June ! This Month's Contest Featuring Summer of the Skunks
Author of the Month--Wilmoth Foreman Win a Signed Copy of Her Book! Just email me at beckieweinheimer@gmail.com to be considered any time before July 1st.
Have you ever seen a book dedicated to a piece of land? Wilmoth Foreman did.
"It is to that place--five acres with garden, orchard, pasture, animals, and us--and to the setting's moment in time--a good era to grow in--that I dedicate this book."
I loved Summer of the Skunks. I'm sure you will too. It's s story set in a gentle place and time (with lots of twists and turns and smelly skunks) that will make you just want to a cozy up in a sunny window seat with a good crisp apple and read, read, read!
Wilmoth is from Tennessee and her lilting voice is as lyrical as her book. I wish you could hear her talk. Sometimes I make up questions on the spot when we are together just so I can hear her voice. Its like velvet and music and warm apple pie.
Read my interview with her below, and email me at beckieweinheimer@gmail.com to win a signed copy of Wilmoth's book on July 1st.
Next Month I will be featuring Wendy Townsend, and Lizard Love which is an ALA Best Book of 2009!
What is your novel about? When ten-year-old Jill and her siblings try to get rid of skunks that have moved in under their house, befriend a hopeless alcoholic, and gang up on a freeloading relative who came for a visit and forgot to leave, their summer is filled with hilarious misadventures.
Is Summer of the Skunks based on your life? The Clark family is loosely based on my own, although the siblings’ ages are somewhat rearranged. Specifically, in the story Calvin and Jill are three years closer age-wise than my siblings in real life, and Josh is two years younger. Setting-wise, I tried to authentically recapture the aura of a small southern family farm in the mid-20th century. As to the events themselves? Most are made up, but somewhat triggered by real life.
Could you give some examples? Once, we really did have skunks under the house. So the part in the story where the family has to tiptoe and talk in whispers to keep from scaring the skunks is a very real memory. But how the Clark kids deal with those skunks is 100% fiction. We had a brown cow named Blackie that Josie is patterned after. Then, there’s good old Cousin Hershel, the lazy relative the Clark family tolerates because he is “delicate.” One summer, such a relative did visit us. Despite our mother cautioning us to behave and be quiet so as not to offend his sensibilities, he didn’t last long in our rowdy household. The idea of Hershel comes from that memory.
Are there other parts that really happened—are the truth? The day at the creek, complete with the lost-and-found keys and all those frogs jumping about, is probably as close to a real life memory as anything in the book. One incidental scene from that segment was hard to write because it’s intensely personal—the part where Jill lies still in the creek. As to what is the truth? At first, my attempts at writing fiction were complicated by my journalism background; I felt honor-bound to stick to “the facts.” Norma Fox Mazer, one of my advisors in the Vermont College MFA in Writing program, freed me by saying: “When writing fiction, sometimes one must go beyond the facts to get at the truth.”
Who is your favorite character in Summer of the Skunks? That would be the mother. To the best of my ability, she is like her real-life counterpart, my mother.
Are you Jill? For a long time, I was in denial when asked that question. But, yes, to some extent I confess to being Jill. In the story, however, she is much more resourceful and much more of a go-getter — heck, just much more interesting — than I ever was.
What was the hardest part of writing the book? Figuring out what happened next. Then, once episodes were created and somewhat polished, putting them all together. This book originated as a short story about the skunks. MFA advisor Carolyn Coman urged me to put some of my memory-based writings together in novel form. I already had the beginning and end in the short story. The middle was the time-consuming part.
The easiest? Writing single episodes. I can really get going on those. It’s when they need to fit into a cohesive whole that I’d rather clean out the refrigerator than stay with the crafting of the thing.
The most satisfying? When the last revision was made and the book was ready to go out into the world.
Were you ever surprised while writing? That’s the fun part. For example, I was plodding along in the early part of the section about J.B. when, out of the blue, Jill had a brainstorm about a place J.B. could live for a while. When that idea plopped into “Jill’s” mind, I was more excited than she was!
Technically, what was the most difficult part of the writing? Not filtering. I had to let Jill be herself and fib her way out of tight spots instead of taking her aside and saying, “Is that really a nice thing for a little girl to do?”
When did you decide to write for children? I didn’t. When I was working on the book, people kept asking me what age I was writing it for. I told my editor I didn’t know how to answer that question. He said, “You’re writing it for readers.” And he was right. Though the publisher has promoted Summer of the Skunks as appropriate for upper elementary and teens, it is, as one adult reader said, an anybody book.
Does your story have relevance for today’s young readers? For today’s young readers, Summer of the Skunks is comparable to reading fantasy, science fiction, and other genres about places they haven’t been and will probably never go. I consider it to be a fun read, so its most apparent relevance may be entertainment value. If there’s something in there about relationships, that’s okay, too.
Do you plan to write a sequel to …Skunks? Actually, I already have. Its working title is Parkie, and it’s, I hope, ready for final revisions.
****I've read Parkie and fell in love with it and Jill's plight as she tries to befriend Parkie, who smells from not bathing, tells lies, steals, and really on first acquaintance is not a very likable young man.
Author of the Month--Wilmoth Foreman
Win a Signed Copy of Her Book!
Just email me at beckieweinheimer@gmail.com to be considered any time before July 1st.
Have you ever seen a book dedicated to a piece of land? Wilmoth Foreman did.
"It is to that place--five acres with garden, orchard, pasture, animals, and us--and to the setting's moment in time--a good era to grow in--that I dedicate this book."
I loved Summer of the Skunks. I'm sure you will too. It's s story set in a gentle place and time (with lots of twists and turns and smelly skunks) that will make you just want to a cozy up in a sunny window seat with a good crisp apple and read, read, read!
Wilmoth is from Tennessee and her lilting voice is as lyrical as her book. I wish you could hear her talk. Sometimes I make up questions on the spot when we are together just so I can hear her voice. Its like velvet and music and warm apple pie.
Read my interview with her below, and email me at beckieweinheimer@gmail.com to win a signed copy of Wilmoth's book on July 1st.
Next Month I will be featuring Wendy Townsend, and Lizard Love which is an ALA Best Book of 2009!
What is your novel about?
When ten-year-old Jill and her siblings try to get rid of skunks that have moved in under their house, befriend a hopeless alcoholic, and gang up on a freeloading relative who came for a visit and forgot to leave, their summer is filled with hilarious misadventures.
Is Summer of the Skunks based on your life?
The Clark family is loosely based on my own, although the siblings’ ages are somewhat rearranged. Specifically, in the story Calvin and Jill are three years closer age-wise than my siblings in real life, and Josh is two years younger.
Setting-wise, I tried to authentically recapture the aura of a small southern family farm in the mid-20th century.
As to the events themselves? Most are made up, but somewhat triggered by real life.
Could you give some examples?
Once, we really did have skunks under the house. So the part in the story where the family has to tiptoe and talk in whispers to keep from scaring the skunks is a very real memory. But how the Clark kids deal with those skunks is 100% fiction.
We had a brown cow named Blackie that Josie is patterned after.
Then, there’s good old Cousin Hershel, the lazy relative the Clark family tolerates because he is “delicate.” One summer, such a relative did visit us. Despite our mother cautioning us to behave and be quiet so as not to offend his sensibilities, he didn’t last long in our rowdy household. The idea of Hershel comes from that memory.
Are there other parts that really happened—are the truth?
The day at the creek, complete with the lost-and-found keys and all those frogs jumping about, is probably as close to a real life memory as anything in the book. One incidental scene from that segment was hard to write because it’s intensely personal—the part where Jill lies still in the creek.
As to what is the truth? At first, my attempts at writing fiction were complicated by my journalism background; I felt honor-bound to stick to “the facts.” Norma Fox Mazer, one of my advisors in the Vermont College MFA in Writing program, freed me by saying: “When writing fiction, sometimes one must go beyond the facts to get at the truth.”
Who is your favorite character in Summer of the Skunks?
That would be the mother. To the best of my ability, she is like her real-life counterpart, my mother.
Are you Jill?
For a long time, I was in denial when asked that question. But, yes, to some extent I confess to being Jill. In the story, however, she is much more resourceful and much more of a go-getter — heck, just much more interesting — than I ever was.
What was the hardest part of writing the book?
Figuring out what happened next. Then, once episodes were created and somewhat polished, putting them all together.
This book originated as a short story about the skunks. MFA advisor Carolyn Coman urged me to put some of my memory-based writings together in novel form. I already had the beginning and end in the short story. The middle was the time-consuming part.
The easiest?
Writing single episodes. I can really get going on those. It’s when they need to fit into a cohesive whole that I’d rather clean out the refrigerator than stay with the crafting of the thing.
The most satisfying?
When the last revision was made and the book was ready to go out into the world.
Were you ever surprised while writing?
That’s the fun part. For example, I was plodding along in the early part of the section about J.B. when, out of the blue, Jill had a brainstorm about a place J.B. could live for a while. When that idea plopped into “Jill’s” mind, I was more excited than she was!
Technically, what was the most difficult part of the writing?
Not filtering. I had to let Jill be herself and fib her way out of tight spots instead of taking her aside and saying, “Is that really a nice thing for a little girl to do?”
When did you decide to write for children?
I didn’t. When I was working on the book, people kept asking me what age I was writing it for. I told my editor I didn’t know how to answer that question. He said, “You’re writing it for readers.”
And he was right. Though the publisher has promoted Summer of the Skunks as appropriate for upper elementary and teens, it is, as one adult reader said, an anybody book.
Does your story have relevance for today’s young readers?
For today’s young readers, Summer of the Skunks is comparable to reading fantasy, science fiction, and other genres about places they haven’t been and will probably never go. I consider it to be a fun read, so its most apparent relevance may be entertainment value.
If there’s something in there about relationships, that’s okay, too.
Do you plan to write a sequel to …Skunks?
Actually, I already have. Its working title is Parkie, and it’s, I hope, ready for final revisions.
****I've read Parkie and fell in love with it and Jill's plight as she tries to befriend Parkie, who smells from not bathing, tells lies, steals, and really on first acquaintance is not a very likable young man.