazi Germany, this became the norm. Ugly stereotypes were pushed by the government. One of the first times an entire country’s government made discrimination legal, with stating publicly how one group of people was to be considered inferior to everyone else. Where the government committed itself to eradicating the existence of one group of people.

By making it a government-backed doctrine, it became easier for the citizens of the nation to accept. There is a thought-process of, ‘Hey, if our government is telling us that these people are evil and inferior, then they must be’.

That is the danger of discrimination and allowing these types of things to happen. Yes, Nazi Germany was an extreme form of this, but it is what happens when people stay silent and make no attempt to stop discrimination or prejudice.

Today, people make little remarks about people, thinking that they’re being funny or harmless or not thinking anything about it at all. But making any remarks are offensive and once again, makes it easier to stereotype a people. I, personally, get offended every single time I hear somebody make a remark about Jews and money. Whether it is things like saying that Jews know how to get good bargains, or hearing people make comments about being cheap. For example, I am involved on the board of my daughters’ softball league, and sat in on meetings, where on two different occasions, somebody mentioned that we have to “Jew” somebody down in order to get a better price. Well, I after recovering from being stunned, I stopped that really fast, but it’s not the point that it was stopped, but the point that it was said in the first place. People who I’ve told the story to, say that they can’t believe that was said in front of me. Well, once again, not the point. Point was, that this is what they felt inside. This was part of their belief system.

Again, these remarks are meant to be funny or just taken as matter of fact, but what they actually do is reinforce negative stereotypes and make it easier for the next step. For the next thing. A negative comment is just that. It’s like making the comment, “That’s so gay.” Well, substitute ‘gay’ for any other group and they wouldn’t like it at all. It has a negative connotation to it. And I don’t care if the person making the remarks belongs to that particular group. They say, “It’s okay, I’m________.” A negative remark is just that and it doesn’t matter who says it. And here’s what they don’t realize, if you in a particular group make negative comments about your own group, then other people think, ‘Well, if they’re saying it, then it must be true’.

Have respect for yourself. For your people. Your ethnicity. Your sexual orientation. Don’t make it acceptable for others to say.

I know, who cares what I have to say? I’m not anybody. I have maybe four people read my column here, one of whom may or may not be my mother, but as I say every time I write, it’s my column and I can write what I want to. So now, after getting all preachy, and getting back to why I started this post to begin with, I’d like to mention some books that deal with the subject of the Holocaust.

First off, there is absolutely no discussion about this topic without including Night by Elie Wiesel. I have read this book, I don’t know how many times. I read it on my own as a kid. Reread it again as a teen and now teach it in school. And I have to say that this book gets to me every single time. The book chronicles Elie’s experiences going through the death camp at Auschwitz with his father. From the time he is callously separated from his mother and sister for the last time without any “goodbye” to those last moments with his father, I am choking up all the time. The part with his father really, really works me over. See, my father has cancer. Thankfully, he is doing okay now, but reading the part where Elie loses his own father, destroys me. There have been times where I had been reading with my high-school class, and I struggle to hold back the tears. Really. (Can you imagine being a teacher and crying in front of a bunch of high-schoolers??) Anyway, this book shows the terror and cruelty endured by these families under Nazi barbarity. Any Holocaust reading has to include this book.

Another book that most kids read is The Diary of Anne Frank. It was kept by Anne Frank during her time in hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam, giving powerful insight into what it was like, living in cramped quarters with other people, always scared for your lives. This book was fascinating since it kept track of the day-to-day activities of a young girl, who was roughly the same age as the kids who are reading her diary now. That enables them to perhaps identify with her a little bit more. This book also gets to me, and to be honest, I guess all Holocaust books do, but this gets to me because you go in knowing that she is ultimately captured and dies. But, the power of a book is such, that you read anyway and even though you know, you find yourself hoping against hope that she will make it through alive.

Another, I highly recommend is Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegeman. This book is done in comic book format and represents Jews as mice and the Germans as cats. It can be very disturbing at times, but it is a very well done depiction of life then.

A couple that my children liked, were The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen and Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. Devil’s Arithmetic, is about a girl who travels back to the past and experiences what her family went through in a concentration camp. Number the Stars, is about a young non-Jewish girl named Annemarie, who helps her Jewish friend, Ellen, try to escape by having Ellen pose as her sister. My children really enjoyed both these books.

The last book I want to write about for now, is The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne. This also tells the story of the Holocaust through the eyes of a non-Jewish child, this time, a boy named Bruno. However, this time, the boy is the son of a Commandant of Auschwitz. Bruno visits the camp every day, but not inside. From outside, he befriends a Jewish boy named Shmuel. I know that the book is far-fetched and I don’t think it in any way could’ve happened. Most likely, Shmuel would’ve been killed right away since he was too young to work, but still, the book provides a very powerful ending, leaving readers haunted long after.

There are many more, of course, but these are just a few that I would start with. It is definitely a subject that is worth exploring and important to know.

And most of all, to remember.

Jonathan Rosen is a high school English teacher, living in South Florida. He writes middle-grade geared toward boys, because he finds they share the same sensibilities and sense of humor. Jonathan has lived all over the world and is hoping to eventually find a place that will let him stay.