First Look Interview: Whispering Pines by Heidi Lang and Kati Bartkowski

Today, I'm thrilled to give readers a first look at the new middle grade novel by the writing team of Heidi Lang and Kati Bartkowski, Whispering Pines!!! Welcome Heidi and Kati! We'll show off that beautiful cover soon, but first can you pitch your new book to us Twitter-style, in 280 characters or less?

X-Files meets Stranger Things in this contemporary horror MG about a UFO-obsessed girl determined to find her missing father, and a ghost hunting boy now being hunted by a ghost of his own—that of his older brother—who team up to save their town from supernatural forces.

Yes!!! I love everything from that pitch! Aliens, ghosts, mysterious supernatural forces. Why do I feel like this book was written specifically for me? Next, I challenged Heidi and Kati to finish these sentences about the book:

The one thing Rae Carter wants is to...

KATI: Find her missing father.

HEIDI: Couldn’t have said it better myself. ;) In the meantime, she also wants to learn how to fit into Whispering Pines.

Caden Price knows more than most about the mysterious town of Whispering Pines, including…

HEIDI: …the fact that there is a world hidden beneath their own, and his town serves as the gateway.

KATI: Unfortunately for Caden, he’s not the only one who knows this. Just as he’s not the only one who’s figured out that the Price family holds the key to unlocking that world.

My first thought when I saw the cover was…

HEIDI: Wow! So delightfully creepy!

KATI: Same. I loved it immediately. Diana Novich is such a talented illustrator.

And, without further ado, let's take a look at that gorgeous cover:

So beautiful and mysterious! I love the lighting, and did you catch that ghost hand?

Can readers expect more adventures set in Whispering Pines? 

KATI: We are currently working on an as-yet-unnamed sequel.

HEIDI: Yes, lots more planned for Whispering Pines!

Yay!!! Looking forward to it! WHISPERING PINES releases September 1st, 2020 through Aladdin/Simon & Schuster. To read a longer interview with Heidi and Kati, head over to the full post at https://spookymiddlegrade.com/2020/03/08/whispering-pines/.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Heidi Lang and Kati Bartkowski are a writing team of two sisters. Heidi is afraid of all things that go bump in the night, but watches shows like the X-Files and Stranger Things anyhow. Kati enjoys reading about serial killers and the apocalypse, but secretly sleeps with a nightlight. They believe that the best way to conquer fear is to share it with as many people as possible, so between the two of them, they love creating stories full of all the things that scare them most. They are the co-authors of the Mystic Cooking Chronicles trilogy.

Find Heidi on twitter and instagram: @hidlang
Find Kati on twitter and instagram: @ktbartkowski
Or visit their website: www.HeidiandKatiBooks.com

Interview with Lindsay Currie

Lindsay Currie, thanks so much for stopping by Middle Grade Minded! 

Thank you for having me! 

Congratulations on your recent big news! Can you tell our readers more about WHISPERS FROM THE DARK? 

Thank you!  WHISPERS FROM THE DARK is releasing September of 2020, so we have a little bit of a wait, but I promise it will be worth it. The book follows the story of Claire Koster - a twelve-year-old scientist - who struggles to deal with her father's very un-scientific obsession with ghosts. His ghost tour bus, "Spirits", is a huge embarrassment to her because it causes rumors at school. Claire is determined to have nothing to do with her father's ghost business. She's a scientist, after all. Scientists don't believe in ghosts. But when her father's bus driver cancels on him at the last minute, not only does he need her to come along on the bus for an evening, but he needs her to help with the tour. It's pretty much Claire's worst nightmare. Unfortunately for Claire, surviving the tour bus is more complicated than pulling a baseball cap over her face and hoping no one from school recognizes her. The stories her father weaves at each location are darker . . . scarier than she anticipated.

When a mysterious boy shows up on the bus, then vanishes with nothing but a tattered piece of paper bearing the number 396 found lying on his empty seat, it sets off a chain of bone-chilling events in Claire's house and she begins to wonder if she brought back more than chilled fingers and numb toes from the tour that night. 

Maybe she brought back a ghost.

Your first book, THE PECULIAR INCIDENT ON SHADY STREET, has been a huge hit with readers, making it on 4 state lists. What similarities and differences can readers expect with your second book? 

Thank you! I've been very fortunate to have PECULIAR INCIDENT resonate with so many readers and educators! In terms of similarities, WHISPERS is spooky and dark and very, very ghostly.  It's also rooted in truth and history and steeped in a hefty dose of local Chicago legend - another similarity to Tessa's adventure. I adored Tessa's journey, as well as the friends she made along the way to solving the mystery of what happened on Shady street, and I'm equally thrilled for you guys to meet Claire! Claire is like many of us - filled with ideas about the world we live in, but occasionally hesitant to explore notions that are unfamiliar or different. Her journey in this mystery is special, and I truly hope her adventure resonates with you as much as it did with me when I wrote it. 

You're a part of the #SpookyMG team over at spookymiddlegrade.com. Can you tell us more about that and how teachers and students can get involved? 

Yes! #SpookyMG is a collaboration between over a dozen authors of spooky middle-grade literature! We host a blog, a YouTube channel, giveaways, and even have an amazing #SpookyMG book challenge that teachers and librarians can use to help find the perfect text for even their most reluctant readers. Our author group is also open to Skype's and spoke to dozens of classrooms all over the country this year! Spooky books can play a role all year long, and we're honored to shine a spotlight on all the fabulous benefits of reading them!

Both of your books feature hauntings. Do you believe in ghosts in real life?

Haha yessssss. Although I've never experienced a haunting personally, I do believe in ghosts. I guess there's a little Nina from PECULIAR INCIDENT in me! Most of my belief in the paranormal stems from the research I've done. There are so many ghost stories out there, and the more you read the more you begin to wonder. And if there's one thing an author loves to do . . . it's wonder. 

Thanks so much for stopping by, Lindsay Currie. You can find out more about Lindsay at: www.lindsaycurrie.com

The Three Rules of Everyday Magic

Middle Grade Minded is excited to welcome author Amanda Rawson Hill to the blog today. Her debut middle grade, The Three Rules of Everyday Magic, will be published on September 25, 2018, by Boyds Mills Press. Amanda was kind enough to answer the following questions about her inspiration and writing process for her novel: 

1. When Grammy tells Kate the three rules of everyday magic—believe, give, and trust—Kate tries to believe in the power of everyday magic to bring her father back home and heal her relationship with her best friend. What inspired you to write about a girl who believes in the magic of giving?

I discovery wrote this story. And so I didn’t know that it was going to be about the power of giving until after I wrote the scene with Grammy teaching Kate to make the knitted hats. That’s when it all started clicking into place. As I developed the story further, I realized that many of the themes in the story are about letting go. And I think giving as a form of holding on was an important aspect of that idea that needed to be played out. Kate is losing so much against her will. Having her give and letting that giving create relationships was an important part of providing her some relief.

2. The Three Rules of Everyday Magic deals with tough topics—depression, divorce, and dementia. How much research did you have to do in order to portray Dad’s depression and Grammy’s dementia accurately?

I did a lot of research for the portrayal of depression. I’ve never experienced more than a situational depression, so I wanted to get it right. I read articles about how depression manifests in men and then I crowdsourced on Facebook, asking those who have had depression or had parents with depression to message me with some of the beginning signs and what happens as it progresses. This turned out to be a wealth of information and stories that I was able to glen and put straight into my book. People were so wonderful. They came to me with vulnerable hearts and shared their own struggles, the heartache of watching their spouse not admit to having depression, and what a child misses when their parent slips into depression. It was heart breaking, eye opening, and a privilege to get their perspectives.
For Grammy’s dementia, I relied a lot on my memories of my grandpa’s Alzheimer’s. There are several scenes in the book lifted straight from my memories of him. I was also lucky enough to have a reader who had recently cared for a relative with dementia who was able to point out things I got wrong (like how irresponsible it would be for Grammy not to have an identification bracelet.)

3. I love when Grammy says, “You have to trust the magic. That means you can’t give it away expecting a certain outcome. You can’t put demands on it and say it only worked if everything goes how you wanted it to, or when you wanted it to. Magic has its own timeframe and its own ideas about what should happen. You can hope it will cause some event, but sometimes it will do something else entirely. That doesn’t mean it didn’t work.” 

When I read that quote, I immediately thought of my writing journey. For me, the magic was being accepted as a Pitch Wars mentee. Since you were involved in Pitch Wars as well, can you share your writing journey with Middle Grade Minded readers? Did it, as Kate’s friend Jane says in your novel, involve “…lots of practice and waiting for the right moment”?

Yes! So I started writing in April of 2012. By August of 2014, I had a MG fantasy novel that I’d been working hard on and I entered it into Pitch Wars. Miraculously, I got picked! I couldn’t believe it. But my mentor had a bunch of stuff come up and wasn’t able to read or critique my manuscript. When I told Brenda about it (almost a year later because I really needed to learn self-advocacy) she found three fabulous mentors who volunteered to just take me on. But by this time, I’d queried that first book to death and written a new book that I knew was better. So I had them work with me on the new manuscript. 

That new manuscript was titled, WINGS, WRINKLES, AND WRAPPERS, and it was about a girl named Kate, whose dad left the family months earlier when all of a sudden her two long-dead grandmas show up as guardian angels to try and help her fix her life. Well, as you can tell, it got a major overhaul in Pitch Wars. In fact, it got a total rewrite. I got rid of the angels, and replaced them with just Grammy in the early stages of dementia and added in the idea of Everyday Magic. I changed the tense, the format. Phew! I worked my butt off for two months right up to the agent round. About 6 weeks after the agent round, I got an offer of representation and the rest was history, right?

Well, not really.

I did more revisions with my agent. She sent it out. We got rejected. I did more revisions. More rejections. I also wrote another book in the meantime. A book I was SURE would be my debut. I had given up all hope for THE THREE RULES OF EVERYDAY MAGIC when my agent said she had a thought about an editor who might love it and asked if I was okay with her trying again. I said fine, but had zero hope.

And the rest was—

Nope. Not yet. That editor LOVED it. But her colleagues wanted some revisions before they approved it. So I revised again. Rewriting probably 30-40% of it in the process. Almost all over the course of a week because of a few crazy circumstances.

And the rest was history.

Seriously this time. 😊 

Thank you, Amanda, for taking the time to join us today! Kids are going to adore this story about believing, giving, and trusting, no matter what.

To pre-order The Three Rules of Everyday Magic, go here:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Indiebound

Where The Watermelons Grow

Middle Grade Minded is excited to have debut author Cindy Baldwin with us today. Her middle grade novel Where The Watermelons Grow is a tug-at-your-heartstrings story about Della, a twelve-year-old girl determined to heal her mama from a sickness that causes her to hear voices and talk to people who aren’t there. A literary novel with attention to imagery, voice, and character development, this debut has already been named a Summer/Fall Indies Introduce selection and has received  starred reviews from School Library Journal and ALA Booklist. This fabulous middle grade hits shelves on 7/3/18.

And now for our interview with Cindy:

MG Minded: In Where The Watermelons Grow, the main character’s mother struggles with schizophrenia. I loved how you portrayed this struggle as an illness that can be treated through the support of doctors, family, and community. My favorite line in the book is, “No sickness in the world could make my mama’s love for us less real.” What inspired you to write about mental illness? In your opinion, why is it important for middle grade literature to deal with tough topics?

Cindy Baldwin:
The initial inspiration came to me several years ago when I was singing “Down by the Bay” to my then-one-year-old daughter. The idea of a girl running away from home because she couldn't deal with her mama's sickness came into my mind and stayed there! Because of that inspiration, writing about mental illness—specifically schizophrenia, which affects a person's perception of reality—felt natural. 

However, as soon as the idea landed in my brain, I knew that I wanted to write a book about disability that didn't end with the disability being “cured.” Although I don't have schizophrenia, I am also a disabled parent, and in many ways my daughter and I have struggles that are similar to those of Della and her Mama. She's much younger than Della, but has already had a host of her own ideas to attempt to make our family more “normal”! That line in particular, about no sickness making her mama's love less real, is one that I wrote with tears in my eyes, thinking of my daughter. If there's nothing else that she remembers from her childhood, I hope it's that idea.

I think that addressing difficult topics in middle grade is almost more important even than addressing difficult topics in any other age group! Those upper elementary and middle school years are profoundly important in a kid’s life, as they walk the line between childhood and adulthood; in many ways, kids that age internalize and feel responsible for hard things in a way that high school kids don't to quite the same degree because they have a better grasp of the world around them as separate from them. Kids in the middle grades experience really difficult things! When I was eleven, I was hospitalized for the first time that I could remember, and had to stay alone each night as a highly anxious preteen because my parents were busy with my mom's pregnancy with triplets (yep, you read that right!). When I was thirteen, I learned that my disease, cystic fibrosis, is life-shortening, and that I might not live to turn forty. I know so many people who were experiencing some of their most life-defining hardships during that period of time, and I firmly believe that kids need books that can speak to those difficult experiences.

MG Minded: The gardening scenes took me right back to the family farm where I spent many childhood summers. Can you tell readers a bit about your upbringing and what inspired you to write a novel set on a farm in the South?

Cindy Baldwin:
My family has moved a fair bit, but from age seven until I got married, I lived in Durham, North Carolina, about two or three hours from Della's fictional hometown of Marysville (which, if it existed, would be in Bertie County, NC). I spent much of my adult life trying to move back to the South, and while I never managed it, NC will always be my heart's home! I love setting my books there, because it's a way to stay connected to the place I love best.

I modeled a lot of Della's town both on the rural coastal plains region of North Carolina, and on my great-grandparents’ homestead in Hartsville, South Carolina. My great-grandpa was a sharecropper who eventually made enough to buy his own land and then farmed it—sometimes with just his family members, sometimes hiring extra help, much like Della's family—until he retired. I grew up spending part of every family reunion at “The Farm,” and details like the sunflowers lining their long driveway, the taste of fresh butter beans, and boxes and boxes of sweet peaches bought from roadside stands will always be cherished memories! (That farm is also where I became intimately acquainted with the misery of trying to sleep during a Carolina summer night in a house with no AC!!!)

MG Minded: Where The Watermelons Grow is your debut novel. How long have you been writing and working on craft? Any advice to writers pursuing the often bumpy road to publication?

Cindy Baldwin: 

I've been writing stories for as long as I can remember, and got serious about learning how to write novels when I was a teenager. After college, I started querying one of my books. Where the Watermelons Grow is actually the THIRD book I tried to get an agent with, and the fifth novel I wrote. It was a bumpy road indeed, and there were a lot of rejections! There are a couple of things I firmly believe when it comes to achieving writing success:

1. You are never too good to learn more or become better. I spent a lot of years spinning my wheels because I felt like I'd gotten as good as I could and still wasn't achieving success. I had some humbling experiences that showed me just how far I still had to go, and encouraged me that I COULD keep learning and COULD get better if I was willing to check my ego at the door and put in the work. Sure enough, once I did that, I improved, and eventually that work paid off.

2. Success takes tenacity. I do know some writers who sold their first novel, or got an agent quickly… But they're the exception, not the rule! For most of us, that “ten years to overnight success” principle holds pretty true.

3. Besides tenacity, I think the other ingredient required for a writing career—both before AND after you get published—is flexibility. I'd never written middle grade before Watermelons, but when my previous attempts to get published with young adult manuscripts weren't working, I changed my approach and decided to try something new. Often I think it's easy to get stuck in what we WANT to be working, when sometimes being willing to try a new way of looking at things is what it takes. Tenacity plus flexibility is my secret formula!

Great advice! Thank you, Cindy! 

Cindy Baldwin is a fiction writer, essayist, and poet. She grew up in North Carolina and still misses the sweet watermelons and warm accents on a daily basis. As a middle schooler, she kept a book under her bathroom sink to read over and over while fixing her hair or brushing her teeth, and she dreams of writing the kind of books readers can’t bear to be without. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and daughter, surrounded by tall trees and wild blackberries. Her debut novel, Where The Watermelons Grow, is an Indies Introduce title for summer/fall 2018.

Book Review: Al Capone Throws Me a Curve

If you’re familiar with the Tales from Alcatraz series by Gennifer Choldenko, her newest release, AL CAPONE THROW ME A CURVE will be a welcome continuation. If you aren’t familiar with the series, you should correct this very soon.

At the center of the action is Moose Flanagan, a young teenager on the verge of starting high school with dreams of making the baseball team. Moose’s father works in the corrections system so his family is one of several who live on Alcatraz Island. Moose’s parents have a lot to cope with from the politics of the island and the people who live there, trying to raise a family when everything is a ferry ride away, and caring for Moose’s older sister Natalie, unrecognized as affected by autism in the 1930s, when the story takes place.

Moose is a typical kid surrounded by an interesting cast of characters, both from his life tied to the prison and away from it, each operating with their own agenda — some of which are easier for him to read than others. He has a lot to responsibilities placed on him and difficult decisions to make as the story unfolds, all of which speak to the maturity of the character. His love of baseball is still front and center as one of his largest motivations throughout the book, keeping him solidly anchored as the kid that he is. Moose's relationship with Natalie is shown as both protective and loving. Knowing first-hand how acknowledging and accepting differences and valuing diversity have become important parts of character education in schools today, this relationship would be a wonderful example for kids to read about. 

The dialogue and Moose’s narration are refreshingly straightforward, sidestepping the contemporary affectations common in much of middle grade, which makes it all come across as even more genuine. The strong and measured descriptive language establish a sense of place in each location of the overall setting, making the reader feel they would recognize areas they may have never seen before. 

Without giving anything away, the events of the book all come together in the end with very high stakes for Moose and his family, in what will be a surprising challenge for a middle grade audience but completely realistic in the context, and skillfully written. AL CAPONE THROWS ME A CURVE was the kind of book that pulled me forward to finish reading in a day, though I wish I’d allowed myself to spend more time with it. It’s a good thing there are three earlier books in the series I can always revisit! 

To help us celebrate the release of her new book, author Gennifer Choldenko agreed to answer some questions about the Tales of Alcatraz series and her other work!

**********

Thanks for giving us the chance to ask you a few questions, Gennifer! To start with, I think you should know one of my students recently said AL CAPONE DOES MY SHIRTS is the best book ever written. What's it been like spending so many years working with a series that has such widespread popularity?

The best book ever?  Wow, please tell your student thank you from me!  And thank you for inviting me to be a part of your blog. (Side note - I did pass on that thank you, and her jaw dropped open when I said it.)

One of my greatest pleasures is when a teacher brings me his or her highlighted, underlined, dogeared copy of Al Capone Does My Shirts. What an honor it is to sign those books!  And of course, I love getting letters from readers.  My favorite kid reader letters encourage me to keep writing.  “You are a good writer.  Me and my friends think you should write another book.”  Though my all-time favorite letter went like this:  “I tried to write to Roald Dahl but he was dead.  So, I had to write to you instead.”

I've read that AL CAPONE THROWS ME A CURVE could be the last book of the series. How much of the series did you have planned from the beginning? Were you always hoping or intending the story would become a series, or did those plans evolve as opportunities and new ideas came along?

When I started work on Al Capone Does My Shirts I had been trying for six years to get a second book published.  I called myself a “one trick pony”, because it really looked like: Moonstruck: The True Story of the Cow Who Jumped Over the Moon was the only book I’d ever have published.  While I was researching and writing Al Capone Does My Shirts  I thought that this was a bigger idea than I could fit into one book.  But the idea of writing a series of unpublished books, seemed crazy, even for me.  After I’d been working on Al Capone Does My Shirts for a year, Penguin bought my first novel: Notes from a Liar and Her Dog.  But even then, a series seemed out of reach.  So, no I didn’t plan out the series.  I took it one book at a time. 

If AL CAPONE THROWS ME A CURVE does turn out to be the final book of the series, how do you feel about bringing it to an end?

This series has definitely been a labor of love.  The books have been challenging to create, but I’ve gotten so much out of writing them.  I feel like all the books in the Tales from Alcatraz are a part of me I’m not sure I’m ready to let go of.   

I'm surprised (and impressed) that you've been able to sustain this series while writing so many other books as well. Has your writing process been the same regardless of the title, or was there anything different in the way you approached writing the Tales from Alcatraz books?

Every book comes to me in a different way and that changes my process.  Generally, though, research is involved.  For me, research is like putting Miracle-Gro on my ideas.  Since I live in the San Francisco Bay area, I have spent many many days on Alcatraz.  I’ve worked on the island.  I’ve read every book I can get my hands on.  I’ve interviewed dozens of people who were guards, prisoners and the sons and daughters of guards.  I am a member of the Alcatraz Alumni Association.  I’ve been to every Alcatraz Alumni Day on the island. 

One of the great privileges of writing these books has been the opportunity to do first-hand research.  When you write historical fiction, it is a luxury to be able to walk your setting and see buildings that are similar to the way they were in the timeframe you have chosen for your book.  That’s probably the biggest difference between my Alcatraz novels and my non-Alcatraz novels. 

I like writing other novels in between the series books because then I can come back to Alcatraz with the same excitement I had when I wrote the first book.  Having so much time elapse between books, isn’t a great marketing strategy.  But it is how I was able to make sure each book in the series was as compelling as Al Capone Does My Shirts.   

Finally, do you have any recent middle grade favorites you'd recommend people read (after they finish AL CAPONE THROWS ME A CURVE, that is)?

I love: One Crazy Summer, Goodbye Stranger, Hello, Universe, The Hired Girl. I can’t wait to get my hands on: Bob and Ghost Boys. 

Thanks for your time, Gennifer! Good luck with the new book and the ones to follow!

Thank you! 

Three Questions For Kat Yeh

Not only did author Kat Yeh send me an ARC of her latest middle grade novel, THE WAY TO BEA, but she personalized my copy with the quote, “Always Be You.” This captures the theme of her latest novel, which came out September 19 from Little, Brown and Company. In the book, everything is changing for seventh grader Bea. She used to have friends, but now she doesn’t. She used to be an only child, and soon she won’t be. Bea finds solace in writing poems in invisible ink. She hides the poems in a secret spot, but one day, someone writes back. Is it her ex-best friend, the librarian who passes books to Bea, or the boy whose obsession with labyrinths is as intense as Bea’s love for words? Solving the mystery might help Bea discover where she belongs. Kat Yeh, also the author of the critically acclaimed novel The Truth About Twinkie Pie, kindly answered the following three questions about writing THE WAY TO BEA:

1. Is Bea based on you in any way? (Her love of words and phrases and the way they inspired poems definitely felt like it came from a deep place within your heart!)
 
Actually, it's funny that you say that because my editor, Lisa Yoskowitz, made almost that identical comment to me about a scene where Bea is writing a very important haiku to someone she wants to keep in her life.      

I take a breath. Words should never be wasted or rushed. I want everything I write to be real and true and special.

I think that most of the stories we write or feel connected to come from very true and real and deep places in the heart. The best writing we do – the writing that feels the most connected —the writing that people will relate to comes when we are vulnerable enough to allow parts of ourselves to be revealed on the page. I am certainly not Bea, but there are so many parts of her that feel like me. That express my feelings.

Whenever I used to discuss The Truth About Twinkie Pie, I would talk about how people ask me if it is autobiographical. And I'm starting to hear the same questions with Bea too. While the question about GiGi from Twinkie Pie always made me laugh (since she is a young white southern girl), I can see how people would ask that of Bea, a Taiwanese American girl born to creative parents (my mom is a composer and pianist and my father was an inventor and painter).

Neither of the stories are autobiographical, but they both have my truths throughout. No matter what the story is about, if it contains emotional truth, it will be real for the reader.

2. One of my favorite characters in THE WAY TO BEA is Will, a wonderful friend to Bea who is growing up with Asperger’s. In the acknowledgments, you mention that you are “determined to continue working toward sensitivity and understanding of all the complex and wonderful humans we share this planet with.” What do you hope readers can take away from Bea and Will’s friendship?

I believe that readers will take from books whatever they need to take and I have little control over that, but if I had to choose something, I think I would say I'd like them to take this:

Friendship is friendship is friendship.

Love is love is love. 

When we look past labels and understand that under every possible label we could slap on someone—whether it's On the Spectrum, Artist, Mean Girl, Teacher or Friend—beneath any of them lies a endless range of what belongs there. Every individual on the planet is so completely different, we should never make decisions about them before we get to know them.

I mean think about why people like to label. It makes things easier. You know where things belong. We label the contents of our pantry or the boxes in our attic. Labeling for the most part has made our lives better. So then we extend the idea of labels to the people we interact with (or, more commonly and even worse, the people we never interact with!)

We want to label them. 

To make ourselves comfortable.

So we know where they go.

Now imagine a world where we don't label someone right away. And we don't put them up on some hard-to-reach shelf where we think they belong. 

Imagine that we get to know them first. 

We talk.

We listen. 

We might actually end up keeping them on a shelf right by our side.

That was a big reason why I didn't want Will to be labeled. Because Bea is so sensory in all her experiences, I knew she'd be a perfect person to just meet someone and figure them out the way an artist or writer would. By how she experienced being around him, how her emotions responded to his friendship.

The takeaway I'd wish for?

Leave the labels for organizing the pantry. 

3. One of my favorite lines from the novel is when Bea is listening to the song “Brave” by Sara Bareilles. Bea says, “I wanted to tell her she doesn’t have to stand there so still and afraid and hand-twisty, because it’s not worth it to be with people who make you feel like you can’t say what you want to say.” Bea draws inspiration from music. What was the importance of including music in a story that already has poetry and art in it? And of all the songs listed in the back, you never list Bea's personal theme song...

Bea has grown up around creative expression her whole life, she knows there are many ways to communicate feelings. Along with poetry and art, she uses music. I knew I wanted her to be this fully formed, three dimensional, ultra-technicolor human, bursting to express herself every way possible. And then explore what to do when she finds herself locked up inside. Realizing that there are people (best friends!) who are disparaging of all her very personal expressions is devastating to her.

 All these ways of expressing herself are like messages to the universe. Something that Bea talks about throughout the novel is how important messages are. There are so many messages in her life. 

The ones she sends out to her secret correspondent. 

The theme songs S's mom say are like messages to yourself to remind you who you are. 

Bea's mom's art. Which she says tells everyone what she feels on the inside.

And especially Bea's Playlist, which she names I Hope You Listen. It's a compilation of songs that she created for her former best friend, S. A message to let her know that she can be whoever she wants to be. 

Just who ends up receiving this message, though, is not who Bea planned.

As for the song list in back. I chose NOT to include Bea's personal theme song. I had put it in and taken it out so many times. But ultimately I liked the idea of the reader maybe coming up with their own choice for her theme song along with their own theme song. I know what I'd make it. Though I'm dying to know what readers will think of.

 

Kat Yeh is the award-winning author of middle grade novels, THE WAY TO BEA (Sept, 2017) and THE TRUTH ABOUT TWINKIE PIE (an NPR Best Book of 2015) from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, as well as picture book, THE FRIEND SHIP, from Disney-Hyperion. Kat and her family live in one of those crooked little nooks along the north shore of Long Island with secret beaches and lots of hidden paths. Learn more about Kat at katyeh.com.

 

Author Interview: Things That Surprise You

I had the wonderful opportunity to read an advanced reader copy of THINGS THAT SURPRISE YOU, a new middle grade contemporary from Jennifer Maschari, the author of The Remarkable Journey of Charlie Price. This story of sisters, friends, and family is bursting with heart. It’s an important novel for middle schoolers searching to find their own way. Here’s the synopsis:  

Emily Murphy is about to enter middle school. She’s sort of excited, though not as much as her best friend, Hazel, who is ready for everything to be new. Emily wishes she and Hazel would just continue on as they always have, being the biggest fans ever of the Unicorn Chronicles, making up dance moves, and getting their regular order at the Slice.

But things are changing. At home, Emily and her mom are learning to move on after her parents’ divorce. Hardest of all, her beloved sister, Mina, has been in a treatment facility to deal with her anorexia. Emily is eager to have Mina back but anxious about her sister getting sick again.

Hazel is changing, too. She has new friends from the field hockey team, is starting to wear makeup, and has crushes on boys. Emily is trying to keep up, but she keeps doing and saying the wrong things. She wants to be the perfect new Em. But who is that really?
 
Author Jen Maschari was kind enough to answer a few questions about her book, which will hit shelves on August 22:

Jen, can you tell Middle Grade Minded readers a bit about your inspiration for this book? Did you go through any of Em’s family/friendship issues when you were in middle school?

I knew I wanted to write a story about sisters and also the difficult years of middle school. In some ways, I feel like I’ve never left middle school. I write about it, and I am currently a 7th and 8th grade teacher! I did go through some of the same friend issues Emily faced. I was not part of the group that was considered “cool” and I remember those middle school years being pretty tough (especially my 8th grade year). But like Emily, I also found friends who were the right fit: people who accepted and valued me for who I was.

I loved the metaphor of Em’s science project, showing the movement of the changing Earth over time as it connected with the shifts in Emily’s own life. Did you think of this correlation ahead of time, or did it evolve as you drafted the novel?

Thank you Stefanie! This correlation definitely came later as I worked my way into the story. Maybe it appeared in draft three? The heart of this story was always the same – the bond between sisters and finding out who you are – but the story itself changed dramatically during revisions. It started as a camp story (spoiler: there’s no camp anywhere in the finished book) but evolved into a book about facing all kinds of change. I’ve always been fascinated with science and thought the evolution of the changing Earth and Emily’s journey went well together. (and, growing up, I loved school projects so I thought it would be fun to put one in the book)

Your debut, The Remarkable Journey of Charlie Price, received a starred review from School Library Journal. What was the road to publication like for your second novel? How was it different/similar from your first book?

The writing of this book was very difficult. Between drafts two and three, I scrapped all but approximately 12 pages. It was daunting but needed to be done; it resulted in a much better story! With CHARLIE, I was writing that on my own time, while teaching. With THINGS I worked faster, but I sometimes didn’t allow myself the necessary thinking time I needed in the early drafting stage to work out plot and character knots. I learned a lot of good lessons from writing a second book that I will hopefully apply to my third!

Thanks so much, Jen!

To order Things That Surprise You, go here:

https://www.amazon.com/Things-That-Surprise-Jennifer-Maschari/dp/0062438921/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497468357&sr=8-1&keywords=things+that+surprise+you

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/things-that-surprise-you-jennifer-maschari/1124860405?ean=9780062438928

http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780062438928

To learn more about Jen, go to: www.jenmaschari.com









 

14 Hollow Road Author Interview and ARC Giveaway

I’m excited to have author Jenn Bishop with us today. Her newest middle grade, 14 Hollow Road, hits shelves June 13.

The night of the sixth-grade dance is supposed to be perfect for Maddie: she’ll wear her new dress, hit the dance floor with her friends, and her crush, Avery, will ask her to dance. But as the first slow song starts to play, Avery asks someone else to dance, and then the power goes out. Huddled in the gym, Maddie and her friends are stunned to hear that a tornado has ripped through the other side of town, destroying both Maddie’s and Avery’s homes. Kind neighbors open up their home to Maddie and Avery’s families, which both excites and horrifies Maddie. Meanwhile, she must search for her beloved dog, who went missing during the tornado. At the dance, all Maddie wanted was to be more grown-up. Now that she has no choice, is she really ready for it?

Jenn, what inspired you to write 14 Hollow Road?

I’ve been chatting a lot this past week with classes that have used The Distance to Home as a read-aloud and so many of the students have been curious about whether elements of that story are autobiographical--particularly, did I have a sister that died? While that book is entirely the product of my imagination, 14 Hollow Road in many ways hits closer to home. For one, it’s set in a small (fictional), rural Massachusetts town very much like where I grew up, with a regional junior high and high school. When I imagined Maddie and her world, especially the dynamic between her friend group and some of the boys in her class, I was drawing on my own memories of that time. Sixth and seventh grade were pivotal years, but they were also trying times. It’s not just that your body is changing, but that it feels like everything is changing. The way you relate to adults is changing, how you see the opposite sex is changing, and then, oh right, there’s the real world, too, which in Maddie’s case means a very unexpected weather event throwing a wrench in her best laid plans. I never thought I would write a book about a tornado, given that in New England they aren’t exactly common, until the summer of 2011, when a rare EF3 tornado crossed the street on which I grew up, and where my parents still live. While their home was spared, many others were not so fortunate, and the familiar landscape of my childhood now bears the scars of that the twister. I wondered how my own transition into a new school—amid all of the hormonal changes of being a seventh grader—might have been changed by such an event.

The main character, Maddie, feels so real—her first-crush feelings toward Avery, her conflicting emotions when her BFF starts hanging with a new friend, and her utter horror when her monthly period starts on the day of the 6th grade pool party. As a writer, how do you manage to capture the innermost feelings of an almost-seventh grader? Any advice for writers hoping to develop authentic middle grade characters?

I think the key to getting back into that headspace is remembering the feelings of that age in real time. No adult reflections allowed! Now, I am one of those people who has a hard time of letting go of ephemera. I still have boxes in my closet of notes and photos and ticket stubs and all that jazz. Thank goodness! Perusing that stuff brings back so many memories—including cringe-worthy moments I’d like to forget. There are other ways to get back to your middle school self, too, of course. Re-read the books you loved then. Re-watch the movies you VHS-taped off the TV (child of the 1980s and 90s here). Listen to the soundtrack of your childhood. Reading contemporary books that dive into those muddy waters also helps. Two of my favorite middle school books in recent years are Well, That Was Awkward by Rachel Vail and Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead. While the times have changed since our own emerging adolescence, so many of the essential emotional experiences have stayed the same.

This is your second book for middle grade readers. How did writing this novel differ from drafting your debut, The Distance to Home?

I wrote the first draft of The Distance to Home when I was in the MFA program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. In my second semester with Rita Williams-Garcia, I wrote the entire first draft. Well, turns out you can’t just have Rita Williams-Garcia as your regular beta reader (what a dream, right?). 14 Hollow Road was the first book I started after finishing my MFA, which meant that I was the one holding myself accountable. In truth, though, the drafting process was still quite similar. I’m a very linear thinker and a pantser, so I pretty much just banged the draft out over a few months. That said, the revision process was challenging. This is the first thing I’ve written where I pretty much had to re-write the entire thing because I didn’t like how Maddie “sounded” in the first draft. My critique group was also essential—so willing to read various drafts. They provided some great big picture feedback that helped me reframe a lot of the events of the story. While the key scenes in The Distance to Home never changed in huge ways, much of the latter 2/3rds of 14 Hollow Road was drastically reshaped in revision. I guess what they say is true: each book teaches you how to write that book.

Thanks so much, Jenn!
For a chance to win an ARC, leave a comment and your email below. A winner will be drawn at random.

It’s a Mystery, Pig Face! Author Interview and ARC Giveaway

In Wendy McLeod MacKnight's It's a Mystery, Pig Face! eleven-year-old Tracy Munroe has three goals to accomplish:

1. Figure out an end-of-summer adventure with her best friend Ralph.

2. Make sure her little brother Lester, aka Pig Face, does not tag along.

3. Get the new boy next door to realize she exists.

But when Tracy and Ralph discover a bag full of money in the baseball field dugout, (and Lester forces them to let him help) they have a mystery on their hands. Did someone lose the cash? Was it stolen? Can the truth be discovered before they are accused of the crime themselves?

Wendy, I absolutely loved this fast-paced middle grade mystery! Where did you get the idea for this book?

Thanks! When I was a kid, my friends and I were always looking for mysteries to solve. We had a bit of a Harriet the Spy thing going – keeping tabs on everyone – but we were always thwarted. The first draft of the book was a real throw-back, the bad guys were grown up, lives were in peril, but thanks to some good advice, I went a little more nuanced. Not that this is a nuanced book by any stretch of the imagination… As for the name Pig Face, I may have called my brother that a few times when we were young a few times and when I was trying to think of a name Tracy might call Lester when he’s being particularly annoying, it popped right into my head.

Tracy and Ralph have a strong friendship. Their relationship faces some tests, yet survives. How do you develop such realistic, well-rounded characters?

I liked the idea of what happens when relationships are tested. Tracy makes some bad decisions, and who hasn’t made bad decisions in their life? And Ralph isn’t immune to making the odd mistake himself. I think that friendships are so important and sometimes so fragile in the upper elementary/early middle grade years, and kids often stumble around because they are afraid of speaking their truth.

I worked a lot on all three of the characters – back story, what they liked and disliked, their private hopes and dreams, most of which didn’t make it into the book, but by the time I was writing in earnest, I knew who they were and how they would react to what was happening around them. Forgiveness and acceptance is a huge theme in this book, and that comes from the characters, not the plot. I will say that my agent, Lauren Galit, and my editor, Alison Weiss, both pushed me to dig deep.

Can you tell MG Minded readers about your publication journey? Is this your first book? How many drafts did it take you to land an agent and then a publisher?

I’m the poster child for IT’S NEVER TOO LATE! I wrote the first draft of this book in 1986 (yes, dinosaurs walked the earth and we had just discovered fire!) I am embarrassed to say I did one revision and then sent it to a Canadian Publishing House, who were very enthusiastic and asked me to send them other things. But I never did. I put it in a drawer and got a job and had a great career for the next twenty-five years, rising to the level of Deputy Minister of Education and Early Childhood. Then one day I woke up and got brave enough to leave to pursue the one regret I had in life – not pursuing my writing career. I took some courses, immersed myself in the MG world again (well, truth be told, I never left it!) and pulled out that old manuscript. And polished and rewrote completely. I think I’d done six drafts by the time I landed my agent, Lauren Galit of LKG Agency. By then I had queried 48 agents. I could tell I was getting close because after the sixth draft, I got all kinds of requests for full manuscripts and the week I signed with Lauren I had two or three agents interested in signing me. The lesson I learned through the process of selling the first book is this: good enough is NOT good enough. Until you can say in your heart that it is as excellent as you can make it, there is no point in submitting. I am still mortified about the first 15 queries I sent out…

Any advice for blog readers wanting to write a middle grade mystery?

Ah, that’s a hard question! I struggled with the mystery aspect for so long: not giving too much away, tossing out lots of red herrings, ensuring it all makes sense. I think you can’t ‘pants’ a mystery, which I am sorry to say I did for my first couple of drafts, and it was a disaster! I would map the mystery out very carefully in advance. You can always tweak it as you’re writing, once your characters come to life and start sending you places you never thought you’d go, but thinking of things on the fly is usually not very successful, I am sorry to say. Unless you are a genius, then have at it! Oh and one more thing: I heard a lot of “There are too many mysteries out there” when I was writing and submitting, but kids love a mystery (as do adults) and there will always be room for mysteries in middle grade fiction!

Thanks so much, Wendy! Great advice!
For a chance to win an ARC of It's a Mystery, Pig Face! leave a comment and your email address below. A winner will be drawn at random.

An interview with author Margarita Engle

Today I'm delighted to welcome Margarita Engle to Middle Grade Minded. Margarita was kind enough to answer a few questions about her upcoming book, MORNING STAR HORSE -- an historical fantasy verse novel, forthcoming from HBE Publishing in January 2017. MORNING STAR HORSE will be available in a choice of English, Spanish, and bilingual formats.

"When Mamacita chose to call me Estrellita, / it was her way of imagining a little bit / of starlight, deep down in that cavern / where only rare streaks of day or night / could reach--now, Lucero and I will be / Morning Star and Little Star, / a lit-from-within racing team!"

A young girl stricken with rickets and her mother face the aftermath of the Spanish-American War, the challenges of a new century and innovative teachers. 

Dreams realized and dreams crushed exploring the freedoms only a magical horse can offer.

Award winning author Margarita Engle brings a tale of history mixed with a touch of fantasy.

Hi Margarita! Thanks for stopping by MG Minded. It seems to me both unusual and exciting to have a bilingual version of a story, in addition to the Spanish and English versions.  Were there any particular challenges in putting this together?

Yes, Morning Star Horse/El caballo Lucero is extremely unusual and exciting!  In fact, I’m not sure if it’s the first time this has been tried, with a simultaneous release of all three editions.  HBE Publishing is a new small press that offered me this choice of formats.  I didn’t have to beg!  They hired Alexis Romay, a brilliant translator, and also hired artists to do a beautiful cover and internal illustrations.  I’m thrilled with the result.  For the editor, I think the biggest challenge was fitting Spanish poems on facing pages in the bilingual edition.  For me, the greatest challenge was deciding when to stop writing the manuscript.  I went through so many drafts, and I was having so much fun, that I actually found myself thinking that I might write this book forever, and never do anything else.

What are the benefits of having a bilingual version?

They are essential for English language learners, Spanish immersion schools, and family literacy projects, where all the generations can read and discuss the same story.

I love that you’ve blended fantasy with historical fiction. Was this something that came naturally for you, or did you find it difficult to achieve a balance between the fantasy elements and the constraints of the historical events/setting?

I used to write magic realism for adults, inspired by the great “Boom” poets and novelists of Latin America.  Morning Star Horse is magic realism, not “world building” fantasy.  Everything occurs in ordinary places, with only one astonishing element.  In Spanish, magic realism is called lo real maravilloso (marvelous reality), a much more accurate term.

And just for fun...Without giving any spoilers, what did you love most about writing this story?

I was a horse-loving child, and a big fan of horse books.  This project fulfilled my lifelong dream of writing a horse story.  I decided to take it one step into lo real maravilloso, making it a story about a girl who needs a magical horse.

Thanks so much, Margarita! All the best with the launch of MORNING STAR HORSE.

Visit Margarita online at www.margaritaengle.com.

Add MORNING STAR HORSE to your Goodreads.

Gail Nall Interview and Out of Tune Giveaway!

Today I am excited to interview Gail Nall, author of OUT OF TUNE, a super-fun tween road trip adventure, which hit shelves November 8. Gail's other middle grade novels include BREAKING THE ICE and the YOU'RE INVITED series (co-written with Jen Malone), all from Aladdin/Simon & Schuster. Gail is also the author of the YA novel EXIT STAGE LEFT (EpicReads Impulse/Harper). Her upcoming book, the co-authored BEST.NIGHT.EVER, will be published this August.

Here’s a quick synopsis of OUT OF TUNE:

When twelve-year old Maya’s dad brings home a junker RV, she knows she’s in trouble. Sure enough, her parents sell their house, move the family into the RV, and set out for road trip adventure. Maya has to leave everything behind—her best friend, her cowboy-hatted crush, and her chance to audition for Dueling Duets, a reality singing competition that’s surely going to propel her—and her singing partner/crush—to stardom. As Maya’s family travels west, visiting natural beauty and historic national parks, all she can think about is OMGH, or Operation Maya Goes Home. In true middle-grade fashion, Maya devises several schemes to get home—none of which work as anticipated. (Bears, bison, and an RV named Bertha complicate Maya’s plans.) As Maya sets out on a secret bike ride through Yellowstone National Park with her little sister, a cute boy, and a blue-haired girl named Shiver, she wonders if it’s possible to find home in the last place she ever expected.

Gail, thanks for stopping by Middle Grade Minded today to talk about OUT OF TUNE. I loved Maya. She was such a spot-on middle grade character, from her voice to her motivations. Like any tween, her BFF, her crush, and her dream of stardom are foremost in her mind. (When I was twelve, I was certain I would become the next Olympic figure skating champion, so I could totally relate.) How do you develop such well-rounded middle grade characters? Any advice on nailing that elusive middle grade voice?

Thank you! I really loved writing the characters in OUT OF TUNE. (In fact, they're probably my favorite set of characters I've written so far!) Usually, I have an idea of the main character as I start the book, but I add to that idea as I write and go through drafts. It's almost as if they're created in layers. I learn more about them as I go. I always start with the main character's goal and then slowly build her personality as I work through drafts of the story. Bits of Maya that I added along the way are Hugo (her cat), her love of reading, the backstory between Maya, Jack, and Lacey, her signature “Holy Potatoes!” exclamation, and the little things she keeps with her that tie her to her dream, such as the posters and giant book about music.

Where did you get the idea for a road trip adventure story?

I'm obsessed with road trips! A huge part of this book came from my own travels out west and the places where I left my pieces of my heart. And I love (LOVE!) reading road trip travel blogs. I stumbled across blogs from young families who do what Maya's family does in OUT OF TUNE – sell pretty much everything to live in an RV and travel the country. The whole idea fascinated me – everything from the downsizing to how the parents actually earn money to the utter freedom of it. And then I started wondering if I'd be as interested in this whole idea if I were twelve years old (short answer: no way!). That's how the idea behind the book was born, and I set the biggest chunk of it in one of my favorite places in the world – Yellowstone National Park.
 
OUT OF TUNE is fast-paced, with a constant ticking clock. (“35 days until Dueling Duets auditions, 16 days until Dueling Duets auditions…") The sense of time running out kept me reading late into the night. How else can middle grade writers keep readers turning pages?

This is something I struggle with! Ending a chapter with a cliffhanger works really well. I'm awful at ending chapters, and I almost always have to go back and either fix my chapter breaks or add something to the end of the chapter to make the reader want to turn the page. But for most books, this doesn't work for every chapter. A compelling character with a goal the reader can sympathize with is key. And never underestimate your secondary characters! If you make them as well-rounded and interesting as your main character, readers will be eager to keep turning pages. A mystery can help, too, even if you're not writing a mystery novel. Holding a little something back from the reader, dropping clues, and then setting up a big reveal is a great way to keep readers hooked. I tried to do this with Shiver's character in OUT OF TUNE, and found it really fun to write. (Although adding clues is not easy. It took me a few drafts to get those put in the right places.) And finally, pacing. It's crucial to create ebbs and flows in the action of your story. If it slows down for too long, readers will lose interest. At the same time, if it's constant action, readers never have time to identify and sympathize with your main character.

Can you share your publication story with OUT OF TUNE? How many drafts did you write? Did you face any rejection on your road to publication?

No rejections on this book, but don't worry – I have many, many war stories of rejections on other books. So if you're piling up the rejections right now, I empathize. I wrote the original drafts of OUT OF TUNE before I had an agent. When I signed with Julia for BREAKING THE ICE (and EXIT STAGE LEFT, which is its own crazy publication story!) in 2013, I was still working on OUT OF TUNE. I went through several drafts of the manuscript before I even showed it to beta readers, never mind my agent, and I rewrote the last half twice before Julia ever saw it.

The biggest challenge with this book was making the second half match up with the first. Originally, Maya and her friends got lost in the woods about halfway through the book. It ended up reading much more serious than the first part of the book, so I had to decide what kind of book I was writing. I opted for something lighter, in the vein of the two books I'd already written, and rewrote the second half to make it more fun. Except, there's only so much you can do to make getting lost in the woods fun . . . so I finally scrapped that idea altogether and added in the hundred-mile bike ride. Julia liked it, and sent it to Amy, my editor at Aladdin. Amy loved it, but thought Maya needed a stronger motivation to get back home. That's when Maya went from a knitter to a singer! OUT OF TUNE is a very different and much stronger book now – eight drafts later.

 
Thank you, Gail, for taking the time to stop by Middle Grade Minded.

For a chance to win an ARC of Out of Tune, leave a comment below before midnight on November 15. A winner will be drawn at random.

The Charming LIfe of Izzy Malone Author Interview and ARC Giveaway

Today I’m thrilled to have the chance to interview Jenny Lundquist, author of Seeing Cinderella, Plastic Polly, The Princess In the Opal Mask, The Opal Crown, and her newest book, The Charming Life of Izzy Malone, which comes out November, 2016 from Simon & Schuster/Aladdin M!x. I had a chance to read an ARC of The Charming Life of Izzy Malone, and I absolutely fell in love with the adorably flawed main character. Here’s an overview of this fast-paced middle grade:

Izzy Malone isn’t your typical middle schooler. The stars are her only friends, and she’s set a new record for trips to the principal’s office. The only place Izzy feels at home is on the open water. She dreams of rowing for the Dandelion Paddlers, a middle school rowing club. When Izzy’s antics land her in hot water, her parents enroll her in Mrs. Whippie’s Earn Your Charm School, where she receives a letter, a charm bracelet, and instructions for earning charms by performing a series of tasks.  Soon Izzy is adding charms to her bracelet. But when a task goes seriously wrong, she must make things right with the help of some unexpected friends. Can Izzy fix her mistake, become a Paddler, and Earn Her Charm?

Jenny Lundquist has generously donated an ARC to one lucky reader of this blog! (Keep reading for a chance to win!) She also was kind enough to answer the following questions about writing her latest book: 

1.      What was your inspiration for Izzy, your main character?  Is she based on any of your own middle school experiences?

Izzy definitely wasn’t based on any particular experiences I’ve had. I’ve always had a thing for charm bracelets (I have two of my own!) and I love how we use them to tell the story of our life: where we’ve been, our interests, things we’ve done, etc. While I was reflecting on this one day I thought about how great it would be if I wrote a story about a girl who used the charms on her bracelet to start building the story of her life.

I also have a thing for fall, and giant pumpkins.

 

(I mean, seriously, how can you look at a picture like this and not be inspired?)

So, a couple years ago I attended the Elk Grove Pumpkin Festival and watched their Great Pumpkin Regatta. I can’t tell you how much fun it was to watch people racing these ginormous pumpkins across the pond. I decided I wanted to figure out a way to add a giant pumpkin race into my charm bracelet story. Putting those two concepts together seemed kind of odd, but then it occurred to me: What if my main character was considered a little odd? I started brainstorming the plot from there, and eventually, The Charming Life of Izzy Malone was born.

In addition to all that, I use Pinterest boards to help me brainstorm. I keep a collection of images for each book I write and I refer to them when I need a little bit of inspiration. You can find Izzy’s board here.

 

2.     Studying the stars, rowing a giant pumpkin in a regatta, collecting charms for a charm bracelet…your book is chock-full of interesting plot twists that will definitely keep middle grade readers turning pages. Are you a plotter or a pantster? Where do you get your plot ideas?

I’m definitely a mix of both. I try really hard to outline a book before I’ve written it; but inevitably it falls flat when I actually start to write the first draft. While I can discover some major plot points just through the brainstorming process, a lot of it I have to figure out along the way. I had the hardest time plotting out Izzy’s story. By the time I finally sent in a synopsis and sample chapters to my editor I’d already written (and discarded) hundreds of pages. Really hoping all my next books won’t be so difficult!    
 

3.      Izzy shows great emotional growth in this novel, changing from a girl with only the stars for her friends, to someone with three good friends at her side. I loved this line: “Because maybe the best kind of friends are like stars: bright and beautiful, appearing in the darkness just when you need them, giving you a little bit of light on a dark night.”
 

Do you plot an emotional arc for your main character before drafting? Or does this arc develop over the course of several drafts?

That is one of my favorite lines, too! My emotional arcs develop over the course of several drafts. I seriously envy writers who are able to produce really strong first drafts. But for me, I don’t feel like I create a story so much as I “discover” it, sort of like how an archeologist digs for artifacts. I feel like I am unearthing a book, and merely telling a story that already exists.

Unfortunately, that means I need to write several terrible drafts before I can really start getting to know my characters and understand the emotional journeys my main characters need to take. By the time my editor sees my completed “first” draft, really it’s closer to my twentieth draft. I really wish I wasn’t such a messy, slow writer, but honestly, that’s the only way I know how to do it.

 

4.     The Charming Life Of Izzy Malone ends with Izzy and her friends Daisy, Violet, and Sophia starting a Charm Girls club. It feels like the girls will keep meeting and having adventures! Any chance readers will have a chance to meet these girls in a sequel?

Yes! Right now I’m working on a sequel to Izzy, which will be told from Violet’s point of view. It’s slated for Fall of 2017 and will be titled The Wondrous World of Violet Barnaby. I can’t say a whole lot about the plot right now, but the details should be released in a few months here on Goodreads.

Thank you, Jenny!
If you'd like a chance to win an ARC of The Charming Life of Izzy Malone, enter a comment below. A winner will be drawn at random.


 

 

 

Author Interview: Lee Gjertsen Malone and THE LAST BOY AT ST. EDITH'S

Next Tuesday, February 23rd, a debut middle grade novel will be hitting bookstore shelves: THE LAST BOY AT ST. EDITH'S, by Lee Gjertsen Malone. Here's the gist:

"Seventh grader Jeremy Miner has a girl problem. Or, more accurately, a girls problem. 475 of them to be exact. That’s how many girls attend his school, St. Edith’s Academy.Jeremy is the only boy left after the school’s brief experiment in co-education. And he needs to get out. But his mother—a teacher at the school—won’t let him transfer, so Jeremy takes matters into his own hands: he’s going to get expelled.Together with his best friend Claudia, Jeremy unleashes a series of hilarious pranks in hopes that he’ll get kicked out with minimal damage to his permanent record. But when his stunts start to backfire, Jeremy has to decide how far he’s willing to go and whom he’s willing to knock down to get out the door."

I was lucky enough to get my hands on an advanced copy of the book, which I devoured in just a couple of days. It was witty, warm, hilarious and charming. I definitely agree with Kirkus, which called it a "spectacular debut" in a starred review. You all should definitely go out pre-order a copy yourself - it's a wonderful, lively yarn that's sure to keep you turning the pages. You can check it out on INDIEBOUND or on AMAZON.

Ms. Gjertsen Malone was kind enough to answer a few questions about herself, her book and her writing life.

DG: The setting of your story - an elite east coast private school - is so unique and interesting. Do you have a connection with private schools? What gave you the idea to write a story with this setting?

LGM: I don’t have any specific connections to private schools – in fact I went to public school for my whole childhood and find private schools fascinating for that reason. But my husband actually went to an all boy’s school that went coed a few years after he graduated.


After reading a fundraising appeal letter that explained all the great things they’d added at his old school – like girls sports teams – and how many more girls were attending each year, I got to thinking. Why would a school decide to go coed? And how could they be sure it would actually work? And then, if it didn’t work, what if the opposite happened.....if there were fewer and fewer kids like you each year.

At the same time I was mulling the idea of writing a story with a very strong boy-girl friendship at the center. My idea of the failed coed school was the perfect setting for that kind of story.

DG: I absolutely adore Jeremy Miner, your main character. He really felt so real and believable. Was it hard for you to get into the head of a seventh grade boy?

LGM: Thank you, because one of my biggest fears in writing this book was that people would not find him believable, largely because I am not a seventh grade boy. (Or actually any sort of boy at all.)

 Still I think that most people, at their core, are very similar in a lot of ways. We all have fears and insecurities and concerns about the shifting relationships in our lives. A seventh grade boy is really not all that different.

I should also add, though, that I did have two men read this book several times, my husband and one of my crit partners, and their feedback on Jeremy was vitally important. (Especially since my crit partner actually grew up in Western Massachusetts, where the book is set)

DG: Like so much great middle grade lit, your story is in many ways about identity - about figuring out who we are and where we belong. Did you have experiences in your own adolescence in which you felt isolated, excluded or like you didn't belong? How much of your own middle school years did you draw on to write this story?

LGM: I’m not one of those writers that tries to write about myself, not at all. But if there’s one aspect of my own middle school years that comes out in this book, it’s the feeling Jeremy has that whatever he does, he’ll always stand out for one thing he has no control over – that he’s a boy. It’s around that age, I think, when kids start to realize that sometimes you can stand out by choice – by your skills and abilities, your actions, your interests. Like Claudia does. But other times you stand out for things that aren’t your choice, and maybe aren’t a reason you want to stand out at all.

For me, it was because I’m an identical twin. And that really started to bug me during those middle school years. Not because I dislike my twin, or even being a twin, but because I felt like that was the only thing that the people around me ever noticed or cared about. I could have set the building on fire and half the kids would be like “Check out that twin girl with the gascan!”

Seriously – I bet there are tons of people I went to school with who, if they encounter this novel in a store, will immediately go “Oh look, one of the Gjertsen twins wrote a book.”

I can laugh about it now, but it grated on me so much at around age twelve. I think a lot of kids feel that way.

I also think that’s one of the reasons why the pranks become so compelling to Jeremy despite some of his early reservations – it’s his chance to stand out by choice.


DG: A lot of the story hinges around Jeremy navigating his changing relationships: with his family, his friends (old and new), and even a potential crush. You really make this a vital and compelling part of the book. Do you have any tips for other middle grade writers on how to make the relationships in their own stories become alive and important on the page?

LGM: One aspect of the story that was important to me from the beginning was the idea that Jeremy has all sorts of different relationships in his life, even though most of them are with women. Each relationship has its own ups and downs, and history, and even private language – the way he talks to Emily is different from the way he talks to Claudia from the way he talks to his sister, or his mom.

And this is true for everyone, in real life, both kids and adults. So I think it’s important to observe those little details in the relationships around you and incorporate them into your writing. One example – in this book, when Jeremy is with Emily, he’s always aware of how they are in space. Where she’s sitting, where he’s sitting, that sort of thing. Because they have this awkwardness in their relationship that he’s aware of but doesn’t fully understand. Meanwhile that never comes up with Claudia – she could sit right next to him and whisper in his ear and he wouldn’t even really notice.  Those kinds of details help show how real relationships can vary so widely in big and small ways.


DG: Can you tell us a little about your path to publication with THE LAST BOY AT ST. EDITH'S? Do you have any advice for other aspiring middle grade writers on making that publishing dream come true?

LGM: How much time do you have? The short version is this is not the first manuscript I’ve ever written, it’s also not the first one that went on sub to publishers, and I’m not with my first agent. So I guess the message from that is keep at it? People tend to like overnight success stories, but most of the successful writers I know spent a long time perfecting their work, querying, and facing rejection.


DG: Congratulations on a spectacular debut. While I'm sure (and I hope) that you're focused on enjoying the launch of this book, is there anything else you're currently working on? What's up next for you?

LGM: I have a few projects in the works, but nothing I can really talk about yet. Hopefully I’ll have some news to share at some point!