Jane Yolen's Blog, page 3

Wednesday Q & J: September 13, 2023

Q: Why do you still write poetry every day?J:  3 Reasons1.  It’s a Finger exercise first thing in the morning, that wakes up my sleeping brain, forcing me to think about words and writing.2. I have many subscribers I do not want to disappoint, who have promised that in exchange, at month’s end, to buy a book of mine, or borrow one from the library, or reread one they already have.3. I amass a load of unpublished poems that I can sometimes get published in  a poetry magazine or as picture book text when expanded.

Wednesday Q & J: September 6, 2023

Q: What is the one thing you’ve never written about that, secretly, you want to write about? If nothing, does this means you have written about everything? Or just that there is more to discover and you haven’t found it yet? This is kind of a question about looking forward…

 

J: I cannot say for sure because often the next book is a surprise!!! Sometimes an editor asks for something specific, and if I can do it–I will. Sometimes it is the third or fourth book in a series. Sometimes it as much of a surprise to me as it is to my family or editors, or readers.

Wednesday Q & J: August 30, 2023

Q: You have written 3 holocaust novels. Why, after one, did you dive back in to such a heavy subject?

J: Honestly, each time I finished a Holocaust novel I said: “That’s it.”  Because both the research and writing took a great toll on  me. But each time, when a new place or time showed up in my research, I changed my mind and wrote another book. And then I wrote a book of Holocaust poems called “Kaddish” which won the Sophie Brodie Medal for best  Jewish Book last year–the first book of poetry to do so. So I am not saying “never again” again.

Wednesday Q & J: August 23, 2023

Q: How is your writing schedule different when you are at your summer home in Scotland? Do you write the same things? During the same times?

J:  My writing time in Scotland is dictated by where we are going… or if we are going anywhere interesting. I need to be in a quiet place with my computer in order to write. If we are headed to–say–Orkney or a castle, there will be no writing util we are back home. Or back in a hotel or hostel.  But I will take notes as we go along if a story or poem comes to me. Not everything I write in Scotland is about Scotland. Often I save bits and pieces and write a story or poem when I am back in the States.

Wednesday Q & J: August 16, 2023

Q: You have files filled with stories you haven’t finished or that haven’t been sent out in a while. What do you do with them?

J:  Every few months I go into my unsold files and sometimes I find a way to rewrite or remake one or two of the pieces there. Some of these old or forgotten or often rejected manuscripts are save-able. Some need total re-writing. Some only need a  few small changes. I send them out again to editors newly met, or editors newly minted. I remind my writing students that sometimes a manuscript will finally be sold to an editor who hasn’t been born yet!!!

Wednesday Q & J: August 9, 2023

Q:  How do you concentrate on just one thing while you’re writing?

J: Hahaha–I don’t. I write on something until it is done or I am done, then turn to something else.  This may not be a a great way to work for all people, but it seems to work for me.

Follow Up Q: So what are you working on now? And, how do you balance all the things?

J: I have just finished a long project (several years on and off and on)–a verse novel called The Poacher’s Girl, a very strange retelling of Sleeping Beauty. Have also been working on a bunch of poems (I send out a poem a day so tend to write 4-6 at a time). And I have also been looking at other old pieces to see if I am ready to rewrite them. Every once in a while I get really involved in one of those old pieces.  The Poacher’s Girl was like that.

Wednesday Q & J: August 2, 2023

Q:  After all these years of typing stories, you are still not the best typists. Why is that?

(Note from Heidi: I am going to leave the answer as it came to me, and then add the “JY translation.”)

 

J: Never l;earned to typoe. The school coounelor said, “Con’t take typing. You want tp be the boss, not the stenographer.

 

Heidi’s JY Translation: I never learned to type. The school counselor said, “Can’t take typing. You want to be the boss, not the stenographer.”

 

Heidi’s Note: Well, you can’t argue with that logic… she is the boss!

Wednesday Q & J: July 26, 2023

Q: You recently had your 427th book come out. What is your goal? And how do you have so many books?

 

J: I just love writing. And we never counted them (my family and me) until it was clear there were over 100. And now we are all counting them religiously. Or frantically….take your choice. I am hoping to get to 500. (There are 37 more already sold.) But at 84, and the slowness of publication, I am not sure I will get to see them published. But maybe you will.

Wednesday Q & J: July 19, 2023

Q:  You recently rebooted the GIANTS FARM books which originally came out 30 or 40 years ago. What was that process like?

 

J: It was both interesting and a bit terrifying for three reasons. One …illustrator Tomie DePaola, a good friend and the original illustrator had just died. Second, because I hadn’t read the books since thy came out. And third, because they were to be used this time-around as Easy Readers which meant a bit of changes have been necessary.

(And fourth, two new books had to be written. I am late on the fourth!!!)

Wednesday Q & J: July 12, 2023

Q: OK, here’s a silly one.  What does “Ah, fewmets!” mean? And, what is it about–where did it come from?  Did you make it up?

 

J: It’s a very old English word meaning animal droppings. I discovered it and knew I had to use it in my Pit Dragon books.* Isn’t it a great word? For years, I had a bumper sticker on my car that said,  “AW…FEWMETS!!!”  That car and that sticker are long gone.

* Heart’s Blood, Dragon’s Blood, A Sending of Dragons, and Dragon’s Heart

Additional Note from Heidi: I actually think that, though the car is, in fact, long gone, we have a copy of the bumper sticker.