Cole: I read on your website that you were constantly writing as a child. You wrote on restaurant menus and on notepads your mother carried in her purse. Can you talk about how your interest in writing began at such an early age?

DeStefano: I’m not sure where it really began. I tend to believe I was just born with a tendency to tell stories. When I was very little, I would make up stories in my head to help myself get to sleep at night, and gradually I began daydreaming new characters and new stories just to amuse myself. If I liked a book or a TV show, when it was over I would imagine new little adventures for the characters to have. It was just how my mind worked, and I thought it strange that nobody around me was the same way. When I got older, I started to write them down purely for fun.

Cole: Can you provide some background information regarding how the idea for this book (and this new trilogy) came about?

DeStefano: I was growing frustrated with another writing project I had in the works, and my agent suggested I try writing something new. In my trove of unrealized story ideas, there was a synopsis I’d written years earlier about a virus that kills its victims young and causes society to resort to polygamy. I started playing around with it, thinking it would be a short story or something along those lines, and that’s how Wither happened. There was more to the idea than I’d expected.

Cole: I understand this is your first young adult novel. Can you talk about your process finding a publisher and getting this book published and what you learned about writing from completing this book?

DeStefano: I was fortunate enough that I was already working with my literary agent before I wrote Wither. We were working on an adult story that had been through the ringer a few times. I wrote Wither as more of a fun side project and was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be the story that sold. You’d have to ask my agent about most of the details of the sale, but I finished writing it at the end of September, my agent had read it and started to go out with it by mid-October, and we accepted an offer from Simon & Schuster before Halloween. I think the main thing I learned from completing this book is that I need to open myself to new things. I had never thought I’d write a young adult novel, or that I’d have so much fun doing it. Now it’s common practice for me to write outside of my usual limitations when I’ve reached a dry spell. I read things that wouldn’t have caught my eye before. I try to expand my way of thinking, which leads to expanding my way of writing.

Cole: Did you initially begin writing the book with a young adult audience in mind?

DeStefano: When I began writing Wither, I intended it to be a short story, and I wasn’t giving too much thought to the audience. I knew that I had a young protagonist, but several of the story’s themes are quite dark, and so I thought it best to see how it all played out. However, I showed an early draft of the first several pages to my agent, and she believed it would be most suited for a YA audience.

Cole: One of the themes seems to be the consequences of tampering with human genetics. Is that correct and can you elaborate?

DeStefano: I think Wither can mean many different things for different readers, and none of those things would be wrong. In Wither, an attempt to save humanity causes its slow demise. It’s a world wherein everything is slowly dying, from flowers to buildings to people. Whether that’s a consequence, a parable, a forewarning or a mere source of entertainment is up to readers to decide.

Cole: Central to the story is the idea of young girls being taken into bondage and forced to marry. How and why did this concept work its way into the novel?

DeStefano: All I knew when I began this story was that my narrator was in a dark place and that she was frightened and wanted to go home. I wasn’t sure, yet, where she was headed. I kept writing to find that out. The things that happened to her, and the personalities of her sister wives, and even the fact that she had sister wives manifested as the story progressed.

Cole: Readers acquire a deeper understanding of Linden’s role in holding the young girls captive, his attitude toward them, and his relationship with his father.  Can you talk about how his personality evolved as you wrote the story?

DeStefano: Initially, I did think Linden would be a sort of villain. But I came to learn that he’s not the one holding the girls captive; he’s bereft and naïve, and he lives in a fantasy world his father has created for him. Rhine, in playing the part of a good wife, recognizes this about him, which created one of my favorite dynamics within this story.

Cole: What was your most challenging aspect of writing the book? And can you identify and elaborate on a major turning point in the development of the novel?

DeStefano: The hardest part for me is always the beginning. I’m not much of an outliner, and I’m always plunging into unfamiliar waters. I’d say there were many major turning points, but the one that stands out the most is when I realized Linden, Rhine’s betrothed, was not so easy for Rhine to hate. Linden surprised me, but so did Rhine’s sister wives. Cecily, the youngest bride, is meddlesome and conniving, but hardly the villain I expected when I wrote her first lines. The oldest wife, Jenna, becomes an ally for Rhine, and the tragedy of her past surprised me. There are friendships where I expected enemies, and there’s love where I expected rivalry.

Cole: You quote from T.S. Eliot’s “The Hollow Men” in the opening: “This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper.” Can you talk about the connection between Eliot’s line and the story?

DeStefano: Wither is what I like to refer to as a “what if” world. What if none of us had natural genes anymore? What if we knew at what age we would die? These sorts of thoughts flit through my head on any given day, and somehow the idea for Wither caught a snag in my brain. In Wither’s opening, several girls are huddled together in darkness, one body indistinguishable from the next, and that was very much the sort of image I had in my head when I first read “The Hollow Men.”

Cole: What can you tell readers about the upcoming books in the trilogy?

DeStefano: Only that the story isn’t over for any of these characters just yet.

Contributed by Dr. Pam Cole, Kennesaw State Univeristy

Interview conducted by Bryan Gillis

S.A. Bodeen is the author of several acclaimed picture books, including Elizabeti’s Doll, winner of the Ezra Jack Keats Award. Raised in Wisconsin, she and her husband were Peace Corps volunteers in Africa and now live in Oregon with their two daughters. Stephanie does school visits as well as workshops for all ages.

Gillis: Your second young adult novel, The Gardener, came out in May of 2010, following your successful debut in YA with The Compound. But before we discuss that, talk a bit about how your writing career began, and specifically your success in the area of children’s literature.

Bodeen: I’d always wanted to be a writer, and I went to college with a major in journalism. But it wasn’t a creative kind of writing, and I didn’t like it at all, so I switched majors, figuring that was the end of me ever being a writer. But when I was thirty and staying home with our two young daughters, we had a picture book author come to town. I decided to give it a shot, so I wrote a story called Elizabeti’s Doll inspired by my experiences in the Peace Corps in Tanzania. Elizabeti’s Doll was acquired by the third publisher I sent it to, and it came out in 1998. It was named an ALA Notable, got starred reviews from School Library Journal, Publisher’s Weekly, and Kirkus, won several other awards, and resulted in a series of three books about Elizabeti. I also sold four more picture books in the next several years, almost all of them ending up as award-winning, well-reviewed books.

Gillis: Wow! That’s an impressive resume. So, what made you decide to start writing for young adults?

Bodeen: Actually, I started my first YA back in 1996, the year I sold Elizabeti’ s Doll. Over the next several years I wrote a total of nine novels. This was before I had an agent, and I tried to get an agent with a couple of those novels, to no avail. I finally did get an agent for my picture books in 2003, and he sold one for me. I then sent him three novels, one for grown-ups, one YA, and one for middle grades. And in the fall of 2005, he sent them all back to me, with a blunt (but kind) letter telling me they were nowhere close to being publishable, but he would be there for me when I did have a novel he could sell. So I decided I would never be good enough to write novels, and I quit. That lasted for three months, and then I signed up for the 2005 National Novel Writing Month and wrote a draft that would eventually become The Compound.

Gillis: The Compound and The Gardener both deal with science fiction themes, specifically end-of-the- world, apocalyptic subject matter. What motivated you to delve into this genre?

Bodeen: I grew up in rural Wisconsin in the 70s, and we had only two television channels, three if the weather was right. Beginning when I was in first grade, Star Trek was on after school, and I have been a fan of sci-fi ever since. I always loved apocalyptic books when I could find them. Z for Zachariah comes to mind, and in 7th grade I did an oral report on The Girl Who Owned a City, a story about a virus that kills everyone over the age of fifteen or so, leaving kids to fend for themselves. Along the way I discovered Shirley Jackson, like The Lottery and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. And then when I was fifteen, someone slipped me a copy of The Stand by Stephen King, and that was probably the most profound reading experience of my life. I had no idea books like that existed, and that reading experience became a standard by which all others were measured. As for movies, my favorites have always been sci-fi. It seemed so natural for me to try and write a story in the genre because I have loved it all these years.

Gillis: Mini-spoiler alert: The Gardener deals with the creation of human autotrophs, beings who get their energy through the use of inorganic materials and photosynthesis. Were you big into science in high school, or did you need to do a bit of research for this book?

Bodeen: I was absolutely not into science in school. Ever. But I ended up marrying a biologist and spending a lot of time immersed in environmental projects of his, so I have developed a big interest over the years. So much of the science in The Gardener ended up going in as I wrote it. A professor friend of ours has become a huge name in sustainability. A one-hour conversation with him about peak oil, and the potential fallout, terrified me, which spurred me to research so many things that ended up going into the book because they just fit so well. I love looking at scientific facts and asking, “But what if…?” Such thinking, combined with my imagination, almost always leads to something sinister and unpleasant.

Gillis: So many YA novels portray parents as either absent or clueless in regards to their kids’ lives. This makes sense to an extent, since the focus of YA literature is the adolescent. However, in both The Compound and The Gardener, you chose to have the parents of the protagonists play very integral roles. Why was this important to you?

Bodeen: Maybe it’s because I am a parent of teenagers and am neither absent nor clueless. While my teenage main character is obviously the focus of the story, I think that pretending the parents have absolutely no part in the life of that teenager isn’t realistic. At least for the stories I try and tell. Plus, making a parent a little unhinged is rather fun. They play a role in the kid’s life, why not make it a pivotal one?

Gillis: Stephanie, thank you so much for your time. Before I let you go, can you tell us what new book projects you are currently working on?

Bodeen: I’m in the midst of editorial revisions on my third YA novel, The Raft, which should be out Winter 2012. Recently the outline was approved for what will be my fourth novel with Feiwel and Friends, so I’m about a third of the way through that. The perfect title is still eluding me. The Raft is about a teenage girl whose plane crashes in the remote Pacific. As for the other, it is still in the stage where it takes me five minutes to sum up what it is about. I will say the main character is a boy in a small town in Iowa, and he is having a hard time with life. Add in a mystery to be solved, and he is in for bumpy ride, so to speak.

Alisa Libby has authored two young adult novels. Her first YA novel, The Blood Confession, is based on the life of Countest Bathory, a Hungarian countess who murdered young virgins and bathed in their blood, hoping their blood would preserve her youth. Her second YA novel, The King’s Rose, is a historical account of the life of Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of King Henry VIII. Libby grew up in Natick, Massachusetts, and has always enjoyed writing. She attended Emerson College in Boston, where she majored in fictional writing. She currently lives in Boston, where she is working on a third novel.

Cole: You mention on your Web site that you’ve always wanted to be a writer. Can you share some defining moments in which you grew as a writer?

Libby: I grew a lot as a writer as an undergrad at Emerson College. Once a classmate complimented my writing and suggested a book I may enjoy. While I struggled, unsuccessfully, to read that book, I noticed some similarities between it and my current work-in-progress. I had been letting the voice of my character take over, and I had neglected the plot. Ever since then, I’ve paid more attention to plot and pacing, both in what I write and what I read.

Cole: Both your earlier novel, The Blood Confession, and The King’s Rose are historical. How did you develop an interest in writing historical fiction?

Libby: The stories of these two women—Countess Bathory and Catherine Howard—are what drew me to write historical fiction. In my years before publication I worked on a variety of different projects, and only a few were historical. The Blood Confession became my first published novel because I was so enthralled by the character of Countess Bathory, the infamous “blood countess” of Hungarian legend. What kind of madness could drive a person to commit murder and bathe in the blood of her victims, to preserve her own youth and beauty? What was she thinking? I wanted to figure out how Erzebet would answer this question in her own words, so I created a fictional tale that explained her murderous actions. My fascination for the legend that inspired the novel kept me going through many rounds of revisions.

Cole:  Can you describe the back story behind writing The King’s Rose? That is, how you became interested in writing the story?

Libby: Catherine Howard became the fifth wife of King Henry VIII when she was a teenager. While there are few similarities between her and the bloody countess of my first book, I did have a similar reaction to her story. Catherine was accused of having an illicit affair while married to King Henry; Henry had already beheaded one of his former queens, Anne Boleyn, on similar charges of adultery—and Anne was Catherine’s own cousin. I found myself again wondering, what was this girl thinking? While Erzebet put others in danger, Catherine’s actions were perhaps even more reckless, for she was putting herself in mortal peril. The logic (if there was any) behind her actions was not apparent, but that only fueled my interest. I wanted to tell the story in Catherine’s voice, and come up with her own reasons—fictional but believable—as to why she did what she did.

Cole:  Can you talk about the research process you used in writing The King’s Rose?

Libby: I read a lot about Catherine Howard, King Henry VIII, and all of his other wives, particularly Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, and Anne of Cleves, as their stories inform Catherine’s story. I read wonderful biographies by Lacey Baldwin Smith, Joanna Denny, Alison Weir, and Antonia Fraser, just to name a few. I listened to music composed by King Henry, researched their clothing, the culture of the Tudor court, the art and literature and entertainment, their food, their customs at holidays, religious services and wedding celebrations. While I couldn’t use all the details I discovered, they helped me get inside of Catherine’s head and imagine how she would think, how she would perceive the world around her, and how she would react to the events that unfolded.

I also took a brief trip to England with my husband while writing the book. While my research did rely heavily on secondary resources, it was wonderful to visit the rooms where Catherine lived and banqueted and danced as queen. We took a “ghost tour” of Hampton Court in search of her ghost, and we visited her burial place at the Tower of London (in the chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula) on February 13, the anniversary of her execution.

Cole:  What did you learn about the real Catherine as you wrote the story and how did that information fit with the fictional Catherine? How did she develop as the story took shape?

Libby: I did a good deal of research about Catherine and I did my very best to get the details accurate, but this is still a novel. I can’t actually know what Catherine was thinking or what she said to certain people or her honest thoughts about King Henry. All I could do was read about her and glean what seemed a reasonable portrait of her, taking all the details of her behavior, her status, and the social mores of the era into consideration.

Catherine grew up in a large family with little money. As a teenager she was given a position in the household of Henry’s latest queen. She arrived at court in the fall of 1539 and was receiving gifts from the king by the following spring; she and Henry were married that summer. This is a quick rise to favor for a girl new to life in the Tudor court. While she may not have been thrilled at the prospect of marrying a nearly-50-year-old king who was overweight and often ill, I think the luxury of royal life was extremely seductive. Everyone at court was grasping for Henry’s favor, and here is this little newbie to the queen’s chamber, and she’s got him. I could easily imagine her reveling in that, in spite of whatever pain this marriage may have caused. She may have been in love with another man, but if the king casts his eye your way, you make yourself available. There is simply no rejecting the king.

Cole:  Much has been written about King Henry VIII. How is the fictional Henry like or unlike the real Henry you researched?

Libby: The Henry I wrote about is Henry as seen through Catherine’s eyes, so we only get a part of the picture. There wasn’t any evidence to suggest that Catherine was interested in the political nature of her husband’s position. She was, however, very interested in what her next gift might be, or what sort of masquerade or banquet could be arranged to suit her latest whim. She sees Henry as a doting husband to his youthful bride. Later, she is shocked when the king lashes out at her with his violent temper. She had been seduced by the illusion of the king’s complete love and devotion.

Cole:  What was the most challenging aspect of writing The King’s Rose?

Libby: The most challenging aspect was keeping it as historically accurate as possible, while also making it seem like real people talking about real things as opposed to reciting a history lesson. That’s when history becomes interesting to me: when I can think of it in terms of these people who were living in it, surrounded by the luxury and debauchery and stink of the Tudor court just as we are surrounded by our own world. Once I learned enough about the time period and the character, I could start to relax and write in her point of view without having to constantly worry about anachronisms.

Cole:  In what ways do you hope today’s teens connect with Catherine?

Libby: I think teenagers will connect with this story of a girl whose life was not her own—her actions were dictated by the over-bearing adults who instructed her every move. She had no control over her future, and she was always under their watchful eye. I think many teenagers feel this way.

In the end, things don’t work out in the most romantic way possible for Catherine. Though her romantic relationship with her purported lover, Thomas Culpeper, is at the core of this novel, it is not a perfect romance. According to one of my primary sources, he did confess (most likely under torture) to having an affair with Catherine while she was queen—and he tried to put the blame on Catherine. I struggled with how to include this detail, which would diminish the romance of their relationship. However, once I read the words of his confession I simply couldn’t excise them from the story. How many teenagers have found themselves in situations—though hopefully not with such high stakes—where they find a love that seems good and pure, and it fails them in the end? Taking out the difficulties felt like cheating the true story, over-simplifying something that was in fact very complex. I left it in for an ending that, though perhaps troubling, feels more authentic to Catherine’s experience.

Cole: How did you get into the YA Market? Why, for instance, did The Blood Confession become a YA book and not an adult book?

Libby: I’ve been interested in writing young adult fiction since college. I loved reading fiction for a young audience and the characters and stories I created tended to naturally fit the YA genre. From the beginning I thought of The Blood Confession as a young adult novel: the subject matter was dark and gothic (just what I was drawn to as a teenager) but the core of Erzebet’s story was about her fear of growing older, her fear of mortality, and her deep insecurities. I thought this would strike a chord with a young adult audience, who may be able to empathize with these fears. Luckily, I found an agent and an editor who both agreed with me.

Cole:  Have you read much YA literature and/or children’s literature? If so, what are some of your favorites?

Libby: I read a lot of young adult literature. Some of my all-time favorites include Fade by Robert Cormier, Dangerous Angels: The Weetzie Bat Books by Francesca Lia Block, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Beauty by Robin McKinley, and The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs by Jack Gantos. There are many more titles, but those come to mind immediately!

Cole:  Alisa, thank you for your time. Before we close, could you tell readers if you’re working on another novel? If so, what can you share about the story?

Libby: After a drought that seemed endless, I’m now working on something new, and I hope that it decides to become a book! All of writing is an experiment, and I can only do my best and hope that it will turn out well. This time I am taking a break from historical fiction. There are so many historical characters I would love to write about, but the thought of all of that research daunted me. My reaction proved that those historical projects just weren’t clicking and would have to wait.

It was hard to let go of Catherine Howard. Finishing a book is like letting go of an old love—it’s a whole lot easier if you’ve got a new crush lined up. I didn’t have anything lined up that seemed to suit, so it made the separation process that much more difficult. But looking back I feel blessed to have worked on a book where I felt such a deep connection to a character. Though I’m not sure where my current project will lead, it feels good to be working on something new and to feel inspired again. Still, I will always have fond memories of my time with the delinquent Queen Catherine.

Cole: Can you talk about how the idea for Living Dead Girl originated?

Scott: Usually, when I get an idea for a story, it comes in bits and pieces. But once in a while—a great while, frankly—an idea will come to me fully formed, a story demanding to be told. Living Dead Girl was one of those stories. I woke up the night of April 5, 2007, from a disturbing dream. I write all my dreams down, and usually they’re pretty nonsensical, but this one was different. I wrote:

“Alice.” It is her name but it isn’t her name. She thinks of who she was as someone far away. Long ago. Kidnapped when she was ten. Five years, and she lives with kidnapper still. Now he wants someone else. New. She’ll do anything to get him off her. Knows no one sees her, staring at blue thing, plastic like water but not water, reflection strange. Blurred, featureless. Flash of teeth, grinning not grinning, hands and pain, HIM. Thinks, I am a living dead girl.

By the time I was done writing, I knew Alice’s story. I knew I had to tell it. But I had other projects I was working on, and I told myself to file it away. The night of April 6, 2007, I had the same dream again. By the night of April 8, 2007, I woke up from the now-familiar dream and wrote only one word: Alice. I wrote Living Dead Girl because it demanded to be told, and writing it was an intense experience.

Cole: Can you elaborate on what you mean by intense? 

Scott: It was intense because it was one of those books that just comes out, and the speed with which it did was something I haven’t often experienced.

Cole: You wrote the protagonist’s story from three points of view—in the opening pages you use first, third, and second. Can you talk about why you approached the story that way?

Scott: It wasn’t entirely intentional, but I think that it reflects a couple of things: the first and third are Alice’s own fractured nature, the way she has become a creature of Ray’s creation, and the second person point-of-view pieces are Alice’s way of addressing what we see—and how that is not what is. I think second person is a good way to show how people see things—or chose to see them—versus how they are in a way that first or third can’t. First person puts you inside someone’s head, third lets you watch them, but second forces you to be there in a unique way that can’t happen with first or third.

Cole:  Can you talk about the character of Ray? How did he develop as the story took shape? Was he a difficult character to create?

Scott: Ray was there from the beginning, a shadow that grew and took shape as I began writing. He was always young, always broken and made cruel by it, and exactly the kind of guy Alice says he is at one point in the book, the type of man who would be called “quiet,” “polite,” and even “he seemed so normal!” by others. 

Cole: One of the most shattering scenes for me is the one in which Alice is in the car with Jake for the first time. He is frightened by her matter-of-factness. I immediately think to myself, “My god, she has become like Ray! There is a sense of control here and she gets off on it.”  What was in your thinking as you wrote the scenes between Alice and Jake? What do you think about my take on the scene?

Scott: Alice does enjoy Jake’s fear of her, so I think your take on the scene is exactly right. It’s not a comfortable scene, but I don’t think it would have been right for me to pretend Alice’s reaction away—she has spent five years with Ray, after all, and that time—and Ray—have shaped her.

Cole: Did you have any conversations with friends/editors about how to tell the abusive scenes? If so, can you elaborate? Were you concerned with censorship? 

Scott: I didn’t actually talk to anyone about Living Dead Girl while I wrote it—I wasn’t under contract for it or anything—I wrote it for myself because I felt that I had to tell the story. In fact, if it hadn’t been for a friend who read it when I was finished, and who urged me to send it to my agent, it would still be sitting on my computer.

So, as far as what shaped the story, what you see is what came out when I was writing. I wasn’t thinking about what I should or shouldn’t say or should or shouldn’t do—I just wanted to write about a girl who could have been spared the life she has, who should have been saved from Ray at some point before all hope was gone but wasn’t because no one ever took the time to really see her.

I think it’s easy to get outraged over a child’s abduction, but it’s also equally easy for us to see something—someone—that makes us uncomfortable, a moment or an expression that give us pause, and to do nothing.

And that moment where we see and turn away is, I think, the heart of Living Dead Girl. Alice’s story isn’t just about what she endures with Ray. It’s what she endures at the hands of the world. How it doesn’t see her.

As far as censorship goes, I hadn’t even thought of it until I read your question! I suppose it could happen. I can’t tell people what to think or how to feel about the book, and if what I’ve written upsets them, I believe they’re entitled to their opinion, just as I was free to write a story I felt needed to be told. And while I don’t believe any book should be banned, I know there are those who feel differently, and though I hope that Living Dead Girl will be read and discussed, if there are those who want the book banned, then—well, we do all make choices when it comes to what we want to see, don’t we?

Cole: What was your thinking behind how you wanted to end the story. You chose to have Alice saved from Ray in the end. 

Scott: I don’t know if I would say that she’s saved. I would say that she’s free in the only way she could truly be at that point. It’s the only ending I ever saw for her.

Cole: I know the book is still in galley form, but have you had any responses from teen readers yet? 

Scott: I have heard from a few teen readers, and what I love about the responses I’ve gotten is that they all understand Alice’s plight in a different way than adults, who tend to focus just on the fact that she’s been kidnapped. The teen readers I’ve heard from have all noticed that Alice is trapped just as much by the world as she is by Ray. They see what I was thinking about when I wrote the story—that it’s so easy to turn away.

***

You can read more about Elizabeth Scott on her webpage http://www.elizabethwrites.com

An Interview with Ashley Rhodes-Courter,
author of Three Little Words: A Memoir

by Pam B. Cole 

At the age of three, Ashley Rhodes was taken from her biological mother by Florida child welfare system and placed in foster care. Ashley never again lived with her biological mother. Over the next nine years, she lived in fourteen different foster homes, many of which were abusive and negligent. At the age of twelve, Ashley was adopted by Phil and Gay Courter of Crystal River, Florida. Ashley had given up hope that anyone would care about her, but with the love and support of the Courter family, she learned to trust and thrived as a teen. This past May I had the good fortune to chair a session at IRA in Atlanta in which Ashley talked about her childhood memoir, Three Little Words, a testament to the enduring strength of the human spirit.  Below is a brief interview I conducted with Ashley after her IRA presentation.

 COLE: Why did you want to write Three Little Words?

RHODES-COURTER: The book actually started as an essay that I wrote for a high school contest through the New York Times. I was fortunate to win first place and was published in the magazine. After that, there was a lot of interest from others to hear the full story. That’s when I decided that this project could be a wonderful way for me not only to piece together the puzzle of my past, but it could also be an instrument for change within America’s broken child welfare system. I definitely did not want my memoir to be another “orphan sob story.”  Instead, I wanted it to be inspiring and informative. Most importantly, I wanted it to be a call to action.

COLE: Three Little Words is an extremely tough story. What was the biggest challenge you had in writing the book?

RHODES-COURTER: Writing my book was difficult on many levels. It was NOTHING like writing one of my term papers for school!  The most difficult aspect of the project was spending countless hours doing research on myself. I was uncovering some rather shocking, and sometimes hurtful, things in my case files and through my interviews with former foster parents, case workers, and other people who knew me during my time in care. I didn’t want to relive some of the graphic and terrifying experiences in foster homes. My adoptive parents and editors were constantly telling me that I had to put more of my “feelings” onto the page instead of simply describing each scene. As a child, I was very closed off and tried not to let my emotions of rejection, sorrow, pain, guilt, and fear get the best of me—so I wasn’t excited about rehashing those emotions as a young adult!  Also, I tried to be completely honest and forthcoming in my memoir, so that meant sharing stories about myself….both good and bad. Some of my behaviors and experiences are rather embarrassing, and I was fearful of what people would think of me after reading about these incidences. But in the end, I felt it was my responsibility to show all sides of my story. No one person, or family, is perfect. And as readers will discover, I definitely had some bad and good days like everyone else!

COLE:  I’ve read dozens of novels by authors who grew up in difficult circumstances, but I have never read one in which the author can tell his/her story without being melodramatic and without working too hard to “convince” the audience how bad things were until I read your book.  Most writers, particularly new ones writing this close to home, “tell” more than they “show.”  And yet, when I read your book, I couldn’t help being captured by your ability to distance yourself from “Ashley.” You show us her anxiety (you don’t say, “I was anxious,”) but we see your anxiety in scenes such as the times in which you deliberately attempt to sabotage your relationship with the Courters—for fear it’s going to blow apart anyway. Did the ability to write that way—to simply show us and not tell us, to let us have the emotional response “on our own”—come natural to you? Or did you have prompting/advice from the editor? 

RHODES-COURTER: Since I grew up being very emotionally detached from my life, I felt the same way as I was recreating the younger “me”. I would write scenes and describe things thoroughly and accurately, but then when people and my editors would read the manuscript, they would constantly comment that I needed to work harder to show how I felt. Rehashing emotions to the pages of my book was especially difficult because I had worked my entire life to be emotionally turned off to protect myself from abusive situations.

COLE: Did you read much as a child and teen? How much did you know about the field of young adult literature before you wrote your book?

RHODES-COURTER: I must admit that I wasn’t an insatiable reader when I was younger.  Because I moved so often, many of my possessions were often lost or destroyed by other kids in my various foster homes. I did rely heavily on my imagination, and I loved to write and draw. In school I would create poems and doodle quite a bit. A few teachers were kind enough to give me books, but they were stolen.

When I moved into my adoptive family, I was unfamiliar with a lot of the classic children’s stories like The Little Engine That Could.  My adoptive parents began to read me those types of stories at bedtime.  
They introduced me to more literature and I became addicted to the Harry Potter books.

When my book was published, I knew little to nothing about the publishing process, and aside from reading YA literature, I didn’t know anything about creating it. However, I was seventeen when I began my story, so technically I was still a young adult myself and was still in that mindset. My adoptive mother is a writer so she and many others were able to help me transition from writing term papers, short stories, and essays to creating an entire book.

COLE: What authors do you remember reading in middle school and high school?

Aside from my parents reintroducing me to some classic children’s literature, I also read J.K. Rowling, Thomas Hardy, Sue Townsend, Ray Bradbury, Shel Silverstein, Beverly Cleary, Jane Austin, Edgar Allan Poe, George Orwell … and the list goes on. I must admit, too, that I did spend a significant amount of time reading what was assigned in my classes. Since I was also active in sports, drama, and other extracurricular activities, required reading assignments generally took up any spare time I had. But I loved theatre so I would often read much more Shakespeare than I was assigned.

COLE: You mentioned at IRA that you learned a great deal about yourself in writing this book through research and reflection. What, though, can you say you learned about the craft of writing from writing this memoir?

RHODES-COURTER: I learned a tremendous amount about myself and about the writing profession during the process of completing my book.  I thought I would have a really hard time reliving some painful moments, and I found myself being shocked daily by what I was uncovering about my life in my research.  Some homes were even more horrible than I had remembered, and discovering that almost 25% of my foster parents were, or became, convicted felons certainly didn’t make me feel great.  In the end, I was really glad to know all of the good and bad things that I found and ultimately, the project made me feel much more whole. In terms of getting the book together and making the story cohesive, I think it helped that there were so many eyes and hands involved in crafting the project.  I was constantly learning things from my adoptive parents, editors, and others that I had read manuscripts and they helped to “flesh out” various sections and chapters. Going into it, I knew nothing about how to write an entire book, but slowly and with plenty of guidance, it came together!  

COLE: What are you working on now?

RHODES-COURTER: At the moment I am traveling full time helping to spread the word about foster care and adoption issues, as well as empowering adults and young people to get involved in their communities. I hope that my book will be a tool for change within the child welfare system, and I hope that my work will encourage others to step up and champion for  the people and issues they care about.

COLE: Do you plan to write another book?

RHODES-COURTER: I think I would absolutely invite the opportunity to write another book. Writing is such a therapeutic outlet, and I am so honored to have been a part of the literary world. The people that I have met have been wonderful. I am so appreciative of all the opportunities I have been given and the lives I’ve been able touch. So I definitely can’t say “no” when people ask me if I’ll write again! 

COLE: It has been an honor to get to know you Ashley. Thank you for what you do. 

RHODES-COURTER:  I feel very blessed to have been given an opportunity like this.  I hope that other kids and families are inspired by my story and choose to find their own voices and passions.  No matter where you come from, or what hand you were dealt in life, your future is entirely your own.