Posts Tagged fantasy

WNDMG Wednesday – Introducing Isi Hendrix

By on October 11, 2023   /   Articles, WNDMG  
We Need Diverse MG Logo hands holding reading globe with stars and spirals floating around

We Need Diverse MG Logo hands holding reading globe with stars and spirals floating around

Illustration by: Aixa Perez-Prado

 

Introducing Isi Hendrix

Hello, WNDMG Wednesday readers … I am so excited for this month’s post. I get to introduce you to the amazing Isi Hendrix, author of the Afrofantasy MG Adia Kelbara and the Circle of Shamans. (HarperCollins – USA and Usborne – UK, September 2023) It’s such a high-profile debut novel, it got TWO debut days: one here in the USA and one in the UK!

About Adia Kelbara

Adia Kelbara USA book cover

United States Cover

Adia Kelbara cover illustration

United Kingdom Cover

Life is tough for twelve-year-old orphan Adia. Her aunt and uncle believe she’s an ogbanje, a demon-possessed child that brings misfortune wherever they go, and Adia can’t disagree—especially when she suddenly manifests mysterious powers that she can’t control, causing an earthquake in her village.

So when Adia is offered a kitchen apprenticeship at the faraway Academy of Shamans, she flees with nothing but a pouch of change, her cat Bubbles, and the hope that someone there can figure out what’s wrong with her—and fix it. But just as she’s settling in, Adia stumbles upon a shocking secret: Unlike her, the kingdom’s emperor really is possessed—by a demon more wicked than any other. And he’s on his way to the Academy for a visit.

Joining forces with a snarky goddess, a 500-year-old warrior girl, and an annoying soldier-in-training, Adia must travel through hidden realms to exorcise the emperor and save her kingdom. But to succeed, she first must come to understand the powers inside her….

The fate of the world hangs in the balance.

Interview with Isi Hendrix

WNDMG: Welcome to the We Need Diverse MG (WNDMG) series. We’re honored to have you here!

First off, I have to say, I absolutely loved Adia Kelbara and the Circle of Shamans. Your debut novel is the definition of propulsive reading. Adia is so easy to root for and connect with—plus, she’s wry and funny. This is a really hard mix of character traits to pull off, and I’m so impressed!

Developing Adia

WNDMG: What influences helped you develop Adia Kelbara herself?

author headshot - black woman with long curly braids framed by flowering plants

Monique Cooper Photography

IH: Adia is a twelve-year-old orphan living with her aunt and uncle. She doesn’t fit in with her family or anyone in her village of the Swamplands, which is currently overrun by missionaries. The missionaries showed up years ago and told Adia’s people that everything they believed in was wrong, and that to be good, they had to follow the beliefs of the people behind the Sunless Mountains. But Adia questions what she’s told.

I’m borrowing from real life with that aspect of Adia’s personality. My family’s conservative religion (introduced to my tribe by Western missionaries) absolutely did not feel right to me and I was her age when I began to question things and where this religion had even come from because it certainly wasn’t anything that was native to the Igbo people. So, for me, Adia represents the strength of indigenous wisdom and the ancestral knowledge that’s woven into our DNA that no invader or colonizing force can ever erase.

Adia Kelbara character art black tween wearing yellow dress in forest with orange cat

The Guardian Deity

WNDMG: What was the inspiration for Ginikanwa?

IH: Ah, Gini. My snarky Goddess. I’ve always loved the older, powerful mentor in fantasy novels, like Gandalf. Thankfully times are changing, but for far too long that role was almost always exclusively delegated to a grey bearded white man. So, I knew that I wanted Adia’s teacher and mentor in these books to be a woman, specifically an African goddess or an Alusi—a guardian deity of the Igbo people.

Book Banning and World Building

WNDMG: Your themes are so current and relevant, this book is almost contemporary. You tackle topics like religion, colonialism and mental and emotional health with grace and passion. Was this always going to be a book about colonialism or did that piece reveal itself to you as you wrote?

 IH: It revealed itself to me as I was writing it. I wrote my first draft before this book banning atrocity America is currently dealing with was in full swing, and even then I assumed I was writing something that would be banned. But once I saw what was coming out in this story, especially the commentary about religious colonization which is very personal to me, there was no turning back.

Blurb graphic adia kelbara

Let the Story be Born

WNDMG: As a writer, I am always curious about how authors choose genre. What was your process for deciding the best way to tell Adia’s story?

IH: I read widely, but (so far) every time I try to write a story it comes out as a fantasy story. So, I don’t fight it. I let the story that wants to be born be born. And I’m so glad it came out this way. Using a fantasy setting lets me explore these heavy themes in a way that—I hope—is accessible to children and also just a fun adventure story.  I re-read books now that were my favorite as a child like A Wrinkle in Time, and I’m in awe at how L’Engle and authors like her wrote these profound books that you could write a whole doctorate thesis about, but it’s also a book I probably read fifty times before I was ten years old. So, I think speculative fiction is a great way to explore big ideas and themes with young readers. Madeline L’Engle said one of my favorite quotes on writing. “You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”

((If you’re enjoying this interview with MG fantasy author Isi Hendrix, you might also like this archived WNDMG Wednesday interview with fantasy author Kaela Rivera)) 

Changes, Challenges, and Easter Eggs

 WNDMG: From the time you drafted Adia to the time you got your publishing deal, what has been the biggest change in your manuscript?

 IH: Ah, that’s hard to say without giving a huge spoiler! I’ll just say that a character I’d originally given an almost forgettable role to, ended up playing a major part of the story.

WNDMG: What was the hardest part of the book to write?

IH: Character-wise, I always struggled when my mentor or agent or editors wanted me to dive deeper into a character I don’t particularly like. The way I can’t stand this character you’d never think I was the one who created him. So, in my early drafts I tended to just blow him off as an irredeemable jerk. But everyone asked for the motivation behind why he behaves the way he does so I had to tap into that, and the story is all the better for it. Yes, I would have had an easier time writing a full-on villain, verses someone who’s morally gray. But the morally grey ones make for complex characters in the end.

WNDMG: Do you have any Easter Eggs in there?

Adia’s name is Swahili for gift and very fitting. But it’s also from one of my favorite song, “Adia” by Sarah McLachlan, and the song’s chorus is also extremely fitting for this character. It keeps repeating that “We are born innocent. Believe me, Adia, we are still innocent.” So I love that her name has a lot of layers in there. Naming every other character in this book took me a minute, but I knew Adia’s name right away.

character art Adia in purple dress surrounded by flowers

(There also may or may not be a Mean Girl’s reference somewhere in the book, because this book definitely has a mean girl in it.)

The Final Battle

WNDMG: Is there one scene you can point to that is the most important scene to you?

IH: The final battle scene. I’m not a visual writer. I don’t see everything in my head like a movie (and I wish I did). But that was the one scene that I watched play out from beginning to end. I was walking one evening and this download came out of nowhere. I froze on the sidewalk and was almost in tears. Then I ran home to write it all out.  I even had to go back and rewrite a lot of the book because I understood that was how it had to end. So that final battle scene where Adia goes up against the antagonist will always be what I consider the most important.

What’s Next

WNDMG: This is the first book in a planned trilogy. Can you tell us anything at all about what we can expect from Adia in Book Two? (Yes, this is definitely the sign of an impatient reader asking!)

IH: You’re going to find Adia back at the Academy of Shamans, this time as a student! But as always, everything goes sideways whenever Adia is at that school. So you’re going to see her dealing with a mysterious illness that’s plaguing the students and the kingdom.

WNDMG: Is there anything I haven’t asked that you would like to share with our readers?

IH: Read widely and read banned books!

WNDMG:  So many congratulations to you from all of us at WNDMG and From the Mixed-Up Files … of Middle-Grade Authors!

Isi Hendrix author photo smiling Black woman with long braids wearing gold dress holding gold UK edition of book

About Isi Hendrix:

Isi Hendrix is a Nigerian American children’s book author who has been lucky enough to live and work all over the world, from the Himalayas to the Amazon rainforest, during her past life as an anthropologist. Now she’s based in her hometown of Brooklyn, NY, where she lives with a rotating roster of foster kittens and a stubborn refusal to accept that she is highly allergic to cats.

Isi’s debut middle grade novel, Adia Kelbara and the Circle of Shamans, released in September, 2023.

To Buy Adia Kelbara and the Circle of Shamans:

Bookshop.org

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Stay in touch with Isi via her website!

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Author Spotlight: Landra Jennings + a GIVEAWAY

By on September 11, 2023   /   Author Interviews, Giveaways  

 

In today’s Author Spotlight, Jo Hackl chats with author Landra Jennings about her new middle-grade novel, Wand (Clarion Books, October 31). She’ll share her inspiration behind writing it, the works of literature that influenced it, and the surprising muse for the bird characters! Plus, there’s a chance to win a finished/signed copy of Wand if you enter the giveaway. Scroll down for details.

 


Book Summary:

A dazzling story of grief and found family wrapped in a spellbinding fairy tale, perfect for fans of Anne Ursu and Jodi Lynn Anderson.

Eleven-year-old Mira wishes everything could go back to the way it was. Before she changed schools and had to quit gymnastics. Especially before Papa died. Now she spends her days cooking and cleaning for her stepsisters and Val—who she still won’t call mom and still won’t forgive for the terrible thing she did.

When a mysterious girl named Lyndame appears out of the woods wielding a powerful wand, she makes Mira an offer she can’t refuse: she will grant Mira three wishes.

What if magic isn’t just pretend after all? What if these wishes could fix everything? But in the quiet town of Between, Georgia, where secrets lurk and rumors swirl of strange creatures, nothing is as it seems, and everything comes at a price.

Rising talent Landra Jennings weaves together an enchanting, modern fairy tale with eloquence and compassion about finding hope after loss—and finding belonging in the places we least expect.

 

Interview with Landra Jennings

JH: Welcome to the Mixed-Up Files, Landra! Thanks for joining us today.

LJ: Thank you so much for having me.

JH:  First I have to tell you how much I loved Wand. The story felt gothic and suspenseful, like your first book, and I loved the adventure. I enjoyed  the fairy tale elements. Can you please tell us about your inspiration to write it?

LJ: Thanks so much! You’re right about the fairy tale elements. I’d say I had three areas of inspiration. Firstly, this is my take on Cinderella for middle grade. I wanted to figure out what a happy ending looked like for eleven-year-old Mira, whose story starts in in modern-day Georgia. Her father has passed away, leaving her with a stepmother and two step sisters, and she’s still grieving. Similar to other modern interpretations of Cinderella, I wanted Mira to figure out her happy ending for herself versus finding a literal ‘prince.’ Secondly, I’ve also realized in the process of writing that I start stories with some big emotion and build from there. My first book was focused on the difficulty in detaching from that one friend (or sibling) that you’ve become too dependent on and learning how to become an independent person. Wand is about grief; how once we’ve experienced the pain of losing someone, whether it be through death or some other way, we can build those walls around ourselves to protect from future pain, and how that can isolate us from the world. We might really want something magical to fix everything and take our pain away versus facing the pain head-on. I wanted to explore the process of breaking down those walls from the perspective of a child. Finally, while I was editing Wand, I read The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert, an amazing YA portal fantasy and that book started me on a binge of reading and re-reading portal fantasies, mostly middle grade works. So those other fantasies were also influential as I developed the plot.

Portal Fantasy Influences

JH: Why a portal fantasy? Please tell us more about that.

LJ: Portal fantasy is a very broad category, really. A character travels from one world to another through a “portal,” a passageway of some sort, whether it be a tornado as in L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz, or a mysterious wooden door, as in Neil Gaiman’s Coraline.

Sometimes the characters stumble onto the portal as in C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Sometimes they deliberately seek it out, as in the Hogwarts Express train in J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Or sometimes (and this is really fun) they create the portal themselves as in Philip Pullman’s The Subtle Knife or in Kwame Mbalia’s Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky.

I’ve mostly been reading about portals where characters travel from our ordinary world to the fantasy world. Sometimes they’re escaping a bad situation or boredom, and other times they’re searching for something specific. As readers, a book can be an escape to begin with and I love the function of a portal in taking the reader that much further away from their reality. It’s a very different world readers enter and they can work out their big emotions in a place far removed from their own problems. In Wand, the portal to the other world is a pond. My main character, Mira, is searching for her true family and a place she can belong. Mira has built up those emotional walls, protecting herself. Leaving the modern world and going to a new one by jumping into the pond is a way of avoiding confronting her powerful emotions.

The Role of the Wand and Magic

JH: Let’s talk about the wand. It’s in the title obviously, and I noticed its significance in the story. What is the role of the magic wand in the book?

LJ: The wand in my book represents the wish to “magic away” your problems. And the use of the wand in the narrative tracks along with Mira’s journey of processing her grief. In many versions of Cinderella, like Disney’s version, the heroine does not have the ability to use the magic wand herself. She is dependent on powerful others, such as a fairy godmother, who can wield it. The fairy godmother character in Wand is a teen named Lyndame who offers to grant Mira wishes, misrepresenting the power of the wand and her purpose in offering the wishes. Once Mira figures that out, she does get the wand for herself and she can wield it. Even though Mira’s intuition tells her that she shouldn’t use it, she does use it, to disastrous effect.

Favorite Character

JH: Who was your favorite character to write?

LJ: Lyndame, the antagonist. She’s so independent, yet so angry. She is processing her grief very differently than Mira, becoming a cautionary tale and demonstrating the emotional wreckage that can happen if an individual can’t work through grief and move on.

Favorite Scene

JH: What was your favorite scene to write?

LJ: I think one of my favorites is the girls together, upstairs in Mira’s bedroom. Mira’s been sent to her room without dinner and her stepsisters bring up a board game and some mushy microwave pizza. There’s not a whole lot of dialogue and it’s not a complicated scene, but there’s a lot of sub-text about demonstrating care for someone else.

Inspiration for the fascinating bird characters

JH: Can you tell us about the inspiration for the bird characters in the book? I noticed there are actually two in the main cast!

LJ: I love birds of all sorts. That love started as a child. I remember when I was 10 years old, using my last 50 cents to buy a used bird cage at a garage sale and begging my mother to let me have a parakeet. She didn’t! (I now recognize the wisdom of this decision). As an adult, I was finally able to get a parakeet: Momo. He became a tiny and beloved member of our family, moving with us from Chicago to Greenville, and living for 11 years.

Lately, I’m fascinated by wild birds, like hummingbirds and crows. I loved the idea of a crow to support Mira in her journey. As Bandit the crow is from the ordinary world, it was important to me that he be an ordinary crow. However, there’s no reason to enhance crows from the way they actually are. They are extraordinary to begin with, very intelligent, and there is so much research available from which to draw. I read about some crow species using found objects as tools and I knew I had to include that behavior in the book.  Source: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/08/like-humans-crows-are-more-optimistic-after-making-tools-to-solve-a-problem/. I had a little more leeway with the character of Edwin, the golden bird who made it into the cover art. He’s from a magical land so I could make him a little more human-like. Overall, I enjoyed the parallel of having both the protagonist and the antagonist having bird companions.

To the Heart of Wand

JH: What would you most like for readers to take away from the book?

LJ: At its heart, the book is about family. However, you define family—whether it be the family you are born into or the one you find along the way. About recognizing that your family might not be perfect (can’t be perfect) but might be what you need to support you in your life, anyway.

Lightning Round!

No MUF interview is complete without a lightning round, so. . . .

Favorite cities (besides the one you live in):

Chicago. My kids were both born there.

 Scale of 1 to 10—How good of a driver are you?

Eh. Maybe an 8. I’m very cautious and slow (careful about distracted driving!) but my reflexes aren’t what they used to be.

Would you rather be able to speak every language in the world or talk to animals?

Talk to animals!

 Favorite ice cream?

Mint chocolate chip.

 Dawn or dusk?

Dusk. Such a gorgeous and mysterious time.

 Favorite childhood TV show?

Well, that really dates me. My favorite was Space Giants. When I look back on that now, it’s kind of an embarrassing choice because the scripts and special effects weren’t exactly top notch.

 What’s the best advice you ever received?

Be accountable. Follow through on what you’ve promised and if you make a mistake, apologize.

 

 JH: How can readers obtain a copy of the book? And for our educators and librarians, do you offer reading guides?

LJ: The book can be preordered at your local independent bookstores, Barnes and Noble, or Amazon, or any place books are sold. Personalized copies can be preordered at Fiction Addiction in Greenville, SC: https://www.fiction-addiction.com/quicksearch/author/landra%20jennings. And yes! I have an amazing curriculum supplement, with tons of fun and educational activities, to accompany my first book, and a curriculum supplement is soon to come for Wand. My multi-talented and multi-credentialed (EdS and M.Ed.) sister, Kinla Nelson, created both of these. And both will be available on my website.

 

And now. . . .

 

For a chance to win a signed copy of Wand, comment on the blog—and, if you’re on Twitter/X, on the Mixed-Up Files  Twitter/X account, for an extra chance to win!  (Giveaway ends September 18, 2023, MIDNIGHT EST.) U.S. only, please. Book will be mailed after publication. To enter, click here. 

 

About the Author 

Landra Jennings is a Greenville, South Carolina-based writer, author of middle-grade fantasy novels The Whispering Fog and the forthcoming Wand (October 31, 2023) published by HarperCollins Clarion Books. She holds an MBA from Northwestern University and an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hamline University in Minneapolis where she won the Anne Tews Schwab Scholarship for Excellence in Critical Writing and the Walden Pond Press Scholarship in Middle Grade Fiction and Non-Fiction. She is passionate about encouraging a love of reading and writing in children. You can learn more about Landra on her website. You can follow her on Instagram and Goodreads.

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Monsters, Marvels, and Middle Grade with Alysa Wishingrad

By on September 6, 2023   /   Articles, Book Lists, Fiction  
graphic showing The Verdigris Pawn and Between Monsters and Marvels book covers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I first met Alysa Wishingrad on Clubhouse. If you’re not familiar with the app, just know at one point it had become a haven for writers seeking community with like-minded scribes—however short-lived. Alysa and I would meet up with a few others and have writing sprints and I recall being so excited to one day read Between Monsters and Marvels. This middle-grade fantasy comes out on September 12, but dear friends, NetGalley has finally started to show me some love, and amongst the ARCs (advanced readers copies) that I basked in this summer, was Alysa’s lovely, second middle-grade novel. Between Monsters and Marvels blew me away.

I had the true pleasure of interviewing Alysa about this treasure of a story, her writing process, and all things Dare—the gritty main character that readers will fall in love with. Read on below.

Let’s start with some questions for the writers out there researching MG books!

Ines:

“The coarseness of our weave scratches their more refined sensibilities, but our thicker fibers make us more durable.”  When you write delicious lines like these, are they the result of revisions or do they pour out of your head during your drafting process? So much of the writing in Between Monsters and Marvels is lyrical and visual. I guess what I’m really asking is, how do you do it? What does your writing process look like?

Alysa:

Ines, thank you so much for having me, I’m so happy to be chatting with you!

I tend to say that my process is kind of sloppy because I’m not a traditional outliner, I don’t use notecards or have a big whiteboard. But there is a logic and system at work, it’s just very slow. I have to let ideas stew in the back of my head for a good long time until I can begin to see the world in my mind’s eye — I need to be able to see it like a movie. I am an acolyte of paper and pencil so as soon as I begin to get the first whiffs of an idea I start a notebook and get to jotting down ideas and questions. Lots of questions. Who are they? What do they want? Why do they want it? Why are they where they are, and what forces had to coalesce to get them there? I push myself to try to look around corners and really search for the hidden truths hiding out of sight so I can learn as much about my characters, their world, and the problems they’re facing as I can.

Then eventually the writing begins, and I start playing around to try and find the voice. That’s the key for me- once I find the voice then I can begin in earnest. On those days when I’m in the voice, words flow. But by flow, I do not mean they rush out of me. I am a pretty slow, line-level drafter, and will work out a moment until it’s just the right set piece. BUT, and this is the important part, just because a line or beat sets me up to find the rest of the scene or chapter, that doesn’t mean it ultimately stays in. I used to think being able to string together a pretty line was the key to good writing. Silly me, pretty lines are all fine and well, but they have to hit at the heart of the tale you’re weaving.

Finally, my process on both THE VERDIGRIS PAWN and BETWEEN MONSTERS AND MARVELS involved chucking either a completed (and sold) draft, or large swaths and beginning again from the blank page. I’ve done all the hard work at this point, I know the arc, the world, and my MC, so now I have the knowledge and the freedom to roll the story out the right way.

Ines:

It’s so easy to lose oneself in Between Monsters and Marvels and feel like you’re running right alongside Dare in the Must or on the shores of Barrow’s Bay. What is your favorite piece of advice for middle-grade fans who want to write stories like yours, with such deep world-building and character development?

Alysa:

That’s very nice of you, Ines! I’d say take your time! Ask lots of questions. Interrogate your choices, ask yourself why you’ve made the choices you’ve made. Don’t settle for, “that works.” Push yourself beyond your first, second, or even your third idea.

Just as it takes time to get to know a new person in your life, getting to know a character or your world, is about seeing through all the layers. I try to look at my characters from many different angles and put them through a kind of stress test. How would they respond in any given set of circumstances? And is how they respond how they’d want to? Do they understand how others perceive them? Do they like it? Do they even care? How do they want to be seen, and why is that so important to them?

It’s one thing for me to understand a character by their outward persona— how they present themselves to the world. But they truly begin to come to life when I dig to find out what lies behind the mask. What stories are they telling themselves about themselves?

As far as world-building, I say consider everything – how does the society function, what’s its history, how did it come to look the way it does now. While so much of this work might never wind up on the page, having a full and complete understanding of your world’s geography, history, belief system, etc., helps bring a place to life. And do your research, but unless you’re writing straight historical, I’d say don’t do too much so that you feel hemmed in by it.

Ines:

For the writers wishing to write in the third person, how did you manage to make us feel so very much in the head of Dare? The narrator’s voice, though third, allows us to feel Dare’s humor, her curious mind, and her perspective.

Alysa:

Third is tricky, but it’s my favorite POV to both write and read. John Gardner’s writings on psychic distance were incredibly helpful to me. The way he talks about the lens zooming in and out just made it click— there’s that visual, movie brain again.

But it was mentor texts— reading and studying how other authors have drawn us in through close third— that were my best teachers. My copies of Laurie Halse Anderson’s middle grades are marked up in a sea of yellow highlighters! The power of her observations just always makes me feel like I am living in the skin of her characters.

Fundamentally though, I think the key goes back to truly understanding your character, knowing not only what they like or don’t like, what they want or don’t want, but how they see the world. It’s really like positioning yourself behind their eyes and experiencing life as they do. I often think of that alien that controls Vince D’Onofrio’s character in the first Men In Black!

On making connections with young MG readers.

Ines:

Dare is described as wild, tough, and gritty. But she’s also very sweet and thoughtful, and I get the impression that as much as she seems to not want to belong in Barrow’s Bay, deep down she yearns for that belonging or acceptance. For example, when she vows to be more like her father, invisible, rather than be herself.

How were you hoping children would connect with Dare, how she sees herself, and her place in her world?

Alysa:

We all feel like outsiders at some point, whether we admit it or not, and we all have different coping mechanisms. Some of us do everything we can to try to fit in, squeeze ourselves into a mold that winds up stifling us. Others rebel and dare people to try and get close. But deep inside we all just want to be seen for who we are.

Dare refers to all her points and angles (her opinions, intelligence, and her innate ability to see past the illusions people weave) as her awful. And when we meet her, she fairly revels in getting a rise out of people. Then, as she begins to worry about her father, she tries to make a deal with the stars at night to save him –she promises to try to fit in, to hide her awful. But through the course of her story, she begins to understand it’s those very points and angles that made her stick out like a rose among the lilies that are her greatest strengths.

That’s what I hope readers of all ages take away from my Dare— those things we think of as our faults and foibles are our superpowers, it’s up to us to learn how to use them.

Book reccos à la Alysa!

Ines:

Can you give us a list of your favorite middle-grade books? From when you were in middle school and from today, what books have inspired you?

Alysa:

Oh yes, this is my favorite part!

Growing up some of my most favorites were: Charlotte’s Web [still can’t think of that story without wanting to cry], A Wrinkle in Time, The Phantom Tollbooth, The Borrowers, so many of the Roald Dahl stories, and The Chronicles of Prydain. But I also read a whole lot of books that I’d pull off my parent’s shelves. I’m sure 97% that what I read at the time went right over my head, but they pushed me to consider views of the world I would not otherwise have. John Updike’s Rabbit series was a favorite when I was 12. It makes little sense. What does a 12 year-old girl have in common with a man having a midlife crisis? Well, a lot it turns out. We all face a kind of existential angst at different ages.

Some of my recent faves include:

  • The Troubled Girls of Dragomire Academy by Anne Ursu
  • Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson
  • Hana Hsu and the Ghost Crab Nation by Sylvia Liu
  • The Skull by Jon Klassen
  • The Plentiful Darkness by Heather Kassner
  • Adia Kelbara and The Circle of Shamans by Isi Hendrix, coming out Sept 19th!

Speaking of Inspiration…

Ines:

The setting is so clearly detailed that it’s easy for any reader to dive into the pages and travel through them to get to Dare’s world. Is there a real place that inspired the fictional island of Barrow’s Bay or the mainland (The Must/City on the Pike)?

Alysa:

Barrow’s Bay was directly inspired by Jekyll and Cumberland Islands— both off the coast of Georgia. At the turn of the 20th century, they were exclusively inhabited by the very wealthiest industrialists in the country. Mackinac Island in Michigan, was also a playground for the very wealthy. But the sense of isolation and mystery was inspired by Put-in-Bay in Ohio. I have a friend who grew up there, and her stories of being iced in over the winter and that sense of wilderness absolutely fed my imagination.

City on the Pike was inspired by the countless cities in both the US and the UK that were absolutely overrun and transformed by the rapid growth of factories during the Industrial Revolution. Sadly, the Must is any one of all too many neighborhoods in the cities that were once thriving communities that were ruined by pollution and the nearly inescapable poverty borne of the inequity of the system.

 

Thank you so much for having me, Ines, it’s been such a pleasure to chat with you!

You can pre-order BETWEEN MONSTERS AND MARVELS from your favorite indie, or from mine, Oblong Books, for signed copies and some MARVELous swag  (https://www.oblongbooks.com/between-monsters-and-marvels-hardcover-signed-alysa-wishingrad)

 

About Alysa Wishingrad

Author Alysa Wishingrad

‌‌Alysa Wishingrad writes fantastical stories for young readers, tales that ask; is the truth really true? Her favorite stories are those that meld the historical with the fantastic, and that find ways to shine a light on both the things that divide and unite us all.

She is the author of Between Monsters and Marvels and The Verdigris Pawn, which was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection.

Alysa lives in the Hudson Valley with her family, two demanding rescue dogs, and a cat-shaped dog, who is either a monster or a marvel, depending on the day.

You can find her at: www.AlysaWishingrad.com

Instagram & Threads @alysawishingradwrites

BlueSky @alysawishingrad.bsky.social

Twitter @agwishingrad

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