This installment of New Voices is an interview with author Tanya Lee Stone, whose debut novel, A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl, was recently published by Random House/Wendy Lamb Books to excellent reviews.  Tanya’s presence on the web can be felt at  www.tanyastone.com and on her blog at tanyaleestone.livejournal.com .

{mosimage}Can you describe A BAD BOY CAN BE GOOD FOR A GIRL (Wendy Lamb Books, 2006) for our readers?

 A BAD BOY CAN BE GOOD FOR A GIRL is about three very different girls who all encounter the same bad boy throughout the course of a year. Each has an unpleasant experience with him, and each grows from it, learning more about who they are–and who they want to be–through the choices they make. It is a fairly intimate look at the time of life when girls head into their first serious intimate relationships–both emotionally and physically.

 Who were your favorite authors growing up? Who are your favorite authors today?

 When I was little, I wanted to be Pippi Longstocking, so I admired Astrid Lindgren, and I adored Beverly Cleary and Judy Blume, too. As I got a bit older, Madeline L'Engle and Ursula LeGuin made a big impression on me, as well as Norton Juster's PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH. My Mom was an elementary school librarian, though, so choosing just a few books was difficult. I was one of those kids staggering under a stack of books on my way out the library door.

Now I read a combination of children's and adult. My son turned me on to Kenneth Oppel this past year. I love Jane Austen, Flannery O'Connor, Marge Piercy, and I've had a thing for Vladimir Nabokov since college. I've been reading a lot of poetry and nonfiction lately–specifically, poetry by Billy Collins and Mary Roach's books STIFF and SPOOK, as well as Daniel Mendelsohn's THE LOST, which I'm reading right now.

 How do you approach a new story? Some authors plan, some don't. Some outline, some don't…

 My natural instinct is to plunge right in and be driven by the voice of the main character. When I am truly lost in a manuscript, that is what is happening. For me, it feels very similar to the process of becoming a character you are portraying in a play. I grew up going to theater camps, as well as performing arts high school, and writing is very reminiscent of those times for me. I have tried to outline plots before, but the problem I run into is that once I know what is going to happen I am not as caught up in the process of discovery as when I am listening to the character and going where she takes me.

Is there anything special you like to wear or do while you write? Where is your favorite place to write?

I am a working Mom, so mornings are off to a bustling start–making breakfasts, packing lunches, searching for articles of clothing, etc.. Once they are on the bus, I tend to sit right down and get started. Which usually means I am in my pajamas until I decide to take a break! I now have a wonderful room with windows on all sides, a desk, an armchair, and my laptop. It's a room designated for reading and writing and it has become my favorite place to write, most definitely.

 What are your plans for your next novel? Can you give us a peek?

It's too nascent at the moment, but I can give you a peek at a book I'm ensconsed in and finding really exciting. It is called ALMOST ASTRONAUTS: The Story of the Mercury 13 Women, and is the real-life drama of the ladies who began astronaut training in 1961 until NASA pulled the plug on them. My editor on this project is Marc Aronson, for Candlewick, and I'm loving every minute of it. 

Are you interested in visiting libraries or schools? If so, how can interested teachers and librarians contact you?

 Oh yes, I love doing visits. I find kids very rejuvenating. Interested teachers and librarians can either email me directly at tanyastone [at] tanyastone [dot] com or email my booking agent, Sharron McElmeel at mcelmeel [at] mcelmeel [dot] com

 What is a question you wish interviewers would ask-but never do?

 Where should I send the chocolate?

Continue reading →

Cara Lockwood is the author of Wuthering High, a "classic" novel published by MTV Books.  

Can you describe WUTHERING HIGH for our readers?
Wuthering High is the story of a haunted boarding school called Bard Academy. The ghosts are no ordinary ghosts, and while I don't want to spoil the ending, I will say that the lives of the students start to reflect classic books, like Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.

Who were your favorite authors growing up? Who are your favorite authors today? I loved to read everything and anything I could get my hands on both when I was younger and now. I loved Judy Blume, of course, and Madeleine L'Engle (author of A Wrinkle in Time). But I also started reading adult books at a fairly young age, and by middle school, my favorite author was Jane Austen. Today, I have so many favorites. I admire the work of Toni Morrison, Charles Frazier and Anita Shreve, but I also love humor writers like David Sedaris, Christopher Moore, Laurie Notaro and Merrill Markoe. There are also so many talented YA writers like Sarah Dressen and Megan McCafferty. It's very hard to pick a favorite!

{mosimage}How do you approach a new story? Some authors alan, some don't. Some outline, some don't…
I'm one of those authors who likes to improvise first. I like to play around with voice and tone before I figure out where the story is headed. So, typically, I'll write a chapter or two, and then go back and write an outline. I don't always stick to the outline, but I try!

Is there anything special you like to wear or do while you write? Where is your favorite place to write? I don't have any lucky sweaters, and I've been known to write just about anywhere (coffee shops, airports, airplanes, or snuggled up in bed). But I probably spend most of my time writing in my little office at my house. I've got a nice comfy office chair there and easy access to the kitchen and the fridge.

What are your plans for your next novel? Can you give us a peek? Yes! My next novel is a sequel to Wuthering High, and it's called The Scarlet Letterman. Miranda is back in book two, as well as love interests Ryan Kent and Heathcliff, who are still both trying to win her affection.

Are you interested in visiting libraries or schools? If so, how can interested teachers and librarians contact you? I'd be happy to visit libraries or schools. Teachers and librarians can contact me by email, cara [at] caralockwood [dot] com. I really do read all my email!

What is a question you wish interviewers would ask-but never do? That's a tough one. I'd say you've done a pretty good job here already with your questions. I can't think of another I'd ask!

<.blockquote>

Continue reading →

This NEW VOICES column features author Cara Haycak, author of RED PALMS. It is Cara's first novel, published in November 2004 by Wendy Lamb Books. She lives in Los Angeles, CA.

ALAN Online: Can you describe RED PALMS for our readers?

The book is narrated by fourteen-year-old Benita Mariah, whose family moves to Paíta Island off the coast of Ecuador – a place her father has chosen as the ideal location to build a thriving coconut plantation. It is in this exotic world that Benita

comes of age, her adolescence intensified by her new surroundings. An outsider thrust into a rustic life amidst a group of tribal native people, she experiences what it is to be different, to recognize a beloved parent’s faults, to fall in love, and perhaps most importantly, to be transformed by the power of an old jungle crone’s spells.

I wrote Red Palms, wanting to impart a message to young women, that it is possible to find one’s true self even in the most difficult and foreign of circumstances.

I think of the story as a literary tale of high adventure for teenaged girls, which means there’s lots of action but with an emotional undercurrent fueling it all.

ALAN Online: Who were your favorite authors growing up? Who are your favorite authors today?

I loved Charlotte’s Web and the Little House on the Prairie books. They took me to a place so far away from my experience growing up in a high-rise apartment building in a borough of Manhattan. I got lost in these other worlds. And I didn’t just visit. I felt like the characters did, I lived with them. I think what grabbed me most about these stories is they made me see that life is equal parts difficulty and joy…but that life is wonderful because of the hard parts. They are intrinsically linked together. The books perfectly illustrate the heartbreaking truth that you can’t have one without the other.

As an adult reader, Edith Wharton and Henry James became my heroes. We’ve all heard the saying that “character is plot” but no one does it as well as they do. Their characters fall into their plots like animals caught in a trap. I’m reading a lot of T.C. Boyle. He’s a riot…a master at illuminating our common foibles. Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible was a major inspiration for me…her epic tale of young women growing up in a hostile and fascinating foreign world is utterly brilliant. If I could write like Michael Ondaatje I would die happy. To me he’s like a painter who writes fiction with a brush, like Picasso or Van Gogh.

ALAN Online: How do you approach a new story? Some authors plan, some don't. Some outline, some don't…

Oh yeah. I’m a planner.

I start by writing a summary—a five page document narrated as if I were telling the story to a good friend. That becomes my guide, though it changes over the course of writing the story.

Because I was a story editor in the film business, I think of a book in terms of three main acts, just like a screenplay is organized. It’s simpler that way. Beginning, middle, and end. Usually I know a lot about the beginning and can bash my way through the big unwieldy middle and I’m a bit in the dark about the end. But that’s okay because I have to write through the character’s experience, just like he or she has to live it, in order to find out how it will all turn out. So I think about the end in general terms, i.e. roughly what will be resolved but not exactly how it is resolved.

Once I have that summary, I brainstorm about scenes I’d like to write to animate the story described in the summary. This takes a while, maybe a month or two. Or three. Then I organize these scenes into a rough outline and assign dates/time/place to each scene so that I have a working timeline I can integrate into the story.

I also track the main story elements on a spread sheet. This is a bit more complicated to describe, but in the case of Red Palms I tracked Benita’s relationships with her father, her mother, her boyfriend, the islanders, and to herself as she grows up. Little things happen to further those storylines in every chapter. As they all progress, the spreadsheet, which is one big grid, lets me see how that lays out.

I can’t imagine writing a novel without planning. I don’t want to have to find the novel while I’m writing it. There are times when knowing what you have to write when you sit down to work deadens the process a bit. It takes away discovery and leaves only labor. But at least I’m never at a loss for what to do on a given day. I just have to do it. Which is the hardest part of all.

But here’s my really big secret…I’d like to write a book and plan none of it just to see what happens.

ALAN Online: Is there anything special you like to wear or do while you write? Where is your favorite place to write?

I can’t work at my house. I have an office to myself but between the dogs and the phones and the fridge there’s too many reasons to get out of my chair. Plus it’s lonely. I go to local coffee shops around LA.

I’ve got a circuit of five places that each have a unique quality about them and very good coffee, and lots of other writers tapping away on their laptops. And I can watch people coming and going and steal their energy and use it to give the text I’m working on that feeling that life is passing through it.

I do edit at home though, because I need to spread out drafts and background notes and research documents, and to be able to email for specific information.

ALAN Online: What are your plans for your next novel? Can you give us a peek?

The working title is Lost but Found. It’s about a girl named Mia, a high school junior growing up in a college town in upstate New York, who winds up having to take a job breeding flies at the university in order to pay off a debt. It’s a story about metamorphosis. Her’s, her family, the flies…everything she knows changes real fast and not for the better. But life has cycles and learning to recognize them is the best way to deal with what comes your way. It’ll be intense and funny, I hope.

ALAN Online: Are you interested in visiting libraries or schools? If so, how can interested teachers and librarians contact you?

I would love to visit schools and libraries, to share with young readers and writers details of how Red Palms came to be. The story is based on my mother’s childhood. As in the book, she moved with her parents and three younger brothers to an island off the coast of Ecuador when my grandfather came up with a wild scheme to restore the family’s fortune by starting a coconut plantation. But that is where the reality of the story ends. The book is a work of fiction; all of Benita’s experiences are made up. But I had help in imagining this world into being. I visited the island in 1993, and I had my mother’s photographs of the place taken in the 1930’s. And I researched many of the details found in the book…not only about time and place, but how jaguars hunt, South American tribal languages and marriage customs, primitive water systems, and the rituals of ancient priestesses. My website (www.red-palms.com) gets into more detail about this.

I’d love to talk to kids about how to make the things they are living through into stories, to integrate fact with fiction, and how to shape family history so it is meaningful to other readers.

I can be contacted through directly at redpalms [at] earthlink [dot] net. Or for those who wish to call, my work phone number is 917-334-8790.

ALAN Online: What is a question you wish interviewers would ask-but never do?

Thanks for asking, but nothing comes to mind. Hope you’re as satisfied with this interview as I am.

Continue reading →

Continue reading →

Image
Debra Garfinkle

It’s just like Bridget Jones’ Diary, if Bridget were a fourteen-year-old Jewish boy in San Diego with more depth. Here is a nice summary from the Horn Book Guide: “Michael, a gangly high schooler who is better at getting grades than girls, keeps a witty journal during his hormone-drenched freshman year. The breezy entries winningly chronicle his stabs at romance as well as his dismay over his single mother’s pregnancy and his unraveling relationship with his irresponsible father.”

I wanted to make teens laugh so much while they were reading that they wouldn’t mind learning a lesson about loving yourself no matter how others treat you.

Who were your favorite authors growing up? Who are your favorite authors today?

 Like some serial killers, I’m a Salinger nut. I’ve read Catcher in the Rye at least ten times and even used Holden for my son’s middle name. Paul Zindel also was a huge influence on me, and reading The Happy Hooker at age ten cemented my love of books.

My favorite adult authors are Nick Hornby, Anne Lamott, Anne Tyler, and Leo Tolstoy. Yes, Tolstoy. Some of my favorite contemporary YA authors are Sarah Dessen, Gordon Korman, Carolyn Mackler, and Mary Pearson.

How do you approach a new story? Some authors plan, some don’t. Some outline, some don’t…

I usually start with a character I love, give him some conflicts, envision a theme I care about and a happy ending, and write. When I begin, I always think I’m producing the most brilliant novel in the history of the world. By about page 30, I think it’s the worst thing in the universe and curse myself for not outlining because I have no idea what to write next. By the time I get to the ending, I’m thrilled to be finishing the damn thing. Then I revise it a zillion times. Writing is such a joy for me.

What are your plans for your next novel? Can you give us a peek?

 Stuck in the Seventies should be out with Putnam in Spring 2007. It’s a humorous, romantic time travel novel about a wild teenage girl from the present who finds herself naked in the bathtub of a teenage boy honor student in 1978. Yes, it’s for older teens.

Is there anything special you like to wear or do while you write? Where is your favorite place to write?

 I have three young children, so I write whenever I can find the time. Usually that’s early in the morning in the den in my pajamas, always with a giant mug of coffee. I used to write at the kitchen table, but I used some of the Storky advance money (okay, most of it) to build a desk in our guest room.

Are you interested in visiting libraries or schools? If so, how can interested teachers and librarians contact you?

 I love talking about my three favorite subjects: moi, moi, and moi. I also talk about reading, writing, and humor. I have done lots of school and library visits, and also speak to adults. My website http://www.dlgarfinkle.com/ has information on speaking engagements.

What is a question you wish interviewers would ask—but never do?

Continue reading →