David Estes Fans and YA Book Lovers Unite! discussion
Author Q&A
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Elizabeth Wein (Author of Code Name Verity) Q&A Event--June 9-12th
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That is so nice of her! Can't wait to ask a few questions :)
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Hi Elizabeth! *waves* I just finished your book today, and I LOVED it! What an incredible story with a powerful friendship and theme of courage. So, I have a few questions for you. :) Where did the idea for this story come from?
I love it when characters have deep relationships with each other. Was it important to you that the two girls have a strong sisterly bond and take comfort in that during the course of the book?
I noticed in your author blurb that you love flying planes. What sparked that interest in you and was it a big influence in writing this book?
Are you the type of author who makes an outline and plans out every detail? Or do you let the characters dictate where the story goes?
Thank you for the taking the time to answer our questions! :)
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Jenny wrote: "Thanks for getting the ball rolling, Holly! And great questions :)"I just finished the book, so it was all still fresh in my mind. :)
Hi Elizabeth! :) I haven't read Code Name Verity yet, so, what kind of readers would you recommend this book for?Who is your favorite author?
And a fun one, what is your favorite summer activity? :)
Do you name your characters after people in your life?What kind of research did you need to do for this book?
Ooh, I have another one!Which character do you identify with the most?
Hi Elizabeth, thanks for joining our group for a Q and A.What book or author is responsible for your love of reading and writing? Was there one single event that inspired you to pursue a career in writing or were there a few moments along your journey?
Hi Elizabeth! I am currently reading Code Name Verity and adore it. I am already recommending it to my other friends who enjoy reading. Also Verity/her many other names is quickly becoming one of my favorite female characters.How long was the process of writing (including research) Code Name Verity? Was the process faster for Rose Under Fire?
Also did you find yourself getting emotional while writing either book?
Thank you! :)
do you do a lot of research for your books? How long did it take you to write each book?
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Code Name Verity is one of my favorite books! I was crying so hard through it. 1. What I love about CNV is that it has two very strong women but they aren't afraid to cry or show their vulnerabilities. Are there strong women in your life who have inspired you to create these characters?
2. Do your characters push your stories in unpredictable directions, or are you in control of the process? How does it feel when you have to make hard decisions about your characters?
Your book is such an inspiration for me - thank you so much for stopping by and answering our questions!
I'm excited! Code Name Verity is one of my top five all-time favorite books. Devastating story (I mean this in the best possible way), and brilliantly written.I also recently read your Arthurian series (which I loved, by the way, especially the layers and layers of complexity to all the relationships in The Winter Prince), and I thought it was interesting to see some of the tiny points of connection between those books and Code Name Verity (like (view spoiler)).
My questions:
What themes carry over for you from book to book? Are there any major ideas that drive all your fiction?
How much did you know about the twists in Code Name Verity before you started writing it?
What is your writing process like? Do you get the first draft down as fast as you can and worry about cleaning it up later, or do you write more slowly and edit as you go? How much time do you spend writing versus doing other things? Do you do a lot of revision?
Has the huge success of Code Name Verity influenced your writing at all? How do you handle the pressure of the expectations for your next books?
And because I found myself wondering the other day – how do you pronounce your last name?
Hi- I was just wondering who were your favorite authors when you were a child? Also, how old we're you when you realized that you wanted to be a writer?
What was your inspiration for the plot of your stories? Did the ideas just come or was there a trigger/an event that birthed the basic plot? Also do you have any advice for aspiring writers on how to begin the writing process?
Hi, I just wanted to say that your book covers are quite arresting. I was wondering how much input you had in the creative process for the covers?
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I've not read the book yet, but I will soon as I can.My question is..
Who is your favourite character in the book and why?
What is your response to some of the criticism Code name Verity has received by the rare members of Goodreads, on the topic about the dead emotional plot?
What part of getting the the book published did you find the hardest to get right from either the cover, which had to be intriguing and related to the plot or the blurb in which you had to give the reader something to get excited about to buy the book by giving them a hint of the plot?
Who inspired you to be a writer?Who is your favorite author?
which of your books is your favorite?
If you could lunch with any author dead or alive who would it be?Do you find writing male or female point of view more difficult?
Wow, you guys! What an amazing response and what great questions! I am kind of overwhelmed, but I’ll try to tackle them all. Apologies in advance for repetition if I start to repeat myself!Holly, I got the idea for Code Name Verity because I wanted to create a cowardly character AND I wanted to tell the story of an Air Transport Auxiliary pilot. The ideas came together in a flash of inspiration when I thought of allowing the “coward” to tell the story of the pilot as a confession – she’s been captured and broken by torture, and now she has a tale to tell. So I started with the basic structure and I knew how the story was going to end. I was partly inspired by my own flying lessons.
When I started to write, knowing what the plot would be, I realized that what I was going to have to do before I got to the end was construct a wonderful friendship between the two characters – the plot doesn’t work without that strong sisterly bond. So I sat down to write about their friendship. And honestly, the story practically wrote itself from there. It was *wonderful* writing about friendship – the whole book became a tribute to my own best friends. I hadn’t realized that was what the book was going to be ABOUT until I started writing it.
I got my pilot’s license because my husband had a private pilot’s license when I met him, and we’d always done a lot of flying and touring and I wanted to be able to share the work load. I became more interested in the history of women pilots as I learned more about flight myself. It was definitely the influence that sparked my interest in the Air Transport Auxiliary, which allowed women from all over the world to fly as auxiliaries for the Royal Air Force during World War II in Britain.
I don’t make an outline or plan out every detail. The characters definitely take my story and run with it. For example, when I started writing CNV, I didn’t know what Queenie’s job was, what her mission was, or where her “confession” was going. That all became apparent to me as I wrote.
Harlee – I’d recommend Code Name Verity for readers who like quirky, complex characters, historical pastiche, war fiction, strong female characters, airplanes? I tend not to recommend the book for under 14s but have heard from a number of 11/12 year olds who have really enjoyed it. Some people find the style difficult to get into, so it may be the kind of book that is for a more adventurous reader.
My favorite contemporary author for young readers is Hilary McKay. My favorite summer activity is probably going to The Jigger Shop! (old fashioned ice cream sodas, anyone?).
Joycedale and Holly, you both asked questions about character. The answer to the question about character-naming is generally No. I don’t tend to name characters after real life people, but I do sometimes base them on real life people, particularly minor and supporting characters! It’s hard for me to pick an answer for which character in Code Name Verity I identify with the most. I spent a LOT of time in Queenie’s head and know her most intimate thoughts, but I’m not really very much like her. And although I think I am more of a Maddie in terms of my actions and responses, I’m not as nice or as straightforward as Maddie. Maybe I’m more of an Anna Engel in terms of temperament– she is definitely one of my favorites, someone who is forced into a corner and who has the strength of will to do something about it and take responsibility for her own actions.
More later as I get to them!
PS I forgot to say THANK YOU, Holly, so pleased you loved CNV! :D
Great answers, thanks for answering my questions! :) I'm definitely adding CNV to me TBR list!
Thanks for answering our questions, Elizabeth!Prior to reading Rose Under Fire, I was not aware that American women piloted planes during the war, nor was I aware of the "Rabbits," who had awful experiments conducted on them by the Nazis. Was there anything that you learned in your research for these two books that surprised you?
Back for more! Harlee, I’m so glad you’ve decided to put CNV on your TBR list – hope you enjoy it.Joycedale, I just realized I didn’t answer your question about the research. For Code Name Verity, I read a lot of non-fiction about the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) and the Special Operations Executive (SOE) – I also visited museums and read period novels and watched period movies to get a good sense of the language and the kind of material culture (food, everyday objects, clothes, etc) that people would have used. But there was also quite a bit of information that I already knew, or was able to draw on from other sources – people I knew who’d been in the war (as a fighter pilot, in the French Resistance, as an evacuee). Many of the interactions between characters were drawn from personal experience. For example, the slimy Resistance agent is a collage of many unwanted advances or suggestive remarks that were made to *me* - my way of getting my own back!
Sherrie, I think that probably it’s my father who’s responsible for my love of reading and writing, rather than a specific author! He read The 13 Clocks
by James Thurber out loud to me when I was two, and it is still my all time favorite book. But my father also read aloud many other books that became favorites – Alan Garner, J.R.R. Tolkien, Lewis Carroll, A.A. Milne, E.B. White, Laura Ingalls Wilder. I’m pretty sure it was my father's sharing of literature that he loved that made me love it too. The single event that inspired me to be a writer was when, at the age of seven, I read
Ellen Tebbits by Beverly Cleary in one sitting from cover to cover all by myself. When I closed the book I decided I wanted to write books like this. (Not that I have ever written a book quite like Ellen Tebbits.) Heather, I’m so glad to hear you’re falling for Verity. My gosh, yes, I certainly did find myself emotional writing CNV and Rose Under Fire – perhaps more so for CNV because it happened faster and was more intense while it was going on. I can assure you that I sobbed till I was dehydrated at ALL THE SAME PLACES you did (or maybe haven’t got to yet). Code Name Verity took exactly 7 months to write, and I did the research at the same time – very fast going for me. Rose Under Fire took longer, about 2 years. Rose was actually a lot harder to write.
That kind of brings me to one of Kritika’s questions, that of the characters pushing the stories in unpredictable directions, and Zoe’s question about knowing the twists. I also mentioned this in one of my earlier responses. I did not know ANY of the twists in CNV (apart from the climax) when I set out to write the book. They all came as “AHA!” moments in the creation of the story, and surprised me as much as they surprise the reader. I don’t know how that happens, but it does. (view spoiler)
I do feel as though the characters drive the plot. You absolutely can’t make them do things that aren’t in character. Or else you have to give them very good reasons.
What was the hardest part of becoming an author? Was it the actual writing of the book? finding an agent? getting published? Do you plot your stories and outline them? Or do you just write without knowing what will happen?
What's next for you as an author? Any current writing projects?Also, thank you for answering my other questions!
Thanks for answering my questions!
On to Kritika’s other questions! I want to answer that ALL the women in my life are strong women. My mother got her BS in Organic Chemistry when I was 11, raising three children as a single parent (I was the oldest). My grandmother, namesake and soulmate (who will be 98 on Thursday of this week) began work in child welfare as a social worker in the 1940s and raised me and my sister after my mother was killed in a car accident when she was 35. Her younger sisters are my surrogate mothers and my friends. Even my great-grandmother was a college graduate (I think it was in 1898!). My friends, teachers and co-workers have all equally comfortable in their femininity and their high standards for their own achievement. I mean, yes, the women in my life inspired me, but it really didn’t occur to me that I was writing about anyone who was unusual – that of COURSE it is possible to be strong and to be a woman. I guess I just want to pass that message on to my readers. I want them to take it for granted that they can be strong women (or support and cooperate with and love strong women).
They are incredible, thinking about it, but to me that is JUST HOW WOMEN ARE. They are the ordinary, normal women in my life. It kind of bugs me that every time someone raises a child on her own or manages to get a college degree or holds down a job for 40 years we think it is incredible. Isn't that just what people do - men AND women? We are all incredible!
But yes. If there were a "like" button I would "like" your comment, Harlee!
Thanks Elizabeth! Your answers were well thought out and informative.
Elizabeth wrote: "They are incredible, thinking about it, but to me that is JUST HOW WOMEN ARE. They are the ordinary, normal women in my life. It kind of bugs me that every time someone raises a child on her own or..."Wow, what a beautiful and empowering response! I am loving the answers to this Q&A.
Thanks for visiting our group to answer our questions, Elizabeth. I haven't read Code Name Verity yet but I am eagerly awaiting this Thursday when the audiobook will be offered for free through Sync. I was reading over your biography on your website and noticed that you've lived in and visited many different cities and countries. What has been your favorite place to visit, or live? What place(s) that you haven't been to yet would you like to visit?
Thanks again!
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And Elizabeth, we are SO HONORED to have you here with us :) Don't feel any pressure and take your time, there's no time limit! Awesome answers so far!!
Hi again all!A pleasure to get back to Zoe, since CNV is obviously a favorite and I am always so delighted to hear from people who have read my Arthurian books.
I think that the number one theme which threads through all my books is fear and how to cope with it. It was certainly the main theme of The Lion Hunter, which was written in the months immediately following the events of September 11, 2001 – as I tried to come to terms with how my children were going to negotiate this changed world. But in Code Name Verity and Rose Under Fire I’ve really looked at different ways people deal with fear, and different kinds of courage.
I also do keep coming back to spy stories! The Sunbird and its sequels, The Lion Hunter and The Empty Kingdom, are all about spying and its consequences – both for those who are directly involved in it, and those who are pulling the strings.
Another underlying theme to most of my books is family. Telemakos and my children share in the esoteric companionship of second-cousins-once-removed (and in the esoteric ability to figure out what that actually means!).
My earlier books, the Arthurian sequence, are now all available as e-books from Open Road Media. You can find them here:
http://www.openroadmedia.com/search/?... (not sure why they’re out of order. The correct sequence is 1) The Winter Prince, 2) A Coalition of Lions, 3) The Sunbird, 4) The Lion Hunter, and 5) The Empty Kingdom. But 1,2 & 3 can all stand on their own as well; I often recommend people start with The Sunbird.)
Also, don’t forget that Code Name Verity is available as a free audio download from 12-18 June on SYNC, here: http://www.audiobooksync.com/sync-sch...
It’s a really fantastic, moving performance by Morven Christie and Lucy Gaskell.
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Do you listen to music when you write? If you do, anything specific?
My writing process is scatty. I usually revise as I go, and my first draft is usually very clean. But I’ve had to change that for my most recent book – success means that you have to be more productive more quickly, and I’m finding that very difficult. My main problem is that I don’t feel I’m doing justice to my subject – I’m having to skimp on details I’d have spent a lot of time over if I didn’t have a deadline.My number one time-consuming activity is laundry.
My last name is pronounced Ween – rhymes with teen!
I’ve already mentioned some of my favorite authors as a child, but there were plenty of others – Lloyd Alexander, Louise Fitzhugh, Arthur Ransome, Edward Eager, Ursula K. Le Guin, Rosemary Sutcliff, John Bellairs, Elizabeth Enright, to name a few. I was 7 when I decided to be a writer.
Whenever anyone asks me where I get my ideas, I always say Star Wars.
It is true that a scene in someone else’s movie or a theme from someone else’s book will trigger an idea. Katie’s question about where ideas come from and do I have any advice for aspiring writers kind of have the same answer: do some research! Watch a movie, go to a museum, read an old newspaper, read a book, check out your town’s genealogical records. Ideas generate ideas. Choose a subject you’re passionate about and follow up on it. What’s the history of skiing as a sport? Maybe there’s a political aspect to it that you didn’t know about. Maybe there was intrigue attached to its introduction in the Olympic games. This is the kind of thread that gets me going (I don’t know anything about skiing, but I bet the background is interesting). This works for fantasy as well as history or any other genre – find out about swordmaking, herbology, Greek myth, spycraft, cobbling, knitting, whaling, limestone caverns – there’s always a story out there waiting to be discovered.
Jan, it’s amazing how little input an author has in the creative process for the covers. I basically get to say “I like it” or “I really hate it.” If I really hate it, they *might* change the thing I hate about it the most, but not the general look. One thing they do take seriously is my historical expertise, which is nice! So I get to say things like “That is the wrong kind of aircraft for 1943” or whatever. On the US paperback cover of CNV, for example, the original design had a girl’s bike and a boy’s bike.
I thought that suggested a romance and got them to make the bikes match. Also, there was a Kryptonite bike lock on one of the bikes – they date to the 1970s! I got them to remove that!Which covers do people prefer for Code Name Verity?
This one is my favorite cover:
but I thought this one captured the friendship really well:
Kritika wrote: "This one is my favorite cover:but I thought this one captured the friendship really well:
"That one is my favorite too! Though, I have the one that Elizabeth showed above.
Looking back, if a magical being(let's say a fairy. I like fairies) granted you the chance to go back and change something about any of your books, would you do it?
Any chance a character from one of your other books will make a cameo in Black Dove White Raven (as Theo briefly appeared in CNV and Maddie, along with others, appeared in Rose Under Fire)? So excited for the new book!
Thank you for your answers! I always love seeing how my favorite authors work. It’s amazing to me that you wrote a book as twisty as Code Name Verity without knowing where it was going beforehand – that’s some sheer wizardry on your part, or maybe on the part of your subconscious. :)My favorite CNV cover is this one:
I have one more question, which I’m going to spoiler-tag because I’m not sure whether it constitutes a spoiler: (view spoiler)
David Estes Fans and YA Book Lovers Unite!
Books mentioned in this topic
Firebirds Soaring: An Anthology of Original Speculative Fiction (other topics)Black Dove White Raven (other topics)
Code Name Verity (other topics)
Code Name Verity (other topics)
Code Name Verity (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Lloyd Alexander (other topics)Arthur Ransome (other topics)
Elizabeth Enright (other topics)
Edward Eager (other topics)
Louise Fitzhugh (other topics)
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Elizabeth has donated 5 prizes for a giveaway, which means 5 winners!! To be entered to win, all you have to do is to ask Elizabeth a question! Please look at the list of questions below before asking yours, so we don't ask her the same things over and over :)
3 US only prizes:
1 Signed Hardback copy of Code Name Verity
1 Signed Paperback copy of Code Name Verity
1 Signed Hardback copy of Rose Under Fire
2 UK only prizes:
1 Signed Paperback of Code Name Verity
1 Signed Paperback of Rose Under Fire
And if you haven't checked out her books yet, I definitely recommend them! Wonderful historical fiction, gave me goosebumps when I read Code Name Verity!
Questions:
1. Holly--Where did the idea for this story come from?
2. Holly--I love it when characters have deep relationships with each other. Was it important to you that the two girls have a strong sisterly bond and take comfort in that during the course of the book?
3. Holly--I noticed in your author blurb that you love flying planes. What sparked that interest in you and was it a big influence in writing this book?
4. Holly--Are you the type of author who makes an outline and plans out every detail? Or do you let the characters dictate where the story goes?
5. Harlee--I haven't read Code Name Verity yet, so, what kind of readers would you recommend this book for?
6. Harlee--Who is your favorite author?
7. Harlee--And a fun one, what is your favorite summer activity? :)8. Joycedale--Do you name your characters after people in your life?9. Joycedale--What kind of research did you need to do for this book?10. Holly--Which character do you identify with the most?
11. Sherrie--What book or author is responsible for your love of reading and writing?
12. Sherrie--Was there one single event that inspired you to pursue a career in writing or were there a few moments along your journey?
13. Heather--How long was the process of writing (including research) Code Name Verity? Was the process faster for Rose Under Fire?
14. Heather--Also did you find yourself getting emotional while writing either book?
15. Kritika-- What I love about CNV is that it has two very strong women but they aren't afraid to cry or show their vulnerabilities. Are there strong women in your life who have inspired you to create these characters?
16. Kritika--Do your characters push your stories in unpredictable directions, or are you in control of the process? How does it feel when you have to make hard decisions about your characters?
17. Zoe--What themes carry over for you from book to book? Are there any major ideas that drive all your fiction?
18. Zoe--How much did you know about the twists in Code Name Verity before you started writing it?
19. Zoe--What is your writing process like? Do you get the first draft down as fast as you can and worry about cleaning it up later, or do you write more slowly and edit as you go? How much time do you spend writing versus doing other things? Do you do a lot of revision?
20. Zoe--Has the huge success of Code Name Verity influenced your writing at all? How do you handle the pressure of the expectations for your next books?
21. Zoe--And because I found myself wondering the other day – how do you pronounce your last name?
22. Anne-Marie-- I was just wondering who were your favorite authors when you were a child? Also, how old we're you when you realized that you wanted to be a writer?
23. Katie.g--What was your inspiration for the plot of your stories? Did the ideas just come or was there a trigger/an event that birthed the basic plot?
24. Katie.g-- Also do you have any advice for aspiring writers on how to begin the writing process?
25. Jan--I was wondering how much input you had in the creative process for the covers?
26. Hamna--Who is your favourite character in the book and why?
27. Hamna--What is your response to some of the criticism Code name Verity has received by the rare members of Goodreads, on the topic about the dead emotional plot?
28. Hamna--What part of getting the the book published did you find the hardest to get right from either the cover, which had to be intriguing and related to the plot or the blurb in which you had to give the reader something to get excited about to buy the book by giving them a hint of the plot?
29. Heather--Which of your own books is your favorite?
30. Vivien--If you could lunch with any author dead or alive who would it be?
31. Vivien--Do you find writing male or female point of view more difficult?
32. Cindy--What was the hardest part of becoming an author? Was it the actual writing of the book? finding an agent? getting published?
33. Holly--What's next for you as an author? Any current writing projects?
34. Lauren--What has been your favorite place to visit, or live? What place(s) that you haven't been to yet would you like to visit?
35. Jenny--Do you listen to music when you write? If you do, anything specific?
36. Tommy--Looking back, if a magical being(let's say a fairy. I like fairies) granted you the chance to go back and change something about any of your books, would you do it?
37. Megan--Any chance a character from one of your other books will make a cameo in Black Dove White Raven (as Theo briefly appeared in CNV and Maddie, along with others, appeared in Rose Under Fire)? So excited for the new book!
38. Zoe--(view spoiler)[Is Anna Engel in Code Name Verity the same Anna Engel from Rose Under Fire? I’ve seen bloggers talking about them as if they’re the same character, but CNV Anna and RUF Anna seemed so different that I had figured they just happened to share a name. (hide spoiler)]
39. Joycedale--Did you see this article that mentions your book (although not by name) yesterday?
http://m.theatlantic.com/entertainmen...
40. Michael--What is your next book going to be about?
41. Harlee--What is your favorite fantasy creature?
42. Karen--What's been your favorite fan moment?
43. Teal--Julie says that her 'fatal flaw' is always playing the game. She can't stop pretending. Do you think that this a problem that writers often have? (yourself included) Do you get stuck in character's heads even when you aren't writing?
44. Teal--I also noticed the both Julie and Telemakos are called by lots of different names. Is this to show how different people see them, or how they are trying to be seen?
Thanks!
45. Teal-- Speaking of identity, with a name like Elizabeth there are a LOT of potential nicknames. Are there any you go by or have good/bad associations with?