Interview with Jennifer Walkup, author of Second Verse

Congrats to Jocelyn on winning a copy of Second Verse! Please leave a comment with your email so I can contact you. Thank you!
 
Bad things come in threes. In Shady Springs, that includes murder.

Murder Now
Lange Crawford’s move to Shady Springs, Pennsylvania, lands her a group of awesome friends, a major crush on songwriter Vaughn, and life in a haunted, 200-year-old farmhouse. It also brings The Hunt: an infamous murder mystery festival where students solve a fake, gruesome murder scheme during the week of Halloween. Well, supposedly fake.

Murder Then
Weeks before The Hunt, Lange and her friends hold a séance in the farmhouse’s eerie barn. When a voice rushes through, whispering haunting words that only she and Vaughn can hear, Lange realizes it's begging for help. The mysterious voice leads Lange and Vaughn to uncover letters and photos left behind by a murdered girl, Ginny, and they become obsessed with her story and the horrifying threats that led to her murder.

Murder Yet to Come
But someone doesn’t like their snooping, and Lange and Vaughn begin receiving the same threats that Ginny once did. The mysterious words from the barn become crucial to figuring out Ginny's past and their own, and how closely the two are connected. They must work fast to uncover the truth or risk finding out if history really does repeat itself.

Cindy: I'm so happy to welcome Jenn to the Enchanted Inkpot to chat about her fabulous debut, Second Verse! Jenn, your book begins with a seance, which is right up my alley! I've always been interested in the other worldly and the supernatural, so I especially loved reading Second Verse. Could you tell us what was the genesis behind this novel? Are you interested in the other worldly as well?

Jenn: Great question! Yes, I am super intrigued by the otherworldly! I’m not sure exactly what I believe exists outside of what we see and know, but I do believe there is something we don’t yet understand. (If we ever will). That idea alone is enough to really intrigue me. As for the origins of Second Verse, like most stories it went through a bazillion drafts and changes before becoming the final book it is today, but it did start with a teeny kernel of an idea, inspired in part by the anniversary of the death of a very famous musician (it’s a long story, and I have it posted on my site http://www.jenniferwalkup.com/#!second-verse-extras/c1yhf). I don’t want to give too much away, but I started asking myself lots of questions about what is here besides us, and what happens to us after all this. And it wasn’t just my take on these things that inspired me, but also weighing all the different ways people think about these things.

Cindy: I realize "where do you get your ideas from" is one of the most dreaded questions. But I'm always fascinated by the seedling of stories--and there usually is something! I also loved how you incorporated music into this novel, and it is woven in so well. Since it is so integral to the story, was the inclusion intentional, or did it arise more organically?

Jenn: Vaughn was a musician from the very first draft. I knew from the start his music would be important to his character development and also to his and Lange’s relationship, but as draft one led to draft two and draft three (and beyond!), the music began to play a bigger role. It was fun to play with other art mediums within the novel (both Vaughn’s music and Lange’s drawings) as vehicles to help them along on their discoveries as they attempted to unravel the mystery.

Cindy: I think it's so cool how organic it was, that the music began to play a bigger role. Vaughn and Lange are such a great, intense couple. What do you love about each character most? And what was the biggest challenge in writing each of them too?

Jenn: Lange, being the main character and point of view character, became real to me very early on. I naturally got to know her before the others, but I really enjoyed how the depth and resilience of her character changed and grew as I wrote her story. Lange goes through a lot in this book, and she’s certainly tougher than I originally thought she’d be. Vaughn was a fun character to write, I mean, most love interests are fun to create, in my opinion. But I know nothing about music so that research was challenging, but it was really interesting and fun too! As for challenges? Well, I write exclusively in first person and while I love the immediacy and closeness the reader gets from first person, it can be challenging at times too. It takes me a few drafts to get the voice just right for the character, without letting too much of my author voice sneak in.

Cindy: Tell us a little about your writing process. And what it was like writing the sequel to Second Verse. Can you give us any hints to what happens in the sequel?? (I'm dying to know!!)

Jenn: My writing process isn’t very concrete. I’m a pantser through and through. My first draft is usually exploratory as I get to know my characters and begin to figure out my plot and then I revise and revise and revise until I have something resembling a novel I can show people for critique. As for the sequel, it is, in fact, written! But it is very early yet, I’ve only done two drafts of it and there is tons of revision to go yet. I don’t want to give too much about book one away, so I really can’t say much, but I will say it follows a character or two from book one, but in a different setting – an old, closed-down psychiatric hospital turned boarding school. Just as creepy as book one, but in a very different way.

Cindy: Being mostly a pantser myself, i can sympathize! I have heard tidbits of your sequel research before, and I honestly can't wait to read it!! Last but not least, what is your favorite pastry?

Jenn: Would you kill me if I said I don’t really like pastries? Ha! I know, blaspheme to you, I’m sure, but I’m much more of a salty food fan than sweets or dessert fan. But I do love a good croissant every now and then.

Cindy: !!! *dies* ha! But no, actually, MORE PASTRIES FOR ME! =) Jenn, congratulations on the release of your fabulous debut and thanks so much for stopping by!

To find out more about Jenn and her books, visit her website: http://www.jenniferwalkup.com/

SECOND VERSE GIVEAWAY!

Simply comment to enter. Tweeting, blogging, tumblr'ing, facebook statusing and linking directly to this interview will garner extra entries each. Followers of the Enchanted Inkpot also receive an extra entry. Please provide links in comment section to receive extra entries. I will select a random winner on Monday, October 7 and post winner at the top of this entry. OPEN to US address only. Good luck!


Cindy Pon is the author of Silver Phoenix (Greenwillow, 2009), which was named one of the Top Ten Fantasy and Science Fiction Books for Youth by the American Library Association’s Booklist, and one of 2009′s best Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror by VOYA. The sequel to Silver Phoenix, titled Fury of the Phoenix, was released in April 2011. Her first published short story is featured in Diverse Energies, a multicultural YA dystopian anthology from Tu Books (October 2012). Cindy is also a Chinese brush painting student of over a decade. Visit her website at www.cindypon.com.

Interview & Giveaway: Ellen Booraem on Death, Jelly Beans, and TEXTING THE UNDERWORLD

I have been a great fan of Ellen Booraem's since I read Small Persons with Wings, her novel about some marvelously touchy and irritable fairies. So I jumped at the chance to read an ARC of her latest, Texting the Underworld (Penguin/Dial Books for Young Readers), in stores this month. I loved it, and you will too. Read more about it below in the giveaway section, and then enter to win your own copy.

In this interview, Ellen talks about how to make death funny and the secret to a non-corny Irish voice (which I am stealing). Also, for the record, she describes my own feelings about drafting vs revising to a precise T.  -Katherine Catmull

1. You have the BEST titles. I 100% read Small Persons With Wings because I correctly assumed that with a title like that, it had to be smart and funny and delightful (ed. note: If you have not read SPWW, read it—it was on pretty much every Best of 2011 list). Did the title Texting the Underworld just come to you, or was it A Process?

Ellen Booraem

It was definitely A Process. I can take credit for naming Small Persons with Wings, but absolutely not Texting the Underworld. The search for this title was terrifying at times—my editor Kathy Dawson and I emailed lists back and forth with various combinations of key words ranging from Death to Jelly Beans, and it seemed like we’d never come up with anything. (At one point, I did want to call it Death & Jelly Beans. ) We agreed only that we needed to combine the mundane with the otherworldly.  My memory has blurred, but I’m pretty sure it was Kathy who came up with Texting the Underworld.

2. I love how you treat such serious subjects — like 12-year-old Conor’s anxiety issues, and, you know, DEATH—in such a light, funny, but never unserious way. How do you balance the tone so beautifully?

Chiefly it’s a matter of setting up characters and contrasts that are likely to be funny—the banshee learning about the world through outdated Trivial Pursuit cards, for example—and getting them clear in my head before I start writing. Since the story’s about something inherently scary, like death and the unknown, I made my protagonist, poor Conor, the kind of person who’s least likely to tolerate such things. (He’s a naturally fearful kid who’s obsessed with mapping his known world.) Once you have elements that naturally lend themselves to humor, you’re free to write a serious book and let the comedy take care of itself.

Also, though, I think I’m incapable of taking anything too seriously. Sometimes it’s a curse—I’ve learned over the years that when tragedy happens I have to just keep my mouth shut, for fear of saying something utterly inappropriate.

3. I thought you did a wonderful job with the banshee Ashling’s voice. She spoke with foreign cadences, both Irish and ancient (and hilariously interlarded with modern slang the longer she’s with Conor), without ever falling into corniness or Tolkien-pastiche. How did you find that voice and keep it so consistent? (Am doing something similar in a book right now, and it makes me nervous.)

I was nervous about that, too. The last thing I wanted was to make Ashling some caricature Irish wench, and I certainly wasn’t going to use any gosh-and-begorrah vocabulary. So I did something sneaky—I gave her first few speeches a VERY Irish cadence, then stopped trying to make her sound any way in particular. I figured if I got her voice established in the readers’ minds from the outset,  they’d just assume she sounded Irish from that point on. I did make her vocabulary a little bit archaic, befitting someone who’d been stuck in the afterlife for sixteen hundred years.

4. I know that although you live in Maine now (which is at the top of my why-have-I never-visited places, by the way), you grew up in Massachusetts. Any Irish heritage? At least to my inexperienced eye and ear, you nailed the Boston Irish family at the center of this book.

Oh, I do hope that’s true! I really wanted South Boston to seem right, and I had a lot of advisers helping me make it so. My mother’s family was mostly Irish, and she definitely identified as such. The town I grew up in north of Boston was predominantly Irish and Italian, and there were Irish families in my neighborhood. I named Conor’s school after one of my mother’s best friends, who came from a big Irish family. When I was in Southie for research, the speech patterns and attitudes were very familiar from my childhood.

You definitely should visit Maine. It’s gorgeous.

5. Celtic mythology is a pretty significant vein in this book, though it’s not the only ancient source you use. How deeply did you have to dig yourself into that research? I thought I knew something about Celtic myths, but had never heard of Testing the Birds, for example, which is crucial in your story.

Oh, goody—I’m so glad the Birds sounded authentic, because I totally made them up. Ravens and the number three are common in Celtic tales, though, and if a crow or raven appeared on the battlefield it meant the Morrigan (a battle goddess) was near.

I did do a lot of reading, both in books and online, about ancient Ireland and Celtic mythology. I found the mythology a little hard to pin down, frankly—everything I read seemed to have a different take on it. I think that’s partly because none of it was written down until the eighth century or so, and then the writers were Christian monks who probably imposed their own beliefs. It was a big relief when I realized that the underworld needed to be multi-cultural and that I was going to have to make up a lot of stuff on my own.

6. This is your third book — how was the process of writing it different from the others? In general, do you feel like your writing is changing with experience? Complicating, or tightening, or lightening, or serious-ing, or — ?

This was the first time I wrote a plot synopsis before I wrote the book. Before, I knew the last line but not how I was going to get there. With a synopsis written ahead of time, I had to overcome the feeling that I’d already told my tale—I did that essentially by ignoring the synopsis when I started writing. But now I’m addicted to having a synopsis first—it’s a comfort to know that it is possible to make the plot work, even if you end up writing it in a completely different way.

Otherwise, I think the major thing I’ve learned (although I have to keep re-learning it) is not to let the supernatural elements take over for the basic human story. It’s easy to get distracted by all the bells and whistles and forget that the important story is about a person with a problem.

7. What was the seed idea for Texting the Underworld?

I was reading Abbey Lubbers, Boggarts & Banshees by the late British folklorist Katharine Briggs, and discovered her theory that a banshee was a maiden who died too young and came back to warn her family of an impending death. I’d always thought of banshees as horrible screaming hags. Briggs’s version seemed like she’d have an interesting tale to tell.

8. Which do you like better (or anyway which is less dreadable): drafting or revising?

Definitely revising. I have a love/hate relationship with drafting—it’s fun to be making things up, but I’m terrified of the blank screen.  During the drafting stage, I have to make strict rules: Write every day, and no lunch until I have a thousand words—otherwise I’d never get anything done. I also keep reminding myself of Anne Lamott’s reassurance that first drafts are supposed to be terrible. Revision is pure joy—that’s when you finally figure out where the story’s going and what might be special about it. So I’ll revise all day without having to impose any rules at all.

9. Tricia Hoover always asks her interviewees for a favorite inspirational thought at the end of her interviews, and I’ve found some great ones that way. Do you have one that’s working for you now?

I have this stuck to my computer monitor on a post-it note: “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” That’s Marcel Proust, and I have no idea where I picked it up because I’ve never read Proust. ( I guess I should do that sometime.) For me that’s the core of fantasy: to give the author and the reader a new perspective on reality.

This was fun, Katherine—thanks for interviewing me!

The next stop on Ellen’s blog tour for Texting the Underworld is tomorrow at Prose & Kahn. See you there!

And now for the GIVEAWAY. Two copies of Texting the Underworld are up for grabs (U.S. only, sorry)--all you need to do is comment on this post, and be sure to leave your email. For extra credit, tweet about the giveaway and follow @EnchantedInkpot on Twitter--just see the Rafflecopter widget below. Entries close on August 21, 2013. Good luck!  And here's a quick description of the book:

Conor O’Neill always thought spiders—and his little sister, Glennie—were the worst kind of monsters life had in store. That was before an inexperienced young banshee named Ashling showed up in his bedroom.

The arrival of a banshee, as Conor soon learns, means only one thing: Someone in his family is going to die. Not only will Ashling not tell him who it is, it turns out that she’s so fascinated by the world above that she insists on going to middle school with him.

The more Ashling gets involved in his life, the harder it becomes to keep her identity a secret from his friends and teachers—and the more Conor worries about his family. If he wants to keep them safe, he’s going to have to do the scariest thing he’s ever done: Pay a visit to the underworld.

If only there were an app for that.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Interview with Transparent author Natalie Whipple

CONGRATS TO LIBBY FOR WINNING A COPY OF TRANSPARENT! Thanks to all for reading and commenting!
 
Plenty of teenagers feel invisible. Fiona McClean actually is.

An invisible girl is a priceless weapon. Fiona’s own father has been forcing her to do his dirty work for years—everything from spying on people to stealing cars to breaking into bank vaults.

After sixteen years, Fiona’s had enough. She and her mother flee to a small town, and for the first time in her life, Fiona feels like a normal life is within reach. But Fiona’s father isn’t giving up that easily.

Of course, he should know better than anyone: never underestimate an invisible girl.
It is such a pleasure to welcome debut author and artist Natalie Whipple to the Enchanted Inkpot. Natalie and I have known each other online since before either of us were published, and had the pleasure of finally meeting this year. I'm excited to discuss her fantastic debut TRANSPARENT as well as give away a copy of her book!

Cindy: Natalie, your debut is such a fun mix of mutant powers, the mob, and just a girl who wants to be ordinary. In writing this story, which came to you first--was it Fiona, our invisible heroine, or something else?

Natalie: Fiona was really the star from the beginning. As a teen I struggled with feeling like nobody saw or understood me (Heck, I still feel like that sometimes!), and one day while I was thinking back on those emotions I started to wonder what it might be like to be really invisible. And not the traditional superhero invisibility where you can turn it on and off, but permanently invisible.

That's where Fiona's voice showed up, in those moments. For awhile I tried to ignore the idea, because I thought writing an invisible main character would be a big challenge (turned out it was—I rewrote the entire book). But she would not be ignored, and here we are!

Cindy: I like that your invisible heroine could not be ignored. I also really enjoyed the settings being Las Vegas and then small town Arizona. What prompted you to choose these places for your story?

Natalie: You know, it made the most sense. At least to me. I suppose Chicago or New York would be more traditional settings for mob-like stories, but this posed a big technical issue, because Fiona has to be naked to be invisible and it gets cold in the northeast. Las Vegas was the natural choice, because of its desert location and, of course, the same goes for Arizona. The southwest in particular was alluring to me because of its ties to secret government testing sites like Area 51. It felt like a place where Radiasure (the drug that caused mutations) could have been developed.

Cindy: I never even considered the no clothing and weather thing. The challenges we give ourselves as writers! You wrote a very powerful blog post about "passing" this year on your website. (please provide link? =) From speaking with you, and seeing your inclusion of Mexican-American characters in your debut, it's clear that diversity matters to you in your writing. It can be such a challenge to tackle, and I hear over and over from writers that they are so afraid to get it wrong. Could you talk a little bit about your thoughts on being more inclusive in your own writing?

Natalie: Blog Post: When You Don't Look "Right."

I'm glad you enjoyed that post! It was very scary to write, and I worried people would take it poorly. But everyone was so kind and understanding about it—this has given me courage to be more open about it and my feelings on diversity. Because it is an important issue to me.

I have written outside my race many times over the 15 or so novels I've drafted, and at this point I feel pretty comfortable with it because I've done a lot of research and have a lot of personal experience and now a lot of practice. But there was a time I was very scared about it, in particular when I was writing my first non-white main character, Toshiro. He was a 1st generation Japanese-American living in San Francisco. He also happened to be a ninja.

I was terrified to do it "wrong," first and foremost. But I was also scared to be confronted about it, because why did I, as a white female, feel qualified to right outside my race/gender? (And I actually was confronted about this and asked that very question quite aggressively, but that is a story for another time.) Well, I didn't exactly feel qualified, honestly, but I ultimately came to a very personal conclusion: I would rather TRY to be inclusive and get accused of doing it wrong, than to be accused of not including diversity at all. That was my decision, and I've done my best to stand by it since then.

Along with having my own experiences being surrounded by diversity (grew up in Bay Area) and technically being Polynesian (though not-so-much in appearance), I have done a butt load of research. And I will openly admit to being more comfortable with races I have more experience with. Of all the diversity I write, I tend to write the most Asian, Latino, Indian, and Pacific Islander characters. I have not only grown up around these cultures, but I have also studied the most about them. Even with all of my knowledge, I still double check myself by asking people from the culture I am representing to read my work. Because I really do care about representing as properly as I can.

People often ask me how I approach writing a character outside my race, and the answer is this: I approach all characters the same way—as human beings first and foremost. All humans, no matter the culture, want to be happy, to be loved, to feel connected, to be successful. I start here when I build characters, because this is the core. Then I build out—motivation, interests, beliefs, goals, family, gender, orientation, race, etc. When you see your characters as human first, it's much easier to avoid stereotype, I believe.

And...now I will stop because that was a very long answer, heh.

Cindy: As an author who does care greatly about bringing more diversity and inclusiveness into young adult books, I really appreciate your adding to the dialogue as well as writing the characters. You're a wonderful artist. How does this creative interest differ from writing? Do you find it complements your prose somehow?

Natalie: Originally, writing and drawing differed very little for me. They were both hobbies, both creative outlets that made me happy. Now that writing has become my job, I feel like there are some differences. Drawing is now a pleasure and relaxation activity that I guard fiercely. Many people have told me I should sell my art, but selling my words has taken a lot of the, er, enjoyment out of writing. Well, I'm not sure that's the right way to explain it. I still love to write, but because it's my profession I take it very seriously. Whereas art I do purely as enjoyment and I don't worry about how it'll be received—it's just for fun.

That said, I do feel like my drawing and writing compliment each other! I've been doing both since I was a kid, and even now as I write I often picture my characters as cartoons instead of real people. That's why it's hard to "cast" my books because I don't see actors. I see anime! Haha. I think my immersion in anime and cartooning in general has impacted my writing a lot; my style tends to be "episodic" as if you were watching a show, complete with commercial breaks.

Cindy: I know exactly what you mean about keeping our art just art--rather than turning it into a business. Tell us about what you're working on and what we can see from you, book wise, in the future!

Natalie: I just finished the first big edit on TRANSPARENT's sequel! It's called BLINDSIDED, and it's out January 2014. I also have another novel out April 15th, 2014 called HOUSE OF IVY & SORROW. Now that all my contracted work is almost finished, I'm hoping to go on submission with a contemporary novel soon, and I'm on the writing team for an amazing cRPG called Torment: Tides Of Numenera, out 2015.

So I'm keeping myself busy.

Cindy: I can't wait to read them both! And last but not least, what is your favorite pastry?

Natalie: Arg, Cindy, you know how much I like food! How can I choose a favorite anything? Hmm, I love all sweets, but I am a professed cupcake fan. And dark chocolate anything will get me. Also, it's pretty hard to beat a good old chocolate chip cookie fresh out of the oven. Oh, the gooey goodness.

Cindy: I'm hungry now! Thank you so much for taking the time to join us at the Enchanted Inkpot, Natalie!

To find out more about Natalie and her books, visit her website:  http://betweenfactandfiction.blogspot.com/

TRANSPARENT GIVEAWAY:

Simply comment to enter. Tweeting, blogging, tumblr'ing, facebook statusing and linking directly to this interview will garner extra entries each. Followers of the Enchanted Inkpot also receive an extra entry. Please provide links in comment section to receive extra entries. I will select a random winner on Monday, 8/12 and post winner at the top of this entry. OPEN INTERNATIONALLY. Good luck!


Cindy Pon is the author of Silver Phoenix (Greenwillow, 2009), which was named one of the Top Ten Fantasy and Science Fiction Books for Youth by the American Library Association’s Booklist, and one of 2009′s best Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror by VOYA. The sequel to Silver Phoenix, titled Fury of the Phoenix, was released in April 2011. Her first published short story is featured in Diverse Energies, a multicultural YA dystopian anthology from Tu Books (October 2012). Cindy is also a Chinese brush painting student of over a decade. Visit her website at www.cindypon.com.

Necromancing the Stone with Lish McBride

Congrats to Van Pham for winning a copy of Necromancing the Stone. Thanks to everyone for reading and commenting!

With the defeat of the evil Douglas behind him, Sam LaCroix is getting used to his new life. Okay, so he hadn’t exactly planned on being a powerful necromancer with a seat on the local magical council and a capricious werewolf sort-of-girlfriend, but things are going fine, right?

Well . . . not really. He’s pretty tired of getting beat up by everyone and their mother, for one thing, and he can’t help but feel that his new house hates him. His best friend is a werebear, someone is threatening his sister, and while Sam realizes that he himself has a lot of power at his fingertips, he’s not exactly sure how to use it. Which, he has to admit, is a bit disconcerting.

But when everything starts falling apart, he decides it’s time to step up and take control. His attempts to do so just bring up more questions, though, the most important of which is more than a little alarming: Is Douglas really dead?

Cindy: It is an absolute pleasure to welcome back Lish Mcbride to the Inkpot! I was looking over ourlast interview and giveaway together and it was almost exactly two years ago. At that time, we hadn't met yet. Hoorah that we got the chance at Comic Con in San Diego as well as in Portland! 

You had mentioned Necromancing the Stone in passing in our last interview together, and talked about the consequences of all that happened in Hold Me Closer, Necromancer. I am a huge fan of the follow up consequences books. Because although we write fantasy and fantasy worlds--it doesn't mean that our heroes aren't affected by the magic or power they wield, or the often grim choices they are forced to make. How was it for you writing this sequel--where some tough situations and emotions come into play? 

Lish: Writing sequels...sucks. No, actually, that's not true. I'm writing a sequel right now and it's fine. NTS fell directly into "second book syndrome." Which means that it fought me every step of the way. Everyone told me that the second book is always the hardest, and man, they weren't kidding. It was definitely an uphill battle. That being said, there's a lot in it that I like. New characters (Taco, Minion, Sexy Gary, etc.) and we get to know a few other characters a lot more. There's certainly a few heart-wrenching moments that were hard for me to write, but they needed to be there. I got a little misty myself at times. I always try to balance it out with some happy thoughts, though. So, you know, there's some battle gnomes, too. 

HMC,N had a lot in it about choices that we make and dealing with the hand that life deals you, and it's not like that ever stops in life. Sam has to just keep on dealing, and since he drags his very human friends with him, they have to deal, too. Sure, it's nice to learn that magic is real and all that, but it's dangerous, and for people like Frank, it's certainly going to be a life-changer. It would feel weird to not examine that in the book. 

Cindy: Loved the battle gnomes! And I really appreciated the way you handled choices in both these novels. One of the interesting and refreshing things about your novels is that you write from the villain's point of view. That isn't often seen in young adult fantasy at all. Did you enjoy writing from his perspective?

Lish: Define "enjoy?" Douglas is one of those characters were it's definitely more like channeling than crafting something. Which is kind of terrifying. I mean, Douglas's pieces aren't even edited very much. Little tweaks, but usually nothing like the massive overhauls the Sam chapters take. It's weird to discover that the one character that's easiest for you to write is a violent sociopath. It certainly shouldn't come naturally to me. Yikes. 

But there's something kind of honest and straight forward about Douglas's narrative. He makes no excuses for himself. He knows that he's a monster, he just doesn't care. He wants what he wants and you better get out of his way. Last week I stopped by a high school to chat with a group of teens and one of them asked me about Douglas's chapters in NTS. He wanted to know why I showed the reader what I did--why I made you feel bad for Douglas. The question made me really happy. Evil doesn't come from nowhere. It grows. It's nourished. I wanted the reader to mourn who Douglas could have become so that you could also see why James loves him. It was nice to know that it worked for that reader. 

Cindy: Totally with you on that one. We all start somewhere, and no one is all good or all bad. This is why I love to write gray characters. I'm always fascinated by themes that arise in our stories. To me, Necromancing has a strong focus on family, loyalty, and friendship. Did these arise by chance, or were they deliberate choices when you began writing? 

Lish: Yes and no. I never, ever, approach a story with that sort of thing in mind. I don't want it to come off all "After School Special." No heavy handed morals and what not. That kind of thing can kill a story. When I was Sam's age, though, those kinds of things were important to me. My family is a hodge-podge of blood relatives, step-whatevers, family friends, my friends, and whatever strays we could pick up. It's a mess. I love it. Family, to me, is about the one you build for yourself, not just the one you're given. My teen years were rough (who's aren't, right?) and the family I built kept me going. And I'm still friends with that group. (In fact, many of them are thanked in my acknowledgements.) They act as beta readers, babysitters, writing buddies, moral support, you name it. I am where I am because of my amazing, loyal, kickass friends and family. Sam's support system is roughly modeled on my own and it only made sense for it to be that way. 

Cindy: I love that response. I think the idea of family is whom you choose to have and build really comes across in these books--of finding your own place. Do you have a favorite character from this series? And what are you working on now, Lish? 

Lish: Hm. It's hard to pick. Sam is so nice. Brid is tough and brave. Ramon is funny and loyal. Ashley is a snarky jerk (I have soft spot for snarky jerks as I tend to be one.). Frank is sweet. Brooke is the Den Mother. James is fussy. Taco is adorable and I love Sexy Gary so much I just had my friend Vlad design a sticker of him. I've spent so much time with them that it would be hard to pick. 

Right now I'm editing my next book and writing the follow up to that. They're not Sam books, but they are set in the same world. They follow Ava, a firebug, who can start fires with her mind. She's forced to work for a mob-style organization as an assassin. It doesn't sound funny, but I promise it's along similar lines as the Sam books. There are biker were-bunnies, for example. All first person so far, though, which feels weird to me now because I've been working on the Sam books for so long. No title as of yet (they rejected mine) and as far as I know the first one is slated for Spring 2014. 

Cindy: Gosh, Ava the firebug sounds so RAD. =D I cannot wait to read this and interview you in the future! Finally, since I've already asked the pastry questions--what is one of your favorite snacks while writing?

Lish: Whatever won't make my hands sticky. I want my snack to not get in the way of me working, but not enough to actually give up the actual snacking. So at this point it's whatever isn't sticky that someone else makes for me. 

Cindy: So practical! And it makes sense. But it discounts Cheetos for me, which is heartbreaking for obvious reasons. Lish, thank you so much for taking the time in your busy schedule to talk with us here!!

To learn more about Lish and her books, visit her website: lishmcbride.com

Inkpot Giveaway

I will be giving away a copy of Necromancing the Stone to one lucky winner! +1 Simply comment in this post to enter. +1 entry if you are a follower of our blog. +1 if you tweet or fb status, etc, with a link to this post and mention of book giveaway. For a total of +3 entries. I will pick a winner on Wednesday, 3/27 and post winner name at the top of this entry. Good luck! (Open to US mailing addresses.)

Cindy Pon is the author of Silver Phoenix (Greenwillow, 2009), which was named one of the Top Ten Fantasy and Science Fiction Books for Youth by the American Library Association’s Booklist, and one of 2009′s best Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror by VOYA. The sequel to Silver Phoenix, titled Fury of the Phoenix, was released in April 2011. Her first published short story is featured in Diverse Energies, a multicultural YA dystopian anthology from Tu Books (October 2012). Cindy is also a Chinese brush painting student of over a decade. Visit her website at www.cindypon.com.

Deadwood by Kell Andrews

CONGRATS TO TINA for winning a copy of DEADWOOD!
 
There’s something evil in Deadwood Park.

Martin Cruz hates his rotten new town. Then he gets a message from a tree telling him it’s cursed — and so is he. It’s not just any tree. It’s the Spirit Tree, the ancient beech the high school football team carves to commemorate the home opener. And every year they lose.

But the curse is no game, and it gets worse. Businesses fail. Trees topple like dominos. Sinkholes open up in the streets, swallowing cars and buildings. Even people begin to fade, drained of life.

Martin teams up with know-it-all soccer star Hannah Vaughan. Together they must heal the tree, or be stuck in Deadwood Park at the mercy of the psycho who cursed it.

cindy: It's my pleasure to have Kell Andrews join us at the Enchanted Inkpot today! Your middle grade debut DEADWOOD is unlike any other fantasy I've read before, and I enjoyed it very much. I liked the idea of old magic instilled in nature and the trees. What inspired the root of your novel? Was it based on any myth or folklore at all, or perhaps even a tree in real life? (I just noticed my "root" pun. Wasn't intended, ha!)

kell: People all over the world have believed that plants have spirits. I wondered why, and that's why I created a tree mythology from a science fiction perspective. My reference manual was the 1973 alternative science bestseller, The Secret Life of Plants by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird, which explores the idea of plant sentience. This was the book popularized the 1970s idea that you should talk to your plants to keep them healthy. Most of the evidence in the book is actually pseudoscience, but the David Attenborough 1995 BBC/Turner Broadcasting mini The Private Life of Plants is more scientifically rigorous and covers related territory about plant survival mechanisms. I drew on the companion book too. 

Then, from that starting point of plant ecology and botany, I tied in some of the culturally ubiquitous myths about tree beings of all kinds.

cindy: I remember Prince Charles saying he talked to his plants. And a television show that displayed plants growing toward a speaker that played classical music and away from one that played rock (or something noisy and "dissonant"). ha! A fascinating area of study, indeed. I really appreciated the relationships you created in your novel--from the sibling friendships between Hannah and her older brothers, to the uncertain and awkward bond between Hannah and Martin. Even that between Hannah and Martin and the Spirit Tree. Were these interplays something you consciously wanted to focus on (family and friendship) or did they arise on their own in your writing?

kell: It was important to me to put both Hannah and Martin in strong, loving families. When I first planned the novel, Hannah had five older brothers, but even I got confused, so I narrowed it down to two. And Martin might living with his cold, demanding aunt, but only because his mother has been deployed to Afghanistan. She still shows up as an influential character in the novel, even if just by Skype and instant message.

And of course the relationship between Hannah and Martin is central -- neither of them is the person the other expected, but each was the friend that the other needed at that time. It just takes them a while to figure it out -- there are so many social pressures at that age, and nobody is really sure of themselves, even when they look confident to others.

cindy: Whoa on the five older brothers! I think the two she had stood out well individually. And I loved your emphasis on family. That came across. I also noted and appreciated your inclusiveness of diverse characters in the novel--was this a conscious choice or something that came naturally?

kell: The town where DEADWOOD takes place is an important part of the story, and it's a diverse place, like communities I based it on and where I've always lived. Hannah is a white Anglo and Martin is Puerto Rican. I'm white, so I was nervous about doing Martin's character justice. I chickened out originally and made his mother and grandmother, who raised him together, white, while only his father was Puerto Rican. But although Martin's ethnic background isn't central to the progression of the plot, I realized it IS central to Martin himself. He asserted himself and his identity, so I changed his heritage to fit. I found that he held that cultural identity very close, reflective of his feelings for his mother and grandmother, and I hope it works.

cindy: I truly do believe in staying true to your characters and their stories. I'm glad Martin spoke up. =) Could you share with us a little about your process in writing DEADWOOD as well as your journey to publication?

kell: I wrote DEADWOOD while my former agent was subbing an earlier middle-grade novel. That one didn't sell, and I ended up on my own again. I queried agents with DEADWOOD, but it didn't work out. Still, I had faith in the story and it has some timely elements, so I didn't want to shelve it. I found Pugalicious Press, which has been a good fit. And now I have a new agent for my subsequent work.

cindy: It is a fabulous debut--well written, entertaining, thought-provoking and original! Congrats to you! And last but never least, what is your favorite pastry?

kell: Do maple walnut scones count? Because yum.

cindy: Oh scones count for sure!! Great choice! And thanks so much for stopping by the Enchanted Inkpot! To learn more about kell, visit her tumblr here!

Deadwood giveaway!

I will be giving away my copy of Deadwood to one lucky winner! Simply comment in this post to enter. +1 entry if you are a follower of our blog. +1 if you tweet or fb status, etc, with a link to this post and mention of Deadwood giveaway. I will pick a winner on Wednesday, 1/16 and post winner name at the top of this entry. Good luck! (Open to US mailing addresses.)

Cindy Pon is the author of Silver Phoenix (Greenwillow, 2009), which was named one of the Top Ten Fantasy and Science Fiction Books for Youth by the American Library Association’s Booklist, and one of 2009′s best Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror by VOYA. The sequel to Silver Phoenix, titled Fury of the Phoenix, was released in April 2011. Her first published short story is featured in Diverse Energies, a multicultural YA dystopian anthology from Tu Books (October 2012). Cindy is also a Chinese brush painting student of over a decade. Visit her website at www.cindypon.com.

Interview with Such Wicked Intent Author, Kenneth Oppel

Congrats to Pica Reads for winning the giveaway! She chose a hardcover copy of Such Wicked Intent. Enjoy the fantastic read, Pica! And thanks to all of you who read and commented!

I'm embarrassed to say that I hadn't heard of Kenneth Oppel (not having read much YA before 2008) until I was fortunate enough to be on a panel with him at ALA this summer. And everything he had to say about his young Victor Frankenstein books got me more and more excited to read them--in fact, I was the first in line to get my own signed copies after our panel. ha! Today, I'd like to welcome Kenneth to the Enchanted Inkpot with an interview and also an international giveaway.

To enter, simply comment in this post. I'll select a random winner next Wednesday, 9/11, and the winner can choose a copy of This Dark Endeavor (first book in the series) or Such Wicked Intent, which just released. Please be sure to leave an email so I can contact you! Winner will be announced in this same post on 9/11. Good luck, everyone!

cindy: Could you tell us the first time you read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and what drew you most to the novel? 

ken: I didn't read it till after graduating university, so I never had to study it, just enjoy it as an amazing literary pleasure. For me it has everything a good story should: a driven hero, a surging plot, a monster, and a rich subtext which poses lots of questions about man's responsibilities for (and to!) his own creations. Franmkenstein poses moral questions that are still very relevant today, about the reasonable limits of scientific ambition -- and the repurcussions of really bad parenting. Mostly though, I enjoyed it as a terrific piece of storytelling. It's sort of the first horror story, the first sci-fi story, the first monster story.

cindy: I never did read Frankenstein, either. But after reading both your young Victor novels, I've got it on my list! I love love gray characters. And we talked a little about writing them on our panel together. As gobsmacked and reviled as I am by some of the things that Victor Frankenstein does and says in your novels, I find him utterly compelling as a character. How was it for you writing a hero (or some might argue, antihero) that was so rash and arrogant? I felt that you walked the fine line between hubris and human foibles so well. 

ken: I loved writing Victor. As a writer I think you strive to create characters that exercsie the full range of human behaviour and emotion -- and often these things are not heroic or noble or attractive. Victor is certainly a larger than life character. He's smart, arrogant, rash, selfish, but also loyal and loving and brave -- in short, he's no more an antihero than most of us on the planet. It's huge fun to let loose a character with a temper, but also with a passion and a plan. I think you sympathize with Victor's sense of inferiority around his perfect identical twin, and any reader would sympathize with someone who tries so hard to be good at things, in the shadow of another. Sometimes envy makes people do rotten things. So Victor's not always nice, but you always want to watch him -- and I think you want him to get what he wants, even if it's a bit appalling. I mean, he's Victor Frankenstein, not Harry Potter.


cindy: I think you created a fantastic character in Victor--and he was one of my favorite things about these books. You mentioned that This Dark Endeavor will be made into a film. How far along are you in the process? Did you write the screenplay? And how have you found the film making business compared to publishing? 

ken: The book was optioned by the producers of Twilight before it was published. So far they've got a great director attached (Matt Reeves, who directed Cloverfield) and a team of screenwriters who are working on a second draft of the script. And that's about all I know. After all, I just wrote the book, so I'm quite unnecessary in the whole process! I did not write the script -- I was busy writing the sequel (Such WIcked Intent) and wanted to concentrate on that.


cindy: These books would be spectacular as films. Really hoping that we'll get to see them in the theatres in the future. What is it that draws you to writing speculative fiction?  

ken: I'm attracted  to stories that take me out of my own world to a world of wondrous possibilities. It's more fun for me to remake the world than to try to capture the one I live in. I know that as a reader I want a story to show me something new, and take me someplace I've never been, and seduce me with a voice I've never heard. For me, I find it easier to create stories that have some element of the fantastic, within a world that feels a lot like our own. I guess it's the idea that there are hidden wonders in our own world, that we might discover if we search hard enough. I've written about the world of bats, and an alternative past with airships and a new flora and fauna in the sky -- and Frankenstein was a way of re-entering a favourite story from a new perspective, and showing readers new things about Victor Frankenstein. 


cindy: I think we are very similar readers, Ken! And perhaps, even writers! Could you tell us a little about projects you are working on now? 

ken: Right now I'm working on the screenplay for a film adaptation of Airborn, and writing the first draft of a new fantasy novel.

cindy: I love how vague you are with this answer. ha! humphs! But I understand some need for Authorial Secrecy. =) And last but never least, what is your favorite pastry? (Anything sweet that must be baked!) 

ken: How about a profiterole: pastry AND ice cream combined!

cindy: I LOVE the way you think! =D 

Thanks so much again to Kenneth for stopping by. Lovely Inkie readers, be sure to leave a comment with an email to enter to win either This Dark Endeavor or Such Wicked Intent. Reminder: to enter giveaway:

+1 if you leave a comment for this post

+1 additional if you are or become follower to
Enchanted Inkpot. (let me know in comment.)

Cindy Pon is the author of Silver Phoenix (Greenwillow, 2009), which was named one of the Top Ten Fantasy and Science Fiction Books for Youth by the American Library Association’s Booklist, and one of 2009′s best Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror by VOYA. The sequel to Silver Phoenix, titled Fury of the Phoenix, was released in April 2011. Her first published short story will appear in Diverse Energies, a multicultural YA dystopian anthology from Tu Books (October 2012). Cindy is also a Chinese brush painting student of over a decade. Visit her website at www.cindypon.com.

Interview with Kristin Cashore & Bitterblue ARC giveaway!

congrats to TJ who won the Bitterblue arc!
thanks to all for becoming new inkies and also
participating in the giveaway and expressing your
love for cashore's books!

The long-awaited companion to New York Times bestsellers Graceling and Fire.

Eight years after Graceling, Bitterblue is now queen of Monsea. But the influence of her father, a violent psychopath with mind-altering abilities, lives on. Her advisors, who have run things since Leck died, believe in a forward-thinking plan: Pardon all who committed terrible acts under Leck's reign, and forget anything bad ever happened. But when Bitterblue begins sneaking outside the castle--disguised and alone--to walk the streets of her own city, she starts realizing that the kingdom has been under the thirty-five-year spell of a madman, and the only way to move forward is to revisit the past.

Two thieves, who only steal what has already been stolen, change her life forever. They hold a key to the truth of Leck's reign. And one of them, with an extreme skill called a Grace that he hasn't yet identified, holds a key to her heart.

cindy: hi kristin, it is so wonderful to have you back at the enchanted inkpot! thank you so much for taking the time from your very busy schedule with Bitterblue tour and promotions to be with us! i thoroughly loved this third novel in your series! (as i knew i would.)

what really struck me was how different Bitterblue was from Fire as Fire was different than Graceling. i appreciate it as a reader but truly admire it as a writer. i know how painful it is to make yourself stretch, to take risks, to write something that you've never attempted before. and you do this with each and every novel you write. yet as different as each novel is from the other, there is also a similarity in spirit, for at its core, is you!

kristin: Aw, thanks! :) And thanks for asking me back! I’m happy to be here.

cindy: you mentioned how difficult it was to be in Fire's head while you were working on that second novel. because she was often mentally and emotionally in a dark and difficult place. i found Bitterblue to be much more innocent and naive; yet, surrounded by so many secrets, and mired in a kingdom where her people are trying to overcome the many abuses inflicted upon them by Leck, her father. how was it for you writing this third novel? what were the challenges of writing from Bitterblue's point of view? what were some joys?

kristin: Being inside Bitterblue’s head was SO much easier than being inside Fire’s. It was a relief to be inside the head of a character with no superhuman powers (especially mind reading, which was another of the challenges with Fire!). Because she’s an ordinary human, I was able to relate to Bitterblue in certain ways I couldn’t with Katsa or Fire, and she was very generous with me—she really showed herself to me, and let me in.

That being said, everything else about the novel was significantly harder than the previous books. The complications of the plot provided enormous mental challenges for my little brain. Also, there was nothing enjoyable in writing about the abuses of Leck. Writing the pain of the people he’d hurt was painful for me, and writing the scenes in which he has a presence was horrible. I would finish my work and feel haunted and dirty for the rest of the day. A scene that took you five minutes to read may have taken me a week or more to write. Sometimes I felt trapped with him!

At the same time, no book has ever given me so much joy. I didn’t really feel the joy until it was done—there were few joyous moments while I was writing, I was too worried about what a big pile of crap it was—but finishing it was enormously satisfying. Nothing feels better than looking at something you’ve written and feeling like you did what you were hoping to do. I still feel that joy!

cindy: congratulations through the struggle and the resulting joy, kristin! as honestly, Bitterblue is my favorite heroine of yours thus far as is this novel. i've personally found that so much of novel writing is about trusting your own process. have you found that your process has changed at all through writing these three novels?

kristin: My physical process was the same for all three books: sit down with a pen and notebook; write, write, write by hand; when I start to get paranoid about the house burning down, transcribe the writing to a Word document using voice recognition software (because I can’t type without pain); print it out; revise, revise, revise. Other levels of my process, however, seem to change with each book. For example, while writing both Graceling and Fire, I revised a lot as I wrote, never moving on until I was completely satisfied with what I had.

Consequently, my first drafts of both of those books were in not-too-terrible shape. But I couldn’t do that with Bitterblue. The plot was too complicated, and there were too many mystery elements. There were lots of times when I really couldn’t know what needed to happen on an earlier page until I figured out what happened on a later page. So I left a lot of questions in brackets, tried to forgive myself for leaving a mess in my wake, and pushed on. My first draft was a disaster. It took me three years and was 800 pages long. The second draft was an enormous project, but also a satisfying one; I beat a lot of things into shape and shaved it down to under 600 pages. I never could have managed it if I hadn’t created the mess of the first draft first, though. A few more drafts followed.

I didn’t have a lot of confidence while I was writing Bitterblue, because it was such a mess most of the time. I was plagued by discouragement that I had to force myself to ignore every day. I depended on my arrogance and determination to keep me going. But finishing it has left me with this wonderful, relieving boatload of confidence, at least for the time being—such that as I work on a new book now, my heart is a little bit lighter. I see that the new book is also an insufferable mess, but I know that it’s okay. The mess is just part of the process, and hopefully I’ll be able to fix it later.

cindy: you blogged recently with all the drafts of Bitterblue piled into your book shelf. that visual and what you've just told us is utterly amazing and inspiring! Bitterblue was an architecturally and artistically visual book. you've traveled quite a lot since publishing. do you take inspiration from real life places or from art that you've seen?

kristin: I take inspiration from everything, really. The sculptures in Bitterblue were inspired by Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne, which I first saw in Rome many years ago. In the sculpture, Apollo is chasing Daphne, and to escape him, Daphne is turning into a tree. It’s simultaneously inspiring (Daphne finds strength by transforming into something impenetrable) and infuriating (Daphne has to give up her mobile, human form because some asshole is trying to rape her). It’s also just flatly a beautiful work of art. Things like that get me thinking, and a lot of my thinking works its way into my books :).

I’ll also mention that early on in the writing of Bitterblue, I began to appreciate one of the challenges I’d created for myself: as queen, Bitterblue never really gets to go anywhere. She’s in her castle almost all of the time. In my previous books, I’d written about journeys, oceans and mountains, changing landscapes. I realized that if I wanted Bitterblue to have a setting that came alive, I was going to have to start thinking about her castle as if it was an entire world, and challenge myself to make it interesting. This worked well with the ideas I had about who Leck had been and how he’d have renovated his castle and city. Hopefully it all came together.

cindy: it did. i found the novel very visual indeed. and that's an interesting writing challenge, but the castle never felt static to me--it felt alive, and full of secrets. although the focus and our heroine is Bitterblue, there is such strong “shades of Leck" haunting this story. that really resonated with me, that we cannot escape our histories nor instantly right or undo atrocities that have happened. just mere glimpses into the psyche of this man was terrifying. how "close" are you to Leck? is he a character that you would ever consider writing from, view point wise?

kristin: Your question actually made me shudder :). I can’t imagine ever writing more than a few pages from Leck’s viewpoint; I honestly think it would be bad for my mental health to try to do more. He really doesn’t have a single redeeming quality, and writing the glimpses into his psyche was a disturbing experience for me. I would write a scene, put it aside, spend the rest of the day trying to forget it; then come back the next day, read it, and realize with a sinking heart that it wasn’t creepy enough yet. So then I’d rewrite it, trying to make it more creepy. There were times when the realization that it wasn’t creepy enough yet would practically reduce me to tears, because I really didn’t want to spend any more time with him! The funny thing is that I never consciously planned to dwell in such horror. When I was writing Graceling, I wrote him as a fairly typical villain, and I had enough distance from him that he couldn’t hurt me. Then, in Fire, I had to spend some more time with him, but so little that it was actually kind of fun. Then I began Bitterblue and realized too late what I’d gotten myself into. I had to make him as evil in Bitterblue as I’d show him to be in the previous books—there was no way around that—but this time, in much more detail, at much greater length, and with no distance between us.

I can say with certainty that I’m happy to be done telling his story.

cindy: wow. it seems like it was a culmination, one that was unavoidable and necessary. and he truly is a chilling villain with a grace that caters so well to his cruel tendencies. will there be another novel set in this world, kristin? can you tell us a little about what other writing projects you are working on?

kristin: Right now, I’m writing something new, and the only thing I’m ready to say about it is that it’s not fantasy and is currently a pile of crap. But I’m working on it! :) As far as another novel set in my fantasy world goes—yes, I’m pretty sure I’ve got another one in me. Not sure what form it will take, but something is brewing.

cindy: not fantasy! i think that's very exciting and brave. i have every confidence that it will be brilliant in the end. also, i'm sure all your fans rejoice in knowing that there is at least one more novel set in the seven kingdoms! all fabulous news!!
the giveaway!

thanks again kristin for stopping by and giving such interesting insight into Bitterblue and your creative process! now, i'd like to give away my own Bitterblue ARC! (it's a little well loved, but perfectly readable! =)
to enter:

1. simply leave a comment in this post with your email (+1).

2. to increase your chances (+1) please twitter, fb status, blog (etc) and link to this interview and tell about the Bitterblue giveaway. make sure to comment with that link in this post.

3. to increase your chances (+1) please follow us at The Enchanted Inkpot! make sure to comment that you have become a follower.
giveaway runs through friday, 3/30 when i'll choose a winner by random. this contest is open INTERNATIONALLY. good luck!

cindypon.com
cindy on twitter