Being on a shortlist with Neil Gaiman and Paulo Coelho isn’t something which happens every day–but it HAS just happened to UK children’s author Lucy Coats, who finds herself up against the two literary titans on the final shortlist for the Author Blog Awards 2010 with her blog, Scribble City Central. If you’d like to help Lucy beat these blogging giants and you love children’s books, please vote for her at:

http://www.completelynovel.com/competitions/author-blog-awards-2010

“Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it! For boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”

– Goethe

“Before I came across the above quotation, I somehow knew it to be true and always approached life with the belief that there’d be time for all the things I felt compelled to do. Though much of it had to wait until the last of our five children was in school, I’m grateful that I’ve been able to pursue just about all the endeavors that are still so important to me.

Today I write poetry, picture books,and young adult novels. I’m also a painter,and have illustrated my own work as well as the work of others.

For me, writing picture books was a natural outgrowth of writing poetry. Both art forms are dependent on precise,visual imagery and careful word choices. Where the two forms differ is in the fact that though my poetry for adults is usually centered on my own thoughts and feelings, my picture books and poems for children are very sensitive to the thoughts and feelings of my audience.

I began to write young adult novels because many of the main characters that presented themselves to my imagination were teenagers. Writing historical fiction for this age group is the most satisfying endeavor of all.

My stories are sometimes based on things I remember from childhood and sometimes on what I have observed in my children’s lives or my own life. I may even be inspired by something I’ve read about. Often they’re taken from many sources, some of which I’m not even aware. That’s where the muse comes in, that sprite whom a writer likes to blame for a lack of inspiration or for some mysterious input.

Though none of my books appear on the surface to be alike in any way, they share a careful attention to detail and to the sound and rhythm of words and phrases. Each attempts to connect to the reader’s own hopes and dreams. A reviewer has pointed out that all my young adult novels are about teenagers out of sync with their own culture or society. I would add to that that my characters, in fictional picture books and novels, are struggling to succeed or stand out in some way (such as the turtle who wanted to fly,) often against what seem to be impossible odds.

Sometimes I need to go to the site of my story’s action, whether real or imagined. In the above picture, I’m at the old Story Shipyard where the schooner, Thomas E. Lannon, was built and where I photographed the building activity and kept a journal of its progress.

To add believability to my recent YA novel, THE FATTENING HUT, I travelled to Anguilla, an island in the British West Indies, and studied its history, topography, plants, and animals.

While researching WAITING FOR BABY JOE, I took a course for the parents of premature babies at Nashua Memorial Hospital in Nashua, NH.

For my young adult historical novel, HIDDEN VOICES (Candlewick, 2009), I traveled to Venice, Italy, to do research on the composer, Vivaldi, and the Ospedale della Pieta, where he spent much of his working life.”

Frequently asked Questions
And Tips for Writers – A Baker’s Dozen

What is the difference between an author’s point of view and a visual artist’s point of view?

“Point of view”, whether that of a visual artist or a writer, is a term used to describe the author’s or artist’s way of viewing the world he or she wants to portray. It comes from a place, in terms of thought and feeling, that is uniquely inhabited by that person. A visual artist uses tools such as color and light to help project his or her unique way of seeing; an author uses words to convey to the reader his own and his character’s point of view, which are sometimes one and the same.

How do I decide on a point of view for a particular story?

Here it’s especially helpful to be well read and have a particular model in mind. If you want the piece to have a certain immediacy and intimacy, you might choose First Person. If you want some distance from your character while still maintaining the ability to see things through his or her eyes, Third Person might be the right choice. If you’d like your reader to see the story through many sets of eyes, the Omniscient is a good (but rather difficult) possibility.

How do I settle on the tense of a story I want to tell and the voice in which it will be told?

Here again, it is useful to have a successful model in mind. From what you have observed in your reading, will past tense work best for your historical novel or will present tense give the past a jarring immediacy that you may seek? There’s nothing to prevent you from trying your work in more than one tense and point of view. I once changed a 500 page manuscript from first person past to first person present. (It still isn’t finished.)

What makes for a compelling beginning?

A compelling beginning hooks us into the story immediately and makes the reader want to know more. Sometimes our true beginning will be found well into the text at a place where the action picks up significantly. We can’t know this, however, unless we take the plunge and just begin. Don’t worry that your beginning may feel inadequate at first. After you have developed more of the text, go in search of it within the opening paragraphs or even the first few chapters.

What needs to be included on the first page of a manuscript?

Besides a compelling beginning which makes the reader want to learn more, the first page should set the scene, begin to craft the tone, establish the time frame, introduce the protagonist, and pose some kind of situation to be solved or question to be answered. If other characters are mentioned, they should be described sufficiently so that we’ll recognize them when we meet them again.

What is a theme and how will I know it when I see it?

Theme can be defined as the overall topic of a piece. My Webster’s pocket dictionary describes it as the “main melody.”

Theme may be very clear to a composer when creating a musical composition, but my personal feeling is that the theme in a story or novel does not reveal itself immediately, and if you have a theme in mind from the beginning, it will be apt to change. Sometimes I haven’t really known what the theme of a book was until I’ve read a review of the published book and can see it through the eyes of the reviewer.

What is the difference between tension and suspense?

Tension is stress that is introduced into a manuscript at various points in the narrative to keep the reader intrigued. It takes many forms and comes and goes and is not constant. Suspense is a growing sense of uncertainty that keeps us on the edge of our seats and pervades the entire piece.

Are writing groups useful. Do writers outgrow them?

I find writing groups essential to my process and have belonged to one or more over the years, sometimes concurrently. It helps immensely to have other writers comment on your manuscript, either piecemeal or when it is completed. Sometimes I profit from a little of each method. It also helps to be in a group in which at least some members have expertise in your genre of concentration. It’s definitely important that everyone in a group is supportive of one another.

Why did you write “The Fattening Hut” in verse?

I did not intend to write “the Fattening Hut” in verse. I actually wrote the first three chapters in prose. But then it took on a life of its own and started setting itself up as a verse novel. One reviewer claimed the form softened a difficult message, and I believe that must have been part of my subconscious motive.

Where do your ideas come from?

Sometimes I don’t really know. Often something in the news will spark my interest; sometimes a place or historical detail will set me off. Many of my picture books have been inspired by something from my own childhood or that of one of my children.

How do we know when it’s time to end a story and how do we do it?

When you feel you may be nearing the end or have written what seems to you to be the ending, ask yourself some questions: 1) Have I come to this place logically and progressively? 2) Does it answer whatever question I asked at the beginning or complete what I have promised the reader? 3) Is everything tied up too neatly or have I left something to the reader’s imagination? 4) Does it convey a feeling of satisfaction and inevitability? Sometimes we write past our true ending and must go back into the text to discover it. To facilitate this search, a writing group is often especially helpful.

What is Pace?

In the field of writing, pace might be described as the rate of speed of a given segment, scene, or entire manuscript. Most writers use a varied pace that is dependent on the kind of story being told and the action and tension of a particular scene, and they shift the pace in order to maintain interest and suspense and provide variety. A book that is described as being slow-paced overall will still employ some very real but subdued changes of pace throughout.

My Life

Most of my childhood was spent in a part of Hollywood, California, where many old film stars and movie moguls lived. Cecil B. DeMille and W.C. Fields were our neighbors. I worked in the radio industry as a child actress and attended Immaculate Heart High School, a local school for girls.

After high school,I commuted to the University of Southern California as a day student and received my degree in English.

My father was auditor-comptroller of Los Angeles County and my mother eventually wrote radio plays. There were three girls in our family and all of us were interested in writing. I was always working on poems and plays and drawing pictures of the people around me.

During my earliest years, my grandfather was retired and would drop anything he was doing to read to us during the day. Everyone else in my family told stories. Bedtime stories rarely came from a book. We expected them to be original. Since my grandmother could never think of original characters, her tales always starred Mickey and Minnie Mouse. But these mice had amazing adventures on the high seas. My staid father’s stories were rare and the ones we loved most. They always featured two brothers named Jan and Willy and an old sea captain. There was an annoying chant my sisters and I devised to beg for “Jan and Willy” stories when we felt we had been deprived of them for too long.

Most of my adult life has been spent in New England where my husband, Wallace, and I have raised five children. During some of that time I also studied art at the DeCordova Museum School and Brandeis. I began writing children’s books and poetry for publication about twenty five years ago.

We now live in Gloucester, MA, in the house we built for the family many years ago at Wingaersheek Beach.This is where our six grandsons come to visit and where I maintain both a writing and painting studio.

• Check out this online interview of Pat conducted by Debbi Michiko Florence.
• Pat also currently teaches the MFA program in creative writing at Lesley University.

Scribblers Andrew Smith and Ellen Booraem have both won a place on the Young Adult Library Services Association’s list of 2010 Best Books for Young Adults.

“This year’s list was the result of exceptional work from the Best Books for Young Adults committee,” said Summer Hayes, committee chair. “With the ever increasing volume of reading material published for teens each year, identifying significant titles with both literary merit and teen appeal can be quite a challenge. The BBYA 2010 list represents the strongest offerings from a wide variety of genres and, while many of the titles will appeal to a broad selection of teens, we are especially pleased to have identified a number of books that will resonate with teens looking for a unique reading experience.”

Andrew Smith’s novel, In The Path Of Falling Objects, was praised by the School Library Journal as “a mystical, lyrical, sometimes violent, and ultimately hopeful story of what it means to be a brother. …For teens looking for something to sink their teeth into, Smith offers a challenging read. Powerful imagery and symbolism are threaded throughout the narrative along with Bible references, a map that Jonah is drawing, a meteorite that Simon takes along as a talisman, and references to gravity and its relentless pull. The intensity will suit serious readers who don’t mind a little blood and gore.”

Kirkus Reviews praised Ellen Booraem’s debut, The Unnameables, as “an ever-surprising, genre-defying page-turner. Realistic characters deal with philosophical problems in vivid, flowing prose that is evocative and often funny. A combination of witch-trial-era Salem and The Giver, this book offers a treat with nearly every page turn.”

Congratulations and felicitations from the Scribblerati are due to both. You’ve made us proud!

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Okay. Let me tell you how much I hate YA.

I’m letting all the big reasons out today, so hang on.

First, a little backstory. I was e-talking with Lia Keyes the other day, and she mentioned to me about another author who thought that YA as a category should be done away with. She thought it would be interesting — fiery — to have me participate in this debate.

And, I’m, like, what debate? I totally agree.

I hate YA.

Here are my three biggest reasons:

1. YA has no definition. You may just as well call it “fiction.” And, because of this ill-defined super-categorization of what I believe to be a non-existent genre, people carry too many pre-conceived expectations about constraints on content and embedded curriculum (see point 2).

The thing is — and why YA is a pointless label — is that YA contains every genre of the broader category of fiction, from contemporary literary, to science fiction, paranormal romance, chick-lit, fantasy, humor, and so on. But the YA section in a bookstore is the vampire section.

It’s kind of like putting all adult fiction in the “Dan Brown” section. Remember, “YA” didn’t exist when Twain wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, or even when Harper Lee wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. I don’t think there was such a category when Stephen King wrote Carrie or ‘Salem’s Lot, both of which would definitely be stamped with the big Y and A if they were published for the first time today.

All those titles up there (and I’m sure you could think of many others) were just novels.

Let’s revisit the Venn Diagram from two days ago:

They’re still “adults,” right? Just “young” ones.

2. The Expectation and the Blues. (That’s the title of a really great song from Corb Lund)

(The Blues)… best “back-at-ya” comment I received from someone on the “Part 1″ installment:

“As a writer you can write for any age group you want, can’t you?

If you hated being a teenager why write for and about an age that made you unhappy?”

Okay. Now, I am definitely NOT speaking on behalf of all authors here, so don’t give me any superpowers I don’t already possess.

First, question one: I don’t write for an age group. Not ever. Nope. Totally wrong assumption. I write to tell a story. The only target in my mind is a story, NOT a demographic.

As far as question two goes: ouch. huh?

What a downer.

So, the expectation part: See, when people pre-suppose a work of fiction is only for a particular age group (and that age group happens to be… let’s say, high school kids), then they frequently get all caught up in the thought that what you write must contain some kind of curriculum geared toward the elevation or the insulation of the fragile “young adult” soul.

It’s pretty much what I’ve been railing against for two days now. And for those people who want to put the cart up front of the horse, and pre-plan a target demographic and constraints on content, that’s all totally fine with me.

Do you hear me? It’s fine with me.

Just don’t expect me to do it.

I just write stories. If people want to get all caught up in the debate about a writer’s lack of responsibility for including certain content elements, then they can’t possibly be talking about books for “adults,” whether they’re young, old, or anything else.

My readers are adults. Young ones and old ones. It’s a disservice, in my opinion, to treat them like children.

3. Back to Taxonomy: (And I know this will likely tick off a lot of my author friends, so, for that, let me apologize in advance)

Take a look at the Venn Diagram above, one more time. Now, where it says “People,” imagine the word “Literature.”

One of the things I’ve struggled with most — and, given that I’ve NEVER set out to aim anything I’ve written at a particular demographic sector — is that everywhere you go, YA literature and YA writers are constrained within the “Children’s Literature” circle.

How can this be? How can you be a writer for “adults,” and produce work that has the big Y and the equally big A on it and also, simultaneously, be considered a county within the kingdom of KidLit?

It makes me crazy. I don’t have any answer for it, either.

But it’s a big reason why I hate YA.

If you don’t get this, don’t try. Don’t get all bent out of shape thinking I don’t LOVE reading great books by writers I totally admire, love, and respect — who also happen to be burdened with the evil brand of YA.

We wear it proudly. But I hate it.

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I still hate YA.

You remember all those times your mom told you the old if-all-your-friends-jumped-off-a-cliff-would-you-do-it-too line? You know what I told my mom when she tried that one on me?

Um… no. I’d go down to the bottom and start looking for wallets and jewelry.

So, there’s this assumption that “young adults” make some kind of moral and ethical connection between choices made by fictional characters they empathize with and the REAL-WORLD decisions and actions they assume themselves.

Again, I’m not making this up, this comes straight from the Thought-Police sites of the Wonder(bread)blog I mentioned yesterday.

I think we’ve all known some particularly dumb kid at one point in our lives who jumped off his roof wearing a red blanket clothespinned to his neck after he watched an episode of Superman.

Yeah… broken femurs are actually pretty damned funny sometimes.

Everyone loves observing idiocy from a safe distance, but give kids… er… Young Adults credit that their B.S. filters are functional. For those whose filters are a little “glitchy,” like the red blanket boy mentioned above, we have one great hope: please do not attempt to breed.

One more bit about why I hate YA. I’ve been accused — multiple times, and by different “adults” — of being a bad father, because of what I write about.

First, allow me to fully confess and lay it all on the table: My first two books, Ghost Medicine , and in the path of falling objects have the words “damn” and “hell” in them (this is a hint that my next book,The Marbury Lens has quite an “expanded” vocabulary). They also include on- and off-screen references to underage sex, drinking, smoking, getting tattoos, chewing tobacco, suicide, driving without a license, and marijuana use.

So I’m a bad father. I made those things happen in my teenage kids’ world, didn’t I? I should have shielded their eyes and ears from such goings-on, and hope and pray that they remain untainted by reality, so they can live with me and their mother until well into their forties. As untattooed virgins.

Shoot me now.

You see, the clean-YA bloggers insist that you should never write anything if the prospect of your own kids reading it makes you feel “uncomfortable.”

Sometimes, dealing with things with your kids that make you feel a little uncomfortable is a preferential strategy to burying their heads in the sand and hoping they don’t catch passing glimpses of what the rest of the world is like.

So, yeah… I honestly do not feel uncomfortable at the thought of my fifteen-year-old son or my soon-to-be-thirteen daughter reading my stuff, because I know who they are, and I am there to talk about things with them (my son was devastated by something that a character did inGhost Medicine, which he read at thirteen).

Sometimes kids do have to make tough choices, and we can always count on the fact that fledgling, “Young” adults are definitely going to make mistakes — and, unlike red-blanket-boy, hopefully learn from them.

The bottom line, though, is that when we do let our “Young Adults” out into the world (as we do every single day — at school, at malls, hanging out with their buddies) and they get confronted with difficult choices, the voice in their head that tells them which course to take is not going to be that of a character in the most recent book they enjoyed.

If you’re worried about that, you better round up and hide all your red blankets, clothespins, and step-ladders.

Coming up tomorrow: My BIGGEST reasons why I hate YA.

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I hate YA.

Let me explain.

I hate YA for many of the same reasons I hated being a teenager: there are all these external expectations on who you are “supposed” to be, and, simultaneously, you’re trying to figure that out on your own.

Okay. Try this experiment. Close your eyes.

Wait. First, get someone to read this to you aloud. Or else, just pretend to close your eyes.

Now, let’s make a Venn diagram (I know… Venn Diagrams are the new black). The paper the diagram is on is “People.” Now, draw a circle for “Children,” and another for “Adults.”

Unless you’re a moron, those circles won’t be touching at all.

Now, draw a circle for “Young Adults.”

Again… moron test: that circle should be entirely enclosed within “Adults.”

If you’re a writer, you have to realize that there are certain mile markers we pass in order to become adult. It doesn’t necessarily happen at a predetermined chronological age, either. But it does happen. Bam! You’re an adult.

Young adults are inexperienced (because — duh! they’re “young”) at dealing with certain things, so they make mistakes. It’s forgivable in most cases.

Okay, now here’s a reason why I hate YA: A lot of people have this notion that YA literature should steer away from certain “adult” concepts. Those people wouldn’t pass the moron test described above.

I’ll confess that I read a certain “book blogger” who really emphasizes cleanliness as being an overarching responsibility in YA. I read that particular blogger because the person is actually a fairly decent writer, as opposed to so many illiterate dimwits who blog about YA. And, I’m not going to ID the blogger for two reasons: 1) I don’t want to get into a pissing match, and 2) I don’t want to increase the traffic on that particular blog… because it’s wrong.

A couple points this blogger makes about YA (and, by the way, I am an author who has two teens at home — one of each gender):

1. We, as authors, have a duty to raise strong, responsible adults who make strong, responsible decisions.

2. If there’s underage sex in a book, you are acting irresponsibly if you allow a teen to read it. Allowing a teen to read such a book is equivalent to endorsing irresponsible sexual behavior.

Okay, that’s the gist of this particular blogger’s theory on YA and the duty of authors and parents.

As to the first point, I agree that parents do have a responsibility to raise their kids to make ethical decisions. But it doesn’t always happen, and a great deal of what we learn as we pass those milestones toward “adulthood” comes at the expense of making mistakes. (A great line from Elvis Costello: “Some people can’t be told, you know, they have to learn the hard way.”)

Where I depart from the first point is that as an author, I feel a responsibility to tell as much as I can about WHAT IT IS REALLY LIKE OUT THERE… without necessarily condoning anything.

As far as point 2 goes (and — seriously — I am not making this up about this particular blogger), I suppose the blogger believes there is some magical moment, like the age of eighteen, when sex becomes okay. Now… a couple points. First, I realize I grew up in what truly was “The Greatest Generation,” and, no, it wasn’t WW2 (as I talked about with my friends Wendel and Yvonne a few weeks ago), it was the “Generation that used up the next 100 years’ worth of fun.”

And, really, I don’t think I knew anyone from that particular generation who waited for a specific number to show up on their driver’s license before having sex — whether underage or not.

Furthermore, in my own experience, and having seen a lot of the world, if we really could make people wait until they were sufficiently responsible, ethical, and psychologically strong before allowing them to so much as read about sex, then half the world would never be “of age,” and the other half would probably have to wait until their thirties.

You try enforcing that one.

And lighten up. I think your pants are a little too tight.

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“For as long as I can remember, I have been a storyteller. Throughout my elementary school years, I thought of myself as an author and I wrote an extensive collection of books – stacks of paper, words, and drawings all stapled together. None of these works were literary masterpieces, but they were the first manifestation of my desire to be a writer.

“I actually came up with the idea for The Fire Stone, the first book of The Reign of the Elements series, when I was in fourth grade. I love fantasy adventure stories and one evening I was sitting with my family around a fire, and I started thinking about how mystical the flames were. I began thinking about the elements and their properties and weaving those into a story about magic. Eventually the story began to take shape. During the three or four years that followed, I would begin to write the story and then I would stop and eventually begin again. I tried numerous versions of the story, but I wasn’t able to get it quite right.

“Finally, when I was fifteen, I sat down and wrote a very detailed outline of the story. After outlining, I wrote the book in about a month. I spent about six months editing the manuscript before I began sending it to agents and publishers.

“I wrote the other four books in the series in quick succession; the second and third books, The Water Stone and The Wind Stone, while I was still fifteen, and the last two, The Immortality Scroll and The Final Alliance, when I was sixteen. All together, it took me about fifteen months to write the entire series.

“I think the biggest inspiration behind my writing is my love of reading. Many authors have inspired and influenced me! In terms of originally making the fantasy genre so appealing to me, I would have to say that T.A. Barron and Brian Jacques are two of my favorite authors. I was reading those authors at around the same time that I decided I wanted to be a writer. Now, I would also have to add writers like Suzanne Collins, J.K. Rowling, Eoin Colfer, Cinda Williams Chima, C.S. Lewis, Rick Riordan, Orson Scott Card, and J.R. Tolkien.

“My love of reading is partially what inspired me to create my nonprofit for children’s literacy, Breaking the Chain. I believe that the way to help people, especially children, break the cycle of poverty and exploitation is through literacy.

“I created Breaking the Chain, when I was fourteen, after learning that there are 120 million children around the world don’t have the opportunity get an education and that there are 800 million adults that cannot read or write, two-thirds of whom are women. These women and children are very vulnerable to exploitation. They are unable to get jobs and they cannot feed or clothe themselves. Only through education do they have the opportunity to make their lives better.

“The mission of Breaking the Chain try to eliminate the bonds of poverty and illiteracy for children and their communities through education and sustainable development, both domestically and internationally. Building schools in places where the government cannot or will not build schools for their citizens seemed like a good place to begin. Breaking the Chain has built three schools in Africa, two of them in villages that we adopted where we also provide a water purification system, alternative income for the adults, like goats and sewing machines, and basic medical supplies. We’ve also created a children’s literacy center at a women’s shelter in Colorado, and bought over 1000 new books for children in low-income neighborhoods.

“This year, Breaking the Chain achieved tax-exempt status and my older brother, Nick, who is twenty, joined me (I wasn’t old enough to sit on the Board of Directors or to file the paperwork with the IRS). We are currently developing, and raising money for, a program to put new children’s books in U.S. schools with low literacy rates.

“I believe that Breaking the Chain is making a difference in children’s lives and I hope to continue to provide that hope and opportunity to children in the U.S. and around the world.
I have learned through my experiences with my nonprofit that one person really can make a difference if they persevere.

“A portion of the sales of The Fire Stone go directly to Breaking the Chain.

“You can buy my book at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, indiependentbooks.com (they have autographed copies), local independent book stores around the country, and you can read it at your local library. It is distributed by Ingram and Baker and Taylor.”

Author Website: http://www.rileycarney.com/
Breaking the Chain Website: http://www.linkbylink.org/

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Thanks to the wonders of Facebook fan pages, we now have a readership of 40 NetworkedBlogs followers, and Amazon has lowered the price of subscribing on Kindle from a ridiculous $1.99 to a much more reasonable .99 cents after some negotiation from yours truly.

These developments make me extremely happy as it means The Chronicle is doing what it’s supposed to do, GROW.

If you’re a contributor, I’m accepting new submissions. Details can be found in our group at www.scribblerati.com or by e-mailing me directly at lia@scribblerati.com.

Our sister blog for pre-published and self-published writers, Scribblers On The Edge, has just had a major makeover and is now a truly beautiful e-zine. It will be fully up and running by Monday, 21st December, the winter solstice, which seems like a nicely symbolic day to launch a great future for The Edge and The Chronicle.

Thank you all for your support of Scribblerati’s efforts to provide a major platform for writers at all stages of development!

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Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the external sources writers tap into for their creative ideas. In my own writing, I happen to feel a kind of connection to what Jung referred to as a type of “collective unconscious.”

But I’ve been seeking out other authors to see what they tap into for their own inspiration; and maybe if they share this sense of something else being out there. So, I plan on bringing a few authors in on this discussion and give as broad a view as possible to the elements behind the creative process.

My first stop: author Cynthia Leitich Smith, whose otherworldly stories (TANTALIZE, ETERNAL) have inspired countless readers.

Here are some of the questions and answers I got from Cynthia:  

Q: First, I’m interested in the idea of common threads that link mythologies and legends across cultures. How has this commonality influenced you as a writer?

Cynthia Leitich Smith: When I was first working on my YA Gothic fantasy series, I spun off the idea that in Bram Stoker’s DRACULA (1897), vampires could take the shape of wolves. I thought it would be interesting to write a murder mystery (TANTALIZE) in which the central external question was whether the murderer was a vampire in wolf form or a werewolf.

This led me father back to the oral stories in which these “mythology” traditions—the werewolf and vampire appear—and I found plenty of examples of both from around the world.

It greatly influenced me that societal forces behind the tales—the mystery of death, the question of the eternal soul, the role of organized religion and its symbols, gender power struggles, the “dark” foreigner, invasion, alienation, plague, the “other,” sexuality, etc. were pertinent as early as Stoker’s time and still today.

With regard to the werewolf, I realized that many cultures had a shapeshifter, and that it was usually the dominant predator that competed with humans for food and territory. Therefore, in the stories, that animal competitor was demonized and too often hunted to extinction.

So what do I do with that? Reinforce it? No, that wouldn’t be very ecologically sensitive. I made my Wolves natural instead, one of many types of shifter species that traced their origins to the Ice Age, and gave them the free will to be good guys.

Q: Do you see a trend emerging — a surge in the publication of paranormal romance and dark fantasy for young adults?

First, it was under-published not long ago, and the market will eventually fill a vacuum. Horror in particular offers terrific metaphors for adolescence. In the immortal words of Joss Whedon, “high school is hell.”

But when I started writing my series in 2001, there hadn’t been hardly any similar books since the late 1990s and only a few—by people like MT Anderson, Annette Curtis Klause, and Vivian Vande Velde then.

I remember hearing more than one editor say at a writer’s conference, “Fantasy is old fashioned. It’s over. Kids like realistic stories now.” Hello, Mr. Potter.

And from a business perspective, Harry’s commercial success (and later Twilight’s, though of course paranormal romance is more about the romance than the truly scary) did pave the way for Gothic fantasy pieces springing in part from the traditions of wizards, monsters, and the like. It opened publishers to the possibilities and signaled to fantasists that their time had come again. Granted, many of these were manufactured or packager books (as opposed to author-originated works), but just as many—if not more—were not.

The majority were a response by writers to their own artistic influences and predispositions as well as to what they perceived a need for in their audience/society.

Although it should never be forgotten that publishing is an international industry and community, the U.S. does have an influence on the whole, and, on many levels, the ‘00s have been a relatively scary time for us.

Nowhere near as scary as, say, the Indian Wars (I’m saying this as a Native writer) or slavery or the U.S. Civil War or the Great Depression, but relatively scary after a time of at least what was generally perceived by most folks to be a period of peace, security, and prosperity.

And one of the best ways for people to process fear is from a safe distance and in the pages of a horror novel. As Annette Curtis Klause has said, it helps them to build “coping mechanisms.” It’s what the heart hungers for, the heart of the artist and the heart of the audience.

Q: Where do your stories come from?

Thinking back, the earliest stories I remember were those told around the family kitchen tables. From a very young age, it mattered to me that there were people I would’ve loved—my grandfather, for example—who’d died before I was born and I could only know them through story. These voices had an impact on my early Native-themed fiction.

Beyond that, I’m very interested in the conversation of books over the generations and how they relate to the oral tradition, and you can see that in my work, especially with the current YA series. But beyond that, the stories come from those experiences that bond or separate us as people—intergenerational relationships, struggles with dependence, prejudice, loving across racial/ethnic boundaries, faith, and so forth.

Q: What are you the deadline baby of right now?

I’m currently revising my latest YA Gothic fantasy novel, BLESSED, which crosses over the casts of TANTALIZE and ETERNAL and picks up where TANTALIZE left off. I look for it to come out in spring 2011.

The books are non-linear companions, set in multicultural multi-creature-verse, which includes vampires, a variety of shapeshifters (werearmadillos anyone?), angels, and ghosts. They include elements of romance and some humor.

There also are a couple of new tie-in short stories–”Cat Calls,” which appears in SIDESHOW: TEN ORIGINAL TALES OF FREAKS, ILLUSIONISTS, AND OTHER MATTERS ODD AND MAGICAL, edited by Deborah Noyes (Candlewick) and “Haunted Love,” which appears in IMMORTAL: LOVE STORIES WITH BITE, edited by P.C. Cast (BenBella).

I keep thinking I need to cut about 15,000 words from BLESSED. So far, it’s 2,000 words longer than when I started revising.

Thanks for taking the time to give such fascinating answers, Cynthia!

You can read more from Cynthia Leitich Smith on her blog at:
http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com

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My name is Riley Carney and I’m sixteen years old. I love to read and I love to write. My book, The Fire Stone, is the first book in a five-book fantasy adventure story for ages 9-14 and it was just released. I have written all five books in the series. I have also completed the first book of a YA urban fantasy trilogy and I am currently working on the second book of the trilogy.(www.rileycarney.com)

I am also passionate about literacy and I have a nonprofit for children’s literacy which I created when I was fourteen. Some of the proceeds from my book sales go to my nonprofit.(www.linkbylink.org)

Speaking at schools to kids in grades 3-8 about my writing, my nonprofit, and literacy, in general has been amazing. It is great to see that so many kids love to read, that they want to take ownership over their education, and that they want to know how they can help other children who are less fortunate.

I will be touring Chicago and Indianapolis for the first two weeks of December to speak at schools. Here’s the schedule:

12/1 – Central Elementary School
Wilmette, IL
12/2 – The Skokie School
Winnetka, IL
12/2 – Lake Forest Country Day School
Lake Forest, IL
12/3 – Wilmette Junior High
Wilmette, IL
12/3 – Attea Middle School
Glenview, IL
12/4 – School of St. Mary
Lake Forest, IL
12/8 – St. Thomas Aquinas School
Indianapolis, IN
12/8 – Westlane Middle School
Indianapolis, IN
12/9 – St. Pius X School
Indianapolis, IN

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