E. Kristin Anderson's Blog, page 11

7 Questions I Always Ask +1 with Katie Schickel, author of HOUSEWITCH

Today for my 7 Questions +1 feature, we have Katie Schickel, debut author of HOUSEWITCH, a new novel from Tor/Forge. I’m pumped to hear what she has to say about her writing process, hypothetical shenanigans, and perhaps some practical housewitchery.

E. Kristin Anderson: What was the first spark of inspiration for your latest book?

Forge Books, February 2015.

Katie Schickel: My husband and I had just bought a circa-1803 house that needed an overhaul (it was still plumbed for gas lights inside). We were renting a place on a barrier island nearby when I got the idea for the backstory in HOUSEWITCH. Every day, I’d push my stroller down the sandy road, past a little shingled shop called the Plum Island Soap Company. Inside, three women made and cut hand-crafted soap. Dried herbs hung from the ceiling of the small shop and breezes blew through the open windows. It reminded me of a scene from pioneer days when women made soap from lard and ashes. I couldn’t get the image out of my head. In my imagination, I added a few macabre details, like “What if the lard came from a human being?” I wrote the scene, filed it away, then a year later dusted it off and made it into chapter one of HOUSEWITCH.

EKA: What kind of planning do you do before you start writing?

KS: For HOUSEWITCH, I totally winged it. About halfway through, I started plotting scenes out on index cards, but it grew very organically for me. All I knew for certain was that I wanted to write about the pressures of being a stay-at-home mom in a culture that demands perfection.

My next book (MER, due out in summer, 2016) was totally different. I spent about a week just outlining and planning. The story changed during the writing, of course, but I discovered that outlining is a much more efficient way to go for me.

EKA: If you could get moderately tipsy with any writer living or dead, who would it be?

KS: I’d have a beer with Wallace Stevens and ask him to explain “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” once and for all. I taught that poem to my seventh- and eighth-grade students when I was an English Language Arts teacher, and I always felt like a bit of a fraud analyzing it. Who was I to say what it meant? The great thing about teaching poetry to adolescents, however, is that they end up teaching you. It was fascinating to see the poem through their eyes. It led to wonderful discussions on the personal experience of poetry, and whether or not poets intend meaning, or simply write for the beauty of the words. I’d like Wallace to weigh in on the matter.

HarperCollins Children’s Books, February 1986.

EKA: What is the first book you remember reading and enjoying as a young reader?

KS: WHEN THE WIND BLEW by Margaret Wise Brown is the first book I can remember reading as a very young child. My mother and I read it so many times that the cover was worn and peeling. I loved all those cats. Brown was more famous for GOODNIGHT MOON and THE RUNAWAY BUNNY, among others, but WHEN THE WIND BLEW was closest my to heart.

Of course, once I discovered Judy Blume, ARE YOU THERE, GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET. was THE book that defined my middle years.

EKA: If you could go back and time and tell your teen self ONE THING AND ONE THING ONLY, what would it be?

KS: Wow. That’s a tough question. Messing with the space-time continuum, and all. Hmmm. I’d tell my teen self to be bold. Being timid doesn’t open doors. Every great thing that has happened in my life has been the result of bold action. And I think my teen self would be smart enough to know the difference between being bold and being reckless, so I could trust her not to do anything too stupid with that advice.

EKA: If you haven’t had a book challenged or banned, would you want this to happen to you?  Why or why not?

KS: It’s not one of my goals, but I wouldn’t mind having a book banned. You know you’re doing something right when you can stir up emotions and get people talking. When I was a newspaper reporter, I got lots of heated calls in response to articles on controversial topics. Sometimes the calls were from people who felt they had been misquoted. Sometimes they were from readers who simply wanted their voice to be heard. It used to rattle me. Then my editor taught me to be open to whatever responses came my way. It’s often a good starting point for another story. Controversy always opens up a platforms for discussion.

EKA: What kind of book do you really want to try to write, but haven’t ever attempted? And what do you think is holding you back?

Mariner Books, Paperback Edition, May 2003.

KS: I love survival-at-sea stories. IN THE HEART OF THE SEA, ENDURANCE: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage, KON TIKI, even fictional survivor stories like THE LIFEBOAT, and LIFE OF PI, are among my faves. Force a person to boil their existence down to the basic necessities of life and you end up with some intense character-building moments. I’ve had some harrowing experiences on and under the sea (stranded on a convict island in Panama, being surrounded by thousands of barracuda on a night dive, all those sharks encounters!), but I don’t feel held back. On the contrary, I think it gives me perspective. I might have to take a crack at it. Yes! I’m going to find a good survival story and go after it. Thanks for sparking the idea!

EKA: If you were a housewitch, what witchy perks would you most enjoy?

KS: Housewitches have some awesome powers — spells that can spice up their sex life, get their pets to clean up after themselves, conceal things they don’t want others to see. Most of the spells are designed to make life easier; some are more nefarious. If I could only pick one, I’d probably whip up an enchantment to catch a home-run ball at Fenway.

Katie Schickel

KATIE SCHICKEL graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in English. A former newspaper reporter, Schickel’s writing career and passion for scuba diving has taken her to Pensacola and Key West, FL, as well as throughout the Caribbean, Central America and the Pacific. She has been a freelancer for several scuba magazines, including Scuba Times Magazineand Outside Magazine. Schickel lives in Massachusetts where she spends her time writing and with family. When she’s not doing that, Schickel also surfs the chilly waters of New England, even in the winter. HOUSEWITCH is her first novel.

Review: BLEED LIKE ME by C. Desir

If what you’re looking for is fast-paced, edgy, dangerous, and real, look no further than BLEED LIKE ME by C. Desir.

Simon Pulse, October 2014.

The author has referred to this book as a story about a teenage Bonnie and Clyde, and the reader can absolutely see the influence. It’s the story of a Amelia Gannon — Gannon to her friends — with parents so involved with her younger siblings that she almost disappears (unless her mom needs help). Gannon has found that cutting herself relieves the stress of her life. She hides the habit from her family and her friends — though she doesn’t have many. She hangs out at her hardware store job, at the shed where her boss lets her work on woodworking projects, and at the skate park. It’s among the skaters that she meets Michael Brooks, a foster kid who soon convinces her to run away with him.

Brooks seems like a true Romeo. But the problem with Romeo and Juliet has always been the ending. And while Brooks seems to care for Gannon, Gannon isn’t sure if he can give her the life she imagined — or one she can live at all.

Tragic, powerful, and unputdownable, BLEED LIKE ME is a sophomore novel that proves C. Desir‘s staying power in the YA contemporary canon. This is one to read for fans of Ellen Hopkins, Laurie Halse Anderson, and Cheryl Rainfield.

 

SOLD: That Prince chapbook I’ve been talking about for months!

So…I got some news. And when the yesses were finally yessed and the virtual hands were virtually shaken, I felt like I was going to have a heart attack.

My chapbook PRAY PRAY PRAY: Poems I wrote to Prince in the middle of the night just sold to Porkbelly Press. You may have heard of Porkbelly. Either by following me on Goodreads as I’ve read like most of their catalog since I first heard about them last fall. Or maybe because they printed the gorgeous EMILY anthology that I was in earlier this year. Or maybe just because they’re an all-around badass operation.

This chapbook is the product of a few things, but it boils down to:

1. Prince. I’m obsessed with Prince. It was a sudden and unexpected obsession, but there it is. I now know more about Prince than probably most people who were fans in the 80s and 90s. This is a thing I do. You’re welcome, Prince.

2. Artistry. Especially music, as an appreciator, and writing, as a creator. Also, the work behind both “fine” art and entertainment.

3. Mental health, and my own struggles with severe depression in 2014. It was ugly, y’all. The Purple One got me through.

4. Patriotism. Which surprised me, as I wrote these pieces. But, oh, America, you are so dirty and beautiful and raw and broken and hopeful.

I spent a lot of time not sleeping well — which isn’t that unusual for me — in 2014 especially from around June and onward. I used that time to listen to Prince records and write poems. I wrote them in notebooks, on the backs of junk mail envelopes, and even as snippets into my phone. And I landed, finally, with the last poem that I didn’t think would be the last poem, turning up somewhere around September or October. And by that time I realized this was a thing. And I ran it by critique partners and sent it out. And here it is. Almost. Here it will be.

So thanks to everyone who has listened to me talk about Prince and his genius and how I want to be him and how I’d marry him if he was just a brain in a jar and the obviously blah-blah between album x and album y and advocacy for artist’s rights and OMG THE NEW ALBUM HAVE YOU HEARD IT? You guys win for not pulling the car over and pushing me out.

I’ll keep y’all updated. The book should be arriving sometime this year. In the mean time, I hope you enjoy the rest of your month before April — National Poetry Month — begins. And you know what that means around here — poetry guest blogs from all over publishing! Let’s do this.

And, writerly types, I’ll be seeing you in Minneapolis (HOME OF PRINCE!) for AWP. How fitting!

Review: PLAYLIST FOR THE DEAD by Michelle Falkoff

The jacket copy of PLAYLIST FOR THE DEAD by Michelle Falkoff compares this novel to YA favorites like THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER and THIRTEEN REASONS WHY. The jacket copy is dead on.

HarperTeen, January 2015.

This debut novel tackles the tough topic of teen suicide with unexpected humor and a flash drive full of music — music left by Hayden as something of a suicide note for his best friend Sam. Naturally, Sam is distraught. He’s not only Hayden’s only friend (honestly, Hayden was his only friend, too), but he found Hayden on the night after they had a fight at a party. At the funeral, Sam is upset at the fakeness of everyone there — mostly the Bully Trifecta, which includes Hayden’s older brother.

But Sam isn’t sleeping much — he’s mostly listening to his playlist and (possibly in insomnia-fueled hallucinations) talking to someone who might be Hayden on Google Chat. When he’s awake, he’s trying his best to just get through the day. Which has lead him to finding a new friend in Astrid, a girl he’s never talked to who goes to his school. Crazy from lack of sleep and grief, and with someone seemingly out to get the Bully Trifecta, Sam starts to look for clues that might tell him why Hayden killed himself. And, slowly, the night of the party is revealed — both to the reader and to Sam, who only knows half the story.

PLAYLIST FOR THE DEAD is beautiful and articulate and funny and everything YA readers — both teen and adult — crave in a juicy, tear-jerking contemporary novel. Michelle Falkoff, much like Rainbow Rowell, is an author to watch, and I certainly can’t wait to see what she does next.

7 Questions I Always Ask +1 with Julie Tibbott, author of MEMBERS ONLY

I’m super pumped to have Julie Tibbot on Write All the Words today! She’s the author of MEMBERS ONLY: Secret Societies, Sects, and Cults Exposed! – a fantastic book about one of my favorite topics. You’re going to love what Julie has to say!

E. Kristin Anderson: What was the first spark of inspiration for your latest book?

Zest Books, February 2015.

Julie Tibbott: Cults and secret societies are of interest to many people. Everyone can relate to the desire to be part of a fellowship of like-minded individuals, and the idea of being privy to some hidden knowledge is also enticing. I can identify a few of the main strands of my own fascination with these groups.

As a young child, I was very into the idea of communal living—I’d make my dollhouse people live in communes. So, when I’d hear about cults and other groups where they often lived in such situations, my interest was piqued.

Later, I became fixated on subcultures, mostly “tribes” of cool people throughout the ages. Any group that had its own unique look, music, heroes, slang, cultural references—I wanted to know all about it. Of course, many cults and secret societies share these characteristics.

I also went through the requisite young teenage Manson Family phase after reading HELTER SKELTER. I certainly never worshiped Charles Manson or anything like that, but one day my sisters and a few of our friends decided it would be fun to reenact the Tate murder scene while my mom was out. My sister was Sharon Tate with a pillow up her shirt, I was Abigail Folger in a nightgown laying outside on the lawn. When my mom got home she was greeted by “Piggies” written on the back door in ketchup, and the Beatles’ White Album blaring. Mom forbade us from playing her records after that day. She probably regretted letting us get a hold of her old copy ofHELTER SKELTER, too.

I realize now that whole scene was kind of gross. But (arguably) less harmful groups got my attention, too. The Amish, for instance, have always intrigued me. I visited Pennsylvania Dutch/Amish country frequently as a kid. My first tattoo was an Amish hex sign (those are the things they hang on their barns).

Over the years, I’ve read some memoirs of people who spent time in cults. A few such titles that stand out are MY LIFE IN ORANGE: Growing Up with the Guru by Tim Guest (about living with the various communes of Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh) and SEDUCTIVE POISON: A Jonestown Survivor’s Story of Life and Death in the People’s Temple by Deborah Layton. And as an editor, I’ve been drawn to stories that take place in isolated communities, outside of mainstream life.

All of these things, plus a general interest in historical oddities, inspired me to write MEMBERS ONLY!

Interior art from MEMBERS ONLY: The Skull & Bones Club!

EKA: What kind of planning do you do before you start writing?

JT: For MEMBERS ONLY, I did some outlining. But for most anything I write, even if I have the overarching structure in the back of my mind, I’ll just gravitate toward writing whatever part I like best or that I’m in the mood for at that particular time. People often stress out about how to begin a piece of writing—but you don’t necessarily need to begin at the beginning! If you just start writing the part you want to write, you may be surprised at where it takes you.

EKA: If you could have lunch with any writer living or dead, who would it be?

JT: This may be too obvious an answer, but I’d love to join Dorothy Parker for lunch at the Algonquin in the 1920s. I’m sure she’d be entertaining company, and I’d get some bon mots for the road.

EKA: What is the first book you remember reading and enjoying as a young reader?

JT: I was a voracious reader, and I enjoyed all of it! But the first piece of writing I can recall having a strong emotional impact on me was a serialized story in Stone Soup magazine. Stone Soup is known as “The New Yorker for kids”—all the stories and poems and illustrations in it are by children. The particular story that caught my fancy was about the travails of a foster dog as she was shuffled from one home after another. I had just learned to read, and I read this story over and over, and it always made me cry. I wish I could find it now and see if it still has the same effect on me. But I think what really made it so powerful and memorable is that it sparked my first realization that I could, conceivably, write, just like the kid who wrote that story.

Interior art from MEMBERS ONLY: The Eye of Providence.

EKA: If you could go back and time and tell your teen self ONE THING AND ONE THING ONLY, what would it be?

JT: Adopt a healthier lifestyle.

EKA: If you haven’t had a book challenged or banned, would you want this to happen to you?  Why or why not?

JT: I’ve never had one of my books challenged or banned (that I’m aware of), but I’d certainly be honored by such a gesture! If a writer’s work makes someone feel threatened enough that they have to suppress it, chances are that same work is just as strongly appreciated by someone else. People’s issues with certain books never cease to amaze me. I worked at Scholastic at the height of HARRY POTTER mania, and some of the complaints we’d get about that, and other classic children’s books, were just so ridiculous. Satan was incited a lot. It would never occur to a child reading these stories that the devil had anything to do with it, unless they were told so by a disapproving adult. There would be complaints about books featuring magical creatures, or talking animals, because “God didn’t create unicorns.” I guess some people are just opposed to anything requiring imagination. What miserable lives they must lead.

EKA: What kind of work do you really want to try to write, but haven’t ever attempted? And what do you think is holding you back?

JT: I would like to write a sonnet, but I’m not much of a poet. Coming up with a good piece of writing inside of those structural confines would be quite an achievement. I’ll give it a go one of these days!

William Butler Yeats, Ghost Club member.

EKA: If you HAD to join one of the secret societies or groups in your book? Which one would it be, and why?

JT: I think it would have been cool to be part of the Ghost Club, a paranormal research club that started in mid-1800s at Cambridge’s Trinity College. Women couldn’t join the Ghost Club during its heyday, but the group included lots of esteemed gentlemen I wouldn’t mind meeting, including Charles Dickens, W. B. Yeats, and Arthur Conan Doyle. Though ghost hunting doesn’t seem terribly exciting to me, I would be interested in exploring many of the allegedly haunted historic sites around the UK that the club has investigated over the years, including Borley Rectory (known as “Britain’s most haunted house”), and Glamis Castle (the dramatically creepy inspiration for the setting of Macbeth). The Ghost Club actually still exists today, and is much less exclusive than it was back in Victorian times, so maybe I’ll drop in on a meeting next time I’m in London—but only if I can sit next to the spirit of Charles Dickens.

Julie Tibbott.

Julie Tibbott is an editor of teen fiction at a major publishing house. She lives on New York City’s Lower East Side, once home to many organized crime syndicates, street gangs, and underground anarchists. She’s not a member of any secret societies…or is she?

7 Questions I Always Ask +1 with Jeff Fleischer, author of ROCKIN’ THE BOAT

Today is another day on Zest Books’ Rockin’ Blog Tour. And, to answer questions about ROCKIN’ THE BOAT: 50 Iconic Revolutionaries – From Joan of Arc to Malcom X, we have author Jeff Fleischer.

E. Kristin Anderson: What was the first spark of inspiration for your latest book? [The weirder the better, we want the juicy details!]

Jeff Fleischer: I wish I had a better story here, but the publisher and I were talking about ideas for a possible history book. As soon as we mentioned doing something about revolutionaries, that jumped out at me as a good idea, because these are people I was already interested in, had studied a lot over the years, and knew I would enjoy writing about.

Zest Books, March 2015.

EKA: What kind of planning do you do before you start writing?

JF: For this book, a lot of the planning was thinking about who to include, making a really long list, and then working with the publisher on narrowing it down (even then, the list changed a few times during the writing process). Then it was figuring out an order in which to work on the fifty chapters. I had staggered deadlines to turn in batches of chapters, so I could research them in chunks.

EKA: If you could have lunch with any writer living or dead, who would it be?

JF: It’s hard to pick one, but I’ll go with Kurt Vonnegut. So it goes.

Golden Books, Reprint Edition, September 1999.

EKA: What is the first book you remember reading and enjoying as a young reader?

JF: My mother was really good about reading Little Golden Books to me when I was very young, so I’m not entirely sure about the first one I read myself. It might be THE TAWNY SCRAWNY LION, THE POKY LITTLE PUPPY or THE SAGGY BAGGY ELEPHANT

EKA: If you could go back and time and tell your teen self ONE THING AND ONE THING ONLY, what would it be?

JF: The worst days of life are pretty awful, but the best ones are better than you’re currently capable of imagining.

Interior art from ROCKIN’ THE BOAT.

EKA: If you haven’t had a book challenged or banned, would you want this to happen to you? Why or why not?

JF: I’d never want a book banned, but that doesn’t just apply to my own. Those annual lists of the most-challenged books usually include some of the best literary works in history, which says more about the people trying to ban them than the books themselves.

EKA: What kind of book do you really want to try to write, but haven’t ever attempted? And what do you think is holding you back?

JF: I write a lot of short fiction, but have never really attempted a novel. I have an idea for one that I like, and I did write a first chapter that I’m happy with. But when you write for a living, it’s hard to find enough time to devote to a project that long and open-ended; there’s always work that can be (or has to be) finished first. I’ll write it at some point.

EKA: What’s the most major thing you’ve ever done to rock the boat?

JF: In my capacity as a journalist, I spent a year abroad researching climate change and interviewing many citizens of an island nation that is at risk of being destroyed if things don’t change. I wrote a series of articles to raise awareness about the situation, and have been working on a potential book about the subject.

Jeff Fleischer.

Jeff Fleischer is a non-fiction author, journalist, and short-fiction writer. Originally from Chicago, he has also worked in San Francisco, Australia and New Zealand, and his work has appeared in publications including the Sydney Morning Herald, Mother Jones, Chicago Magazine, Mental_Floss, and dozens of other print and online publications. He has a degree in journalism and history from Indiana University and a master’s in journalism from Medill at Northwestern University.

March Madness Poetry 2015: I’m an Authlete!

I’m doing a thing. And I might go crazy doing it. There’s a reason they call it March Madness, after all.

So a few months ago, I got a tweet from Ed DeCaria. It was something along the lines of “I dare you to join my kids’ poetry writing cult.” No, I’m lying, I don’t think he said dare or cult. But he did invite me to check out his March Madness Poetry (#MMPoetry) project at ThinkKidThink.com. I must have gotten a lot of random LOOK AT MY THING tweets that day, because I remember thinking, oh, Mr. DeCaria, you must be nuts if you think you can convince me to do another thing.

But it didn’t take much convincing.  Because March Madness Poetry has several things that push my poet buttons:

1. Competition. I mean, hello, it even has brackets. And seeds.

2. Poetry. Duh.

3. Prompts. Each round has a challenge that goes with it. I’m into that.

4. Community. If I was selected, I’d be among 64 poets competing, and that means we’d all get to cheer and jeer each other on.

5. Advocacy for poetry in the classroom and children’s literacy. Classrooms full of actual kids get to vote on the poems. And they get to win books of poetry. So much awesome!

So I was in. Even though I’m always doing all of the things. And in April I’ll be doing about a million things. And March hasn’t exactly been, you know, quiet.  But items 1-5 had me applying pretty quickly.

Fie thee, DeCaria.

As you’re reading this I’ve already turned in my first poem. I have my fingers crossed that I can beat out my first opponent. (No hard feelings, of course.) And I can’t wait to see how everything plays out.

So keep an eye on ThinkKidThink.com, get ready to get spammed by #MMPoetry tweets, and read lots of poetry by those of us in the competition. I’m ready to take home the Thinkier trophy. (Yep, there’s a trophy.) Or at least do everything I can to get my hands on it. You know, with words and stuff.

For more information on the project, check out the website. And follow @EdDeCaria on Twitter! And, you know, follow along. I think this madness is going to be a boatload of fun.

7 Questions I Always Ask +1 with John Grant, author of DEBUNK IT

Today on 7 Questions +1 I have John Grant, author of DEBUNK IT, a book that takes down myths and gives young people the tools to call out crap when they see it.  He’s out on the Zest Books Rockin’ the Boat Blog Tour, and I’m glad to have John here to answer a few q’s.

E. Kristin Anderson: What was the first spark of inspiration for your latest book?

Zest Books, February, 2015.

John Grant: I was giving a talk about science denialism at one of the larger local libraries and there was a kid there in the audience with his parents. His name was Franklin and I’d guess he was about 14 or 15. During the Q&A session afterwards, he stuck up his hand and said, “You know, there ought to be a sort of guide to bullshit for people my age.” Two things surprised me. One was that, when I was his age, if I’d said “bullshit” in public and my parents were there, I’d have been in deep trouble. But the other was that it was a great idea! So that evening was born the notion for a book called THE YOUNG PERSON’S GUIDE TO BULLSHIT, and to my delight Zest bought it. Of course, booksellers balked a bit at the title, so we had to change it…

EKA: What kind of planning do you do before you start writing?

JG: Depends, really. When I’m writing fiction I tend to start off with an idea of the mood I want to evoke, who some of the people are, where the story begins and roughly where it might end, but that’s about as much planning as I can face – hardly deserves the word “planning,” does it!

For nonfiction books I’ve usually worked up a fairly detailed synopsis beforehand for the publisher so that we know exactly what the structure and content of the book are going to be. Then, well, you know how it goes. I change it all as I go along. DEBUNK IT! was one of the unusual ones in that the final text was reasonably close to what the synopsis had indicated.

Penguin Classics, Revised Edition, March 25, 2003.

EKA: If you could get moderately tipsy with any writer living or dead, who would it be?

JG: I’ve actually gotten moderately tipsy with quite a lot of writers at conventions and such – and intend to do so again later this year at the World Fantasy Convention. So let’s cut this down to “dead authors I’ve never met.” A few years ago the author Gregory Frost called me “The living heir to Martin Gardner,” and it was one of the biggest thrills of my writing life. So I’d really like to have a drink with Martin Gardner, although that might be quite an intimidating encounter for me. Gardner had twice the brains I have. Maybe more than twice…

Going back a bit further in history, the author I’ve always dreamed of meeting is George Eliot. She had a really quite fascinating mind, and there’s so much compassion and wisdom in her novels.

EKA: What is the first book you remember reading and enjoying as a young reader?

Del Ray, Reprint Edition, May 1987.

JG: Oh, lawks, that’s a difficult one. The first one I can remember really having an impact on me? CHILDHOOD’S END by Arthur C. Clarke. My very much older brother shoved his copy into my hands at some point to get me to shut up, and to his amazement I devoured it and demanded more. After that I went through all the science fiction and fantasy in the kids’ section of the local library and then, thanks to a friendly librarian, the adult section too. Pocket money went on it too – there was me buying C.S. Lewis at the age of nine or so, oh my. Later, maybe in my mid-teens, I discovered crime fiction, and those two genres have dominated my leisure reading ever since.

The first nonfiction book that really had an impact on me was FRONTIERS OF ASTRONOMY, by Fred Hoyle. Again I blame my big brother! What Hoyle’s book really gave me was my sense of wonder – the realization that the universe was a far bigger and stranger and more beautifully mysterious place than I’d ever imagined, and that I could be lucky enough to begin to understand it.

EKA: If you could go back and time and tell your teen self ONE THING AND ONE THING ONLY, what would it be?

JG: Well, there’d be a couple of future girlfriends I’d be telling myself to avoid… More generally, I think I’d tell myself that life’s shorter than you think it is. You don’t get a big enough ration of years to waste a load of them believing in nonsense. Before you believe anything is true, take a moment to think about who’s telling it to you. That sort of thing.

EKA: Have you ever had a book challenged or banned?

JG: No, although I get the occasional unpleasant piece of email from creationists, climate deniers and the like, upset with me that I believe in and promote the scientific reality rather than their pet theories. I stick it into a folder on my computer called FAN MAIL.

I suppose, though, that I ought to write something properly bannable – I mean, many of the writers I most admire have done so. Hm. Thanks for the idea, Kristin…

Limelight Editions, October 2013.

EKA: What kind of book do you really want to try to write, but haven’t ever attempted? And what do you think is holding you back?

JG: I’d really like to write a hardboiled noir novel. As I said, I’m interested in crime fiction, and I’ve written some short stories and a brace of novellas in that genre – or more usually a sort of crime/fantasy cross. And I’m also very much into film noir – my vast COMPREHENSIVE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FILM NOIR came out a couple of years ago, and I run a site called Noirish covering movies, often very obscure ones, that are on the fringes of noir. So for me to write a hardboiled crime novel would seem a natural development. What’s holding me back is twofold – first that I haven’t come up with the right idea, and second that I can’t imagine a publisher being that interested!

EKA: What was the most surprising thing you discovered while researching DEBUNK IT?

JG: Well, it wasn’t so much a piece of research as something that happened while the book was in its early stages. It was that astonishing moment when Bill O’Reilly announced in all seriousness on TV that no one understood how the tides worked — that they were a sort of everyday miracle. I couldn’t believe that anyone could have got to his position of prominence and yet remained so astoundingly ignorant. It’s been known for hundreds of years that tides are a gravitational effect — in our case, the product of the moon’s pull on the earth. While I wouldn’t necessarily expect a TV pundit to be able to explain the details to me, I’d certainly expect him to know as much as I’ve just outlined. And yet O’Reilly clearly thought it was this immense puzzle that science had tried to tackle but failed.

It sounds as if I’m picking on him, but the real eye-opener was, as I say, that this level of ignorance about basic, school-level science was so prevalent. He presumably had come out with this tosh to friends and acquaintances, and clearly none of them had known any better either to put him right. Amazing. And these are people who’re regarded as opinion-formers on subjects like climate science that really are difficult.

It was at that point that I realized quite how right Franklin had been!

John Grant.

John Grant is author of about seventy books, including the highly successful DISCARDED SCIENCE, CORRUPTED SCIENCE, and DENYING SCIENCE. For a number of years he ran the world-famous fantasy artbook publisher Paper Tiger. He has won the Hugo Award (twice), the World Fantasy Award, and various other international literary awards.

International Women’s Week: Guest Post from Michaela MacColl: Louisa: A Practical Feminist

“I am not afraid of storms because I am learning to sail my own ship.” — Louisa May Alcott

Chronicle Books, April 2015.

When I grew up in the 1970’s I saw the practical side of feminism every day. My mom was single mother struggling to support us. She taught herself computer programming to do it. It wasn’t until I had kids of my own that I understood how she had juggled bills, work, parenting – all without ever letting the strain show. I admire her immensely. That is the lens that I always use when I look at my characters: what were their moms like?

My latest literary mystery, THE REVELATION OF LOUISA MAY (Chronicle 2015), is about Louisa May Alcott as a teen in Concord Massachusetts. The author of LITTLE WOMEN, a dozen spin-off novels and hundreds of “blood and thunder” stories, she was tremendously successful writer. By the end of her life she was a millionaire and she earned every dime from her pen. Louisa was very close to her mother, Marmee, and her three sisters. If that sounds familiar, you’re right. LITTLE WOMEN was based on Louisa’s childhood, with the enthusiastic permission of her family.

Louisa May at her desk.

But the Alcotts had it much worse off than the Marches. While fictional Jo totally ruins an ambitious dinner menu, Louisa suffered actual hunger. Jo’s father is off at war but Louisa’s was Bronson Alcott, a philosopher who was philosophically opposed to working for a living. By the time Louisa was a teen, they had exhausted the generosity of their friends and family. Marmee became an expert at scrimping, saving, sewing and doing without. Desperate to feed and clothe her family, Marmee did the unthinkable for a family of their social status: she left town and got a job.

She was hired to run a therapeutic hotel in New Hampshire. Her husband was livid. Who would take care of him? Since the oldest daughter was working as a teacher far from home, that duty fell hard on Louisa’s shoulders. Neither she nor Bronson were happy about it. She hated the daily grind of poverty and incredibly disciplined herself, she found fault with her father’s lack of work ethic. They clashed all summer until Marmee, missing her family terribly, returned. This is when my story is set because I loved all the drama between Louisa and Bronson (also, if Louisa is to hide a fugitive slave, fall in love and catch a murderer…. Marmee can’t be around- she’d never allow it!)

Marmee.

Marmee had always supported Louisa’s love of writing and gave her a journal and a fine pen. She inscribed the journal: “I am sure your life has many fine passages well worth recording, and to me they are always precious… do write a little each day, dear, if but a line, to show me how bravely you begin the battle, how patiently you wait for the rewards sure to come when victory is nobly won.”

Louisa responded by telling her mother “I think I shall write books, and get rich and famous, that would suit me.” She wrote for money to help her mother and take care of her family. She began with gothic stories, written under a pseudonym (they are still discovering her stories), until her publisher came to her with the wacky idea of writing for girls. She was reluctant but the money offered was good. Plus, she kept the copyright. To everyone’s surprise, LITTLE WOMEN was a huge bestseller. It made her fortune and whenever she needed more money she just churned out another one! She often said she would prefer to write more lurid stories, but they weren’t what would sell. When her oldest sister, Anne (Meg in the novel) lost her husband, leaving her with two small boys, Louisa wrote JO’S BOYS and assigned the royalties to her nephews. She took care of her entire family, ensuring that Marmee lived her last years in opulent comfort. Marmee taught her well.

THE REVELATION OF LOUISA MAY hits the shelves on April 9th.

Michaela MacColl.

Michaela Maccoll’s favorite stories are the ones she finds about the childhood experiences of famous people. She is writing a literary mystery series for teens featuring so far a young Emily Dickinson in NOBODY’S SECRET (2013) and the Bronte sisters in ALWAYS EMILY (2014).  She lives in Westport, CT with her husband, two teenaged daughters and three extremely large cats.

International Women’s Week: Laura Hurwitz: Conjuring The Humble Warrior

I have been practicing yoga for years. My favorite pose is called Humble Warrior. In Humble Warrior, the legs are in a forward lunge position. Bending at the waist, the head is then lowered along the inside of the front leg. From a base of balanced strength, the deep bow connotes humility and gratitude.

Albert Whitman Teen, March 2015.

This may seem like a strange lead-in to an essay about women and writing, but there’s a reason I am telling you this, which I will get to after a slight (but relevant) detour.

For the most part, I grew up reading books with female protagonists, and for the most part, these books were written by women.

This was not by design; I had -and continue to have- nothing against males as writers or protagonists or human beings in general. But looking back, I see a pattern, and wonder what it was that drove my female-centered literary sensibility. I wonder what guided my imagination while writing my debut novel, DISAPPEAR HOME, with its fourteen-year-old female protagonist, Shoshanna, who with her mother and younger sister, is on the run from the depraved commune led by her father. This strongly female sensibility continues to guide me now, while working on my third YA novel with a female protagonist and a predominance of female characters.

It occurs to me that there’s nothing I love more than heroics, though not of the swashbuckling variety. I am drawn to subversive inner strength, to brave characters minus the bravado. Resilient, steadfast- that’s the kind of hero I am interested in in reading about, in writing about. Generally, these traits align with female characters.

Enter the Humble Warrior.

Bantam Books, Mass Market Edition, October 1988.

I look over the list of my all-time favorite books. There’s JANE EYRE, HEIDI, THE SECRET GARDEN, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, A WRINKLE IN TIME, GONE WITH THE WIND. The fact that women wrote these books is probably less significant than the themes and plot lines that ignited my imagination, and the depth of emotion these stories effectively stirred. In every one of these novels, young women faced daunting obstacles. They summoned up their inner courage and the strength of their convictions to transform their lives and the lives of those around them. They didn’t necessarily get everything they wanted, and when the narratives ended they weren’t patting themselves on the back. The story always reached a satisfying resolution, but the characters were not done seeking. The door was always left open to possibility.

These female protagonists were not fearless or consistently confident. They were human. They accepted outstretched hands, admitted their mistakes, lost heart, and found it again. This is what resonates with me. Those who lack fear because they carry a big enough weapon or hold all the cards, well, for them, standing up doesn’t strike me nearly as impressive or personally relevant. The other thing that I think is important to note is the flexibility of these female protagonists. It is a common theme, to learn from experience. These protagonists enter the novel malleable, vulnerable to the universe. This is not a position of power, but a position of enlightenment.

To me, the best stories are told by quiet people with hearts that won’t quit.

Anne Frank.

The writer who exemplifies this most to me was a rank amateur. She only wrote one thing and died before getting published. Still, after her death, when her book came out, her story took the world by storm. Anne Frank’s diary may not have been fiction, which makes Anne a double threat- both author and protagonist. How mind-blowingly astonishing is it that the unguarded words of an adolescent girl written during the one of the darkest chapters of human history is the enduring, iconic symbol of good overcoming evil, the small candle illuminating the vast cursed darkness? For Anne’s small voice to have the final resounding word -“in spite of everything, I still believe people are really good at heart.”- I’m sorry, but nothing is more powerful. Love wins.

My tendency to read and write about women comes back to my reverence for the Humble Warrior. Humility is often confused with powerlessness. Gratitude, deference, grace- these gentle “feminine” qualities might seem less than formidable when it comes to vanquishing evil or dwarfing hatred. But then, consider Jane. Consider Meg and Scout and for me, as writer, Shoshanna. Consider Anne, and know that the warrior lies within.

Laura Hurwitz lives in New Haven, Connecticut. Her debut novel is DISAPPEAR HOME. Laura has written travel-essay books on locations ranging from South Africa’s Northern Transvaal to Ohio’s Amish/Mennonite community. She also co-authored the award winning children’s eco-adventure series, ADVENTURES OF RILEY (Scholastic Press). Over her lifetime, Laura has worn a strange variety of professional hats. She was a model/actress, a college admissions officer at her alma mater, Yale, and mother to six children who have since successfully flown the coop. Perhaps most impressive is the fact she actually loved teaching middle school English. Laura maintains a popular daily blog www.laurahurwitz.com. She is an avid reader, dedicated writer, indifferent cook, prone to wanderlust; a haphazard dresser, freelance editor, daily runner, practitioner of yoga, and a recreational urban bike rider who just recently began wearing a helmet.