Catherine Austen's Blog, page 6

Author Interview with Kate Inglis

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-buuep-1026a3f

And interview with Kate Inglis, author of 5 books for all ages, including the middle-grade novels The Dread Crew and Flight of the Griffons; the non-fiction memoir for adults, Notes for the Everlost, and the picture books, If I were a Zombie and A Great Big Night. Hear about her addiction to endless revision, the companionship she finds in fictional characters, and how her first novel began with a story she told her child just to pass the time. 25 minutes. All ages.

A full interview transcript is available at CabinTales.ca.

Show Notes

[0:00] Intro

[1:10] Interview with Kate Inglis

 

CA: Are you a planner? Do you know the ending of your story when you begin?

KI: No, I never do. …I feel like the act of writing is how I find the shape. My brain will kind of spit me out somewhere in the middle, a scene that just grabs me. … And then my thinking has to sort of spray outwards in every direction… And so sometimes I have a loose sense of what kind of a story it might be, but I don’t know for certain until I give the characters a chance to tell me.

 

[2:15] CA: Do you have any favorite fictional characters from children’s fiction?

KI: I love all of Roald Dahl’s characters…He was never afraid of letting stories be truly disorienting …And I remember loving Girl of the Limberlost when I was a kid. … a very sort of unusual, very smart, very nature-oriented girl….

 

[3:15] CA: …. How do you feel about tormenting your characters?

KI: Oh, like giving a dog a good bone to chew on. … The stuff that really fortifies you and turns you into the person you’re meant to be is the tough stuff. … The stories that I love to write the most are always going to be the ones where people, you can see the gravity of whatever it is they’re carrying…. Because we all have that on us, right?

[4:20] CA: Have you ever written a series? You have…. Did you did you know you were going to write a sequel?

KI: No. … I didn’t start writing The Dread Crew thinking I was writing a book. I just told a story to a 6-year-old in the woods because he was bored and we had a long way to walk. … And eventually it became a book. … I think by the time I was finished writing it, I knew that I would want to write another one.

 

[6:00] CA: How do you feel about sad endings?

KI: Well I mean, that’s life, isn’t it? … I think there is absolutely such a thing as a sad ending done really beautifully, that still leaves the reader feeling enriched …It’s not so much about Was the ending quote good or bad? It’s, Was it done well? … A story with an ending that some people might consider sad, those are some of the best stories we have.

 

[6:55] CA: Is there a typical amount of time… that you would spend … drafting vs revising?

KI: I would love to kind of chart that when I write my next novel… I actually love the process of editing. But the process of filling empty pages has always been more of a challenge for me. … I guess it might be 50/50. … The last novel that I wrote, that’s with my agent now, I was probably working on it in earnest for about a year and a half… And then editing has been a very intense probably 8 months. But then that first year and a half was a ton of editing as well. … And as it turns out, I ended up re-sending her 6 drafts. …

 

[10:00] CA: What would you say is the hardest thing about writing a good story? …

KI: … Getting over yourself. Just getting through to the point where you can keep sitting your butt down in the chair and keep cranking on the word count …. Even when you think you’re no good, even when you think that probably the story isn’t coming together, step away from it for a bit and then come back. Drop yourself somewhere else in the story. But whatever you do, just keep going. …

 

[11:30] CA: Excellent Do you have a favorite POV to write from? …

KI: I always write it as kind of the observing narrator. I’ve never written in first person. … As the narrator, I’ll kind of jump in here and then out again and then over there in terms of time. …You can sort of reach in with his giant hand and kind of move things around and adjust the pacing and the flow so that it just feels like it’s balanced. And I guess that’s me. I’m the hand, the giant hand.

 

[13:00] CA: And do you keep a regular writing practice? …

KI: … I’m kind of a plodder. …I write when the spirit moves. … sometimes it’s quite late into the night…I have a hard time sleeping. All I can hear in my head is [my characters’] voices. … And now that I’ve finished writing that book … I miss them. …A lot of people I think would find the process of writing a book perhaps to be really lonely … But I find myself very much kept company by my characters. …There is sort of this long stretch in the middle when you’re creating, when I think we’re most vulnerable to self-doubt, which is I think our sort of zone of abandonment as writers. …. All of us hit that point. … And that’s okay. I just need to keep going through the fog.

 

[17:05] CA: What scared you as a kid?

KI: …Not fitting in. … And at the same time… I didn’t particularly want to fit in. … I didn’t want to be like everyone else. …The older you get, the more you can make that possible for yourself. You can absolutely fit in and … not have to be like everyone else….

 

[18:40] CA: How important is setting to you when you write? …

KI: Settings are crazy important. Settings are like another character for me. When I’m developing setting, I feel like a photographer when I write. …The setting of the novel that I just wrote is an abandoned house… so it’s a very evocative place to write in. … It’s a very useful tool to use setting and place as a way of showing and not telling what a character is driven by, what scares them, how they react to the world. … So place is absolutely elemental for me.

 

[20:45] CA: Are there setting or character exercises that you recommend to young writers?

KI: … I don’t do a whole lot of exercises. I’ll just be in a project and I’ll kind of keep going in the project. …Just start something. … Once you have the bones of a story…  do a little bit of freeform… journaling. … almost like you’re being interviewed about the character. … I’m a big journaler, so I’m a big believer in that.

 

[21:55] CA: Do you have recommendations to young writers for getting or organizing ideas?

KI: … I love having a big journal… And doodling and kind of free association and lists. I only just started writing with Scrivener, and that has been really useful for me in writing … novels. …Another thing that I do is I have a Pinterest, almost like it’s my bulletin board. … So I’ll often kind of clip and save stuff from online that feel evocative to me, somebody’s smile or someone’s boots, pictures of a setting, or maps, or other descriptions, or quotes that inspire me. …. I can kind of go there and tap into those warm mushy feelings about the project. It helps me remember to why I’m doing it, because I’m moved by this vision, by this idea.

 

[24:05] CA: Very cool. … Thank you so much…

KI: It’s been so fun to chat. … Bye

 

[24:20] Kate Inglis introduces herself

KI: I’m Kate Inglis. And I’m an author. I’ve dabbled in kids’ picture books and middle-grade adventures and adult nonfiction and adult novels as well. And I’ve been writing ever since I was a kid. And I always knew that I wanted to be an author but I wasn’t always certain what I would say, what stories I would tell. And so much of my adult life has been keeping an eye out for those stories and sort of listening, like through a tin-can telephone, very very quietly for those characters that pop up, and learning how to chase them when I hear that call. So that’s me.

 

[25:20] Find out more about Kate Inglis

You can hear more creative writing advice from Kate Inglis on Cabin Tales Episode 5.5, “Author interviews about Plotting; and on Episode 6, “Begin in the Darkness,” about Beginnings; and on Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about Revision.  You can find out more about Kate Inglis and her books from her website at KateInglis.com.

 

[26:10] Thanks and coming up on the podcast  

I’ll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with Don Cummer, author of historical fiction for young readers. Thanks for listening.

Credits

Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use).

Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com.

Guest Author:

Kate Inglis is an award-winning author for adults and children. Her novels, non-fiction, and poetic picture books are infused with the salt, woodsmoke, and fresh air of the North Atlantic coast. Kate is also a photographer and a corporate writer. Find her online at www.kateinglis.com.

 

Interview with Author-Illustrator Farida Zaman

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-qfjt4-1024735

An interview with Farida Zaman, author-illustrator of I Want to Be: A Gutsy Girl’s ABC, and illustrator of more than a dozen picture books and early readers. Hear about her love of fractured fairy tales, her dedication to creating a signature style, and her own experience of being a gutsy girl when she chose a life in the arts. 20 minutes. All ages.

A full interview transcript is available at CabinTales.ca.

Show Notes

[0:00] Intro

[1:10] Interview with Farida Zaman

FZ: I illustrate and write now. I used to only illustrate. … my debut author-illustrator project with Second Story Press came out in spring 2020 called I Want to Be: A Gutsy Girl’s ABC.

CA: … Do you have projects that you’re writing and illustrating both right now?

FZ: Yes. … I’m illustrating a picture book written by my daughter, Layla Ahmad. …And I’m … finished a manuscript that I’m fleshing into a book dummy. …

 

[2:10] CA: …Do you work on more than one book at a time?

FZ: Very much so. … I also do educational work … schoolbooks and book covers …. I used to do much more editorial and design and advertising…. I’m working on a collection of jigsaw puzzles … I wear a couple of different hats.

 

[2:50] CA: …. Is there a place where you get your best ideas from?

FZ: My best ideas come from what I see around me. I take a lot of notes. …. I like trying out new things. … So my audience will see something different in my work. But I try and keep my look as unique as possible.

 

[3:40] CA: Are there some favorite projects?

FZ: …Years ago I did a … on Moghul emperors, and the author was Rina Singh. [The book is The Foolish Men of Agra.] And it was really really exciting to research the history of these people. I’m drawn to textures, textiles, and cultures…it kind of gave me the opportunity to study and to decorate the book. …

 

[4:15] CA: Have you ever based a story or illustration on your own childhood?

FZ: … Emotions perhaps. The Gutsy Girl came out from a place of shooting for the stars. …That was always my goal growing up. … My parents originally wanted me to study something way more academic. … I wanted to show the family thatyou can make a living doing what you love. …

 

[5:30] CA: …Have you ever been inspired by another artist’s work?

FZ: … Jane Ray — she’s a British writer — she’s always inspired me. …She has a great knack of retellings … her work just looks like tapestry to me. …

 

[6:30] CA: Have you illustrated fairy tales or classic myths or anything like that yourself?

FZ: … Jack and the Beanstalk…. It’s sort of like a fractured fairy tale…. It can be really exciting that way.

 

[6:55] CA: Have you ever written or illustrated anything spooky, scary?

FZ: I’ve done things about anxiety…. Like monsters … versus a little girl. … But nothing really kind of out of the box scary….

 

[7:15] CA: Do you do school visits?

FZ: I do. I illustrated up book on yoga…by Kathy Beliveau. … that was a very fun book to work with students … The art component is really fun, drawing your favorite pose.

 

[8:00] CA: … What would your journal look like? Like, is it messy? Is it organized?

FZ: … I’d like to be the person that shows it on Instagram page by page and it looks so delicious and beautiful. Not my sketchbook. … I have a sketchbook for picture book ideas, where I do storyboarding, …stick figures and …notes. I think that’s really important. …When you get stuck with the words, it really helps that you can draw because then you see where the gap might be and how melds together ….

 

[9:30] CA: Do you have any recommendations to young artists or young writers for getting or keeping or organizing ideas?

FZ: I think keeping a sketchbook is crucial. … Find inspiration in where you are and, you know, what you like to do also.

 

[9:50] CA:… Are you a planner? Or do you just see what you’re going to come up with?

FZ: … I’m not a planner. I do things spontaneously. … And then I start tweaking. … When you plan too much, you can lose certain components of the story. …It’s really interesting to look at the older version of a story that may be becoming a book… It’s so exciting when you see that happen.

 

[11:30] CA: Do you have any favorite plot twists… or surprises?

FZ: I like a good giggle. … something different, something that changes something old to something new.

 

[12:15] CA: Do you have any techniques for making an interesting middle?

FZ: The pacing of the story is so important. …. Sometimes we tend to come to a climax a little sooner in the book…. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle … And sometimes the clicking takes a long longer than you think it might. … It really helps if there’s some kind of twist in the middle … It is important to look at the story in different ways….

 

[13:45] CA: …Do you have a favorite first line…?

FZ: I like a direct beginning and something that takes you straight into the story. …introduce your character. … who is it and what does she want? …. I like going straight to the point.

 

[14:30] CA: Nice. Do you have a favourite … ending?

FZ: For picture books, I think circular stories work the best… For a child, it’s a nice warm cozy feeling.

 

[15:05] CA: Do you have a favorite POV to write from?

FZ: A child’s point of view. I tend to work … in present tense… I find that kids relate to that. It’s happening when they’re listening to it. …

 

[15:30] CA: And what scared you as a kid?

FZ: The dark. As a kid, I was a very anxious child …. People are more open to talking about it now. … In the past, people like myself growing up, it wasn’t easily dealt with….

 

[16:30] CA: Did you tell stories around the campfire as a kid?

FZ: … Later on maybe, as a teenager…. But not as a child.

CA: You don’t like scary stories.

FZ: Not particularly. …. I think monster stories are really cute, but I like friendly characters. I’m not into developing mean personalities.

CA: Do you have a favorite sweet monster or funny monster?

FZ: I love Cookie Monster. I love Grover. Sesame Street. I like that kind of monster. … Maurice Sendak’s monsters. The classic.

CA: Yes, he said he based those on his relatives who ruined every Sunday dinner.

FZ: I can relate to that.

 

[17:30] CA: Do you collect anything?

FZ: I love collecting things. I collect bowls. … I collect toys. … that are little retro. … I love collecting children’s picture books. …

CA:I think it’s a shame that so many people never touch a picture book once their kid’s over 5. …

 

[18:10] CA: What would you say is the hardest thing about illustrating or writing a good book?

FZ: I think word count can be quite challenging. …How do you make that work within 500 words or, tops, 700 words? How do you make it really interesting and stylized and rich, visually?

 

[18:45] CA: … What do you do to prepare to make a setting? …

FZ: … I’ll go online and look at furniture and … what she should wear, her neighborhood….. I think layouts are really important. … And the perspective …. To create drama, I think it’s really important. And creating a sense of contrast. Big and small. I think you can do that in your illustrations and you can do it in your words as well.

 

[20:05] CA: Do you have any favorite fictional characters?

FZ: … The Big Red Lollipop. … by Rukhsana Khan. It’s illustrated by Sophie Blackall. It’s a lovely book. Personality really shines through. …. The eyes just tell you a story…

 

[20:50] CA: Do you have any exercises you would recommend for developing the character?

FZ: I think it’s important to know what your style is… have a sketchbook filled with sketches of realistic, and then pare it down to something more simple. … it’s good to have different styles, but there should be a limit to it. Otherwise people will never know you. …

 

[22:00] CA: That’s great. … Thanks so much. …

 

[22:15] Farida Zaman introduces herself

FZ: Hi. I’m Farida Zaman. I’m an author and an illustrator. I illustrate picture books. And I’m writing picture books as well now. I’ve been doing this for the past three decades now, and I just love what I do. In my early years, I used to do a lot of editorial work as well, and I used to print and design. In between writing and illustrating, I also run workshops and art classes, too, for mainly adults.

 

[23:00] Find out more about Farida Zaman

You can hear more creative writing advice from Farida Zaman on Cabin Tales Special Episode X: “Picture a Story.” You can find out more about Farida Zaman and her books from her website at FaridaZaman.com.

 

[23:45] Thanks and coming up on the podcast

I’ll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with Kate Inglis, author for all ages. Thanks for listening.

Credits

Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use).

Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com.

Guest Author:

Farida Zaman is a Toronto-based illustrator, author, and educator known for her upbeat, sophisticated, and whimsical style. She has worked with clients including the Latin Grammy Awards, The New York Times, UNICEF, London Underground, Toronto Transit Commission and many more. Farida has illustrated more than a dozen picture books. Her first authored and illustrated picture book – I Want to Be: A Gutsy Girl’s ABC – was published in 2020. She is currently an instructor at Toronto’s Avenue Road Art School, where she runs art workshops and illustration classes for adults and children. Find her online at www.FaridaZaman.com, on Twitter @fzamanart, and on Instagram @fzamanart.

 

Author Interview with Lena Coakley

Listen to the podcast interview here: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-f959f-10225a0

An interview with Lena Coakley, author of critically acclaimed young adult and middle-grade fantasy novels, including Witchlanders, Worlds of Ink and Shadow, and Wicked Nix. Hear about Lena’s love of worldbuilding, her ambition to write a sweeping Dickensian story, and her thoughts on the importance of daydreaming. 20 minutes. All ages.

A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca.

Show Notes

[0:00] Intro

[1:10] Interview with Lena Coakley

CA: Are any of your stories based on your own childhood?

LC: I think they all are, whether I want them to be or not. … Rider’s mother had something akin to a mental illness… Wicked Nix is all about the need for a lonely person to find a family… I think it’s almost pointless to advise writers to write about their own lives because when you write, it’s going to come out. …

[2:20] CA: Do you keep a journal?

LC: I don’t. …. I just try to put it all into my writing.

[2:30] CA: Do you find that you get your best ideas from somewhere in particular?

LC: I find that I get ideas all the time… the trick is to sift through them and find the ones that you want to … live with for a year or more…

[3:00] CA: Do you have any recommendations to young writers for getting or organizing their ideas?

LC: I just daydream. … I think if you tell your yourself a story over and over again, and it continues to satisfy you, maybe it’s time to write it down. …

[4:00] CA: And do you have any favorite settings from fiction? …

LC: … I love fantasy, but the thing that actually sprang to mind was Wuthering Heights. …When writing Worlds of Ink and Shadow, I went to the parsonage, I walked on the moors….

[5:30] CA:. Are there any worldbuilding exercises that you would recommend to young writers?

LC: … The Science Fiction Writers of America has a great website which gives you a whole list of questions you can ask yourself when you’re writing a fantasy setting. … We’re all interconnected, and that’s true whether you are creating a setting that’s realistic or a fantasy setting. So kind of following those interconnections and see where they lead… just kind of thinking about this world, and daydreaming about it, and following those threads. …

[6:45] CA: And what about character exercises? …

LC: I do them if I’m having trouble. For Witchlanders in particular, … But generally if I’m not running into trouble with a character, then I just kind of discover them through the writing of the book.

[7:30] CA: Do you have a favorite fictional characters…?

LC: I was raised by my grandmother , and she read David Copperfield out loud to me. … I can’t really remember what she sounded like sounds like until I read that book. … I do love David Copperfield and his adventures.

[8:15] CA: Do you have advice for young writers stuck halfway in a story?

LC: Well, that was me … I wouldn’t know how to finish them. …All I can say is that what I did with Witchlanders was just decide that I was not going to put that book away. And it was ten years. … Just keep chipping away at it, and you’ll get that first book written …

[8:55] CA: Do you have a a favorite first line…/

LC: In my own work I think it would be Witchlanders: “Ryder woke to the sound of clattering bones.” … I also picked out another one from The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness: “The first thing you find out when your dog learns to talk is that dogs don’t got nothing much to say.” …It gets the character across. But also … it raises questions in the reader’s mind that must be answered. …

[9:55] CA: And have you written a sequel?

LC: I have never written a sequel because I actually don’t love reading series books. … I want a new world. …

[10:20] CA: And have you ever written anything scary?

LC: …There’s a piece of short fiction I wrote called “Cold Spots” which was podcasted, which was kind of a horror piece. …There are some scary parts in Witchlanders….There’s a boy who goes through a cave full of spiders….It’s always nice to kind of go down that hole in your writing and kind of explore …discomfort….

[11:20] CA: …How much time do you typically spend drafting a story … and revising it?

LC: By the time I actually really get to the end it’s in pretty good shape because I’ve gone back and combed over so much. …

[12:15] CA: …Do you have advice to young writers on critiquing or forming critique groups?

LC: I formed a number of different critique groups over the years. … I think no one is going to be very good at critiquing when they start out. You’re learning how to critique just the way you’re learning how to write. But I think it’s been very valuable to me to learn how to self-edit, to look at other people’s work and kind of try to figure out … what the problems are.

[13:05] CA: What would you say is the hardest thing about writing a good story?

LC: …Honestly, it’s all kind of hard….

[13:40] CA: Do you have a favorite POV to write from?

LC: … I kind of started with third person, limited third person. … Right now I’m writing in first person. … But my ambition is to someday write a big sweeping omniscient story Dickensian story….

[14:50] CA: Do you have a regular writing practice?

LC: … I will definitely be writing by 9:00 AM with a cup of coffee, at least until one or two. …

CA: How long have you been working on the book that you’re working on now?

LC: … it’s been a couple of years.

[15:25] CA: Do you work on one project at a time?

LC: I do….

[16:10] CA: Do you read your work out loud at any point in your writing?

LC: … I always believe kind of right before a book goes to kind of final proofreading that I will do an out loud reading to myself, just read an entire novel. … You do find things you don’t find any other way, little mistakes, little duplications of words that you didn’t really notice.

[16:50] CA: What scared you as a kid?

LC: I think being alone, being in the dark, dark water. …. Those kind of big dark spaces where I didn’t know what was in there….

CA: Have you ever used those fears in any of your fictions?

LC: …There’s a lot of water … in the book I’m writing now, and maybe that is something I should try to explore….

[17:25] CA: Did you tell stories around a fire as a kid …?

LC: Not so much around a fire. But my dad was a theatre teacher … and I remember him reciting Shakespeare to me before bed and doing the comic roles. …. I just remember laughing and laughing at that when I was a kid.

[18:00] CA:. And you’re not the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, are you?

LC: No, I’m an only child…. I write about siblings all the time because I’m so interested in siblings. …

[19:00] CA: Have you ever had a crisis of confidence as a writer?

LC: I don’t like public speaking very much. …. The wonderful thing about writing is that if you don’t like it, and you don’t want to share it, you don’t have to. …

CA: And since you don’t like public speaking, I really have to give you extra thanks for taking part in this, because you speak so well. …

LC: Nice talking to you….Bye.

[20:00] Lena Coakley introduces herself

LC: Hello. My name is Lena Coakley. I live in Toronto. I’m the author of two young adult novels, Worlds of Ink and Shadow and Witchlanders. I’m also the author of Wicked Nix, my first middle-grade novel about a feral boy living in the woods who thinks he’s a fairy.

[20:35] Find out more about Lena Coakley

You can hear more creative writing advice from Lena Coakley on Cabin Tales Episode Five: “Squirm,” about Plotting; on Episode 7.5: “Author Interviews about Endings;” and on Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about revision. You can find out more about Lena Coakley and her books from her website at LenaCoakley.com.

[21:40] Thanks and coming up on the podcast

I’ll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with the illustrator and picture book author Farida Zaman.  Thanks for listening.

Credits

Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use).

Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com.

Guest Author:

Lena Coakley was born in Milford, Connecticut. In high school, creative writing was the only class she ever failed—nothing was ever good enough to hand in! She has since published two YA novels, Worlds of Ink and Shadow and Witchlanders. Wicked Nix, her first book for middle-grade readers, was nominated for numerous awards. Find her online at www.lenacoakley.com.

Author Interview with Cary Fagan

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-dfe49-1017938

An interview with Cary Fagan, multi-award-winning author of over 40 books, including short story collections, picture books, middle-grade novels, and adult novels. Hear about his typically lengthy revision process, his love of texts within texts, and his experiments with narrative voice and how he has come to look differently at the idea of rules for writing fiction. 25 minutes. All ages.

A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca.

Show Notes

[0:00] Intro

[1:20] Interview with Cary Fagan  

CF: It’s very hard to be pretentious as a children’s writer. …

 

[2:45] CA: Have you ever based a story on other stories?…

CF: … I can think of picture books I’ve written where structurally I have learned from some other book and adapted the way that author dealt with how to tell a story and told my own story using some of the things that they had figured out… I would say The Boy in the Box… was really influenced by Dickens. …

 

[4:35] CA: You’ve written about siblings; did you have siblings as a kid?

CF: I have two older brothers… they had no artistic bones in their body, it seems. And it was a way I could define myself that was different from my brothers. … I’ve written about siblings a lot, but not in a way that’s like my brothers. … My Kaspar Snit books, which I wrote early in my career… I was in a classroom and a kid put up his hand and he said, Why is it that the brother and the sister in the book never argue? … And I it was that kid who really made me think about trying to make them more realistic. …

 

[7:20] CA: Do you have a favorite plot twist…?

CF: … The books that I really like, like for example I love Kate DeCamillo…It’s really the voice of her books that I love…

 

[8:05] CA: Do you have any techniques to recommend for building tension…?

CF: …Events in your novel need to have consequences. … I like to define my characters by having them make decisions. … All decisions have consequences, and making those consequences potentially bad and uncertain, I think, is what creates the tension. … There is a fallout from it that makes us worry for the character’s future.

 

[9:50] CA: Do you have a favorite first line…?

CF: …I think first lines are important… That does not mean the first line has to be, “As Gerald looked over the cliff’s edge he thought of how his poor parents would miss him.” …. To be honest with you, for me it’s much more a matter of getting the voice right. … I probably could name a lot of Dickens’ novels, like David Copperfield…

 

[10:45] CA: Have you ever opened with dialogue?

CF: Yes. Danny who Fell in a Hole opens with … “’It’s really nothing to worry about,’ Danny’s mother said.” …So yes, I have opened with dialogue. I would say not that often though….

 

[11:25] CA: Have you had a narrator who talks directly to the reader?

CF: Yes. I love thinking about the relationship between the voice of the book and the reader because really, that is your point of intimacy, of contact, is that voice. … I definitely love to think about what that relationship is. Some stories, I feel, have to be in third person because the character just doesn’t have the sort of voice where he or she could tell her story, even if it’s to an imaginary reader. …

 

[12:40] CA: And have you ever switched points of view while drafting…?

CF: I did that for an adult novel. … The Collected Works of Gretchen Oyster has two voices…. A few years ago I would have probably told you, You can’t have this first person voice interrupted without any explanation by a third person voice giving you information that your main character doesn’t have… But as I get older, I realize that you can break the rules….

 

[14:20] CA: Have you ever written an unreliable narrator?

CF: Probably not. I like the idea of one. It’s really a hard thing to do. …

 

[15:05] CA: Do you tend to revise as you draft or does it change book by book?

CF: It doesn’t. I’m extremely consistent. I will start a novel on page one and I’ll write it to the end. And then I’ll put it down for a while. … I’ll wait at least three months. Sometimes I’ll wait a year… I’ll create a scheme of what I actually did in my first draft and I’ll note the scenes that I like and I’ll note the scenes that I don’t think are working… And then I will write a second draft by starting on page one and rewriting the entire thing. And then I’ll do that 3-6 times. I used to do it like 12 times. …You know which draft I love is draft 3… the third draft is often the one that gets it to the point where I think, Yes, this is actually a book that I’m going to want to publish eventually. …

 

[18:00] CA. And do you read your work out loud at any point in your writing?

CF: Yes I do, wearing funny hats often. …Unfortunately we’re not going into schools right now, but I will read something new to the kids. … It is really nice to have an audience.

 

[18:50] CA: Did you tell stories around account fire as a kid?

CF: I don’t think so. But I did start writing early when I was a kid. …I actually won my grade six public speaking contest by writing a speech, but apparently I was terribly boring in how I presented the speech. …. I hope I’m better at it.

CA: Have you ever written that experience in some way into one of your books?

CF: I haven’t, but I do have a novel idea about a public speaking contest at school which I do want to write. … So don’t write it, if you’re listening to this. …

 

[20:35] CA: And do you have any collections?

CF: I collect postcards, vintage postcards, … And to some degree I collect chapbooks, like small press chapbooks…. But when I was a kid… I had a collection of beach glass. I liked to collect rocks. …I did write a book called Mr. Karp’s Last Glass, which is about a kid who collects things, who meets a man who has very strange collection… of … famous water….

 

CA: That’s excellent. Thank you so much, Cary….

CF: Have a good day. Cheers. Bye bye.

 

[22:30] Cary Fagan introduces himself  

CF: Hi. I’m Cary Fagan. And I am a writer of novels for kids, what we like to call middle-grade novels rather than teen novels, and picture books, and I also write quite a lot for adults. I have been writing since I was a kid. And I can look back now and see that kid is still a great influence on me as an adult writer, that the way I write as an adult is very thoroughly and deeply connected to the way I wrote as a kid and my interests as a kid. I live in Toronto and I like to do other things, but I still love to write. And I’m grateful for that.

 

[22:30] Find out more about Cary Fagan  

You can hear more creative writing advice from Cary Fagan on Cabin Tales Episode 3.5: “Author Interviews about Inspiration”; on Episode 4.5: “Author Interviews about Plotting”; and on Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about revision. You can find out more about Cary Fagan and his books from his website at CaryFagan.com.

[24:30] Thanks and coming up on the podcast  

I’ll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with Lena Coakley, author of middle-grade and young adult fantasy novels. Thanks for listening. 

Credits

Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use).

Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com.

Guest Author:

Photo by Mark Reynes Roberts

Cary Fagan writes picture books and novels for children and adults. His many awards include the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award, the IODE Jean Throop Award, the Betty Stuchner–Oy Vey!–Funniest Children’s Book Award, and the Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for his body of work. Cary lives in Toronto. Find him online at https://www.caryfagan.com.

 

Author Interview with Kari-Lynn Winters

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-p7tn7-100c374

An interview with Dr. Kari-Lynn Winters, associate professor of language arts and author of more than 27 books for the very young, fiction and non-fiction, standalones and series. Hear about her love of unreliable narrators, her balance of many writing projects at once, and her fear of dogs, horses and ghosts. 25 minutes. All ages.

A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca.

Show Notes

[0:00] Intro

[1:10] Interview with Kari-Lynn Winters  

CA: Do you have any suggestions for young writers on how to get or organize ideas?

KLW: Oh, organize. Don’t do it! Don’t organize. …Stay playful.

 

[2:30] CA: Do you have a favorite plot twist?

KLW: I love plot twists. … Even if you think way back to The Monster at the End of this Book… That’s a great book to model after…

 

[3:00] CA: Do you have any favorite techniques for building tension?

KLW: … Not focusing on the thing that’s scary but focusing on the responses people are having. … I think what’s really important is to slow those moments down and really focus…when it’s the scariest part….

 

[4:25] CA:. And do you have a favorite first line from your own books?

KLW: … from Bad Pirate…: Barnacle Garrick was bad natured and horrible, which most pirates would say was good, very good. Augusta Garrick was good natured and kind, which most pirates would say was bad, very bad…

 

[5:10] CA: And have you ever opened with a piece of dialogue?

KLW: … I like to start with dialogue, although … a lot of times you’re writing a picture book for a child that can’t read … Sometimes you need to … establish character before you can go into the dialogue.

 

[6:10] CA: And do you have advice for young writers on how to begin a story? …

KLW: … write about having nothing to write about. … Or you might also think about finding different things and just putting them together and meshing them together and just asking the question “What if? What if this happened?” …You could also riff off a story that you really love and take that story further.

 

[6:55] CA: And what about endings? …

KLW: The ending needs to connect to the beginning. …

 

[7:50] CA: Do you have a favorite fictional settings…?

 KLW: I love the setting of Best Pirate. Oh, it reminds me of Saint Lucia… I also love the settings that Chris Van Allsburg creates… they’re so detailed and beautiful. …

 

[8:50] CA: And do you have favorite fictional characters…?

KLW: … from my own books, I love Barnacle Garrick. …I like all my characters. …. I love like Wimpy Kid …. I love Pigeon. …. I love Scaredy Squirrel. … I love characters that are really dynamic. … Scaredy Squirrel ends up being brave at some point, and Wimpy Kid ends up being strong at some point, and Pigeon is less demanding…

 

[10:15] CA: And do you have any exercises that you would recommend to young writers for either developing a setting or a character?

KLW: Why not try drawing it or creating it with plasticine or… photographs….

 

[10:45] CA: Do you work on one project at a time?

KLW: Oh no. …. I would be 90 years old by the time I got two books published if I did that. …. There’s lots of ideas that I’m slowly working on…. obviously the process works for me. But it’s not a quick process. …

 

[12:35] CA: Do any of your stories include memorable objects?

KLW: … I have a manuscript that I’m working on called “The Masterpiece” and an important object in “The Masterpiece” is the pen that she uses…. I love pens. …

 

[13:10] CA: And what do you think is the hardest thing about writing a story?

KLW: … working on your ideas. …how do I make this story unique? …Sometimes finding the ending is the hardest part. …

 

[14:30] CA: And do you have a favorite point of view to write from?

KLW: I love writing from second POV, like being bossy to the readers …when they’re done well, they’re done so well, it’s just like, Oh, I love this book.

 

[15:10] CA: And have you ever made a book about monsters?

KLW: I’m working on a book about monsters right now as we speak, called Can’t Sleep. …

 

[16:20] CA: And did you tell stories around a campfire as a kid?

KLW: Of course. …, I told stories everywhere. … Like I was the kid that was always telling stories…

 

[16:45] CA: Do you have a favorite scary story?

KLW: I just really like the way Joel Sutherland tells scary stories because I love the fact that it’s nonfiction. … I do love characters that are monster-like, … characters that you just can’t believe they would behave like that. … I also love characters that you kind of are unsure of….  I like unreliable narrators too….

 

[18:30] CA: And do you have any phobias?

KLW: I don’t like guard dogs. …. I get kind of scared when I’m beside horses … I also don’t like if there’s a bat and it gets too close to your head….

 

[19:50] CA: Do you collect anything?

KLW: I collect illustrations ….

 

[20:05] CA: And what do you think is scarier: humans or monsters?

KLW: They can be the same thing. …, I think humans are a little more scary because they are unpredictable… If you had asked the question, “What’s more scary: spirits or humans?” I would say 100% spirits….

[21:40] Kari-Lynn Winters introduces herself  

KLW: Hi. I’m Dr. Kari-Lynn Winters. And I’m a children’s author, a playwright, and a performer.  I’m also a scholar. I’ve been working at Brock University as an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education. And I have authored over 27 books. I really am interested in arts education, children’s literature, and embodied literacies. And I live here in St Catharines, Ontario, with my two awesome kids and my three incredible cats. So that’s me, Kari-Lynn Winters.

[22:25] Find out more about Kari-Lynn Winters  

You can hear more creative writing advice from Kari-Lynn Winters on Cabin Tales Episode 3, “Spooky Stories are all Around Us,” about getting ideas; on Episode 4.5, “Author Interviews about Plotting”; and on Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about revision.

You can learn a whole lot more about Kari-Lynn Winters from her website at KariWinters.com.

[23:20] Thanks and coming up on the podcast  

I’ll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with Cary Fagan, the multiple-award-winning author of picture books, middle-grade novels, and novels for adults.

Thanks for listening.  

Credits

Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use).

Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com.

Guest Author:

Dr. Kari-Lynn Winters is an award-winning children’s author, playwright, performer, and academic scholar. She is an Associate Professor at Brock University and the author of French Toast, Jeffrey and Sloth, On My Walk, Gift Days, and many other imaginative picture books. Find her online at http://kariwinters.com/.

 

Author Interview with Robin Stevenson

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-g44sn-100376a

An interview with Robin Stevenson, author of 29 books for young readers, including board books, picture books, middle-grade novels, young adult novels, and non-fiction for all ages. Hear about her experiments with narrative voice, her experience of losing and finding her way through most of the books she’s written, and the early days of her writing journey, when a short story unexpectedly morphed into a teen novel. 20 minutes. All ages.

A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca.

Show Notes

[0:00] Intro

[1:20] Interview with Robin Stevenson  

CA: Do you have any favourite plot twists…?

RS: … E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars,… Patrick Ness More Than This, …. Adam Silvera More Happy than Not… I haven’t written a book that I would say has a major plot twist.

 

[2:30] CA: …. Do you have any techniques that you use yourself for building tension?

RS: … tension actually is largely related to creating really believable compelling characters that the reader cares about. And then you know, whether the stakes are very high in a particular scene or smaller but more personal and matter to that character, I think you have tension because the reader cares about that character.

 

[3:15] CA: Do you have any advice that you might give to young writers who are sort of stuck in the middle of a story?  

RS: … I get stuck in the middle of every single story. … That does seem to be part of my writing process. …. So it’s just a question of needing to push through that middle section and … at least getting a finished first draft before I make a decision about it. … when I go back and read it, the scenes that were really easy and fun to write are not necessarily better than the scenes, I had to grind out one word at a time, that felt terrible. … So not to give that self-doubt too much weight or too much power to actually stop me from finishing the story.

 

[5:40] CA: …You’ve written so many books, do you find that that helps…you know it’s part of your process?

RS: … it doesn’t make it any more pleasant or enjoyable when you’re stuck in it… it doesn’t seem to be helpful in the sense of figuring out a better writing process…

 

[6:20] CA: And do you ever write short stories?

RS: …When I first started writing I was writing short stories. … my first novel actually grew from a short story. … I hadn’t really planned to write for teens or, you know, thought of what I was writing as teen fiction. So I kind of fell into it. But loved it, and so just kept going.

 

[7:15] CA: Do you have any variance in how long it takes to do a first draft?

RS: … my books vary in length so that’s always a bit of a tricky question, … a board book or a picture book doesn’t take nearly as much time as a longer novel. … I’ve had some where the first draft I’ve written in two or three months, and others where I have rewritten it over several years. … But on average I’ve published about two books a year. …

 

[8:10] CA: Do you know when you’re writing whether it’s going to be middle grade or teen?

RS: … the age of the protagonist is usually fairly clear to me and that generally determines whether it’s going to be middle grade or YA. …. The one I’m working on right now is actually a little tricky because my protagonist is 13. …. I could go either way. …

 

[9:05] CA: Did you do a collaborative book?

RS: Yeah, I’ve done two. I did Blood on the Beach with Sarah Harvey. …And a collaborative YA novel with Tom Ryan called When you Get the Chance. … it’s now coming out in May 2021.

CA: And how did that process work? Did you have separate characters?

RS: We did, yeah…. We wrote with alternating chapters. … that takes advantage of having two distinct voices rather than having that be a challenge or problem.  

 

[10:20] CA: Do you often write in first person?

RS: Most of my books are in first person. … I have one right now that’s in third person that I’m debating whether I should try rewriting it in first person….

 

[10:45] CA: You purposely experiment with point of view. Would you advise young writers to do the same if they’re not sure what narrative voice to use?

RS: Yeah. … Try writing some journal entries in your character’s voice or write a letter from your character to someone else so that you’re kind of in their head. Try rewriting your first chapter in first person …

 

[11:20] CA: Do you have any favorite narrators, narrative voices that are still stuck in your head?

RS: Barbara Kingsolver’s Poisonwood Bible is one that I often recommend because … the voices are so individual and so distinct that you can you can pick up that book and open it on any page and you can tell who’s speaking. …

 

[11:55] CA: Do you have any favorite settings from fiction…?

RS: … In my own stories setting generally is not a huge part of the book. …

 

[12:45] CA: And do you have any favorite fictional characters …?

RS: Too many to name specific ones…I think in terms of my own books, usually the character that I’m currently writing about… But certainly, you know, I’m attached to many of the characters that I have written about…although I’ve never gone back and reread any of my books.

 

[13:30] CA: And do you use your own children as characters?

RS: Definitely…I did two early chapter books, Ben’s Robot and Ben the Inventor …. I wrote those when my son was five or six, and lots of his interests and hobbies and favourite things made their way into those stories. …

 

[14:25] CA: Do you have any recommendations for setting or character exercises?

RS: I would link the two… For character, I would encourage people to do some side writing… writing letters from your character to other people, pretending that your character has a journal …free writing from that character’s POV …

 

[16:20] CA: Did you tell stories around a campfire as a kid?

RS: Not at all. I’m still not really a storyteller in a verbal sense….

 

[16:45] CA:  And do you have a favorite scary story or scary movie?

RS: No. …I avoid scary movies. Books I have a little higher tolerance for scary. Not horror but… I like suspense. I guess one recent one that I really enjoyed was Station Eleven. …

 

[17:15] CA: You have no phobias?

RS: I really dislike flying …. But I wouldn’t call a phobia. I think it’s entirely realistic not to want to be 30,000 feet in the air.

 

[17:35] CA: Do you have a writing practice? Are there certain times of day that you write regularly?

RS: … I’ve always kind of worked around parenting. … And now of course, with the pandemic, he’s home, my partner’s working from home. I just fixed up the shed in the backyard … so that I have a quiet place where I can go in and write … I used to use coffee shops for that. …

 

[18:50] CA: That’s great. And that’s everything I need…. Thanks again so much. …

RS: A pleasure. Take care….

[19:20] Robin Stevenson introduces herself  

RS: Hi. My name is Robin Stevenson. And I live on the west coast of Canada on Vancouver Island. And I write books for kids and teens. My books range from board books up through picture books and middle-grade and teen fiction, and also middle-grade and young-adult nonfiction. So I write in multiple genres and for multiple age groups.

[19:55] Find out more about Robin Stevenson  

You can hear more creative writing advice from Robin Stevenson on Cabin Tales Episode 3.5: “Author Interviews about Inspiration”; on Episode 4: “Bad Things Happen,” about Plotting; and on Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about revision.

You can learn a whole lot more about Robin Stevenson from her website at RobinStevenson.com.

 

[21:00] Thanks and coming up on the podcast  

I’ll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with Kari-Lynn Winters, picture book author from Ontario.

Thanks for listening.  

Credits

Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use).

Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com.

Guest Author:

Robin Stevenson is the award-winning author of 29 books for all ages. She lives on the west coast of Canada. Robin is launching three new books in 2021: a picture book, PRIDE PUPPY, a middle-grade non-fiction book, KID INNOVATORS, and a young adult novel, WHEN YOU GET THE CHANCE. Find her online at https://robinstevenson.com .

 

 

Author Interview with Raquel Rivera

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-xtbvz-ff8504

An interview with Raquel Rivera, award-winning author of five books for young readers, including Tuk and the Whale and Orphan Ahwak. Hear about her interest in fairy tales, her advice for creating tension-filled scenes, and her childhood fear of the toilet witch. 25 minutes. All ages.

A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca.

Show Notes

[0:00] Intro

[1:10] Interview with Raquel Rivera

CA: Have you ever written a story based on the news or a historical incident?

RR: All of my historic books are thoroughly researched. So definitely with the last book, Yippee’s Gold Mountain, before I could even figure out the plotting, I had to do so much research to understand what sort of things might happen to him. …History, I find, is tremendously inspiring, whereas the present day for me it’s harder for me to come up with plot points. …

[2:05] CA:… Have you ever riffed off a fairy tale or another story?

RR: Not consciously but it’s a really good idea. …  I’ve been doing a lot of reading actually over this pandemic time about scholars’ thinking on fairy tales and stuff like that. And women’s roles in fairy tales… and how we can make them new for ourselves.

[3:45] CA:… Has an object ever figured prominently in one of your works?

RR: Yes. In Tuk and the Whale, my book is talking about two different ways of seeing the world….there’s a world of things and then there’s a world of knowledge. … when you have a European culture coming over, what is so very impressive that they have is things. … Their knowledge is — it’s not that impressive, right? … But look at the stuff that they’ve got! …. So in that story, yes, I think there was a lot about objects.

[5:40]  CA: Do you have a favorite plot twist?

RR: … I was so excited by my plot twist for Yippee’s Gold Mountain… I realized this character needs to be speaking in the first person because I have no other way of leaving them gender neutral. … I wanted their gender to be undetermined…Then halfway through the book, there’s this disclosure. …. And the idea is for the reader to ask themselves whether they made any assumptions up until that point when the gender is revealed. ….  

[7:20] CA: And do you have any favorite techniques either that you use or that you can recommend to young writers for building tension?

RR: …. So the question is: What’s going to happen? Oh my God. Right? So, you need to slow down the lead-up to the answer. And that’s the only way to build the tension. And that would be picking out certain kind of key details to a situation. … Just the fewest most key details. … all the details to make it happen can also ruin your suspense. … So it’s kind of a balancing act…

[8:50] CA: … Do you tend as a writer to change the beginning of your story after you’ve completed it, or do you tend to keep your beginnings?

RR: Half and half. … I try to think of things in terms of scenes. … Each scene begins with like the biggest grab that you can possibly find in that scenario. Because we can always go back and explain how we got there in the scene.

[10:00] CA:. Do you have any advice for young writers on how to begin a story?

RR: If you have an idea, you’re 100% on the road there. Just write down the idea. … Don’t worry about how it’s going to look. Don’t worry about how it’s going to sound. …. But first just get out that like embarrassing awkward idea, and later on you can make it as perfect as you like.

[11:25] CA: And do you have any advice on ending stories? What kind of ending do you like?

RR: I have a great deal of respect for sad endings if they’re done well… For me personally, the amount of emotional investment in a story is too much. Like I don’t want to spend three years with something that ends badly. … I think that as somebody who’s writing for young people, … we want to train ourselves to be optimists. We want to train ourselves to be resilient. Because that’s how we get through life. …. But never a joyful happy-ever-after ending because I don’t buy those either. It’s a way that my characters can feel stronger for having been through what they’ve been through…

[13:20] CA: Do you have a favorite setting from fiction?

RR: For reading, I really enjoy historic settings because it’s fascinating to me how we used to be, the material of our lives, the classic story that’s running through, the humanity that’s running through, just fascinating to me.

[13:40] CA: And do you have some favorite fictional characters?

RR: I love Meg from A Wrinkle in Time. …. Of course everybody likes Anne, of Anne of Green Gables. … I liked following characters when I was little.

[14:15] CA: And are there any setting or character exercises that you would recommend to young writers?

RR: … one interesting thing to do is to pick a well-known setting – that might be as simple as your bedroom or … the court where you play basketball … and start describing it in as much detail as you can. … do they create a sense of something? A sense of foreboding, a sense of nostalgia… What kind of mood have I created with that? And what maybe can be useful in another context?

[15:15] CA: Do you have a favorite point of view to write from?

RR:  I’m very much stuck on the inside of a character. … So what I was trying to do with my present draft was take the position of the narrator who’s on the outside… I wanted a narrator who was their own voice, the Godlike voice. It’s just not as easy for me. …

[16:15] CA: And did you tell stories around a campfire as a kid?

RR: Not really, no. Maybe that’s why I have such a crappy plot skill. I did a ton of reading. …

[17:15] CA: And do you have any favorite scary stories or movies?

RR: I’m not a big fan of scary things, but Red Dragon…and there’s a scary movie Hellraiser. … I don’t know what it was about those two. … there did seem to be underlying it some very kind of meaningful ideas …. I think that it’s also possible to insert tremendously scary things inside of non-scary stories, and that’s quite bearable for me, too. Again, so long as I can skim through it or step back to the, say the doorway, and watch my TV from a very very very great distance.  

[19:30] CA:. And do you have any phobias?

RR: I’m tremendously tense in deep water. I don’t like things coming up at me from my feet… I remember in younger years I was terrified of sharks. …

[20:05] CA: And what do you think is scarier: humans or monsters?

RR: … when I was a kid … monsters were definitely high on my list of scarier. … There was a toilet witch, for example. …. I created a story where if I flush the toilet, if I ran fast as I could and jumped into my bed before the noise of the toilet stops, then I would be safe from the toilet witch… nowadays I would say that people really don’t scare me that much at all…, the monsters that come up from the deep and nibble on your toes? They’re terrifying.

[21:45] Raquel Rivera introduces herself

RR: My name is Raquel Rivera. I’m a writer, artist and a performer. I’ve been based in Montreal since 1999. And since moving here I’ve written and published five books for children and young people. In addition to that, I like to do artwork, I like to do acrobatics, and I like to do drumming with a batu cada group, which means it’s like a drum orchestra. We practice a couple of times a week and we perform – well, less now, but we used to perform a great deal around the city and around Quebec. That pretty much sums me up, I guess.

[22:45] Find out more about Raquel Rivera

You can hear more creative writing advice from Raquel Rivera on Cabin Tales Episode 3.5: “Author Interviews about Inspiration”; on Episode 4.5: “Author Interviews about Plotting”; and on Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about revision. You can find out more about Raquel Rivera and her books from her website at RaquelRiveraWasHere.com. There you’ll find videos, photos, and readalouds.

[24:55] Thanks and coming up on the podcast

I’ll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with Robin Stevenson, BC author for all ages. Thanks for listening.

Credits

Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use).

Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com.

Guest Author:

Photo by Katya Konioukhova

Raquel Rivera is a writer, artist and performer based in Montreal. She has published five books for young readers. She also writes about books for Constellations, a library and online database of quality children’s literature, for use by teachers, librarians, and the public. Visit her online at www.raquelriverawashere.com.

 

Author Interview with Ishta Mercurio

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-gpkhp-fede40

 An interview with Ishta Mercurio, author of the picture book, Small World, and co-author of the non-fiction picture book, Bite into Bloodsuckers. Hear about her favourite first lines, her love of characters that push the boundaries of expectations, and her penchant for telling truths through metaphors. 20 minutes. All ages.

A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca.

Show Notes

[0:00] Intro

[1:05] Interview with Ishta Mercurio

CA: Have you found a difference before and after Small World was published in terms of how you feel about your work?

IM: Yes and no. … when Small World had just come out, I felt an intense pressure to meet a certain bar. … And for a period of time it was stifling ….

 

[2:25] CA: Have you ever based the story on the news?

IM: …. I am working on a story right now that is inspired by the news… but you probably wouldn’t know that once this book’s done. You won’t be able to tell what news story triggered it.

 

[3:25] CA: …. Have you ever written anything that was inspired by other stories?

IM: Yes. … And for a long time it was really bad because it was clearly derivative. … I just let it sit for a while until I figured out how to make it into my own story.

 

[4:05] CA: Do you ever do object studies or have your stories included memorable objects?

IM: Yeah that happened in Small World a lot .. Nanda … notices patterns in nature …like swirls and spirals and the … fractal pattern in snowflakes. … I do whole school visits just about the shape progression in that book….

 

[4:55] CA: Do you have a favorite first line?

IM: Yes…. Small World opens with this line: When Nanda was born, the whole of the world was wrapped in the circle of her mother’s arms. Safe, warm, small. …And the story comes back around to that line. …Before I wrote Small World, my favorite first line was MT Anderson’s first line in his book Feed…. And the first line is: We went to the moon to have fun but the moon turned out to completely suck. And there’s just so much packed in there… The best first lines are dense, where the first line is actually the kernel of what the entire book is about.

 

[6:55] CA: Do you have any favourite settings?

IM: … I love reading historical fiction, and what I love about reading historical fiction is the details. … I like settings that are historical. And I like settings that are unlike where I am. … I also like fantasy settings …. I used to wish that I could escape to Narnia….

 

[9:00] CA: Do you have any favorite fictional characters?

… My favorite characters are characters who are smart and who are willing to put everything on the line for what they believe is right. … from the Harry Potter series, Snape was my favorite character. Snape and Dumbledore. … Characters who are harder to get to know… those are the characters that I like the most.

 

[11:50] CA: And do you have a favorite POV to write from?

IM: I don’t. It depends on the story and what the story needs. …. I think especially for spooky stories, sometimes first-person POV can be really great because the reader only knows what the character knows. But sometimes the best way to introduce tension is to let the reader know something that the character doesn’t know, and for that you need third person. … Try it different ways. … Always, always experiment. … I think a lot of people come to writing as a career with the idea that they’re going to write something and then someone will publish it. And like that revision process that happens in the middle, there’s no understanding that that process is 90% of the process. …

 

[14:50] CA: Do you find that you edit yourself while you draft? …

IM: Oh yes, I edit myself while I draft. Absolutely….. But then once I’ve put the comments in the margins, then I can move on …

 

[15:35] CA: …Have you ever written a monster?

IM: Yes. I mean, it was a person. I think the worst monsters are people…. We all know deep in our hearts that monsters aren’t actually real. But people are real. And people do bad things, real bad things. …

 

[16:10] CA: Did you tell stories around a campfire as a kid …?

IM: … One year when I was seven, my parents sent me on one of those like overnight summer camps. And I hated it so much… As a grown up I’ve told my kids scary stories around the campfire.

 

[17:35] CA: Do you have a favorite scary story or scary movie?

IM: … yes. … “The green ribbon.” It’s a story about a girl who has this green ribbon around her neck and she never takes it off. And then one day she does take it off. … listeners, you need to check that story out. … I can’t do scary movies. … But before I had kids,… my favorite scary movie was “The Candyman.”… A recent horror movie that, again, I tried to watch is… “Get Out” … Horror — I can’t handle it. …

 

[19:05] CA: Do you have any phobias?

IM: … I have some low-level … structural anxieties. … like in the kitchen, the cupboards that are on the wall, I just worry that the nails and screws holding them up are not quite up to the task. … sometimes you’ll go to like a friend’s house and you’ll be cooking in the kitchen, and you’ll open the kitchen cupboard and it’ll just be like packed with like full bags of flour … I can’t handle it. … seeing something that juts out from the wall and is that loaded down just …makes me sweat.

 

[20:35] CA: …Do you collect anything?

IM: Yes, everything. … I collect rocks. … And I have a collection of key chains. … They have personal significance to me… I would love to have an old maps collection, of like actual legitimately antique maps. …, those ancient maps are also super expensive. So I don’t collect them yet. When I write the next Twilight, I will….

 

[22:05] Ishta Mercurio introduces herself

IM: My name is Ishta Mercurio. And I write books for kids…I have done all kinds of different things throughout my life. I’ve been a barista; I’ve worked with autistic kids; I’ve gone door-to-door for an environmental action group; I have been an actor. And I learned that that’s okay. …I embrace this wacky creative life of doing all kinds of different things, and writing all kinds of different things for all kinds of different people. And the one thing that is constant is that the characters that I write are characters who live outside the box and tend to live outside the norm and push the boundaries of what’s expected of people who look like them or sound like them. And so I try to write stories about kids who do things unexpected.

 

[23:50] Find out more about Ishta Mercurio

You can hear more creative writing advice from Ishta Mercurio on Cabin Tales Episode 3.5: “Author Interviews about Inspiration”; on Episode 4.5: “Author Interviews about Plotting”; on Episode 7.5: “Author Interviews about Endings” and on Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about revision. You can find out more about Ishta Mercurio and her books from her website at IshtaMercurio.com.

 

[24:55] Thanks and coming up on the podcast

I’ll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with the novelist Raquel Rivera, who joins us from Montreal. Thanks for listening.

Credits

Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use).

Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com.

Guest Author:

Ishta Mercurio lives and writes in Brampton, Ontario, where she serves as the Chairman of the Board for The FOLD Foundation, a non-profit that promotes underrepresented voices in Canadian literature. Her picture book debut, Small World, illustrated by Jen Corace, won the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award for the Canadian region. Find Ishta online at www.ishtamercurio.com.

 

Author Interview with Philippa Dowding

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-rfeju-fe2e6a

An interview with Philippa Dowding, award-winning author of 13 books for middle-grade readers, including Oculum, Firefly, and Quinn and the Quiet, Quiet. She is also a poet, a musician, and a copywriter. Hear about her attraction to weird plot possibilities, her occasional tendency to spook herself while writing, and her encounter with a gargoyle in a curiosity shop that helped launched one of her book series. 20 minutes. All ages.

Read the full transcript at CabinTales.ca

Show Notes

[0:00] Intro

[1:15] Interview with Philippa Dowding

CA: Do you ever do object studies or has an object ever featured in one of your books or sparked some ideas for you?

PD: … The Lost Gargoyle series was inspired by …a funny little curio store with gargoyles on the steps…. I started a bedtime story that night with my kids about one of these gargoyles following us home… he had such a big personality, this gargoyle. He just came fully formed because of having seen them on these stairs.

 

[2:30] CA: Cool Do you have any techniques that you use to increase the tension in the middle of a book?

PD: …Try to build a cliffhanger. …. As you get closer to the end, you can shorten the chapters … And honestly you just have to write through it….One of the things that I do like to do when I work with kids in schools, we do “Wouldn’t it be weird if…” a child says a line and then the next child says a line. And that sort of gives you the idea that there’s no wrong way to write a story. … So you have to tell that internal critic that we’re going to play this game now, “Wouldn’t it be weird if…” and just be weird. …

 

[3:50] CA: Do you have a favorite first line, either from your own worker from other works of fiction?

PD: I guess my favorite first line of my own fiction is “This morning I woke up on the ceiling,” which was from the Gwendolyn Golden story. …

CA: Have you ever opened with dialogue?

PD: Yeah. Oculum starts out with the word “Mother.” …

 

[4:35] CA: Do you tend to change your beginning after you’ve revised?

PD: … I don’t think I’ve ever really changed the beginning. …

 

[4:55] CA: Do you have any advice to young writers on how to begin?

PD: … The only way you can write it is to begin, and you can just tell yourself, “I can always rewrite this; this is just a draft” so that they can overcome that sort of fear of looking at a blank page. … The first idea that comes to you is fine. …

 

[5:30] CA: And any advice on how to end a story?

PD: Reading it out loud. There’s a natural cadence to an ending. …You can feel there’s a beat missing … It’s the best way to find out how it’s flowing. …

 

[6:10] CA: Do you share your work with critique partners or family or friends?

PD: I always do. … Basically people that you trust that are going to actually call you on it if something is not working. …  It can be nerve wracking. Confidence is … something that we absolutely have to build. Because it’s such a private job…. And you have to convince yourself that your private is … worthy of being public.

 

[7:05] CA: Do you set aside certain times of day or certain parts of the year when you write fiction?

PD: … You need that tipping point to make you write it at all because it’s the thing that’s has to be written next, and you also need the discipline to finish it, and then you need the staying power to revise, you need the skill to edit it — it’s a long process. …. I have a home office, I have the discipline of getting up and working. …. I write every day, and if I’m not working on … copywriting, I write probably four to five hours a day….

 

[8:25] CA: Do you have a favorite POV to write from?

PD: So I’ve got 12 books out and a 13th coming and 9 of them are third person omniscient…. At first I found first person really hard. … But now I like it. … Gwendoline Golden is my first first-person story – and that’s my fourth novel… — and she told me how to write it. … it wasn’t conscious. …

 

[9:20] CA: Have you ever written multiple points of view?

PD: Oculum is 2 voices. … One’s a child that’s living inside this perfect domed world, and there’s another child living outside. And they speak quite differently, because he’s living in a world that’s quite degraded so his language is quite degraded. That was kind of an interesting challenge. …  

 

[10:00] CA: Have you ever written an unreliable narrator?

…. I feel sort of an alliance with younger readers, that we kind of have to be reliable at least in the way that we’re telling the story. … So I haven’t really dabbled in that puddle yet.

 

[10:35] CA: And have you ever written about siblings?

PD: Yeah, most of my books have siblings in them. …

 

[12:00] CA: Do you ever spook yourself when you’re writing?

PD: Oh yeah. …. I found portions of Blackwells and the Briny Deep really spooky. … I’ve been a sailor all my life. … Writing this scene in Blackwell’s where the twins are at the tiller and their brother gets swept overboard — that actually happened to me. So that was scary to write. … I had a child read Blackwells … and she read it and had no problem with it…. If you scare yourself, you probably need to check the scene… and get someone else to read it.

 

[14:00] CA: Did you tell stories around a campfire as a kid or anything like that?

PD: I didn’t. I was probably the kid that was writing stories around the campfire, but it was all in my head. …. But my dad … and I would tell stories a lot. … That’s an important part of being a writer, I think, is having someone that shares stories with you.

 

[14:55] CA: And do you have a favorite scary story or movie?

PD: My favorite kids’ story, I think, would be The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaimon…. And I think my favourite scary movie is Jaws…. It still spooks me when I see it. … What could be more scary than being at sea with a monster?…

 

[15:45] CA: And what do you think is scarier: humans or monsters?

PD: I think that you have to have both. …. Humans are scary because you can just detect the monster below the surface, and monsters are scary because — or fascinating because — there is just a touch of humanity in them. … I’m scared by humans and monsters.

 

[16:25] CA: Do you have a favorite setting from your own fiction or from a favorite book?

PD: I really liked writing the two different settings in Oculum… probably the world under the dome would be my favorite setting in my own books. And other books, I mentioned The Graveyard Book before … the setting of a graveyard to raise a child in, being raised by ghosts….

 

[17:10] CA: Did you do any worldbuilding exercises when you were creating Oculum?

PD: Yes. …That’s what I do in my journals is… spend a lot of time trying to illustrate some of the characters or some of the world. For me it sort of unlocks a way to write more about it or more accurately….

 

[17:40] CA: Tell me about your upcoming book.

PD: So Firefly is coming in February 2021, and it’s set in a costume warehouse in Toronto. It’s got 7 million pieces in it. And it’s a story about a girl who’s had a pretty rough life, and her aunt takes her into this warehouse… And how really we all wear different costumes, and the story is about finding the right one, finding the right fit….

CA: And so that was inspired by a real place.

PD: Yeah. It’s actually based on a family business. … They specialize in period clothing …. She … was costume designer to 10,000 movies in her life… It seemed like such a beautiful place to tell a story.

 

[18:55] CA: And do you have any favorite fictional characters?

PD: …. I really love Elizabeth Bennett. I think she’s a great female protagonist. … my favorite villain is probably Milton’s Lucifer….

 

[20:00] Philippa Dowding introduces herself

PD: I’m Philippa Dowding. And I’m a children’s author. And I’m a poet and I’m a musician and I’m also a copywriter. And I like to sail. I like to walk my dog every day. And I live in downtown Toronto with my family. I can see the CN Tower from my backyard. And here’s something that I don’t tell many people, but my very favorite ice cream is Tom & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia. That’s the only ice cream that anyone ever needs.

 

[20:55] Find out more about Philippa Dowding

You can hear more advice from Philippa Dowding on Cabin Tales Episode 3, “Spooky Stories are all Around Us,” about getting ideas, on Episode 4.5, “Author Interviews about Plotting,” and on Episode 8, “The Never-ending story,” about Revision.

 

You can find out more about Philippa Dowding and her books from her website at PDowding.com. There you can watch Philippa read from her latest novel, Firefly. You can watch a virtual interview she did for the Forest of Reading Awards last summer. You can find teachers’ guides for all of her series. And you can find links to her poetry and her music. You can even watch her dance the Gargoyle Shuffle.

 

[22:05] Thanks and coming up on the podcast

I’ll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with the picture book author Ishta Mercurio.

Thanks for listening.

Credits

Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use).

Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com.

Guest Author:

Philippa Dowding is an award-winning children’s author, poet, musician, and marketing copywriter.  Her 2017 middle-grade novel, Myles and the Monster Outside, won the OLA Silver Birch Express Honour Book award. Philippa lives in Toronto with her family. Find her on her website at http://pdowding.com.

 

Author Interview with Wendy McLeod MacKnight

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-dxfuz-fd5698

An interview with Wendy McLeod MacKnight, author of three books for middle-grade readers, who shares her habit of drafting quickly and revising painstakingly, her advice on getting to know your characters before you write them, and her delighted surprise at discovering Voldemort under Quirrell’s turban. 20 minutes. All ages.

A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca.

Show Notes

[0:00] Intro

[1:15] Interview with Wendy McLeod MacKnight

CA: Do you ever do object studies, either as an exercise or has an object ever figured in one of your books?

WMM: Oh yeah for sure…Probably my most intense was when I was writing about the paintings at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery …  The idea was what would it be like to be stuck in the painting, you can’t get out, and then what if you made a friend who has not the greatest home life and is an artist, and wishes they could get into the paintings because wouldn’t life be easier. He can’t get in; she can never get out…. that’s one of the things that I recommend is to really drill down into the character’s internal and external struggle through it all. …

 

[3:50] CA: Do you have any favorite plot twists?

WMM: … I really enjoyed the moment when I discovered that Voldemort was up in Quirrell’s turban… The very ending of The Frame Up solves a problem between my two main characters perfectly. …people have come to me since then and said, “I did not see that coming.” …That’s so great.  

 

[5:00] CA: … How do you feel about sad endings or endings where the good guy loses? …

WMM: …. I think that in middle grade, even if it’s sad there has to be hope. … I think though, once you get into YA, then I think you’ve got a lot more flexibility. … When I read too many books like that, I usually need like a palate cleanser, like give me something funny. …. But I think that we do kids a disservice when things are too easy and don’t cause pain, you know.

 

[6:40] CA: Will you stick with middle grade?

WMM: … I’m obsessed with middle grade. … the books that I read when I was in middle grade are still the books I find great comfort in now as an adult. … And they’re the books that you’re picking out…. And you have to see yourself in them… I think that even that’s part of the reason why the first few books I’ve written, I set in New Brunswick. …

 

[8:15] CA: Do you have any favorite settings from other people’s fiction?

WMM: … I love really amazing worldbuilding. So, like Phillip Pullman’s worldbuilding in The Golden Compass … I could live in anything that was kind of Dickensian. … you also have to be really careful, especially when you’re writing for kids, to not get bogged down in so much minutia that they get bogged down with you. … I really love books set in Canada. …

 

[9:25] CA: And do you have any favorite fictional characters?

WMM: Oh yeah. For sure Meg Murry from A Wrinkle in Time. … Anne of Green Gables and Emily of New Moon. I love David Copperfield…The main character in The War that changed my Life by Kim Brubaker Bradley, that character stayed with me for so long.

 

[10:00] CA: And are there any setting or character exercises that you would recommend to young writers?

WMM: I always tell them that they need to interview their main characters…. And I do that a lot with settings too. … the more you can know your characters and the more you can know the place before you start…

 

[11:50] CA:. While you’re drafting, do you do self-editing or do you just let it out?

WMM: I get it all out. So I always have to remind myself that it’s probably going to take me 8 drafts and I just don’t, I’m not going to worry about it anymore. … Sometimes at the end of the book it’s, like somebody wrote this book and I don’t know who it was. …. There are moments when the characters on your page sometimes feel more alive than the people that are around you. … that’s the magic.

 

[14:00] CA: So you’ve said you spend a lot more time revising than drafting.

WMM: …I write full time, so I could get a first draft done within probably six weeks. If it’s you know, if it’s anywhere between 50 and 80,000 I can probably get that. Like usually when I’m really into writing, I’m writing like 2500 to 3000 words a day. But it’s also, they’re not good words. It’s just getting it all out, right? So very fast first drafts, very very very slow revisions.

 

[14:35] CA: And do you have a favorite POV to write from?

WMM: I love first person. … The Frame Up, I have dual points of view…. I think third person gives you more freedom. … I don’t think I could ever write second person. …

 

[15:30] CA: And have you ever written an unreliable narrator?

WMM: Not in the typical sense of an unreliable narrator. …. I think that would be fabulous. I have been toying with that, so that may be something in the future.

 

[16:10] CA: And you have written about siblings.

WMM: Yes. It’s a Mystery Pig-Face! is about a brother and sister… and I do not espouse, by the way, name-calling — but I did use it in this particular story because my brother, when we were kids, used to just torture me. … I think I’m in almost all of my books in some way. … I think there’s probably a bit of me in some of the parents as well. …

 

[17:40] CA: And what do you think is scarier: humans or monsters?

WMM: Humans… we have a lot of people who are very damaged. … Certainly in my old job and things that I saw — I would rather take my chance with a monster. … I do feel that most people are redeemable. And the human monsters I met are almost always products of situations where they needed people when they were very young and they didn’t have those people. And that’s probably the same with most of the monsters too, right? If they had a really great monster mom and dad or a really good monster friend…

 

[18:40] CA: Did you tell stories around a campfire as a kid?

WMM: I did. … Like you’d be on some overnight trip and you’d all be trying to freak each other out, to terrify each other before you went off to your tents… I was usually more on the receiving end of the terror though, because I am such a scaredy cat. …

 

[20:00] CA: Do you have a favorite scary movie or scary story?

WMM: In terms of scary books, I thought Jonathan Auxier’s The Night Gardener was so creepy… And in terms of movies, I’m going to go really old school… The Exorcist. …I’m going to have to watch something funny before I go to bed tonight, just thinking about it….

 

[20:30] CA: Do you collect anything?

WMM: … I’ve always collected rocks. … And if I ever see anything while I’m out about The Wizard of Oz… because I love that movie so much.

 

[21:40] Wendy McLeod MacKnight introduces herself

WMM: I’m Wendy MacLeod McKnight. I am the author of three middle-grade novels: It’s a Mystery, Pig-Face!, The Frame Up, and The Copycat. The Frame Up has been published in Taiwan and is currently being translated into French and is going to be published in French in the next year. I love middle-grade fiction so much. My heart is just embedded. And I love writing about where I live, which is New Brunswick, but I also love writing about all over the world too, because this is an amazing time to be an author right now.

[music]

 

[22:30] Find out more about Wendy McLeod MacKnight

 

You can find out more about Wendy McLeod MacKnight and her books from her website at WendyMcleodMacknight.com. You can hear more great creative writing advice from Wendy McLeod MacKnight on Cabin Tales Episode 3.5, “Author Interviews about Inspiration”; on Episode 4, “Bad Things Happen,” about plotting; on Episode 6.5, “Author Interviews about Beginnings,” and on Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about revision.

 

[23:35] Upcoming National Public Reading

If you like the spooky stories on Cabin Tales,  join me for a National Public Reading on March 16th, at 9 a.m., when I’ll be telling a tale or two to some local students in a virtual visit funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and administered through the Writers’ Union of Canada and the National Readings Program. Drop me an email at cabin@catherineausten.com to ask for the zoom link if you want to listen in.

 

[24:10] Thanks and coming up on the podcast

I’ll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with Philippa Dowding, the award-winning children’s author, poet, and musician, who joins us from Toronto. Thanks for listening.

Credits

Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use).

Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com.

Guest Author:

Wendy McLeod MacKnight is the author of three middle grade novels: It’s a Mystery, Pig Face! , The Frame-Up and The Copycat. In her spare time, she gardens, hangs with her family and friends, and feeds raccoons. Visit Wendy online at wendymcleodmacknight.com .