Posts Tagged We Need Diverse MG

WNDMG Author Interview with Meg Eden Kuyatt

By on May 19, 2025   /   Author Interviews, Diversity  

WNDMG Author Interview with Meg Eden Kuyatt

When I fell in love with the prose in Meg Eden Kuyatt’s first novel, Good Different, then learned she was writing a ghost story of sorts, I. COULD. NOT. WAIT!
I had the esteemed pleasure of sitting down to interview Meg. Here’s the inside scoop on both the author and her book…

KATE: Our Mixed-Up-Files readers would love the inside scoop on your latest novel-in-verse, The Girl in the Walls. Can you tell us a bit about where the idea for this story came from?

MEG: I tend to start my stories in a feeling. This one started when I saw something very upsetting happen to someone I cared about. I tried to write about it directly, but when that didn’t work and felt a little too real, I knew I needed to try another angle (like Emily Dickinson, to tell it slant). I started asking what if questions, like: what if V could time travel? What if she met a ghost? The ghost helped bring this magic wonderland world of the walls, giving me distance. It also gave me an outlet for me to process all my feelings, giving an option for what I could be like if I held onto them forever and didn’t try to work through them. That warning made me really want to work through my feelings all the more and find healing on the other end.

KATE: I love that you write books which make me cry (I’m looking at you too, Good Different). And by this, I don’t mean you write emotional books, I mean you write books with big emotions. How easy is it for you to tap into a young character’s emotions while creating universal connections to your readers?

MEG: Thank you so much, Kate! That’s the part I feel like is my strength. As an autistic person, I feel things so big, and so channeling those feelings into my characters is easy. I just write what I’m feeling now, and what I felt at that age (often they’re very similar things, just maybe wearing different outfits). When I ask things like: what am I struggling with now? What did I struggle with then?, I try to be as specific as possible, and ironically, the more specific we are, the more universal we get because we’re tapping into the human experience.

KATE: In discussing some of those emotions just a bit further, I think many readers will be able to relate to Valeria, a girl who has been hurt by the actions and comments of others. Afterall, who hasn’t wished someone else a taste of their own medicine? How did you decide this would be her driving force?

MEG: I write what I’m feeling and struggling with in the moment. I knew I needed to write this book when, like V, I was hurt and angry at someone else. I knew I needed to try to see them with more empathy. But to get there, I knew I needed to be honest with where I was in my feelings and let that fuel the story.

KATE: You have two characters giving Valeria art guidance – one who says to draw art as you see it. Another who says to draw art as you feel it. When you write, which advice registers closest for you?

MEG: I think there’s truth to both, for V and for my writing. We need to be informed by what we feel, but also what is true. Sometimes these intersect, but sometimes feelings are unreliable narrators, so we need to open our eyes to get perspective and ask, what is true?

KATE: There’s a great parallel in your novel between ghosting someone and being a ghost oneself. Talk to us about how you wove in the concept of being seen.

MEG: I think as the story progresses, V realizes she’s been holding in feelings, but so has the house—to embody how the family has been holding in hurt from generational trauma and ableism. When we’re ghosted, it hurts, and if we don’t acknowledge those feelings, if we don’t move forward, we can become ghosts in a sense, trapped in a cul de sac of looping feelings. We can also give that as an inheritance to the next generation. And if we don’t acknowledge those feelings, they build and fester and get worse. They wound, and can create really malignant patterns for the generations to come. In a few ways, this becomes a literal threat V has to deal with, because as things escalate, they can become real obstacles. I wanted V to break those generational patterns and pave forward another option.

KATE: We often hear about family curses. How important was it for you to make this story generational?

MEG: That was the main thing I wanted to explore here: generations. What do we inherit from our families? The people who dig at us the most, is it in part because we see ourselves in them? What legacy do we want to leave forward? How can we take the good and oppose the evil in the legacies we inherit?

KATE: It’s often fun to read about the baddies of a book, and your baddie is certainly up there on that list! How fun was it for you to write this antagonist?

MEG: Not fun! 😉 But very healing. Sometimes you have to write very real things, that aren’t necessarily fun, because they hit a little too close to home. But it’s really important. It was fun, in a sense, exploring the complexities of the antagonist: the yes, but what if…?

KATE: You and Valeria share many things in common, I’m sure, one in particular is being neurodivergent. Can you tell MUF readers about neurodivergence and how this connection to Valeria helped you in your story development?

MEG: I’m neurodivergent and I don’t know what it’s like to not be ND. I used to try to write neurotypical leads to satisfy a previous agent, but I learned I’m a bad actor, and don’t know what it’s like to be neurotypical! So I write what I know, and my best writing is what I know. For V, I particularly wanted to channel my insecurities as a neurodivergent person in a neurotypical world, how I have so much joy in who I was created to be until something happens and someone makes me doubt myself.

Especially because in Good Different, Selah grows to love her autism, I wanted to show the other end, because it’s not always that simple. Usually there’s a mix of joy and internalized ableism. I don’t want people to stop at Selah’s story and think we’ve “fixed ableism.” It’s still there, all the more obvious by RFK Jr’s recent disturbing comments. There is joy, but there’s also a lot of hurt, and for kids struggling with that, I wanted them to see themselves in V’s story, and see it doesn’t have to end there.

KATE: Can you describe your writing process and, can you give us an example of something you cut, changed, or reworked from draft to publication?

MEG: Goodness, so much changed. The basic bones of the emotional arc have always been there, but there were pranks that had to get cut, lots of conversations between the ghost and V, a lot of internal poems..I was really challenged by my editor to focus, to escalate, and keep things active, since I can get so lost in my head sometimes.

KATE: Thank you for taking the time to share the inside scoop on The Girl in the Walls. Is there something beyond Valeria’s world you can hint at? Perhaps a new project in the works?

MEG: I’m so excited to have a Good Different companion novel in the works currently called PERFECT ENOUGH, and a YA with two autistic leads (that I’ve been working on for over ten years now, so it’s such a joy to know it’s coming out into the world)! Being undiagnosed for most of my life, I’m really enjoying exploring what it means to be autistic and how to be a healthy autistic person in a neurotypical, often ableist world. So we’ll see where that leads me as I play with future ideas!

KATE: Where can readers best find you if they want to reach out?

MEG: megedenbooks.com! I love hearing from readers!

 

Lightning Round

 

And….no MUF interview is complete without a lightning round, so…

Favorite place to write? – patio, or Chick-fil-a

Dark chocolate or milk chocolate? – dark chocolate all the way

Superpower? – flying! or timetravel.

Rollerblades or bike? – bike!

Dream job when you were a kid? – being an artist or a manga-ka

House pet? – cat

Favorite piece of advice for writers? – persist!

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Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour: MG Notable Winners + Q&A!

By on February 13, 2025   /   Articles  
Today it’s our privilege to shine the Mixed-Up Files spotlight on the MG Notable Book winners of the Sydney Taylor Book Award. Presented by the Association of Jewish Libraries since 1968, this prestigious award — bestowed annually and named in memory of Sydney Taylor, author of the classic All-of-a-Kind Family series — recognizes books for children and teens that exemplify high literary standards while authentically portraying the Jewish experience.

Gold medals are presented in three categories: Picture Books, Middle Grade, and Young Adult. Honor Books are awarded silver medals, and Notable Books—including the three MG titles featured below—are named in each category.

And now, without further ado…

The Sydney Taylor Book Award MG Notable Book Winners

  • Max in the House of Spies: A Tale of World War II by Adam Gidwitz
  • Benji Zeb Is a Ravenous Werewolf by Deke Moulton
  • Things That Shimmer by Deborah Lakritz

Max in the House of Spies: A Tale of World War II by Adam Gidwitz (Dutton Children’s Books)

Max Bretzfeld doesn’t want to move from Germany to London, where he’s alone for the first time in his life. But not for long. Max is surprised to discover that he’s been joined by two unexpected traveling companions, one on each shoulder, a kobold and a dybbuk named Berg and Stein.

Germany is becoming more and more dangerous for Jewish families, but Max is determined to find a way back home–and back to his parents. He has a plan to return to Berlin. The problem is, it involves accomplishing the impossible: becoming a British spy.

Benji Zeb is a Ravenous Werewolf by Deke Moulton (Tundra Books)

Benji Zeb has a lot going on. Not only does he have a lot of studying to do—for school as well as for his upcoming bar mitzvah—he’s nervous about Mr. Rutherford, an aggressive local rancher who hates Benji’s family’s kibbutz and wolf sanctuary. Plus, Benji hasn’t figured out what to do about Caleb, Mr. Rutherford’s stepson, who’s been bullying him at school, despite Benji wanting to be friends (and maybe something more). To complicate matters, secretly, Benji and his family are werewolves who are using the wolf sanctuary as cover for their true identities.

Things come to a head when Caleb shows up at the kibbutz one night . . . in wolf form. He’s a werewolf too, unable to control his shifting, and he needs Benji’s help. Can anxious Benji juggle all of these things along with his growing feelings toward Caleb?

Things That Shimmer by Deborah Lakritz (Kar-Ben Publishing)

In the spring of 1973, Melanie Adler desperately wants to be accepted by the Shimmers, the popular kids in her class. But the secret of her mother’s PTSD stands in the way. As hard as she tries, Melanie can’t act as effortlessly confident and fun as the Shimmers. She’s convinced no one knows what it’s like to have a parent who’s afraid of everything–until Dorit Shoshani moves to town. Clever, independent Dorit understands Melanie’s home life thanks to her own family’s struggles. The girls become fast friends. But when the Shimmers finally start to pay attention to Melanie, she’s torn between her bond with Dorit and her chance at popularity.

And now, a Q and A with the Notable Winners!

ADAM GIDWITZ

MR: I won’t embarrass you by listing your numerous book-related awards and accolades (who can count that high? 😀), but having Max in the House of Spies chosen as a Sydney Taylor Award Notable book must be particularly meaningful for you as a Jewish author, telling Jewish stories. 

AG: It is. Most anyone who writes from the perspective of a certain cultural group struggles with a certain ambivalence: we want to do something new, something daring; and yet we also want acceptance from our group. With Max in the House of Spies, and perhaps even more with the conclusion of the duology, Max in the Land of Lies, I am taking certain risks—talking honestly about antisemitism in England and Germany, but also complicating every character, the good guys and the bad guys alike—all while telling a rip-roaring spy story. To have the committee recognize the quality of what I’m trying to do is very gratifying indeed.  

MR: Max in the House of Spies is the first book in a duology, and it’s your first work of historical fiction, set during World War II. What prompted your decision to focus on this time period? Also, without giving away any spoilers, what will Max be up to in book #2? 

AG: A close family friend, the late music critic Michael Steinberg, was on the Kindertransport as a boy. His story fascinated me, and I have long wanted to explore the story of the Kindertransport. When COVID hit, and it felt like we were living in a wilderness of lies, fervently defended by the people in power and millions of average Americans, I wanted to explore how a nation could commit itself to lies. It felt like the perfect opportunity to return to Michael’s story. So in the first book, Max is in England, trying to be trained as a spy so he can go back to Germany to look for his parents. In the second volume, he’s back, and while he’s on his mission he is also learning: why? Why are you Nazis? Why do you hate me? (Or would you, if you knew who I really was?). It’s both a spy novel and a novel of ideas—or of questions. 

MR: And finally, Adam, what are you working on now? 

AG: I’m spending a lot of time sharing Max in the Land of Lies with the world right now. But my next book will be a graphic novel adaptation of some of the scary, funny fairy tales I tell on my podcast, Grimm, Grimmer, Grimmest. Look for that in 2027. 

DEKE MOULTON

Author Deke Moulton

MR: This is not your first Sydney Taylor Book Award: Don’t Want to Be Your Monster won the Honor category last year. How does it feel to be a two-time winner? 

DM: It’s definitely surreal! I think as any author knows, the ‘second book syndrome’ fears are so real—even as I was writing Benji Zeb, I worried that it wasn’t going to be successful, that I wouldn’t be able to capture the same kind of magic, that everything good I had writing-wise was spent in my first book. So it’s a weird headspace to be in to see that second book doing well, and in ways that Don’t Want To Be Your Monster didn’t. Benji’s also got a running in the Cybils Awards and the inaugural Pedro and Daniel Intersectionality Award. It’s ‘validating’ as the kids say.

As a Jewish author, I think it’s even more humbling. I feel like there’s only certain Jewish stories that break out of our group—sadly, it seems like non-Jewish readers are mostly interested in Holocaust books or books where our Jewishness is less observed. So to have Benji Zeb – about a Modern Orthodox boy who is struggling with anxiety and queerness – get this kind of recognition. . . humbling doesn’t begin to explain how I feel. It’s empowering to know our stories, Jewish stories, is being received out in the world.

Getting a notable award from the Sydney Taylor Book Award committee felt so validating as well. In Don’t Want To Be Your Monster, I had queer characters, but they weren’t my main two, one of which is a Jewish character. For Benji Zeb, I sometimes worried that there was going to be something that wasn’t going to land right. I’m religious, and queer, and those are two identities that are often in great conflict—to put that into a book and put that out into the world, you never know how it’s going to be received. Well, I suppose now I know!! It’s just . . . it fills me up with a lot of warmth and contentment. Knowing that I took a huge risk, really put a lot of vulnerability in my words, and it landed. It was received. It’s hard to explain how much that means to me.

MR: The Sydney Taylor Book Award is named after Sydney Taylor, the beloved children’s author of the All-of-a-Kind Family series. If you read the series as a child, do you remember your reaction to the books, and to Taylor’s beautifully rendered characters? 

DM: I actually didn’t read the books as a child! When I was growing up I hated ‘slice-of-life’ contemporary books (which is ironic because I feel like the older I get, the more I appreciate those). I’ve read the All-of-a-Kind Family books as an adult and adore them—but as a kid, all I wanted to read was fantasy. When I first started to write, I didn’t make any of my characters overtly Jewish because I just didn’t see any Jewish characters in fantasy or adventure books. I just didn’t think that’s where we belonged—Jewish characters only belonged in the ‘real world’ of contemporary/historical fiction. It wasn’t until I read Sofiya Pasternack’s Anya and the Dragon that I realized, ‘Wow, there can be a fantasy book with dragons in it, where the main character didn’t have to be Jewish, and that character can still be Jewish just because.’ It blew my mind. I wrote Don’t Want To Be Your Monster like, two months after reading it.

MR: Both of your MG novels feature fantastical characters, like vampires and werewolves, along with a hearty dose of Jewish folklore. What is it about the supernatural that excites you as a writer? And Jewish folklore?

DM: I love the openness to explore what you can do with those kinds of creatures. For a ‘realistic book with humans’ you really are limited, but once you start to play with creatures like vampires or werewolves or X-Men mutants or whatever –you get to have fun with who your characters are. Like, my vampires, I had all the old tropes and ‘rules’ and got to play with which ones I wanted to use (like getting burned in the sunlight) and which ones I wanted to explore more (like why vampires drink blood). It’s just really fun.

I loved being able to meld two passions: Jewish folklore and the more mainstream horror creatures with Benji Zeb. I honestly had no idea that we even had our own werewolf myth until I started researching for this book—a friend suggested I look into Jewish werewolf mythology, and I was like, “Huh, why didn’t that even occur to me?” Even with the excitement to write Jewish characters, even with the ability and the encouragement of my publishing team—I still have work to do, unpacking my own upbringing that tells me we aren’t there.

MR: What’s next on the writing horizon for you, Deke? 

DM: So much!! I have a short story out now in the anthology S’more Spooky Stories with Owl Hollow Press. It’s an anthology of spooky stories that all take place in different National Parks and the proceeds go to the National Park Foundation. So, I’m really happy that that’s in the works.

I’ve got something out on submission, and a proposal out, and books with my agent. So who knows what will be out next, or what will be picked up or not. That’s the strange fun of publishing—it’s a mystery until it’s out on paper!

(For more on Deke Moulton, check out this interview from the Mixed-Up Files archives.)

DEBORAH LAKRITZ

MR: Although this is not your first book to win a prestigious award—your picture book Say Hello, Lily was a PJ Library selection—I’m guessing that having Things That Shimmer chosen as a Sydney Taylor Award Notable book is particularly meaningful for you as a Jewish author, telling Jewish stories. Can you elaborate?

DL: Yes, having Things That Shimmer chosen as a Sydney Taylor Notable book is a tremendous honor! First, it is a story that is emotionally very true and that includes some of the most resonant experiences I had growing up: coming of age in a family that had experienced a serious trauma, navigating a highly charged and socially stratified middle school, and learning what true friendship actually means. One of the things I’m most proud of about is that Things That Shimmer is a very Jewish story that has deep universal themes about friendship and identity, but the Jewish aspect is “normalized.” No one is struggling about being Jewish, no one is experiencing isolation, discrimination, or antisemitism. It’s just a story that has very Jewish elements (the Yom Kippur War, Jewish/Israeli central characters, scenes at synagogue on High Holidays, a friend’s bat mitzvah), that all enhance the story and make it uniquely Jewish, but don’t necessarily define the story.

MR: Rumor has it that All-of-a-Kind Family was your favorite book series as a child. What was it about the series that resonated with you so deeply? 

DL: Although I couldn’t have put it into words at the time, the All-of-a-Kind series allowed me to see myself, or at least something very familiar to me, that I wasn’t seeing in other books. Up until that point, any Jewish books I had read were didactic, usually about a holiday, and didn’t invite me to turn the page to see “what happens next.” With Sydney Taylor’s books I was invested in the characters and their personalities, their desires, their dreams, and their conflicts. And of course, there are all of the sensory details that just live on in my imagination: sneaking ginger snap crackers and chocolate babies in bed, sucking on a scrap of salty lox or tasting a paper cone filled with steaming chickpeas from street vendors, discovering hidden buttons while helping Mama dust the furniture. So many wonderful details! Also, it has been thrilling to learn how any of my fellow Jewish kidlit colleagues were similarly smitten by these books!

MR: Although you’re not a kidlit newbie—you’ve written several picture books—Things That Shimmer is your first MG novel. What prompted your decision to write for a middle-grade audience? Also, did you encounter any particular challenges along the way?

DL: It’s funny, I had the idea for Things That Shimmer from the moment I walked into my first class on writing for children back in the mid-1990’s. At that point I was raising a brood of children and the idea of committing myself to writing seriously for publication was out of reach. Thankfully, my wonderful teacher, Gretchen Mayo, who was a local author, didn’t let me talk myself out of keeping my dream alive. She encouraged me to keep reading award-winning, acclaimed children’s books, and to write whenever I could. I decided that writing picture books was probably a more realistic goal at that point, and it was in that class that I first drafted Say Hello, Lily. I’ve studied the craft of picture book writing and I can honestly say I find it much more challenging than writing novels for kids. The toughest part about it is just keeping at it and believing that you’ll get to the end. And then, of course, you’ll probably start all over and revise it and rewrite pages and pages of it. Some people are just quicker, but I can’t rush the process!

MR: What are you working on now, Deborah? 

DL: Well, I’m querying a Jewish young adult novel right now (my wonderful agent, Susan Cohen of Writers House retired), as well as working on several Jewish-themed picture books. I’m itching to write another middle-grade novel, and I even have a basic outline of it in my head, so that may be happening sooner than later!

CONGRATULATIONS TO ADAM GIDWITZ, DEKE MOULTON, AND DEBORAH LAKRITZ… THE MG NOTABLE BOOK WINNERS!

Bonus!

For lovers of Sydney Taylor’s beloved All-of-a-Kind Family series, check out The All-of-a-Kind Family Companion, which includes a host of thought-provoking discussion questions, produced by the Association of Jewish Libraries in celebration of the one hundredth birthday of author Sydney Taylor, born October 30, 1904.

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WNDMG Author Interview with Megan E. Freeman

By on February 12, 2025   /   Author Interviews, Diversity  

WNDMG Author Interview with Megan E. Freeman

Globe reading a book being held up by different colored hands representing diversity.

It always amazes me when I can pick up a book and discover something I’ve not been introduced to before. Away by Megan E Freeman is a great example of that! Her story introduces readers to scenarios that get us pondering: what would we do in such a situation?

I had the esteemed pleasure of sitting down to interview Megan. Here’s the inside scoop on both the author and her book…

 

KATE: Our Mixed-Up-Files readers would love the inside scoop on Away – your companion novel to Alone. Can you tell us a bit about the premise?

MEGAN: When an imminent threat alert causes a midnight evacuation in Colorado, four kids relocated to the same shelter become unlikely friends. After they stumble onto evidence casting doubt on the legitimacy of the evacuation, they begin an investigation that causes them to question everything and everyone around them. Through a series of covert and courageous efforts, the friends uncover the facts behind the “imminent threat” and must decide how—and if—they can expose the truth.

 

KATE: This is a multiple POV book – with each of the 4 characters quite literally written differently. Harmony is written in prose, Grandin in verse, Teddy in screenwriter script, and Ashanti in italicized verse. This change in style is new to me and rather exciting to see. How did you come up with this? And how did you know who to bring to page when?

MEGAN: There was a lot of trial and error! I knew I wanted to give each character their own point of view, so I started by thinking about what each of them was passionate about, and I let those interests inform the formatting for their voices. Some days I worked exclusively on one character and then slotted the pages into the manuscript later. Other days I worked on multiple voices in sequence. One nice thing about writing in Scrivener is how easy it is to move and rearrange pages, and I did a lot of rearranging. 

 

KATE: Let’s talk setting. Your characters meet at an evacuation center. I can’t help but think of Covid and being isolated from the world at that time. In Away, however, isolation is an understatement. Talk about some of the creative ways you took to build a somewhat normal life for your characters all the while shutting them off from the outside world.

MEGAN: I read a lot about the Japanese Internment Camps during World War II, and while I was drafting, my local museum had a timely exhibit of Ansel Adams’ photographs from Manzanar. It was extraordinary to see pictures of people holding concerts, playing baseball, and publishing newspapers. The human spirit is resilient, and even when faced with unimaginable injustices, people still find ways to carve out small comforts and little pieces of normalcy.

 

KATE: In the beginning, the 4 characters start off by documenting daily life at the center. As the book progresses, they uncover facts behind the cause of the evacuation and decide to expose the truth. I love how these kids tackle an adult situation. And in doing so, you keep the characters acting and thinking via “kid brain” aka how they interpret what adults have said. How did you nail that MG voice?

MEGAN: Oh gosh, I honestly have no idea. I invented characters, dropped them into a conundrum together, and then listened. I know that sounds kind of woo-woo and I wish I could explain it better than that, but it really is all about listening.

 

KATE: With multiple towns being evacuated, readers meet more than just 4 characters. When choosing who to add to your storyline, were any of them a surprise addition as you fleshed out the plot?

MEGAN: At first, I didn’t see Ashanti as such an immediate presence in the story. I knew she would be an Easter egg for ALONE readers, and in early drafts, she didn’t appear until the other kids arrived at the camp and Teddy’s grandma went to the medical clinic. But some young beta readers told me they wanted more from her, and I did, too. So I revised the early chapters to bring her into the story from the very beginning, and she really stepped into the spotlight. 

 

KATE: It’s often fun to read about the baddies of a book and how they put the protagonist in a corner. But with multiple POVs, Away’s baddie had to be something larger than a singular antagonist. How fun or difficult was it for you to write about a system working against its citizens?

MEGAN: It was so hard! Because—and I know the book will get criticism for this—I had to try to create a massive conspiracy of unprecedented scale while still allowing readers to suspend their disbelief. Not everyone will be able to accept the premise, and I get that. But honestly, all the extraordinary things that happen in AWAY have parallels in historical and current events. And I’m totally sympathetic to readers who will find the conspiracy implausible. It’s hard to conceive of the inconceivable. Until it’s not. 

KATE: I adore how Teddy references movies. As an example, he writes: “How do we expose the wizard? Where’s Toto when you need him?” Such a fun nod to the Wizard of Oz (for more reason than one when readers finish the book). I’m curious if the Wizard of Oz is your favorite book or movie and how other writers have shaped your journey to publication.

MEGAN: My first book, ALONE, was inspired by Scott O’Dell’s book Island of the Blue Dolphins, and throughout that book I enjoyed making allusions to Karana, his main character. For AWAY, I wanted to find another literary classic to weave into the story. Since my characters’ entire goal is to get home again, The Wizard of Oz was perfect. It’s a wonderful book, and the fact that it exists in different formats (book, film, stage play) was helpful in making connections to my different characters. Not to mention that the four characters in The Wizard of Oz become proxies for each of the kids in AWAY, right down to the dog.

 

KATE: What type of research did you have to do when creating the story world and cast of characters? I was super intrigued by Ashanti’s knowledge of mythology and science, mostly because these are not my areas of expertise. Are these aspects of your own interests which you’ve woven into the story?

MEGAN: I spent a lot of time researching, and I definitely wove my own interests into the story, along with the interests of friends and family. My husband grew up on a ranch and informed a lot of Grandin’s scenes, and my brother is a huge film buff who was very helpful with Teddy’s sections. I’ve always loved Greek mythology and I used to teach Ovid, but I had to research many of the goddesses Ashanti references. I watched videos on medical procedures (including how to use a cast saw), and a journalist friend consulted on Harmony’s pages. Another friend who is a former Army officer taught me a lot about military camps and jargon, and I went down the rabbit hole researching state and federal emergency response systems. I learned a lot!

 

KATE: Away is such an amazing companion novel to Alone. Without revealing spoilers, can you describe your writing process: in organizing your books, did you have the ending for book two in mind when you set out to write book one? And, can you give us an example of something you cut, changed, or reworked from draft to publication?

MEGAN: When I wrote ALONE, it never occurred to me that there would be another book. As far as I was concerned, it was a stand-alone story. But at every school visit, readers wanted to know more about the evacuation and the “imminent threat” that caused everyone to leave. After many of these conversations, I knew I needed to write a companion novel, and that’s where the idea for AWAY came from. Originally, I imagined the conspiracy on an even larger scale, involving the federal government and multiple states. But in talking with my editor, we realized it worked better to keep it contained to Colorado, limited to state and local governments. It was also helpful to fictionalize all the locations so that I had the artistic freedom to manipulate the setting. I did the same thing in ALONE, and it made logistics easier to puzzle out.

 

KATE: Thank you for taking the time to share the inside scoop on Away. Is there to be another evacuation you can hint at? Perhaps a new project in the works?

MEGAN: I just sold my first YA novel and it has yet to be officially announced, but I’m really excited about it. It’s completely different from the AWAY and ALONE books, and it’s set both in California and Norway, where I lived as a teen. It’s coming in 2026, and I’ll have more news about that soon. And I’m playing with ideas for a third book in the ALONE/AWAY universe. In ALONE there are three girls, Maddie, Ashanti, and Emma, who are supposed to attend the ill-fated sleepover. Now that Maddie and Ashanti each have their own books, it seems like there may need to be one more for Emma…we’ll see!

 

KATE: Where can readers best find you if they want to reach out?

MEGAN: I’m on lots of socials, and readers can also contact me directly through my website: www.MeganEFreeman.com. 

 

And….no MUF interview is complete without a lightning round, so…

 

Favorite place to write? my home office in Northern Colorado

Dark chocolate or milk chocolate? dark

Superpower? teaching

Rollerblades or bike? bike

Dream job when you were a kid? author 🙂

House pet? a goofy yellow labrador named Cowboy

Favorite piece of advice for writers? Find a trusted reader who loves everything you write and makes you want to write more!

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