WBBT Interview with Emily Wing Smith

At the Kitlitosphere Conference my evil twin (she is too more evil.) and I were mingling away from the main throng when none but Sara Zarr pushes someone aside saying that she wanted to give me a book. I then tried to take the book from her with mild interest saying, "Oh is this your new one?" but Sara Zarr would not let go of this book, despite my tugging. She proceeded to clutch this book close to her chest and say wonderful, passionate things about it with genuine fervor in her eyes. I wasn't sure she would actually let me have the book, and then I worried a little for her sanity that she had gotten so worked up and had chosen ME ( I mean, ME? wha...?) to share it with. Nonetheless, eventually she relaxed her grip and gave me the book.

What was that book, you say? What made the illustrious Sara Zarr so fervent? THE WAY HE LIVED by Emily Wing Smith. I should have simply left the hotel lobby then and gone up to read the book in our room, but I did not. I did manage to crack the cover on the train ride back to Seattle, where I was instantly engrossed, but I was with the evil twin and knew I'd be unable to give it the attention Sara Zarr clearly implied that it needed, so I returned home where reality and reading commitments returned, leaving THE WAY HE LIVED to gather dust until just last week.

Upon finally reading the book, I found myself compelled to turn page after page, reading it with a speed and eagerness that Sara Zarr was undoubtedly familiar with.

A synopsis most basic:
Joel meant many things to many people, and now that he's dead six teens are coping with the hole he's left in their lives.

Emily Wing Smith shows enormous restraint with this title. She doesn't shy away from portraying religion and the implications of religion in an insular community, but does it with such deft skill that conclusions are left up to the reader, and there are no right answers. The novel is broken up into six parts with six distinct narrators. Each character's complete story is told individually, short story style, and based upon the Monday's Child nursery rhyme, with each character claiming a birth day, Joel being Sunday, the missing day. It's very well written and I was eager for every page. It isn't entirely mournful by any means, but it is moving and empowering. Smith also raises some very interesting commentary about how easy it is not to know a person no matter how much information you think you have - if you can't get in their head, you really don't know that much.

Moral of the story: If National Book Award Finalist Sara Zarr ever tracks you down in a large hotel among large groups of people, in order to give you (you specifically, how freakin' cool is that?) a book, but actually has a hard time letting the book out of her hands because she feels that strongly about it, read it. Push the large stack of books on your shelf (and night stand... and floor... and kitchen table...) out of the way, and read it right then. She seems to have rather good taste. And then when you feel compelled to interview the author you won't have email Sara Zarr and rudely demand that she get you that interview post haste.

On to the interview:

Jackie: Each of the six narrators have clear, distinct voices that are in a small part aided by the different points of view you choose to write their portions in. Were there challenges to working with that many P.O.Vs, let alone that many narrators?

Emily Wing Smith: Definitely! People often ask me why I chose to write the book with multiple narrators and points of view. I didn’t really choose to write it that way—this story came to me as a collage of voices, each voice telling me how he or she was dealing with Joel’s death. So having six different narrators wasn’t as much of a challenge as each one needing to be told in a specific style.

This was most obvious with my character, Miles. I heard his voice in my head as if he were talking to himself, clearly saying “You don’t know shit.” All I could think was: “I can’t start out a story like that! There must be some way I can filter and still be true to his voice.” I worked on turning that line into a first-person account of a guy whose world was falling apart around him, but something about it was just off. Finally, I wrote the story from second-person, just the way his thoughts were coming to me, completely unfiltered. It worked! I eventually changed it back to first-person, but this time it was as simple as replacing every “you” with “I.”


While the novel is a portrait of Joel, it is a very open-ended depiction that focuses on how a person can be different things to different people. We can't ever hear from Joel himself, so we are left to piece him together from the people who knew him best, but even their knowledge of him is imperfect. It is an astounding feat to show that even six people can't know everything about one person. The reader is left with the perfect balance of suspicion and conjecture about a beloved character, but no solid answer - what motivated you to tell the story like this?

As a teenager, I moved to a community where a boy my age had recently died on a camping trip. Occasionally, I would meet people who had known and loved him, and I was amazed by their diversity—Bad Boys, Good Girls, and everyone in-between. It’s interesting to get to know someone only through what others say about him—especially when you know you won’t get the chance to meet him yourself.

With Joel, I am trying to re-create that experience. Joel’s not around to tell us his story, so we’re left to come up with our own conclusions. Some people are upset that the book has no solid answers, but that’s the point: you can hear a million different stories about someone from a million different people and still have questions.


Religion plays a significant role in THE WAY HE LIVED. Your treatment of it was subtle, yet deft. Religion was THE foundation for the community and many of your narrator's lives, but each of them had a very different relationship with it. You dealt with (let's be honest) a slightly controversial religion in a completely objective and realistic way - it was good for some, had cracks for others, and wasn't a big deal to most. I'm curious to your relationship with religion and how you chose to include it in this way.

As I mentioned, I moved as a teenager. My new town was overwhelmingly populated by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was—and still am--also LDS, and used to both the religion and the culture that surrounds it. But this place (which is very similar to the fictional Haven/West Haven) took the Mormon culture to a whole new level! So the culture in this specific town plays an important role in the book.

However, I’ve always been curious about what happens when over ninety-percent of a population has the same “belief.” I mean, obviously not all of those people can have the exact same beliefs, right? So I wanted The Way He Lived to explore how death affects characters with different degrees of the same belief.

One of the big, unresolved questions in THE WAY HE LIVED was if Joel was gay or not. I also think it was very interesting that Joel's sisters, when searching for comfort after his death both find themselves in situations that surround them with gay culture - without either ever making any conscious acknowledgement of Joel's sexuality.

The other big unresolved question is whether or Joel killed himself, a prospect that becomes more probable when considering his insular community, its stance surrounding his sexuality (if the reader decides he's gay) and events revealed in the final section. I don't want to stray too far into the realm of conjecture, but I'm curious as to how much a product of his environment Joel may have been, and basically, why you chose to deal with homosexuality in this fashion.

Speaking of big, unresolved questions--you’ve done an excellent job with this one here, Jackie! (Jac sez: She only says this because she saw my tweet about how I was struggling with making this a fair, um, unbiased question. Darn you internets!) This is a pretty broad question which I could discuss at length, but I’ll try to be as concise as possible.

Two things jumped out at me as the idea for THE WAY HE LIVED percolated in my brain. One was the idea of how the boy in my community had died—by giving up his water on a hiking trip. At face value, that is the ultimate in unselfish acts, and from what I know about this real-life boy, I fully believe that this caused his death. But I also couldn’t help thinking that there was no way I’d do the same thing in that situation. I mean, I like to think I’m pretty unselfish. But I’m also practical. Lots of people on a hiking trip + all of them requiring water to stay alive – enough water for everyone = someone isn’t going to make it. What if you did the math and decided the person who wasn’t going to make it would be you?

The other thing that jumped out at me was the last line of the nursery rhyme that connects these stories: “The child born on the Sabbath day is fair and wise and good and gay.” These days, you can’t use a line like that without considering the double-meaning of the word “gay.” That’s when the story took off.

I wanted to address the subject of Joel’s sexuality the exact same way it would be addressed in his community: “He’s a member of the [LDS] Church, and therefore isn’t gay.” LDS doctrine considers homosexuality a sin, and Church members, even those with same-gender attractions, cannot practice this lifestyle and remain in good standing with the Church. To me, it’s always been heartbreaking that some faithful Church members struggle with this “forbidden” attraction for years, without anyone acknowledging that it’s a struggle (for example, thinking it’s a choice to “become” gay and you can just as easily “choose” to be straight). What if you decided you couldn’t spend your whole life trying to be someone that you weren’t?

You mentioned the process of writing the Miles character. Were you particularly attached to one or another of the narrators (or characters, it doesn't have to be one of the six. The mysterious Adam perhaps?)

Not really, although I do hold a particular fondness for “the mysterious Adam.” While in the process of writing this book, I told my critique group, “Each one of these narrators is completely different, yet they each sound exactly like me. How is that possible?” I think the reason I’m not most attached to any certain character is because a part of me is in each one of them.

Oftentimes you read books that simply rotate narrators, interweaving the stories, rather than letting each narrator have their own section. THE WAY HE LIVED is very much short story-like because of its presentation - did you purposely fall into that format, was it automatic? Are you a fan of short stories (and if so can you share some of your favorites?)?

The first YA manuscript I wrote (unpublished, and likely to stay that way, at least for awhile) had dual narrators who alternated chapters. Since I had experience with “rotating” narrators, I already knew that wasn’t right for THE WAY HE LIVED. I think the short story format of novel writing is difficult—in my experience, more difficult than one with rotating narrators. Still, I felt the stories of the individual narrators would be too diluted if I separated their stories, and it just wouldn’t be right.

My main inspiration for using this style was M.E Kerr’s YA novel I Stay Near You: One Story in Three. The novel is written in three distinct sections. Part one is narrated first-person and revolves around a girl coming of age in the 1940s. Part two is the third-person account of the son of this same “girl” twenty years down the road. Part three is in the form of a letter sent in the 1980s. This book is amazing in the ways it ties a single story together through three generations of family, using a variety of narrative structures. I don’t mean to imply that my book is anywhere near as well-crafted as hers—but it did give me a starting point.

I have to be honest, I was a little afraid during Tabbatha's portion that the plot would turn toward watching her in beauty competitions. How did you know when you were done with each character? Many of them left me wanting (not needing, as they were all complete storylines) more.

Um, yeah. Having never competed in a pageant of any sort, and knowing nothing about that world in general, I knew Tabs would never enter that arena. Besides, I knew from the beginning that actually competing wasn’t part of her journey—it was realizing that she could have. But I digress…

Deciding where to end the stories was certainly a challenge. I wanted each portion to have a complete storyline, but sometimes that made me want to tack on endings to each of them. I’m not particularly skilled with writing endings anyway, so writing six of them was a dead-end. Now I feel like each of the stories, particularly those of Claire and Norah, end at a place that is really only a beginning. But it’s a beginning where I felt comfortable leaving them.


You use the Monday's Child nursery rhyme to connect the narrators, and each line directly relates to each character. Why that poem? When and how did it come into play?

The nursery rhyme came into play early in the writing process. I had all these voices, and as they came to me, I would write down snatches of what they said (interestingly, very few of these “snatches” remain in the book). I would draw lines from one voice to another as their connections became clearer to me. As I figured out more about each character’s role in Joel’s life, and his role in theirs, I would draw more lines. It was a crazy mess, but for some reason it reminded me of a nursery rhyme about the characteristics of children born on different days of the week. I had six characters, each exemplifying one of the traits mentioned in the rhyme. I re-read the nursery rhyme to remember the exact phrasing of the line for the child born on the Sabbath day, and everything clicked. In fact, the book’s original title was SUNDAY’S CHILD.

Can you tell us a little about what you are working on now, and how it is a different writing experience from THE WAY HE LIVED?

My wonderful agent, Michael Bourret, has just sold my second young adult novel, BACK WHEN YOU WERE EASIER TO LOVE, to the wonderful Julie Strauss-Gabel at Dutton. In some ways, I feel like this is my first book. THE WAY HE LIVED was told more or less through short stories, so it didn’t have the same beginning, middle, end trajectory that most novels require. It’s been quite a learning experience!

Ok, last question: You said in your interview with the 5 randoms that you prefer reading YA over other books (Yay! Me too!). Who/what are some of your favorite authors/books for teens?

I am extremely fortunate to live near some amazing YA authors like Sara Zarr, Ann Cannon, and Ann Dee Ellis. I also grew up reading and loving the work of veteran YA writer M.E Kerr. I think John Green is crazy-talented; ditto for author duo Laura and Tom McNeal.

Thank You EMILY for playing along with me - especially at such short notice!

The rest of today's WBBT schedule:
Mayra Lazara Dole at Chasing Ray
Francis O'Roark Dowell at Fuse #8
J. Patrick Lewis at Writing and Ruminating
Wendy Mass at HipWriterMama
Lisa Ann Sandell at Bildungsroman
Caroline Hickey and Sara Lewis Holmes at MotherReader
A.S. King at Bookshelves of Doom

SBBT Interview: Mary Hooper

I suspect that many of you out there have not heard of Mary Hooper. I'm not holding it against you...but I do think that you ought to pay some attention to her latest title, Newes from the Dead. Especially if you are in front of teens searching for good historical fiction. Or any teens, really, this one is a cinch to book talk. Just TRY and keep them from tearing it out of your hands after a good book talk. And not to say that MY booktalk is that good, but here's what I said in my review:

"Anne Green wakes up in the dark. She can't move. She can't see and she can't cry out. Her last memory is that of being hanged for a crime she did not commit. As she relives the events that led to her execution, there are people gathering around her motionless body. These people aren't her loving family assembled for her funeral, but doctors and students preparing to dissect her for science...The best part? It's based on true events from 1650."

Well, at least it worked on Erin and Sarah Miller (damn. linked to her again. I must stop.).

So, peaked by interest and my life-long love of historical fiction, I was lucky to interview her:

1. Is this the first time your main character has been based on a real person? How is writing historically based people different than characters you create? I imagine that it’s more constraining.

I love using real people (Nell Gwyn, Dr Dee, the wicked Earl of Rochester, Aphra Benn and so on) because then you can think: these people actually existed, it could really and truly have happened like this. And I quite enjoy being constrained, or otherwise the choices for the ways people can act can become too great and you (the writer, I mean) can get bewildered.

(Jac says: Way to be ignorant, Jac. Nice.)

2. You’ve written books set around this time period before. I know you researched Anne Green’s life, but was there a new approach that you needed to take to set the piece in the world that concerned Anne?

This was the first time I’d based an entire book on a real-life incident, so I wanted it to be as accurate as possible. As, however, there were (at least) three different pamphlets about Anne printed in 1650, I decided to take the most interesting and amazing bits from each, rather than use a pamphlet in its entirety. I knew next to nothing about life under Cromwell, so there was this aspect to investigate, too.

3. READER: WARNING, DO NOT EAT WHILE READING THIS NEXT BIT:

“…a crone wearing heavy leg irons who’d been hunched into a far corner was found to be dead – and to have been dead for some days, too, for when they went to move her, it was discovered that her legs had quite rotted away from her body” p 147.

EW. SERIOUSLY. EW. I’m assuming that really happened. Did you find an account of it? It is the single sentence that most convinces the reader (ok, me) of how ghastly conditions were at that time. In my opinion it’s the single most horrifying sentence in the book - and there were some grisly events. What else can you tell us about prisons, and that lovely piece of imagery, that might not have made it into the novel?

I found an account of such a thing when I was researching Clink Prison (in Southwark, London) for The Remarkable Life and Times of Eliza Rose. It was too ghastly for Eliza, which is for a slightly younger readership, so I saved it up! I think the most fantastical thing about prisons at that time is that, if you were rich enough, you could live the life of Riley and come and go from your furnished private prison apartment as you liked. If you were poor, however, you’d be lucky to survive a hot summer what with dysentery, gaol fever, lice and worms. (Is that grisly enough for you?)

(Jac says: Yep. Plenty. Readers, how about you? Ghastly enough?)

4. I’d be interested in a novel that focused on Robert, or at least featured him. Any chance of that happening? I felt his story wasn’t finished.

Um…I have not attempted a whole book from a man’s point of view. Something else would have to happen to Robert to enable him to star in his own book.

5. Anne was repeatedly struck in the chest both while hanging and while on the dissection table (from the original pamphlet appended: “…a lusty fellow that stood by, he [thinking to do an act of charity in ridding her out of the small reliques of a painful life] stamped several times on her breast and stomach with all the force he could” p 2 of the appendix.) did you find any evidence or conjecture that suggested that they may have inadvertently kept her heart going by those actions?

Good thinking! This hadn’t occurred to me and I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere before now. Maybe it’s possible that this did happen.
(Jac says: I'm fascinated with archaic medicine. Go leeches!)

6. Anne was a victim of a grossly unjust law that targeted poor women – at what point did that law change? And how?

Although the law didn’t actually change until 1803, I get the feeling that once the Monarchy was restored in 1660, the world gradually became more enlightened and this patently unjust law was not applied so rigorously. (I have absolutely no proof of this so feel free to correct me if I‘m wrong).

(Jac says: Makes sense to me.)

7. You’ve written about the same number of historical novels for teens as you have contemporary. Besides the added burden of research, what makes writing the two genres different? Which is harder for you?

Oh, it’s not a burden at all! It’s the best bit. The planning, plotting, agonising and actual writing are the burdens, but research is the bit where you discover all the wonderful things that are going to bring your story to life. This is where I discovered that Christopher Wren was present at the “dissection” and that Charles I chose Sir Thomas Reade’s house to say goodbye to his queen in.

What makes them different? Modern YA novels, to make them authentic, should include stuff about Blackberries, ipods, text messaging and mobile phones. Yawn.

(Jac says: Yawn, indeed.)

Historical novels, meanwhile, can have dashing highwaymen, glamorous mistresses of kings, quack doctors, quaint customs, crystallised rose petals and frost fairs. No contest! I now find it much more difficult to make a modern novel compelling, and intend to stick to historicals.

(Jac says: Now that's more like it!)

8. I’ve noticed that most of your historical novels are primarily set in the 1600s. What is it about that era that appeals to you most? Are there other time periods that interest you?

I particularly like the Restoration period, when the monarch regained the throne and everyone went a bit mad with relief. Of course, two major incidents happened during this time on consecutive years: the Great Plague in 1665 and the Great Fire of London in 1666, so they are a bit of a gift to an historical writer. I intend to write a Victorian Gothic novel next, so that period is about to interest and enthral me.

(Jac says: Victorian Gothic?! Fantastic!)

9. Are there any British writers for teens that you think Americans should pay attention to?

Anne Cassidy (Looking for JJ) writes great, gritty crime novels.

(Jac says: That pic comes from the British stage adaptation!)

10. What would you recommend to teen fans that liked Newes from the Dead?

My other historicals, for a start! And Celia Rees’s Witch Child if you haven’t already read it.

Thank You Mary Hooper!

The Rest of your Friday SBBT:

Varian Johnson at Finding Wonderland
Jincy Willett at Shaken & Stirred
John Grandits at Writing & Ruminating
Meg Burden at Bookshelves of Doom
Gary D. Schmidt at Miss Erin
Javaka Steptoe at Seven Impossible Things

Dude. Susan Beth Pfeffer.

Ok, so Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer freaked me out. Like, really freaked me out. I was unbelievably eager for the companion novel to come out, and thanks to a mysterious benefactor, I scored an ARC. It is just a riveting at the first, but a whole lot more macabre. It's disturbing, haunting, and totally awesome. Hence the interview - welcome Susan Beth Pfeffer!

1. Um, holy cow. the dead & the gone IS way darker than Life As We Knew It! How did you get there? How did you find the worst and then make it even more horrible? How did you know when you made it grisly enough? Did you ever think that you had gone too far? Did you take anything out, or abandon any ideas as too far-fetched or dark? Is that enough questions?

I don't remember having a lot of problems figuring out the story for the dead & the gone. I knew it would be darker than Life As We Knew It because the situation I set up for Alex, not knowing what had become of his parents, would make him much more vulnerable. Miranda is protected a lot by her mother and older brother; Alex has to take that role on himself (which he does with mixed success). I suppose the book is more grisly, because there's more death on the streets. Miranda's story is about her world getting smaller and smaller; Alex's is about his world getting more and more dangerous.

I was never worried about taking things too far. I named the book almost immediately, and figured anyone reading a book called the dead & the gone would understand there's going to be a lot of dead and gone in the story.

(Jac says: Touché)

2. Without giving anything away, there were a few scenes, especially the stadium, that were particularly emotional to read. Briana was also often hard to read about. Do you have that kind of approach some authors talk about where they feel a connection with their characters? Did you find any part of the novel especially difficult to write, revise or read?

I have to admit, after I got my first copy, I skimmed through the book, and thought, "Whoo this is dark." I use the Yankee Stadium scene as a readaloud (and there's a link to it on my blog - for anyone who wants to read it). It separates very neatly from the rest of the book, and gives a strong sense of all the themes. So it's lost its power to shock me, just from familiarity.

A character I'm very fond of dies during the book, and when I skimmed through it, I forgot which scene it happened in, and I got upset all over again.

Actually, a larger number of important characters die in LAWKI than in d&g.

(Jac says: If we are thinking of the same character, I liked him/her a lot, too, and that death was just wracking. I just didn't know how to bring it up without giving anything away. She's not kidding about the amount of death, either. Teens will love it.)

3. How did you settle on making your central characters Puerto Rican?

When I started coming up with the idea for d&g, I wanted it to be as different as possible from LAWKI, boy/girl, urban/rural, lower middle class/upper middle class. Miranda's family wasn't religious, so I wanted religion to be central to Alex's life. Making Alex's family Puerto Rican just felt right.

4. Religion is a major theme of the book. Faith is central to Alex's sister Bri's life, to the point where she believes in things that aren't rational. There was a small character in Live as We Knew It, Miranda's best friend, who essentially starved herself for her faith. On whole the treatment of religion in the dead & the gone is far different from the first book. Can you tell us a little about this?

When I first came up with the idea for LAWKI, I decided Miranda and her family wouldn't be religious. I didn't like they idea of their praying for conditions to improve, when I (their creator) was commited to making things worse rather than better.

(Jac says: Remind me never to lobby to be a character in one of her books, k?)

But there was no way of writing an end of the world book without some religious overtones, so I gave that viewpoint to one of Miranda's friends. Someone pointed out to me that by the book's end, Miranda is doing for love of family what Megan did for love of God.

Bri comes off as more religious than Alex or Julie (the youngest sister), but really, they're all very devout. Bri trusts in God in a way her brother and sister don't, but none of them turn away from their faith.

5. One thing that everyone says about these two books is that they really make them want to go stock up on canned goods. Have you personally thought about what you would do given some cataclysmic event? Have you a plan? A basement full of supplies?

I'm deadmeat. My cats will do okay, if they can figure out how to open cans. I'm a stockpiler by nature, but most of what I have in the house is cat food.

(Jac says: Two Months. Two months it took me after reading LAWKI to get over the urge to stockpile everytime I went past the grocery store. Not better this time.)

6. You've written A LOT of books for all ages – do you approach them differently due to their intended audiences? Are some age groups harder to write for than others?

I certainly aim different kinds of stories for different age levels. I would never write anything as dark as LAWKI/d&g for younger kids, and when I hear that young kids have read them, it upsets me (fortunately, I don't hear it often).

I have a grand total of one picture book in my collected writings. I like real little kids, but I don't understand them. But after that, I've written for just about every other age group except grownups. Most of my stories have to do with families, a subject that works very well in kids' books.

7. Why the special punctuation for the dead & the gone? Why no capitals?

When I wrote the dead & the gone, it was The Dead And The Gone (and it still is in the UK). But then I read an interview with my editor, where she referred to it as The Dead and the Gone. That looked kind of clumsy to me. I figured everything should be capitals or nothing should be. Then I decided an & would be kind of sexy. Harcourt was real nice about it. But that's actually just the way the title is on the book jacket. In the LAWKI paperback, the teaser calls it the dead and the gone. And the Harcourt website for it (which just takes you to my blog) is www.TheDeadAndTheGone.com

8. Were you at all surprised at the reception of Life As We Knew It? You said that it was the one book you never told anyone you were writing? Why was that? Did that one feel different to you?

When I wrote LAWKI, I did it purely on spec, and mostly to entertain myself. I told my brother, one of my cousins, and two close friends that I was working on it, but no one else (not even my mother, as she reminds me on occasion). I wasn't sure I'd finish the book, and I certainly had no idea what would happen with it. I figured the fewer people who knew about it, the fewer people who'd ask what had become of it.

I loved writing LAWKI. Some books are a joy to write, and LAWKI was one of them. I was immensely involved with it. I'd reread sections every night before going to bed. That's very unusual for me.

9. Last I noticed (and this is exceptionally dated awareness, I might add – and apologize for) on your blog you were talking about ideas for a third book – but also mentioning that there's no contract for another. Has that change? Will we get a full trilogy? 'Cause I really want one (that counts, right?)

I want a third book also, but it's Harcourt's decision. My guess is if d&g does well enough, Harcourt will give me the go ahead. If the dead & the gone turns into the dud & the gone, then we'll never know what becomes of the characters.

(Jac says: People. Buy. The. Book. Do it for the children.)

10. What other teen authors' books do you always look forward to?

I read very little fiction for any age level. I read biographies and history mostly, and choose books based on subject matter (I just finished reading a biography of Anne Boleyn's sister-in-law).

Why don't you read fiction? That seems unusual for a writer of fiction. When you do read it, what do you lean toward? What age group? What genre?

All right- when I read fiction, I favor suspense novels. I have a real fondness for American or British suspense novels from approximately 1946-1960, standalones where the wife is planning on murdering her husband or the husband is planning on murdering his wife. They're mostly by people I've never heard of and aren't that easy to find anymore.

As a kid, I read all the time, but I liked non-fiction as much as fiction- the Childhood of Famous American series and Landmark Books, for example. My interest in Tudor England comes from the Landmark Book on Queen Elizabeth and the Spanish Armada (although even as a kid, I didn't find Queen Elizabeth all that interesting, but I loved the beginning of the book about Henry VIII and his wives).

I absolutely adore movies though. They're my favorite form of storytelling.

(Jac says: dang. The perfect opportunity to ask what her fav. movie is. I blew it. Sorry guys.)

11. Can you recommend any books for fans of Life As We Knew It and the dead & the gone? You know, dark, painful books where most of the world dies and reader can't put down?

Actually, I can, but it's non-fiction. It's called Catastrophe and it's by David Keys. PBS showed a two part documentary based on it a while ago. I read it before coming up with LAWKI, and it was definitely an influence. It's about various horrible things (plague and famine and the suchlike) that happened during the dark ages, that the author believes were the result of a volcanic eruption.

(Jac says: Non-fiction are books too! And, I'll be checking at my library for that DVD.)

12. One extra question: I have a colleague who is featuring Life As We Knew It in her Summer Reading Program – all the kids in her community will be reading it. She'd like to know if you have any advice on cool related activities.

It makes me deliriously happy when I learn LAWKI is being used in summer reading programs and in schools. I went to a parent/kid discussion group about it where the librarian brought different foods mentioned in the book and we had a grab bag (did I get the chocolate? No, I got the Lime Jello).

(Jac says: I like lime Jello. Mom used to shred cabbage into it, which tastes WAY better than it sounds...I swear. It's the only thing I'll allow to float in my Jello.)

A school I know about had its students do a make believe shopping without telling the kids what the book was about. They were just told to buy the things they'd think they would need in an emergency. I'm told a lot of disposable razors were "purchased."

Another school had its students write diaries from any LAWKI character's viewpoint that they chose. One kid wrote a diary for Peter (the doctor) and another one wrote for Horton (the cat).

Harcourt is working on a teachers guide for both books, and they may include related activities.

Thank you Sue!

The rest of your Monday SBBT:

Adam Rex at Fuse Number 8
David Almond at 7 Impossible Things Before Breakfast
R.L. Lafevers at Finding Wonderland
Dave Schwartz at Shaken & Stirred
Elizabeth Scott at Bookshelves of Doom
Laurie Halse Anderson at Writing & Ruminating

10 More Questions for Sara Zarr

So I'm feeling uber lucky in welcoming National Book Award Finalist Sara Zarr back for a second interview here at Interactive Reader. Sweethearts, her new book, released in just this past week, is receiving just as much love as Story of a Girl got.

Eight years ago the only friend Jennifer had in this world disappeared. Cam was dead, and for all practical purposes, Jennifer moved on. She buried her unpopular self and slowly transformed into another person. But while her current friends have no idea of her history, the newly named Jenna isn't able to hide her past so easily from herself, and when Cam suddenly returns to her life she must face the Jennifer she's buried as well as the event that changed everything for two 9-year-old best friends so long ago.

1. How has Sweethearts so far been a different experience from Story of a Girl?

It has been so incredibly different! In terms of the writing process, I wrote Story of a Girl over three years while in a writing group while Sweethearts came about in more like one year with just me and my editor, mostly. Also, when Story came out I had nothing to lose...no one knew or cared who I was. Now that's not the case, so I'm acutely aware of attention and expectations in a way I wasn't before. The year of writing was rough because of that, but now that it's out I'm actually more relaxed than I was the first time around. I've got a contract for two more books, and hopefully a career beyond that ahead of me and I know I'll be through this at least several more times. My perspective now is not quite so narrow. And, I've already received fan mail from quite a few teen readers of Sweethearts, and if they are happy, I'm happy!

2. On page 20* "I buried my head in my hands and laughed because that's what you're supposed to do when you are being affectionately humiliated by friends - or so I'd observed in movies and TV." That's a pretty strong compulsion to conform. Do you think that because of her experience with bullying when she was younger Jenna has a stronger than average need to blend in and look and behave exactly how she thinks society expects her to? Do you think in general people's actions are based on society's expectations? Do you ever find yourself behaving against your instincts simply because certain behavior is expected? Do you feel you might need a degree in sociology to answer this apparently endless question?

Hah! Perhaps. Let's break it down: Yes, I think that for Jenna conformity is not about being popular or admired---it's a survival mechanism. And yes, we all act according to society's expectations in small ways and big ones. I mean, not constantly, but you obey laws and line up at the grocery store instead of barging to the front and you generally don't go up to people and tell them exactly what you think of them. More seriously, you might truly compromise your fundamental morality based on expectations or based on what other people are doing. (The documentary Enron: Smartest Guys in the Room is a great study of how this happens.) Lastly, I guess I sometimes do act against my instincts, though I'm a product of society so my instincts are at least partly formed by these expectations so...I don't know. Maybe I do need a degree to answer that one!

3. One lunch Jenna eats only 1/4 of a sandwich and a low-fat yogurt. She gives a small cookie away because she felt guilty about the cheese in her breakfast. This sounds like an eating disorder, but it wasn't acknowledged in the book as such. Can you tell us a little about whether Jenna's eating habits were brought on as an element of the above-mentioned conformity and/or as a coping mechanism?

She does have an eating disorder, or at least disordered compulsive eating/dieting patterns. I mean, frankly her lunch as described above is not that different from the "meals" of many women I know who are unhappy with their bodies. I think what she has, if it's not a contradiction, is the normal disordered eating that so many girls and women seem to constantly struggle with. Even if there aren't dramatic symptoms, there's constant evaluation and adding up and guilt and trying to redeem yourself when you've been "bad" by being "good." But...the book isn't about that, and she's not in physical jeopardy because of it, so I didn't choose to address it head on. To answer your question, I think she started off using food as a comfort and companion because that's what was there. When she decides she has to change her body for social survival she eats less, but the fundamental issue of using food inappropriately is still there.

4. What about her tendency to steal food, even though she was perfectly capable of buying her own? I think my exact note was, "What's with the shoplifting?"

That's one of those things I think will either seem totally crazy or totally believable depending on the reader's experience. For a lot of people who have been, at any time in their lives, singled out as "fat," there is tremendous shame around food: looking at it, talking about it, eating it, buying it. If you know you're about to binge, you feel like everyone around you knows it, too. You imagine the cashier being able to see right into your mind when you put that ice cream on the counter, and you just feel completely naked. You can either endure this and try to act normal with your pounding heart and sweaty palms, or avoid it entirely and bypass the cashier.

5. Family in both of your books play an important role - especially father figures. It's refreshing to see in Sweethearts a stepfather character who is loved as much as a biological father might be. I think, actually, that it is one of the strongest traits in your writing that I've been able to notice so far - your ability to create amazing, layered family units with realistic flaws. They are functionally dysfunctional and so damn REAL. Where is that coming from and how do you get there?

Thanks! That's a great phrase - "functionally dysfunctional." I think it describes my own family very well, so I guess that's where it comes from, innately. I definitely don't plan it and doubt I could tell anyone else how to do it. If I wrote out just the facts of my family history and my life with no narrative, one could read it and think, "There must be a trail of destruction a million miles long!" But there really isn't in the big picture. There is love and grace and reconciliation in the most unlikely places, thank God.

6. Sex in Sweethearts isn't something Jenna does out of love - she's avoiding things and doing it more because it's easier than not doing it: "When we sank into the warm, dark pile of blankets... I went even deeper into myself, far away, exactly where I wanted to be" p93. Again, like in Story of a Girl, your lead is having sex for the wrong reasons. This time to escape rather than to find acceptance. Can you tell us a little about your thoughts and intents with this aspect of the book? Will we see a healthy sexual relationship between teens in a future book? (Is there such a thing?)

To clarify (not that it matters that much) - Jenna does not have sex, though she is sexually active (to a nonspecific degree, I admit) in her relationship with Ethan. I don't know if I'm ready or qualified to tackle the question if there is such a thing as a healthy sexual relationship between teens. I just know the particular characters and story I'm writing at a given time, and work within that. Since Jenna is basically dating Ethan for the wrong reasons to begin with, it wouldn't make sense for them to have a whole and meaningful sex life. In future books, we shall see!

7. Lies pepper the novel and they affect relationships in ways that the players could never expect. One lie transforms the relationship between mother and daughter and has a consequence that might affect that relationship for the rest of their lives. "Everything between us for the past eight years could have been different if she'd simply told me the truth. And she had no idea" p. 99. Did you know about all those lies from the get-go, or did you discover them along the way?**

I discovered them along the way. At first, Jennifer's mom was just kind of clueless, but then I started think about her as a character and decided that her cluelessness was sometimes a bit of an act, that she knew more than she was letting on. Families can be very loyal to their secrets or to a particular version of events that has somehow become absolute truth.

8. Most of Jenna's friends are involved with the school play. What is your personal experience with theater? Were you on stage? What productions?

I've been performing my whole life, from children's ballet theater to junior high and high school drama to college and community theater where I met my husband. I've been in The Mousetrap, A Christmas Carol, Oliver! (don't forge the exclamation point), Look Homeward Angel, Alice in Wonderland, and a strange little play in verse called Judevine. I also ran lights for Godspell, and worked backstage on a lot of productions. I'd actually love to get back into community theater sometime. Last year I entered a ten-minute play into a local theater's contest and it was selected for production, which was fun. But I miss being part of the show!

9. For the most important question: Can you recite the Pledge of Allegiance backwards like Jenna can?

No! It took me forever to type that little snippet in the book and quadruple-check it for accuracy!

10. What's the last great book you read that you wish were getting more attention?

It's not YA, but "Now You See Him" by Eli Gottlieb was very affecting and unusual.

Thank you, Jackie!

Thank me? I'm just the little librarian. Thank you, Sara.

Previous & future Blog Tour Stops for Sweethearts:

Jan 28: Kate Messner
Feb 1st: Shelf Elf
Feb. 4th: The Well-Read Child
Feb 5th: Big A little a
Feb 7th: Becky's Book Reviews
Feb 8th: The Romance Reader's Connection
Feb 11th: Charlotte's Library
Feb 12th: My Readable Feast
Feb 13th: Debbi Michiko Florence
Feb 14th: Mr. Media (live, according to my source...and possibly a podcast)

*Page numbers and quotes come from the Advanced Reader's Copy and may change in the final version.
**Thank you Sarah Miller for helping me find the question in that mess.

Alan Gratz

So, since I already hit maximum levels of acclaim last week when I reviewed Something Rotten, I think I should probably just let that stand. It's Alan Gratz's second novel, after last year's Samurai Shortstop, a book I liked a great deal, and have given to more guys than I can count. Something Rotten is even better. He's one to watch, and I intend on paying attention.

Alan was the very first author I thought of when we starting pulling together the WBBT, and I think you can probably tell I had a ton of fun coming up with questions for him. Enjoy!


1. I'm not really a girl who throws people's words back at them... wait. Yeah, I am. "Personally, I'm a little tired of every author without a bright idea of his own putting a modern spin on a 'classic'..." p 134. Now, granted, that was Horatio speaking, but, care to comment?

Heh. Well, a little self-deprecation is good for the soul, and I’ve never had trouble laughing at myself. When I had the idea to rewrite Hamlet as a contemporary YA murder mystery I thought, “Oh jeez, am I going to get blasted for this? It seems like everybody’s rewriting classics these days.” So, partially to laugh at myself and partially to echo what I imagined some reader out there might be thinking, I put the words in Horatio’s mouth. He’s the kind of guy who would grouse about that kind of thing anyway. And you’d be surprised at how many people have already told me they thought that line was funny.

(Jac says: It IS funny. No surprise here. But it was an opportunity to good to, you know.)

2. Kirkus has criticized Horatio for being too self-assured to be convincing as a teen. I think that it's part of his charm, and entirely necessary for the tone of hardboiled fiction. Back me up, how does Horatio's attitude fit into the story?

Well, I’m happy to address this again, because I really do think the reviewer for Kirkus missed what I was trying to do. I should say at the outset that I generally don’t try to or like to respond to reviews. There’s just not much to gain by it, and you always come off looking defensive and whiny. That said, (ahem) the voice I developed for Horatio was a deliberate homage to noir fiction, particularly Raymond Chandler. I know teenagers don’t really talk like that and act like that. My intention was never to write an “authentic” teenage voice for Horatio. Horatio talks and acts like I wished I had when I was a teen. He always has the right snarky comment at the right time, and he always knows what to do when the blank verse hits the fan. In my defense I called Something Rotten “aspirational fiction,” because we all aspire to be that cool, even though we know it’s impossible. Horatio is as impossible as Philip Marlowe, or James Bond, or Veronica Mars. Could any teen ever be as cool and smart and confident as Veronica Mars? We only wish.

So, beyond the allusion to Chandler, how does that voice fit the story? Well, that line from question one is a great example. It’s snarky and critical, which is exactly the tone I wanted. I felt like Hamlet almost needed the MST3K treatment. Horatio is Joel and Crow and Tom Servo all rolled into one, cracking jokes and questioning every thing that happens. Hamlet is so big and ponderous and important that you can just feel teenagers rolling their eyes at it, and that’s exactly what Horatio does . . .

(Jac says: I got it, Alan. I totally did. Also, I [heart] VM. *sob*)

3. So... Shakespeare and classic noir... what made you think that those were a good mashup? How'd you get there?

I created the character of Horatio Wilkes many moons ago for a class on writing mystery and detective fiction at the University of Tennessee. I’m a big fan of Hamlet, and have always been fond of the minor character of Horatio, Hamlet’s best bud from back at Wittenberg University. Unlike Hamlet, Horatio is practical and down-to-earth. He’s so down-to-earth that Hamlet even gives him crap for it: “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” Yeah, well, all that philosophizing Hamlet does doesn’t keep him and the rest of his family from biting it at the end. And who’s left standing? That’s right: our man Horatio. That’s the kind of philosophy I can get behind.

So I borrowed Horatio’s name (all great fictional detectives have to have weird names, don’t they? It’s a rule or something) and his practicality, and I started writing stories about him. Back then, he didn’t have that noir patter, didn’t use colorful metaphors, didn’t talk tough. The noir stuff came much later, when I discovered Raymond Chandler on my own and became a big fan. Then when I pulled Horatio out of mothballs and dusted him off and recast him as a teenager in Something Rotten, the wit and practicality of the character reminded me of Chandler’s detective, Philip Marlowe. It was like I had half a character, and the Chandler influence was what I needed to complete him.

I’m afraid there’s nothing more to it than that. It’s kind of like those old Reese’s Cups commercials, where a guy with peanut butter and a guy with chocolate just happen to be turning the same corner and run into each other. I think it was really just a happy coincidence.

4. Instead of being the King of Denmark, Hamilton's father was head of a paper company. A paper company? Much is made of the new Elsinore both as the symbol of power and as an environmental theme. What's your experience with paper plants, why bring in an environmental angle?

Well, I have to confess, the paper plant angle came about initially as a joke. “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark,” we are famously told in Hamlet, and I thought I would be very clever and take that line literally by setting the novel at a paper plant. If you’ve ever driven within fifty miles of a paper plant, you’ll get what I’m talking about. The smell is rancid and inescapable, and it travels for miles when the wind is right. So it was for the gag alone that I chose a paper plant. Then, later, when trying to find a way to parallel Ophelia’s drowning in the play, I came up with the idea for her to be an environmentalist who drinks poisoned river water as a form of protest. My way of making Ophelia a stronger, more proactive character. Then I needed a way to poison Hamlet’s dear old dad, and lo and behold, paper plants are good for creating dioxin, a highly carcinogenic substance. Once I had the paper plant idea I kept riffing on it, and it, like a paper plant’s smell, began to pervade the story.

I do have a history with paper plant controversy, if only tangentially. When I was a young lad growing up in Knoxville, Tennessee, the headlines of our local papers were filled with the Champion Paper/Little Pigeon River pollution controversy. Dioxin from the bleaching process the plant used was being dumped into a tiny river that ran through many East Tennessee communities, and the Environmental Protection Agency wasn’t doing anything to stop it. Community groups fought against it and eventually got the states of Tennessee and North Carolina suing each other—and suing the EPA, for good measure. I remembered those headlines, and I was able to go back and read those articles as research, all to lend authenticity to a major plot element that had begun as nothing more than a play on words.

The environmental angle ended up giving Something Rotten something I didn’t know it needed: a heart. The dioxin pollution produced by the plant became a central focus of the story and played itself out in many ways. It began the story, it ended the story, and it drove it along the way. It worked so well, in fact, that I’m now personally committed to highlighting other environmental and social issues in Rotten’s sequels. The next book, Something Wicked (based on Macbeth), has urban sprawl and commercialism as a leitmotif, and the third installment, Something Foolish (based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream) will examine date rape and abusive relationships.

(Jac says: That's really awesome. Now I want to read the sequels even more than I already did. And yeah, I've been around paper plants. They reek.)

5. "Who needs self-help books, anyway?" p 202. I once put my foot in my mouth with a similar statement. What do you generally think of self-help books?

Yeah, Horatio probably puts his foot in my mouth about twenty times in this book. But remembering that I’m not Horatio and he’s not me, I have to say that I agree with him here. I’m currently reading David Allen’s Getting Things Done, a business self-help book, of sorts, written to give people a handle on all the junk going on in their work and their lives, but there’s a part of me that cringes at the thought that I’m spending time to read a book that is supposed to help me save time. In general, I feel like self-help books are too touchy-feely, too idealistic, and far too general to be of use. How can the advice that works for one relationship work for all relationships? I think so much of what self-help books are written to address could be solved by a combination of honesty (with yourself, and with others) and better communication (with yourself, and with others.) Hmm. Perhaps I should write a self-help book about that. Then maybe I could get on Oprah.

(Jac says: Yeah. Sometime I should tell you all about how I gnawed on my foot. It involves a very nice author.)

6. How is the sequel coming? Will we be seeing Horatio's cleverly (and familiarly) named sisters later in the series?

Something Wicked is done, but for the editing. A second round of notes on my first major revision are pending, and the whole kit and caboodle will be wrapped up by the end of December 2007 for a Fall 2008 release. If you’ll forgive the hubris, I really do love this book. It takes place at a Scottish Highland Festival, and I had a lot of fun visiting one and taking notes through Horatio’s sarcastic eye. And yes, one of Horatio’s sisters plays a major part. This time it’s Desdemona, Horatio’s journalist sister, and she’s with us through the whole novel. Like her Shakespearean counterpart, Mona has no luck with men, and she gets off on the wrong foot right away by swapping phone numbers with a man who will be arrested later that day for murder. We’ll see or hear from all of Horatio’s heroine-inspired sisters at some point, if the series lasts long enough!

(Jac says: Buy the freakin' book people. I want more Horatio.)

7. "Heavens to Mergatroid" (p 99). Wha...? I mean, it's funny, but, what?

Snagglepuss? Hanna-Barbera Cartoons? Anyone? (Sigh.) You kids today, you’re always off reading books, not watching cartoons like we used to in the old days. Snagglepuss was a rather effete pink cat with a flair for the dramatic, saying things like, “Exit, stage left!” before running away, and declaring, “Heavens to Mergatroid!” when startled. I drop a lot of allusions in Something Rotten to things that have collected in my pop culture subconscious, even though I know a lot of people won’t get them. They sound funny, at least—those that made it through. My editor nixed “What a maroon,” (a Bugs Bunny phrase) for fear that people would think I just misspelled “moron,” and I also had to cut “BFE,” apparently because there are regional variants of “Bumble-F*%! Egypt” and it wasn’t going to be clear. There were more victims of the editor’s pen as well, although I did manage to slip “frodis”—a truly obscure allusion to a talking, hypnotic, football-headed plant in an old Monkees episode—by both my editor and copy-editor. (It shows up in the chapter where Horatio helps Mrs. Prince move some house plants into the community theater lobby.)

(Jac says: Yeah, I would have gotten "What a maroon" AND BFE. With Hanna-Barbara I merely know that once it existed. I'm just a little too young to have really watched most of those cartoon, unless they really got rerun love. Some of them have endured. My dad often calls me "Daughter Judy" from some latent desire to be George Jetson or something.)

8. It's quite a jump to go from 1890's Japan to Shakespeare inspired noir. How was Something Rotten different from Samurai Shortstop to write?

Well, I didn’t have to do all that damned research for one thing. Er, I mean, that darn fun research! I kid, but I put a ton of work into Samurai before I ever wrote the first word, researching, outlining, preparing to write. That strategy worked so well the first time that I used it again on Something Rotten, but of course that novel is contemporary not historical. I still had to reread Hamlet a couple of times and do a bit of research on the paper-bleaching process and dioxin poison for the mystery side of things, but that work didn’t take me nearly as long this time around.

The biggest difference though was one of expectations. When I was writing Samurai Shortstop, no one had ever bought anything from me. No magazine had ever given me a review. As far as I knew, I was writing that book for myself and my wife. I wanted to sell it of course, that was the goal, but there were zero external expectations on me. I wrote Something Rotten in its entirety before selling it too, but this time I felt the great pressure to follow up on the success of Samurai Shortstop with something equally compelling and award-winning. I actually wrote a book in between Samurai and Rotten, a book which shall remain nameless and descriptionless at this juncture, and it was forced and not very good. I think I needed to get a nervous, tentative book out of my system, and that freed me to just say “Frak it” on Rotten and write what I thought was a rip-roaring good book, everybody else be damned.

9. How did you end up in 1890's Japan for your first book?

By accident. I never intended to write historical fiction. I was far too lazy to do proper research. But the idea, once discovered, was too good to let go. It all started with a travel guide to Japan, where I saw a picture of a man in a kimono throwing out the first pitch at what the caption told me was the 1915 National High School Baseball Tournament. I knew the Japanese were mad for baseball, but I had always assumed they learned baseball during the Allied occupation following World War II. Turns out they had it much earlier—1872, to be exact—and that time period, the Meiji Restoration, proved to be a fantastic background for a story about the early days of baseball in Japan and a father and son trying to reconcile the past and the present. Samurai Shortstop was the third book I wrote in my efforts at becoming a career YA novelist and the first one I sold, but I hadn’t stumbled upon that photo and started down that path when I did, the next book would probably have been Something Rotten. That’s certainly the project I went to next after Samurai was done and before it sold—but then I set it aside for an attempt at another historical novel, the Book That Shall Not Be Named. I have other historicals in the works now, one I’m very excited about and almost finished with, in fact, so Samurai will probably not prove to be a complete aberration.

10. Which authors do you get overly excited for their new books?

Oh, I’m a big fan of Michael Chabon, and any new work by him gets me all atwitter. Ditto that for Neil Gaiman. Who else do I buy in hardback? That’s the real test. Garth Nix. Philip Reeve. I buy everything from comic book writers Mike Mignola and Alan Moore. Wow, that’s a lot of sci-fi and fantasy, isn’t it? Perhaps I should write some. Or perhaps I already am . . . mwahahahaha.

(Jac says: Dude. Awesome.)

11. What book have you read more times than any other?

This is an easy question for me, because I almost NEVER reread books. I’m far too eager to get on to a new book to read one again. I often don’t even read sequels—even in trilogies! So I know for a fact the book I’ve reread the most is Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye, probably my favorite novel of all time. Harlan Ellison’s The Deathbird Stories comes in second.

12. What are you watching on TV these days?

Not a lot. We’ve gone almost completely over to Netflix for our television. It’s just so hard to plan our lives around someone else’s schedule anymore. That said, when the new season of Project Runway comes on, Wendi and I will both be glued to the set at whatever time Bravo tells us to watch. I am completely smitten with that show, and was once overheard to contemplate giving up a writer to enroll in Parsons to become a fashion designer. This from a man who has done nothing more before than sew a missing button back on a jacket. I cannot explain this infatuation I have. Perhaps it’s Heidi Klum. Or Tim Gunn. I’m excited by the new Doctor Who series, and I watch those first-run now. And Wendi and I also enjoyed Top Chef Season 3, but it pales in comparison to Project Runway. Have I told you how great that show is?

As for our Netflix selections, we just finished the latest season of Entourage—holy crap what a fun show that is—and we’re working our way through the first season of Heroes. (Do NOT tell me if they save the cheerleader!) Like a maroon (get that ref now?) I skipped Heroes when it first came on, and then when it became this phenomenon, I knew I was going to have to wait for the DVDs. I know, I know, I’m part of the reason shows get canceled—lack of viewers—but my loyalties have never seemed to matter before. It’s so painful when a fantastic show comes on—let’s say, oh, a show called FIREFLY or something like that—and I start watching it and worshiping it and then the network wankers ax it after oh, say, eleven episodes or so, and I’m left broken hearted. It’s so much gentler to wait for a show to fail or succeed (or be arbitrarily canceled) and then pick it up on DVD. You have to wait a year or so, but there’s so much good stuff coming out all the time on DVD you never lack for something to watch, and you never fall too far behind. With Heroes I wanted it to be good—I love superhero stuff—but was too afraid to give it a piece of my heart. Now I love that show with a passion. It had me at “Hiro.”

Next up in the queue after Heroes: The Flight of the Conchords. I have worn out YouTube watching the song clips from that show.

(Jac says: BSG! BSG! No seriously, BSG. I have no idea what you are talking about with The Flight of the Conchords.)

Thanks, Jackie! Keep on rocking in the read world.

No Alan, thank YOU.

***

Friday's WBBT schedule:

Loree Griffin Burns at Chasing Ray
Lily Archer at The Ya Ya Yas
Rick Riordan at Jen Robinson's Book Page
Gabrielle Zevin at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
Dia Calhoun at lectitans
Shannon Hale at Miss Erin
Jane Yolen & Adam Stemple at Shaken & Stirred
Lisa Yee at Hip Writer Mama

SATURDAY

Blake Nelson at The Ya Ya Yas

*clears throat* Sherman Alexie!!

My Grandmother's 90th birthday was in June. I tell you this because it was while on that three hour car trip north (I had already flown 2,000 miles) to her party when I finished Sherman Alexie's first novel for teens. I had purloined the ARC of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian from the collection development librarian. As I closed the book, I observed a moment of silence, thought, "Wow. That was amazing," before turning to my cousin Mike (trapped in the backseat with me, behind our mothers) and saying, "This book isn't out yet, but this fall, when it is? Mike, you HAVE to read it. You'll love it." Being the youngest sibling of 9, he is a bit skeptical and remarked that he'd never heard of the author (this was Michigan; Alexie isn't quite as well-known there as he is in the NW. In the NW, his name is met with a pause of reverence before sentiments of adulation fall from mouths). I told Mike that he would hear of him, and to trust me.

I don't know if Mike followed my advice; I haven't talked to him. However, True Diary IS amazing, and when brainstorming in August about which authors to interview for this week, Alexie came up. Somehow, I got so lucky, and the now the National Book Award Finalist? Yeah. Here on the blog. Unfreakin' believable, right?

1. Congratulations for being a finalist for the National Book Award! What were you doing when you heard the news? What was your reaction?

I was asleep in a Miami hotel room when I got the phone call with the news. I was sleepy and stunned, and ended up being late for a high school appearance. I think I forgot to brush my hair!

2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is your first title for teens. Did you set out to write for that audience? If yes, why? Do you plan on writing more?

My adult books have done well with young adults and their teachers and librarians, so I was often asked to write specifically for them. But I never had the right idea until now. And yes, I plan to write many, many more. Dozens!

3. Do you feel that your process or approach was at all different when writing for a younger audience? Do you feel you toned any of your content down?

The only metaphor I have for this process is that my first draft was an adult book, and that my editor and I took fine gauge sandpaper to it, and over the course of a year, we polished it into a YA title.

4. Zits, from Flight, and Junior from True Diary, are roughly the same age. Other than the level of violence and language, what makes one story for adults and the other for teens?

In Flight, Zits drops into the bodies of adults and becomes concerned with adult situations and sensibilities. He might be a teen but all that is secondary to his possession of adult bodies.

5. The opening salvos of True Diary reads almost like a comedy routine. It's self-deprecating and bemoans the treatment and attitudes toward Native Americans. Why choose comedy to share these sentiments?

The simplest answer is this: the two funniest groups of people I've ever been around are Indians and Jews. And so there must be some inherent connection between genocide and humor. I haven't spent a lot of time around other genocided peoples, but I assume they're funny, too.

6. True Diary seems to mirror your life in many ways - why did you decide to tell this story through fiction rather than through memoir?

I didn't want to be more self-aggrandizing than I already am. Ha!

7. Both Zits and Junior list The Grapes of Wrath among their favorite books. Is it one of yours, and what does it tell us about these two different characters who are both searching to reconcile their personal heritage with mainstream society?

Grapes of Wrath was one of the first novels I ever read, and its story of poor folks struggling to find a way while having to defend themselves against innumerable attacks, always resonates with me. The last image of the book, where Rose of Sharon, having lost her baby, still has enough love and grace to breastfeed a starving, homeless man, remains my single favorite moment in literature. As a person and writer, I can only hope to show that much love and grace for my fellow humans.

8. Junior is considered a traitor by some Spokane Indians, and brave by others for choosing to go to a school outside of the reservation. Junior considers himself a warrior (p91). Did you, or do you, experience these attitudes for leaving the reservation? How did/do you respond to those attitudes?

Well, most of the tribal folks who really hated me back then are dead now. So, in retrospect, I have much sympathy for them. Their hatred of me was really just a form of self-hatred. And I only wish I could have seen that then. It would have helped me through the tough and lonely days, and perhaps I could have found the wisdom and compassion to reconcile with my enemies.

9. Some of your novels tend toward the episodic and don't follow a strict linear chronology. How do you work with such a structure?

Well, I think Flight and True Diary are linear, unlike my other books. What are these two books linear? Well, I have a tough time writing novels, so I figured out that it's easier process if I write with a strict time- and plotline.

10. "I feel important with a pen in my hand. I feel like I might grow up to be somebody important" (True Diary p6). Did you share this sentiment when you were young? When did you discover that your writing could be a door to a different life? Was writing your lifeboat like drawing was Junior's?

Oh, God, no, I never thought I'd be anybody. I was just hoping to have a good job. In college, when I started writing poetry, I quickly discovered that people of all types listened to me. They paid attention. I loved that attention certainly but I also discovered that I could change people's minds and hearts if they were listening. So, yes, writing, at the age of twenty-one or so, did become my lifeboat and my attack ship!

11. "Poverty only teaches you how to be poor" (True Diary p13). How do your efforts as a writer seek to change this?

This is an impossible question to answer. As a writer, I'm not sure that I can change anything. I certainly can't do a damn thing about poverty. Well, I've written my family out of poverty, but, wow, I don't know who else has gotten out of poverty because of my books.

12. Ever read any of the romances Junior's sister Mary wanted to write? Why make Junior an artist and his sister the writer? Did you want to distance yourself from a character who already shared some circumstances with you?

Growing up, I read MANY Indian man-white woman romance novels. And my real sister loved those books and tried to write a few. So I was honoring the real Mary by making the fictional Mary a writer.

13. According to Junior, Salmon Mush is better than it sounds (p69). Do you have a recipe you'd like to share to prove this?

The quick version: buy a package of smoked salmon, microwave it, and toss it into a bowl of steaming hot oatmeal, add cold milk and sugar, and enjoy!

(Jac says: um...I'm not convinced. Sorry. But thanks!)

Sherman, thank you so, very, very much for taking the time to do this. Good Luck!

I apologize for the rather shoddy pics, I took them with my cell, from the floor, at a seriously packed appearance. But *I* took them, so I couldn't NOT include them, right?

For more Sherman Alexie, check out yesterday's interview with the girls at Finding Wonderland.

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Thursday's Full WBBT schedule:

David Mack at Chasing Ray
Paul Volponi at The Ya Ya Yas
Elizabeth Knox at Shaken & Stirred
Ellen Emerson White at A Chair, A Fireplace and A Tea Cozy
Jack Gantos at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
David Levithan at Not Your Mother's Book Club
Micol Ostow at Bildungsroman
Laura Amy Schlitz at Miss Erin

Kerry Madden at Hip Writer Mama