Writing

An Interview with Historical Fiction Author Michelle Jabès Corpora about her latest, The Dust Bowl

By on March 18, 2022   /   Articles, Author Interviews, Fiction, For Teachers, For Writers, New Releases, Writing  

Today, on the Mixed-Up Files of Middle Grade Authors we welcome Michelle Jabès Corpora, who is a writer, editor, community organizer and martial artist. In addition to working in the publishing industry for fifteen years as an editor, she has ghostwritten five novels in a long-running middle grade mystery series. She is the author of The Dust Bowl (Penguin Workshop) and The Fog of War: Martha Gellhorn at the D-Day Landings(Pushkin Press).

Congratulations on publishing two middle grade novels in one year. Today, we’re going to discuss The Dust Bowl, which is the inaugural book in the middle grade series, American Horse Tales. Congratulations to you Michelle!

I’m so excited to talk with you about your love of writing historical fiction for middle grade readers. I love that you’ve been able to jump from the editing side to the authoring side.

You have so many visceral details about what it was like to live in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl. In fact, the dust and the setting become like a character in the book. Can you talk a little bit about your research process?

I love that you said that the setting became “like a character in the book” – that perfectly describes how I felt about it too! Some might see the research process as the “boring part” of the writing process, but it’s actually what made me fall in love with historical fiction. Not only is it fun to do, but it really enriched me as a person in a way that stayed with me long after I finished writing the book. In preparation for Dust Bowl, I watched Ken Burns’ documentary about the event itself, as well as his (14 hour?) documentary about the Roosevelts, which really helped set the stage for the eras that led to and followed the Dust Bowl. Watching the footage of the dust storms, listening to interviews with people who lived through it, and learning about the historical context about the time really helped not only create the setting, but also the plot itself and what my characters would have been going through. I also read The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, which was essential in writing Ginny’s voice in the dialect of the time. I collected digital photographs from the era, and did exhaustive internet research as well, to make sure I had every detail right—from the kind of food Ginny would have eaten, down to the type of radio they’d have in their farmhouse. To me, it was essential to have the setting come alive, so that young readers would really get a visceral understanding of what it is was to live through this remarkable time in our history.

Your main character Ginny loves her horse Thimble and would do anything to keep Pa from selling him. I could really feel Ginny’s affection for her horse. What is your relationship to horses and how did you go about creating Thimble as a character?

As a child, I wasn’t really a “horse girl” myself, but I was definitely a huge animal lover. I volunteered at a wildlife rescue during college, and my first job out of college was as a veterinary technician. My goal with Thimble was to make him a character in a realistic—non magical—way. I wanted to try and recreate the relationship we have with our animal companions, where we talk to them, see their reactions and their expressions, and imagine what they might be saying to us if they could talk. To me, Thimble was kind of like an extension of Ginny’s personality, a bit like her subconscious mind. When she was excited about adventure, she imagined his own excitement to join her on that adventure. But when she tried to push away the doubts about what she was doing, she imagined that Thimble, her partner and protector, seemed to confirm those doubts with his worried glances. I think there’s a reason that people seem to “look like their pets” – when we become close to an animal, we create an emotional bond with them unlike any other. I did my best to recreate that bond between Ginny and Thimble.

Ginny is a bit of a trickster in some respects and very determined. Was she hard to write? How much were you like Ginny as a child?

Ginny was fun to write—and definitely not like me! I was a shy, very rule-abiding kid. But I had daring friends who helped pull me out of my shell, so maybe my friends helped to inform Ginny’s character. I think what really helped solidify the character in my mind was the essential struggle between Ginny and Pa. Both father and daughter were willing to do anything to protect the things that defined their family—but they disagreed on the right way to go about doing that. I envisioned Ginny and Pa as reflections of the same character, who ultimately find a way to see that they’re both right, and that they’re both wrong. I think it’s a situation that many of us as children and as parents have experienced with our loved ones, which is why the story felt so meaningful to me. I love Ginny for her courage, for her wit, and for her ability to change her mind, or admit fault. In some ways, that’s the biggest test of courage a person can face.

I enjoyed Silvio as a character. He’s another very determined character. What do you like best about him?

I loved Silvio’s easygoing manner, his humor, and his charm. Silvio was the light in a fairly dark story, and I appreciate him for that. Even though he had experienced terrible personal tragedy, Silvio kept his eyes on the horizon, dreaming about his future, and throwing himself into the unknown in order to take care of his family. I love his breezy heroism. I felt like Silvio is the kind of friend everyone wants—someone who will make you a sandwich on a bad day and make you laugh, but who also isn’t afraid to stand up and tell you when you’re being ridiculous!

Before you became an author, you had extensive experience as an editor (Greenwillow, Working Partners, a major book packager). How did being on the other side of the fence inform your work as a writer? What did you learn that you were able to carry into your work?

There is absolutely no way I would be the writer I am today without my years as an editor. Being an editor taught me to be ruthless, not romantic, with words, and never to let myself get too emotionally involved in my own skills. My career taught me that writing is something I do, not something I am, and that distinction removed a lot of the insecurities I suffered from in my early years. I learned never to wait for “the muse” to strike, because although there will be moments of inspiration and epiphanies and all those lovely things, at the end of the day writing is work. No matter what, you must sit down and do it. It doesn’t matter if it is the best thing ever written, it doesn’t matter if reading it will change someone’s life. Because surely, those things will never be true if you never write at all! What I have found is that by treating my work in this way, it frees my mind of personal judgment and allows me to just let it flow. Early in my career, writing a single page felt like pulling teeth. I agonized over every word! Now, I can write ten pages in an afternoon, no problem. I completely attribute this to the experiences of my career, which not only taught me the essential structure and form of story, but also forced me to write regularly.

How did you discover that writing historical fiction was your jam? Was it a major aha moment?

Honestly, I feel like almost everything is my jam! Back in high school, a teacher once said to me that I was a “Jack of all Trades,” because there were so many things I loved to do. I really think I’ve continued that throughout my life and my fiction. I even have a chameleon on my website as my personal mascot! I started my writing career with mysteries, then wrote historical, and now I’m starting to work on two horror novels. I think the a-ha! moment came during the writing of Dust Bowl and Fog of War, when I sat back and realized I didn’t need to label myself as this kind of writer or that kind. I write fiction for young people, and I write all kinds. I just love stories, and I love trying new things. Making that personal discovery and embracing that truth really expanded my vision for my career as an author.

Why do you write middle grade fiction?

The ages of 7-12 are a magical time in life. It’s this moment in our childhood where we become fully realized human beings, where we begin to find ourselves and to develop beliefs about life and our moral code. Because of that, writing for this age group is a huge and important responsibility that I take very seriously. When I write a story for middle grade readers, I ask myself what this story is teaching them about being human. My greatest book memories are of authors whose novels I read when I was a middle grade reader myself: Madeline L’Engle, Susan Cooper, James Howe, Louis Sachar, John Bellairs. If a book I wrote had that kind of impact on even one child, I think that would be a job well done.

Anything else you’d like us to know about the Dust Bowl as well as the American Horse Tales series?

I just finished my first school visit with Dust Bowl, and I was amazed at how interested the kids were in history. Right now, as all of us go through such a difficult time in our own history, I think it’s more important than ever to encourage kids to learn about the past, and to teach them in ways that really touch them and demonstrate commonalities between their lives and their ancestors’.

I encourage everyone to check out the other books in the series, which are all written by amazing writers. Horse lovers everywhere will love them! Thanks so much for the opportunity to chat on the blog!

Thanks so much for joining us here at the Mixed-Up Files!

Hillary Homzie is the author of the Ellie May chapter book series (Charlesbridge, 2018), Apple Pie Promises (Sky Pony/Swirl, 2018), Pumpkin Spice Secrets (Sky Pony/Swirl, 2017), Queen of Likes (Simon & Schuster MIX 2016), The Hot List (Simon & Schuster MIX 2011) and Things Are Gonna Be Ugly (Simon & Schuster, 2009) as well as the Alien Clones From Outer Space (Simon & Schuster Aladdin 2002) chapter book series. She’s also a contributor to the Kate the Chemist middle grade series (Philomel Books/Penguin Random House). And her nonfiction picture book, If You Were a Princess: True Stories of Brave Leaders From Around the World is a look at historical and current princesses from many diverse lands who have made their mark (Simon & Schuster, August 2022). During the year, Hillary teaches at Sonoma State University. In the summer, she teaches in the graduate program in children’s literature, writing and illustration at Hollins University. She also is an instructor for the Children’s Book Academy.

She can be found at hillaryhomzie.com and on her Facebook page as well as on Twitter.

 

Back to Top

Don’t Forget to Have FUN!

By on January 14, 2022   /   For Writers, Writing  

Happy 2022!! I hope this year is off to an amazingly good start for you all. Mine is so much better than last year (mostly because I’m not recovering from emergency gallbladder surgery). 😊

But seriously, I wanted to take this time to talk about Goal Setting. I mean, it’s the new year. We are all supposed to set a goal for the new year. Yes?

Goal-setting is a THING for the New Year. Whether you call them goals, resolutions, or intentions or  pick a word for the year, or just make a list of things you want to accomplish, it all boils down to one thing…  some action that you are supposed to be doing that makes you feel better.

That sounds wonderful. Okay. I’m in! In past new years’, I have had many different resolutions.

One year it was, to work less (If you know me, you know how ridiculous that resolution was. It didn’t last a week).

Then I moved onto choosing a saying for my year.  I chose “be less stressed”.  (also ridiculous).

The next year, I moved to a single word that was more positive, like “balance”.  (That was a good thing. It didn’t last, but it was a good idea.)

And let’s face it, the last two years have simply been taking a deep breath and racing to the finish  the year before you dropped. Am I right?

So, this year, I decided to try something completely different. Instead of picking something that I knew I could never live up to, thereby actually increasing my own stress (ironic, right?).

I’m not doing a resolution.

I’m not using a saying,

I’m DOING something.

Every Friday I am now calling “FUN Friday”.

(That’s just my name. You can choose your own.)

 

On FUN Friday, I am giving myself permission to do whatever I want– work on a new idea, write a new proposal, have an entire brainstorming day, write fiction (!), or just sit around and watch Star Trek the Next Generation all day. (Yes, I’m a Trekkie, but you can pick your own binge show).

Mostly, I’m making it a day to relax my brain and put deadlines aside. I’m hoping that will reduce the stress and frustration I feel at not being able to do all of the different things I want to explore. (Yes! That fiction book will be finished this year!)

How’s it going so far?

Well for one thing, it’s the second Friday of the year, and I’m STILL doing this! That right there tells me that the FUN Friday thing is a much better idea than any resolution or word for the year I ever picked.

And secondly, on the first FUN Friday that I ever did, I managed to relax enough and clear my brain so that a book idea that I had been trying to figure out for almost two years FINALLY broke through. (It was at 11 o’clock at night, right after I laid down to go to sleep, but hey, whenever it happens, is fine with us writers, right?)

SO, today is another FUN Friday!

What will I be doing today?

I don’t know.

The best part about a FUN Friday  is that I don’t plan for them. I wake up in the morning, and well, just do whatever I feel like. It’s very free-ing, especially for a person who normally goes through life at Mach 10 with her hair on fire!

 

What I say to all of you writers and really, anyone who reads this blog is: Don’t forget to HAVE FUN in your life!

I know it might make you roll your eyes with the amount of work, stress, and everything else you have to do. But if you take a day, an hour, a few minutes to just have fun, you won’t regret it. In fact, doing that, may even help you reduce your stress.

TGIF Everyone!

What will you do with your FUN Friday?

Back to Top

Writing Middle-Grade Spooky Stories: Interview with Diane Telgen, Jay Whistler, Jenn Bailey, and Jules Heller

By on January 7, 2022   /   children's bookstores, Cross-Curricular, Curriculum Tie-in, Fiction, For Kids, For Librarians, For Parents, For Teachers, For Writers, Homeschool Resource, independent bookstores, Publishing & Promotion, Writing  

Hello Mixed-Up Filers!

Today, I’m pleased to welcome Diane Telgen, Jay Whistler, Jenn Bailey, and Jules Heller to Mixed-Up Files. These authors share their experience of writing work-for-hire spooky stories for the middle grade audience.

Welcome to Mixed-Up Files, Diane, Jay, Jenn, and Jules!

  

 

Suma:  Could you tell us what your Haunted series book/books are about?

Diane: The “Spooky America” series explores local legends about haunted places and famous ghosts. It takes volumes originally published for Arcadia’s adult “Haunted America” series and reworks them for a middle-grade audience. In The Ghostly Tales of West Michigan and The Ghostly Tales of Pittsburgh, I focused on one particular location, so the stories could involve houses, ships, or places of business. In The Ghostly Tales of Michigan’s Haunted Lighthouses, all the stories involve lighthouses, but the ghosts themselves vary between keepers, their families, and sailors.

Jay: I was fortunate enough to work on THE GHOSTLY TALES OF SAN ANTONIO shortly after I moved to the area in late 2020. While the title suggests ghost stories, the book is really about the history of San Antonio, beginning with the first Spanish settlers in the 1500s, moving to the fights over control of the territory, the civil war, and ending with the middle of the twentieth century. I knew Texas had been its own country before it became a state, and I think we all know the legend of the Alamo. But there is so much more to Texas and to San Antonio. I have a new appreciation for my adopted hometown as a result of this book.

Jenn: I wrote the Haunted Newport book, which tells spooky tales and ghost stories from in and around Newport, Rhode Island.

Jules: My book is THE GHOSTLY TALES OF THE FINGER LAKES, a collection of eighteen spooky stories from Western Central New York State. From an early draft of the introduction: Whatever your style, I promise there’s a story here for you. You like music? Listen close and you’ll hear the piano music of Miss Eunice Frame, resident ghost of the Sampson Theatre. You’re more interested in math? Help me count the strange deaths (and funerals) at the Erie Mansion.You prefer art? Read on for colorful stories of ghostly stains on basement walls that can’t be covered up. Science is more your thing? Try to explain what causes apparitions to be seen in an old doctor’s office. You enjoy a good mystery? Maybe you’ll be the one to figure out what scared the restaurant owners of the Dove Building so much they left town without bothering to pack their bags. No matter the subject, the tales you’re about to read will thrill and amaze you. Some are funny, some are sad, and some may or may not be one hundred percent true . . . who’s to say what’s a local legend, and what’s an honest haunting? You might have to decide for yourself. But I guarantee that in these pages you’ll find many surprises: secret societies organize kidnappings, ghosts lock people in bathrooms, heads go missing, skulls are found, and there might even be a sea monster at the end. You’ll have to read on to find out.

Suma: What was the one thing you paid attention to, while writing a haunted book for the middle-grade audience?

Diane: Of course I wanted to choose stories that were appropriate for kids–I stayed away from really lurid legends, or those that didn’t have a lot of detail. And I also had to make my language and style more appealing for a young audience. But most important, I had to provide the historical context for kids to understand the stories. If they understand the importance of lighthouses on the Great Lakes in the nineteenth century, or how colonial settlers would have seen Pittsburgh as the western frontier, they’ll more easily connect with why these historical figures became ghosts. As I like to say, “ghosts are just history trying to get your attention.”

Jay: The source material on some of the chapters challenged me to make it age-appropriate for middle-grade readers. Writing about the tragedy of the Alamo requires a deft hand to make the horrors of war less brutal. In another chapter, I needed to find a more delicate way to describe the red-light district in San Antonio, especially when referring to nocturnal activities. I think many kids will understand the euphemisms, or at least guess at their meaning, but there’s no need to be as frank as one might be with adults. Nor do kids need to know the gruesome details of some of the murders that gave rise to some of the legends.

In addition, I tried to respect that kids of this age may not be ready for truly scary stuff. There will always be the kid, like me, who loves watching old scary movies, reading classic horror, or telling ghost stories during sleepovers. But plenty of kids are just beginning to test the boundaries of what they can handle. I wanted to respect the readers enough to give them a bit of a shiver while reading while still allowing them to go to sleep with no worries about things that go bump in the night.

Jenn: I wanted to make sure to create the right atmosphere – that involved including bits of history, perhaps giving some backstory to explain why this event might have happened at this time, and why there might be a ghost story attached to the area. Just saying a hotel or beach is haunted isn’t enough. The middle grade audience is savvy and curious, and they want to know Why this happened. They want to know what, how, and when. You have to put some context – or dare I say meat – on those old, withered, spooky bones.

Jules: There’s a distinction between “beguiling” and “offputting” that can be a wobbly tightrope to tread. The things that kids find “too scary” are often not what adults assume.* The Arcadia editors had a specific list of scary topics that were no-gos for their audience (assault, etc.) but I tried to keep as much of the fun, interesting, just-plain-weird kind of scary as possible, because I remember being that odd reader who devoured bizarre assassination attempts and torrid conspiracies. Ghost stories shouldn’t lead to actual nightmares, they should provide conversation starters that make people avoid you (or seek you out specially) at parties!
*I remember a brilliant essay about how parents tried to tone down Red Riding Hood by having the woodcutter chase the wolf away at the end, rather than killing him. They thought less gore meant more kid-friendly; the kids said “no, that means the wolf is STILL OUT THERE.”

Suma: How did you go about making place a character in your stories?

Diane: I opened each book with a short historical introduction, to introduce readers to what made each place unique. So for West Michigan, the forests, beaches, and Lake Michigan all became recurring characters. For Pittsburgh, its journey from frontier fort to Steel City, USA became an important theme. And for Michigan’s Lighthouses, the storms of the Great Lakes became a furious antagonist!

Jay: Each chapter in my book focused on a particular place, so I made sure to include details about buildings, what they looked like, when they were built, what purpose they served and how that changed over the years. I shared landscape details and included tidbits to make it come alive. For example, in one story, I talked about why the owner of the property built a stage-coach stop. Then I explained how long the trip from point A to point B would take with a horse and carriage, how often they would need to stop, and what it would feel like being jostled about in the carriage with only a wooden seat under your backside. I want kids to not only see these places in their minds but also feel what it would be like to experience life as the characters in the story would. How would it be to see an elevator operator in a blue suit and gloves float out of a defunct elevator and beckon you inside?

Jenn: By talking about the people that inhabited it. What kind of people would live there? Why would they live there? Connect a certain type of person to the place – Newport was founded in 1639 on a promise of religious freedom and equality. These people were escaping the intolerance of Massachusetts. So you connect a certain type of person to the place, and then connect the reader to that type of person and you’ve got a reader who can envision characteristics and qualities about the location. Newport is a beautiful seaside city but there are a lot of those. You have to sprinkle the history of an area into these stories so they become individualized and relatable.

Jules: This is the big secret about these stories (certainly in my book, likely in many others): we don’t actually have any “true” or “real” characters to start from EXCEPT for the places. So much of this history is handed down from unreliable or unreportable sources, that in order to turn it into something readable and honest you have to take hefty liberties with the facts. Details about specific people can sometimes be brought in from old photographs, but personalities, motivations, even whole sections of The Plot have to be spun out of thin air. Thus, the grounding realness of the story comes from the physical place itself, which you as the storyteller can point to and say “You can visit the place where this happened! You can see the stains on the floor, hear the wind whistling through the broken window shutters!” Building on a foundation of the tangible remnants of the story, turning the locations themselves into historians and storytellers, lends credence to the rest of your cast and gives them some weight of their own.

Suma: What did you enjoy most about the process of working on this project?

Diane: I love history, so digging into the local details behind a particular ghost provided so much fun!

Jay: My favorite aspect of this project, aside from learning more about San Antonio, was challenging myself to take material kids typically find deadly boring—history—combine it with material usually reserved for adults—the “horror” genre—and make it appealing to middle-grade readers. I grew up watching the black-and-white horror movies of the 1930s and 1940s. I read my first Poe story when I was eight. I began reading Stephen King when I was in seventh grade (way before the Goosebumps books became popular). Working on this book brought back those memories and inspired me to create a similar experience for my readers. Perhaps one day, there will be an author who becomes the next Clive Barker because they read the entire Spooky America series and discovered not only a love of history and horror but of storytelling, too.

Jenn: Learning more about my hometown. Rhode Island is the smallest state in the U.S. and often overlooked, but it played a huge role – sometimes positive, sometimes negative – in the founding of this country. It was rather crucial during WWII as well. It was delightful to be reminded of some of the attributes of Newport that make it such a special place. I have my own personal reasons to love it, I was married in Newport, but it was a joy see this place through fresh eyes.

Jules: Quite honestly, it was just nice to have a project, any project, to work on at that point in the pandemic. I had some scheduling hiccups with the editors and ended up with a tight timeline for the manuscript, so I had to dive in head-first and stay under for a couple weeks straight, getting words on paper. It was energizing, a little hectic, but at the time just what I needed to rejuvenate my creative process. It also gave me an excuse to reorganize my physical work area, which is always a bonus!

Suma: What is your advice for writers doing work-for-hire projects like this one?

Diane: As with any project, knowing what your editor expects is important. But it’s crucial when writing within a series, because your individual book needs to fit within the volumes that have gone before you. So always make sure you have a style guide to follow, and communicate clearly about the schedule. Work-for-hire projects, especially in series, often have little wiggle room!

Jay: Work for hire can be a great way to make connections in the literary community. You learn to work on deadline and under stringent expectations. But it can also take away time from the personal projects you want to work on. So it’s crucial to know exactly what you sign up for.

With that in mind, make sure you know specific deadlines for every phase of the project. It’s okay to insist the entity you are working with details everything. The same goes for the expected end product. What exactly do they want you to deliver? This includes content and format. What is the revision process? Do you get a final review to make sure they haven’t substantially changed anything that would make it factually inaccurate? Who holds the copyright? For how long? If they hold the copyright, will it ever revert to you? What is the pay? Do you get free or discounted author copies? Are there royalties? If not, do you have a chance to hand-sell copies on your own to boost your bottom line? If so, what help do they provide you with marketing? Most importantly, get it all in writing. And don’t let someone tell you a contract isn’t necessary. It is.

Jenn: I’ll be blunt. You aren’t going to make a lot of money so you better enjoy yourself. This was a topic and a location I already had an interest in. It became a bonus that someone was going to pay me to explore and do research. Also, keep your creative brain firing for any other kinds of stories or characters or settings you can take away from the project and use in other writings. During my research I stumbled upon a fascinating person I want to focus on for a picture book. Work-for-hire projects can feed your other work so keep an open mind and stay curious!

Jules: You’ve probably already been told to be flexible, be ready to have things go sideways from the original plan. That was certainly true for me with this project! But I think I would refine that advice to say, be clear with yourself and your editors about where your flexibility extends, and where it doesn’t. If you have scheduling constraints, state them and then stick to them. If you have communication needs, make them and advocate for them. Timelines can shift, scope can expand or contract, but you are the one who gets to decide what changes are acceptable and what is a bridge too far. And if you make those decisions ahead of time, you can write them into your agreements and contracts, so you can “Per my previous email…” whenever the need arises!

Diane Telgen enjoyed reading so much as a child that she would read anything and everything, even the encyclopedia! That’s probably why she grew up and started writing reference books about history and literature. Now she writes both fiction and nonfiction for young readers. She earned her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Jay Whistler was born on Halloween and grew up in a haunted house. She loves listening to ghost stories, whether real or imagined, and willingly explores haunted places on her travels across the country and around the globe. Even so, she will always be afraid of the dark. The boring part is that Jay has her MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Jenn Bailey’s debut picture book, A FRIEND FOR HENRY, won ALA’s 2020 Schneider Family Honor Book award, was named a Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year, was chosen as a 2021-2022 Virginia Reads selection, and received other honors. Jenn welcomes the following books onto the shelves soon: MEOWSTERPIECES (Magic Cat/Abrams, 2022); THE 12 HOURS OF CHRISTMAS (Little Brown, 2023); HENRY, LIKE ALWAYS (Chronicle, 2023); and HENRY TBD (Chronicle, 2024).

Jenn also works as a freelance editor at Angelella Editorial. When she isn’t writing or editing, she is baking pies and tending to her assortment of cats and dogs.

Jules Heller landed in New York State sometime in the last century and has been exploring the nooks and crannies of its landscapes—and legends—ever since. A graduate of Vermont College of Fine Arts, Jules has co-edited a collection of Halloween tales for young adults, and runs dozens of library programs for kids of all ages on every topic from mythology to memes. They have just moved into a hundred-year-old house in the greater Syracuse area, and are happily cohabitating with their new roommate, resident ghost Giuseppe.

Back to Top