Audrey Vernick's Blog, page 9

Winner!

Congratulations to Kris Remenar, winner of the Buffalo Swag Fun Pack! And thank you all for these awesome, painful, hilarious, nostalgic memories.

Sorry for the end-of-summer lull here on the blog. There's big stuff ahead….

Mixed-Up Interview: Talking Middle Grade

Author-illustrator Ruth McNally Barshaw: coming soon to Literary Friendships!

Stay tuned, dear readers, for a meaty interview coming up very soon with author-illustrator extraordinaire, Ruth Barshaw.

Until then, thanks to the good folks at the From the Mixed-Up Files…blog for inviting me to stop by. My interview, conducted by Jennifer Nielsen, is now up.

Come on over as I get ready to dance publicly in celebration of the release of my first novel, WATER BALLOON. And while you're at it, why not enter to win a free copy? There's a link on the right (at the bottom) or you can enter via my website.

September is a big month here. Lots of great author interviews are coming. And so is my first novel. Stay tuned.

Buffalo Swag Fun Pack!

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The Buffalo Swag Fun Pack

I am a swag sucker. I cannot resist ordering stuff–lots of stuff–with images of my books' covers.

Now it's time to share the wealth.

If you would be kind enough to share a back-to-school memory in the comments, that will serve as your entry. It can be a favorite memory, worst, most embarrassing–whatever works for you.

I'm not eligible. But I will share one, to get the ball rolling.

At P.S. 184 in Whitestone, Queens, when weather permitted, we lined up by class in the sprawling chain-link-fenced-in asphalt schoolyard. On one of the earliest days of first grade, I remember nearly bursting with pride when I saw that the upperclassman chosen to lead my class to our room was none other than my middle sister, Beth.

My first-grade class at P.S. 184Q.

I felt, strongly, that I belonged at the front of that line, as close to her as I could be. But whenever our class moved from one location to another, we had to line up in size order. So the privilege of standing close to Beth went to the shortest boy and girl in our class. (All of you who have met me, just shut up. I wasn't short until I stopped growing in fifth grade.)

I went from elated to near tears in about eight seconds.

close-up of buffalo notebook because it floats my boat

Okay, here's the loot: one buffalo tote bag, one buffalo notebook, and one signed buffalo book (of your choosing). Lots of buffalo. The contest will end on the last day of August, when a winner will be chosen at random.

Thanks for stopping by.

Coming Attractions

This is google images' answer to a search for "funny summer."

Summer's funny. It always looks so long and promising. And here we are, in the August teens. School starts in weeks. I do not have anything resembling a completed first draft of a new novel written. (But I do have a kind of awesome suntan.)

It's possible that late spring wasn't the smartest of all times to launch a new blog. This blog.

But you know what's a really, really promising season? FALL!

And let me tell you, I have STUFF lined up. Including interviews with none other than amazing authors Lisa Schroeder, Laurel Snyder and Linda Urban. (If your first name starts with L and you write awe-inspiring middle-grade fiction, call me. You belong here, too.) Also super-uber talented writer-illustrators Kevin Sherry and Bob Shea.

One thing they all have in common: September releases!*

*and by September, I mean late August through September, of course.

Stay tuned for these awesome interviews and a big buffalo swag giveaway…

Buffalo & Friends Visit a Foodie Bilbiophile in Wanderlust

I had a great time hanging out with Beth over on her blog, A Foodie Bibliophile in Wanderlust. Come by and say hi.

Artistic Peculiarities: Interview with Illustrator Julie Fortenberry

I have long been smitten with the artwork of Julie Fortenberry.

No big deal, but she just illustrated a book by a writer who goes by the name of Eve Bunting. About PIRATE BOY , the New York Times said, "with its simple text and sweet painted illustrations, this book will be reassuring to younger would-be pirates."

Publishers Weekly praised her picture book SADIE'S SUKKAH BREAKFAST , written by Jamie Korngold: "The book charmingly teaches a lesson about a holiday and its observance, and is appropriate for religious education as well as family reading time."

And Audrey Vernick said, "If I could choose someone to draw like, I would choose Julie Fortenberry."

So without further ado…

If you had the opportunity to illustrate any picture book you've ever read, which one would you choose?

Oh, that's tough. I can tell you one I would never attempt: CINNAMON BABY by Nicola Winstanley, illustrated by Janice Nadeau. Beautiful. I'm green with envy.  To a large extent you don't choose how you illustrate. Your peculiarities just sneak out, in your line, or color choices, and you make the most of them.  But if I could switch styles with an illustrator, I'd pick Janice Nadeau.

What were your favorite books when you were a child?

The Little Golden Books. I still own my favorite, LITTLE GOLDEN PICTURE DICTIONARY, illustrated by Tibor Gergely. Gergely painted each little entry with  great skill and affection.

Do you remember any particular character you wished could be your friend?

Pippi Longstocking.  But she scared me too, because she was cuckoo and lacked adult supervision.  I found The Cat In the Hat unnerving for the same reason.

The artist's desk

What role do other artists play in your publishing life?

I'm married to an artist. Back before we had kids, Don and I would wake up weekend mornings, put on a pot of coffee and paint all day. And now, thirty years later, when we're not talking about our kids, money, or fixing the house, we're talking about aesthetic stuff. Don is a big collector of comic books, so he's a tremendous resource.  I run most illustrations past him before I send them out. He tells me if my composition looks awkward, or if my character's foreshortened arms look weird.

Was it daunting to illustrate a book written by Eve Bunting, who has written more than 200 books for young readers? If so, how did you move beyond your trepidation?

Working for Holiday House was fantastic.  My editor, Grace Maccarone, emailed the text,  then it was up to me to lay it out as I saw fit. I loved that.  I like pacing out page turns and determining what parts of a text require pictures. And the story was fun. A mother and son, plus a dolphin, sea monsters and  shrinking pirates — a  great mix.

Thank you, Julie, for taking the time to visit here. Readers, jump on over to her fabulous blog.

Jennifer Nielsen on Prolific Vs. Obsessive and Illegal Elf Magic

Jennifer Nielsen is freakishly prolific. In the fairly recent past, she has sold two trilogies–yes, math wizards, that means six books. And she's here today celebrating the release of ELLIOT AND THE PIXIE PLOT, the second book in The Underworld Chronicles series.

Without further ado, here's Jennifer, talking about evolving relationships, characters knocking on the door inside her head and literary friendships. Oh, and Yoda.

In the Kirkus review of ELLIOT AND THE PIXIE PLOT, in addition to praising the book as a "quickly addicting page-turner," it's also noted that "Elliot learns how to navigate some difficult relationships and appreciate the better qualities in unlikely allies." As a literary friendship kind of girl, that delights me. Can you talk about what it was like to write about and develop the relationship between unlikely allies?

In PIXIE PLOT, Elliot is kidnapped to the Underworld by a mischievous Pixie named Fidget Spitfly. She is self-centered, selfish, and entirely unsympathetic to all of the trouble she causes for Elliot. However, as the series evolves, Elliot will learn how to manage her trouble-making, and also come to understand that he needs her strengths to survive the challenges of being an Underworld king.

I think it's fascinating to write about evolving relationships, about people who have to learn how to come together for whatever reason. So much character is revealed when this is a facet of the story.

I know you are a fast, prolific writer. (Duck–people are going to throw things.) What role, if any, do writer-friends play in your writing life?

To start, let me say that I'm not really fast as much as I'm obsessive. When I get an idea that I love, I cannot tear away from it. It's like the characters keep knocking on this door inside my head until I finish the writing.

I've had two critique partners for about ten years, and we worked very well together because we each brought different skills to the group. Sadly, one of the partners passed away late last year. However, I'm sure that without my critiquing partners, I would not be where I am today. They never allowed me to give up, and made me a better writer.

[image error]Was there a fictional character you wished was your friend? Were there any in-books friendships you envied?

Growing up, I was a huge fan of THE WOLVES OF WILLOUGHBY CHASE by Joan Aiken. I loved her protagonist, Bonnie Green, who was spunky, fiery, and bright. Having her for a friend would have been wonderful. In the book, Bonnie's cousin, Sylvia, comes to live with her and there the adventure begins. When the cousins are put under the care of the horrible Miss Slighcarp, the girls' friendship solidifies in a beautiful way. They also make friends with the goose-boy, Simon. The three children need each other and use their individual strengths to help the others survive a terrible situation. One of the major reasons this was my favorite childhood book is because of the friendships there.

If you could insert another fictional character, one you didn't write, into Elliot's world, who would it be and why?

Ooh – I'd love to have Yoda (Star Wars) and Dobby (Harry Potter) come in, both competing for who can best protect Elliot from the latest threat. A scene would work like this:

[image error]Yoda folded his arms and gave his typical hum before speaking. "Not helpful Dobby is. Ignore him not, you should not."

Elliot squinted. "Huh? You talk weird."

"Weird, you think? But cool, my grammar is."

Dobby stepped forward. "Dobby agrees with King Elliot. Dobby has grave warning for Elliot Potter – er, Penster."

Yoda shuffled even closer to Elliot. "Like Jar-Jar Binks Dobby is. Third person talking weirder is."

"Huh?" Elliot asked again.

Dobby held out his hands. "Dobby will defend Elliot Penster with magic!"

"That's really not necessary," Elliot said.

Then Yoda held out his hands. "Beware the force, you must."

Before Elliot could step between them (and let's be honest, it's a good thing he didn't!), the full power of the force slammed into Dobby just as some illegal Elf magic hit Yoda. And thus ended the careers of hundreds of 3-D movie animators. Not to mention ending Dobby and Yoda's strange and literally short lives.

Actually, on second thought, I don't think this would be the best literary friendship. I think I'll just keep my own characters for Elliot's story.

Thanks for a fun interview, Audrey!

Visit Jennifer's website, you must. (First Yoda speak for me. Ever.)

All Will Be Well: Interview with Melissa Glenn Haber

I tend to keep these posts as short as possible, but today's a settle-in-and-get-to-know-my guest kind of day. Melissa Glenn Haber agreed to answer some questions on the occasion of the paperback release of Your Best Friend, Meredith (the novel formerly known, in hardcover release, as Dear Anajali).

Melissa is the person you WISH you got seated next to at a dinner party. Her insights and wisdom may jump right off the screen and settle in your lap.

Enjoy.

Was Dear Anjali/Your Best Friend, Meredith a hard book to write? Did you set out knowing this would be an epistolary novel about a girl whose best friend died before you started writing?

Let me answer the planning question first.  I didn't really plan anything about this novel—it started writing itself in my head one day when I walked past a makeshift memorial.

Dear Anjali, I hate that you're dead, I started, and then the voice that became my main character started pouring out of me: if the universe was the way it should be I should not be able to write those words the letters would refuse to print on the page they would REBEL because it does not make sense it is senseless NONSENSE that my best friend is suddenly and totally dead!!! 

I didn't know where I was going in the first week of writing, except Meredith's voice and that Anjali had suddenly died. I write both fantasy and straight fiction, so for a while there I wasn't even sure if Anjali was going to write back.  But as the first couple of letters came out and it became clear that both Anjali and Meredith had liked the same boy, I realized that the book was becoming something quite different from what I had thought it was about.  It is of course a book about death and grief (and, I think, ends with an idea I find very comforting about loss), but in the end the main focus of the book is about the less extreme changes that happen in friendships.

Probably the most important letter I ever got from a reader was from a mother who said that her daughter had found sympathy and solace in the book not because she had had a friend who was dead, but because she had a friend who had dropped her like a hot potato.

Anjali and Meredith's friendship is very intense and very complicated as their intense dyad is threatened by the existence of a very intriguing boy—and as Meredith constantly compares herself unfavorably with her beautiful and confident friend. (One of my favorite parts is when Meredith is griping about how Anjali might have been outgrowing her, and then loses the "e" key on what she calls her typerwriter.)

So no, I had no idea where the book was going in the beginning.  Of course, I probably should have known it was going to be about friendship, since all my books are.  I've written about spy games that turn out to be true and wars between dragons and monsters and about three-inch-tall boys who need to save mice from the depredations of rats, but as my husband likes to say, they're all about the redemptive nature of friendship.

As to the question of whether it was hard to write: not at all.  Meredith wrote herself alive; her voice threatened to take over all my correspondence.  She is not me, exactly, but it felt she was drawing from the sludgy well of misery from my own middle school days—back in those horrible moments of self-loathing and self-pity when I used to hide under a table during a junior high school dance and despise myself for being so fat and awkward.  In fact, the book was so much the opposite of hard to write that it gushed out from first word to last in about three weeks.  (I did rewrite it thirty or forty so times after—I rewrite a lot more than I write.)

Part of the reason the book took form so quickly was that it was incredibly fun to write.  For one, I needed to add a lot of levity to such a grave (so to speak) topic, so the book ended up being much funnier than I expected, and that was very gratifying.  Secondly, it was a lot of fun to write about both friend-love and first romantic love, for the simple fact that all intense experiences are a thrill. Sometimes I think I write for 10-15 year-olds because early adolescents are like the super-tasters of emotions.  Sometimes I miss that intensity; I got to relieve it with Meredith.

In your bio, you talk about some "friendless years" in your childhood. Did books play a big role in your life then? Did you have a favorite literary character when you were a young reader? What did you think of the friendships you read about?

I always tell kids that a friendless childhood is superior training for being a writer, not only because it gives you a lot to write about, but also because it gives you plenty of time to read.  I read all the time.  My favorite writers in those days were Madeleine L'Engle, the under-remembered Marilyn Sachs, and Tolkein. I did love books that had tight relationships in them—I loved those parts in Helm's Deep when Legolas and Gimli finally became friends—and I felt in my bones that I alone in the universe understood the importance of Meg Murray standing in front of IT and loving  Charles Wallace. But when I think about it now I realize my favorite characters were often not the people I thought I could be or those I wanted as companions, but the hero/protector figures like Gandalf and Aragorn or Hazel in Watership Down or the older brother in Astrid Lingren's The Brothers Lionheart, (the one who was willing to risk saving his enemies even if he got caught, because then they'd catch a lionheart and not a piece of filth).  I still like those characters; my favorite Harry Potter characters are Lupin and Sirius.

I should say though that though I loved books and the characters in them I was lucky enough that I didn't need them to tell me about friendship. Before my terrible friend drought, I had a best friend. Her name was Kathy Witherspoon and she moved to Richmond, VA when I was eight, and I lost track of her a few years later.  Every now and then, like this, I try to throw her name into the void to see if she's still out there, so she can know how often I still think of her and how grateful I am that she was my friend (and let me play with all Barbies and all their shoes).

If you could pick a fictional character to move into the house next door to Meredith, who would you pick and why?

What an interesting question! That underappreciated Marilyn Sachs wrote a book called A December Tale about a girl who's so sad and abused by her foster parents that she's driven to a fantasy world where she's best friends with Joan of Arc. I think I'd choose her to live next to Meredith, so that Meredith could save her; it would be good for both of them. I haven't read that book in thirty years, but I still ache for that poor unhappy protagonist—and for Marilyn Sachs, who wrote such a nearly perfect book that isn't getting read the way it deserves!

What role do friends play in your writing life? Do you have a critique group? Friends who read your work?

Friends play a really central role in my life but not as much in my writing life; I tend not to share manuscripts until pretty far along.  I don't know why. For years it was because I was too scared. I went a good 18-year stretch where only two other people ever read anything I wrote.  (I've learned my craft on my own and at the hands of really extraordinary editors—I've never taken a writing class or had a critique group.)  Now that I actually enjoy getting criticism on manuscripts (though not on books, when it's too late to do anything about it!) I don't know why I don't get more feedback from my friends—I think it's in part because none of us has enough time to read.  Sigh.

If you could talk directly to Meredith, what would you tell her?

If I could talk to Meredith… it would be a disaster.  I can see it now. I know I'd get all maternal on her—that is to say, I'd criticize her, telling her to sit up straight and wash her face.  But that would only be because I couldn't tell her what I really wanted to say, which was just what Glinda wanted to tell Dorothy back when her house had just squished the witch: you have all the power you need, with those ruby shoes of yours.  But the great profound message of The Wizard of Oz—and the truest thing I've learned in my 42 years—is that the fundamental truths are the ones you can't believe until you're on the other side.

When I was a kid one of my treasured possessions was a book signed by Madeleine L'Engle to my grandmother.  In the dedication, my favorite author quoted from the 14th century mystic Julian of Norwich, who had it straight from God: "All will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things would be well."  I'd tell Meredith that, but she'd just roll her eyes at me.  So I guess in the end all I'd say to her was that she made me laugh out loud on page 64.  She's a writer; she'd appreciate the praise.

See? Wasn't this awesome?

Melissa's been blog-touring a bit. You can also check out her interview on Peter Salomon's blog. And she shared some fighting-writers'-block wisdom on Joanne Rocklin's anti-block blog. Be sure to check out Melissa Glenn Faber's website, too.

Why The Buffalo Doesn't Play Harmonica

There is still room in this world for picture books about harmonica-playing animals.

I will admit I was surprised to be asked some hard-hitting questions about the buffalo's musical proclivities. And his favorite martial art…

The Buffalo's blog tour has reached its final stop. Please come by and say hi over on Ruth McNally's awesome Ellie McDoodle blog.

And check back here soon; Ruth will be answering and doodling her way through my questions, too.

Coming Soon…

Melissa Haber is over on Peter Salomon's blog, talking about her book, YOUR BEST FRIEND, MEREDITH.

Check back next week when she'll be here, talking in depth about writing, why "a friendless childhood is superior training for being a writer," and the author she thinks is most under-remembered and under appreciated.

But for now, you can read her words of wisdom on Peter's blog. And enter to win an autographed copy of her book!