a source for Gothic fantasy and related conversations, publishing information, writer resources, inspiration, news in children's and teen literature, and author outreach
Thank you to host librarian Mary Ann Tsosie and all those who attended one of my workshops and/or lecture this weekend at The University of New Mexico in Albuquerque! Note: "The Summer Sunset lecture series is co-sponsored by University Libraries and the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs." Here's a peek inside UNM:
As much fun as I've had of late, traveling and visiting book lovers from around the country, I'm pleased to say that I'll be home for the next several months, working hard on the Eternal graphic novel and a new prose novel that will be set in the same universe.
My best takeaway insight, having sampled much of what the U.S. airlines industry has to offer is: fly Southwest!
Beyond that, Austin is in Central Texas, so we're in no danger from Hurricane Alex. But we are seeing our share of rain and rainbows. This shot was taken from West Seventh Street.
CynthiaLeitichSmith's Channel at YouTube is now online. At this point, I'm just getting to know the system and adding favorites for your viewing pleasure--so far, my official book trailers and several by readers. Note: once I get a chance, I'll add the trailers of some of my own favorite reads.
Dia Reeves is the first-time author of Bleeding Violet (Simon Pulse, 2010). From the promotional copy:
Love can be a dangerous thing….
Hanna simply wants to be loved. With a head plagued by hallucinations, a medicine cabinet full of pills, and a closet stuffed with frilly, violet dresses, Hanna’s tired of being the outcast, the weird girl, the freak. So she runs away to Portero, Texas in search of a new home.
But Portero is a stranger town than Hanna expects. As she tries to make a place for herself, she discovers dark secrets that would terrify any normal soul.
Good thing for Hanna, she’s far from normal. As this crazy girl meets an even crazier town, only two things are certain: Anything can happen and no one is safe.
In writing your story, did you ever find yourself concerned with how to best approach "edgy" behavior on the part of your characters? If so, what were your thoughts, and what did you conclude? Why do you think your decision was the right one?
Before I ever sat down to write Bleeding Violet, I knew that the main character hallucinated, but I didn't know what mental illness caused hallucinations, and so I had to do some research.
When I discovered that people with bipolar can hallucinate (especially during manic episodes), that's the illness I went with. It was the illness itself that shaped most of Hanna's personality: recklessness, impaired judgment, hypersexuality, delusions, and thoughts of suicide.
I know a lot of people are offended by Hanna's behavior and don't feel that she's an appropriate role model or simply can't relate to her because her experiences and point of view are so out of the norm.
When I wrote her character, I never intended that Hanna should be the guiding example of what a teenager should be. I'm not interested in writing about saintly paragons of virtue, nor am I interested in writing about "normal" teenagers. I prefer abnormal teenagers, the ones on the fringe, the ones who don't think or operate the way "normal" people do.
That's why I had so much fun writing Bleeding Violet; with Hanna being an unusual type of character (certainly an underrepresented character), what built up around her was, correspondingly, an unusual story.
I wish everyone could experience the creative freedom that comes with upsetting the status quo; there are no words for it.
As a paranormal writer, how did you go about building your world?
I knew I wanted to write about East Texas; there's something romantic and fairytale-ish about huge forests.
Also, when people think of Texas, they tend to imagine flat, dusty plains and tumbleweeds. I wanted people to know that the geography of Texas is much more varied than that.
But what gives the imaginary town of Portero its otherwordly vibe is less the town itself but rather its townspeople: their matter-of-fact outlook on death, how they value bravery above almost anything else, their high tolerance for weirdness.
Porterenes have their own rituals and styles of dress and modes of behavior all centered around the fact that they live side by side with monsters. So the world building grew out of character; for me, characters inform everything.
Spooky Notes
Dia Reeves is a librarian and lives in a suburb of Dallas, Texas. Her family, however, hails from East Texas. Bleeding Violet is her first novel.
Alyxandra Harvey is the first-time author of The Drake Chronicles--Hearts At Stake (My Love Lies Bleeding in UK)(Dec., 2009-Jan., 2010); Blood Feud (June, 2010) and Out for Blood (Nov. 2010), all from Bloomsbury Walker Books. From the promotional copy:
On Solange’s sixteenth birthday, she is going to wake up dead. As if that’s not bad enough, she also has to outwit her seven overprotective older brothers, avoid the politics involved with being the only daughter born to an ancient vampire dynasty, and elude Kieran Black—agent of an anti-vampire league who is searching for his father’s killer and is intent on staking Solange and her entire family.
Luckily, she has her own secret weapon—her human best friend Lucy—who is willing to defend Solange’s right to a normal life, whether she’s being smothered by her well-intentioned brothers or abducted by a power-hungry queen.
Two unlikely alliances are formed in a race to save Solange’s eternal life—Lucy and Solange’s brother Nicholas, and Solange and Kieran Black—in a dual romance that is guaranteed to jump start any romance-lover’s heart.
How did you discover and get to know your protagonist? How about your secondary characters?
Quite often, my characters just pop into my head. They have a basic shape and voice, but it's like I need glasses to really focus on their individual details.
First, I find a name. I have lots of baby name books, and I keep lists of names I like as I come across them. I've also been known to out and out steal from movie credits!
I also keep a notebook for each novel I write, and it's filled with lists of characters' eye colour, hair colour, favourite band, book and food... I don't necessarily know all of this information when I first start, it is revealed to me as I go along.
But my favourite way of getting to know a book and a character is through collage. You don't need any particular artistic talent, just a few magazines and a glue stick. And I find it frees me up and gives me a different viewpoint. Imagery and certain colours, or bits of poetry all contribute to the "feel" of any given character. There's something instinctive and subconscious about this process which appeals to me.
Sometimes characters also have a "theme song." For Hearts At Stake and the main protagonist Solange Drake, this song was "Killing Moon" by Echo and the Bunnymen.
Hearts at Stake started with an image I had of a girl and a car full of her many brothers driving up to whisk her away. I knew she was in danger, but now how or why.
So I wrote the story to find out.
Eventually, I realized I wanted to loosely retell the Snow White fairy tale but in the vampire YA genre. I had Solange's basic details that way: black hair, pale skin and red lips. But I didn't really get to know her until I got to know her family. She is so overprotected because of vampire politics that she feels smothered and beloved all at the same time. She is just discovering who she is as a person when she is forced through the bloodchange into a vampire...if she can survive long enough, that is.
Another defining aspect for the characters in this book is their friendships with others. The family you make for yourself is just as important as the family you're born with. And for Solange Drake, that's Lucy Hamilton.
Lucy was fun to write because she's reckless and snarky. She doesn't really have a mute button, and she tends to act before she thinks. Her parents are pacifists, but she definitely has a violent streak!
Since both characters spoke to me so strongly that I chose to use both of their perspectives, in alternating chapters. I didn't want to be limited to one part of the story. I wanted to explore both the vampires and the humans and the way they interact. And often they hijacked the plot for their own purposes!
As a paranormal writer, what first attracted you to that literary tradition? Have you been a long-time paranormal reader? Did a particular book or books inspire you?
I have always been a reader. When everyone else was in love with actors and musicians, I was in love with literary characters or dead poets. I've cultivated very satisfying crushes on Robin Hood, John Keats, Mr. Rochester and, of course, Mr. Darcy.
In high school, I started to read fantasy novels which eventually led me to paranormal and urban fantasy. But at first I was a terrible snob. I refused to read any modern fantasy. If it didn't happen in some crumbling castle, I wanted nothing to do with it!
Tanya Huff's Blood Ties series whet my appetite in high school as my first literary introduction to vampires and werewolves and supernatural creatures. I adored her books; they were snarky and fun and took place in Toronto, where I lived. My best friend and I used to trade them back and forth, writing each other notes about the characters in the margins.
And then in university I discovered Charles de Lint. That was it. He finalized my conversion with a single book: Memory and Dream (1994).
Keep in mind that urban fantasy meant something different back in the 90s. It was more magical folkloric realism (Charles de Lint, Emma Bull, Terri Windling...) than the detective/action/horror type books that make up the genre now. In fact, Terri Windling's The Wood Wife (2003) remains my favourite book to this day. Some other favourites now also include Solstice Wood by Patricia A. McKillip (2006) and Guy Gavriel Kay's Ysabel (2007).
What I love about this genre is the braiding together of myth and history and magic. It has the flavour of old fairy tales but with more modern sensibilities. It's the beauty of the rose, the blood on a thorn and the girl passed out in the castle behind the briars. It has so many layers. The mystery of it helps us to look beneath the surface, which is always a valuable tool. And (especially now) the girls almost always kick butt!
And never forget, it's only fairly recently that paranormal creatures are shelved in the fantasy section. They used to be a real concern, as real as choosing which crops to plant, how to avoid the plague, and who you were going to marry.
Spooky Notes
Alyxandra "studied creative writing and literature at York University and has had her poetry published in several magazines. When not writing, she is a belly dancer and jewelrymaker. She lives in Ontario, with her husband, hawk, and two dogs."
Fresh Hell: What’s behind the boom in dystopian fiction for young readers? by Laura Miller from The New Yorker. Peek: "There are, or will soon be, books about teen-agers slotted into governmentally arranged professions and marriages or harvested for spare parts or genetically engineered for particular skills or brainwashed by subliminal messages embedded in music or outfitted with Internet connections in their brains. Then, there are the post-apocalyptic scenarios in which humanity...." Note: Great article, but I respectfully disagree with the latter assertion that you don't have to offer a fresh twist, but rather just be "harrowing." YAs may be young, but those who are avid fans of a particular literary tradition may well trump us grizzled types in expertise. Source: Nathan Bransford.
What It Takes to Be An Agent by Jessica and Kim at BookEnds, LLC. Peek: "So often I hear people say that they love to read, therefore they want to be agents. Oh, if only it were that simple. As any of you who have followed agents on Twitter or through blogs have probably come to realize, being an agent is not a 9-5 job. It’s a 9-9 job and then some, and the truth is the reading is such a small part of what we do."
Agents Are Not Just Gatekeepers by Nathan Bransford - Literary Agent. Peek: "For an aspiring author, the gatekeeping function is basically all they think about when they think about agents. But in actuality, agents spend most of their time on their existing clients, who happen to be the ones that have already made it through the hoop." Read a Cynsations interview with Nathan.
What Does Fantasy Teach Us? by Deva Fagan from The Enchanted Inkpot. Peek: "I believe that the fantastical can teach us just as much about life and the world as gritty realism. That it can help us learn to be better people, allow us to explore injustice and cruelty and beauty and hope. That fantasy can teach us about the real world." Read a Cynsations interview with Deva.
Fighting Fatigue by Lynn Viehl from Paperback Writer. Peek: "Publishing loses so many great writers every year. The stress of trying to be-all and do-all as a professional writer inevitably and negatively affects the writer as well as the quality of their work, which tips over the seven dominoes of writer self-destruction via creative fatigue: exhaustion, paranoia, burn-out, depression, isolation, renunciation and, finally, tossing in the towel." Source: Elizabeth Scott.
What Kind of Fantasy is Tu Looking For? And what kind of synopsis? by Stacy Whitman from Tu Publishing. Peek: "I just want to be sure that you’re also familiar with what’s out there right now for children and teens, and not just what was published in the 70s and 80s by some of the best authors on the adult side. If you haven’t already, I suggest going to your local bookstore (or library, but the bookstore is better for seeing more current books all in one place) and looking at the middle grade and YA shelves to get a good idea of how broad the definition of SF/fantasy is in that section." Read a Cynsations interview with Stacy.
Cynsational Screening Room
Write On Con: "We’d all heard so many writers tell us they wished they could attend a conference, but simply didn’t have the time or money. So we decided to bring a conference to them—a free online conference that anyone could attend in the convenience of their own homes. And so, WriteOnCon was born. (Rated MC-18: for main characters 18 and under.)" The online event is scheduled for Aug. 10 to Aug. 12; see roster of presenters and more information. Source: the Texas Sweethearts.
The Vampire Hunters hosts give you the inside scoop on how to tell the if your friend is just a regular teen or a vampire! Need more tips? Check out the book Fat Vampire: A Never Coming Of Age Story by Adam Rex (HarperCollins, June 27, 2010).
More Personally
Summer seems to have already arrived in Texas. At least according to the sunflower blooming in my yard. (It's less fuzzy in real-life).
Authors That Inspire by Kristine Carlson Asselin from My Writing Journey. Kristine offers her reaction to my recent keynote at the New England SCBWI Conference. Peek: "First of all, Cyn's speech was funny. And that's important for a Saturday morning conference presentation. She talked about her adorable husband, her life as a law student, and the epiphany that came when she decided to start writing for children (as I recall, it had something to do with ducks.) And I loved her immediately." Note: Kristine's Taurus, Virgo & Capricorn: All About the Earth Signs was published by Capstone Press in January 2010.
From Larissa's bio: "I'm a wife, mother of three, preschool teacher, writer, handbell choir director, Creative Memories Consultant...so, yeah, not much going on around here. I am also the 2010 Silent Auction Chairperson for the Florida Writers Association. If you would like to donate, please contact me."
I'm pleased to announce new and forthcoming editions of Immortal: Love Stories with Bite, edited by P.C. Cast, which includes my short story, "Haunted Love." Language rights sold and the respective publishers to date include:
Cover Stories: Forgive My Fins by Tara Lyn Childs from Melissa Walker. Peek: "I sent it immediately to my friends at Blue Willow Bookshop for their bookseller perspective and then sent on their suggestions with mine. The art department at Harper absolutely took those suggestions to heart. They were extremely committed to making the cover as perfect as possible and worked on every little detail."
Austin Avant-Grande Mentoring Program: "a network of successful kid-lit artists and writers offering support, providing guidance, and sharing expertise in a highly professional manner. AAMP amplifies a sense of community through a concentrated focus on craft."
Attention Gothic fantasy, horror, paranormal romance, and urban fantasy authors! Please swing by spookycyn and my related bibliography to make sure your blog/author site links are included. If not, please contact me with the URLs and where they should go.
PR Notes: Book Publicity by Darcy Pattison from Fiction Notes. Peek: "For some time, I’ve been very interested in the ins and outs of marketing, public relations, social media, etc. I’ve thought about doing a separate website; instead, I’ve decided to write a PR Notes column on Wednesdays. I’d love to include your PR story in a guest post or I’d be glad to send you a Q&A."
Margaret Bechard: new official author site. Learn about Margaret and her books, read her journal, and find out about her teaching. Peek: "Writing is hard and frustrating and sometimes I just want to be a barista at Starbucks. But then there are those moments where everything comes together, when my fingers are typing just a little bit faster than my brain is working, and then I know why I always wanted to do this."
Critiques: Guidelines and Tips by Donna Bowman Bratton from Simply Donna. Peek: "As a critique group member, you will at times be a partner, a therapist, a sounding board, an impartial reader, an editor, and a cheerleader."
Dystopian and the Apocalypse: What's the Difference? by Kaitlin Ward from YA Highway. Peek: "These terms sometimes have that same confusion factor (for me, at least) as 'urban fantasy' vs. 'paranormal romance.' So much potential for overlap, but really, they are their own unique snowflakes." Note: includes model books for reference.
The Thrill of Harry Potter Rides On by Neil Genzlinger from The New York Times. Peek: "...rides aren’t really the point; workmanship is. This attraction was made for the kind of people who have more or less memorized Ms. Rowling’s books, and it shows in all sorts of details. The weathering of the stone to make it look indefinably old. The way the snow sits on the rooftops, just on the verge of melting." Note: don't miss the video.
Rumor has it that the delightful folks at Candlewick are starting to talk about the spring 2011 list, which is a big list for me because it'll include both Blessed and Tantalize: Kieren's Story, a graphic novel, illustrated by Ming Doyle. This strikes me as another call to celebrate the awesomeness of Ming, so here's a Lois & Clark video snapshot from her LJ.
Thanks to Shveta for hosting my latest interview--Dancing and jingling and tantalizing: Interview with Cynthia Leitich Smith--at A desi faerie spins stories of stars, jasmine in her hair.... I talk about the inspirations for Tantalize, Eternal, and even Cynsations as well as what I've learned from teaching, a few recommended multicultural novels, what I'd like to see more of in children's-YA books, my upcoming releases, and fictional role models.
Interview with Cynthia Leitich Smith: Author of Eternal by J.E. from Fresh Dawgs' Book Blog. Peek: "My reading tastes have expanded over the years. When I was in high school, I enjoyed spooky stories, and I still do. But I also love great creative nonfiction, historical novels, novels in verse, and many more genres and formats. Writing has made me appreciate more what I can learn from embracing a wide variety of books."
Reminder: any ARC/book blurb queries should be emailed to me by editors/agents, not from authors directly. Please also note that I have been swamped of late with such requests, so it's not an ideal time. Thanks!
More Than a Little Crazy: An Interview with Darren Shan by Penelope Przekop from Aberration Nation. Peek: "In the end, after it [Cirque du Freak] was turned down by 20 publishers, HarperCollins in the UK took a chance on it. It was published in January 2000 and started selling like hot cakes all around the world. By accident, I found myself in the position of a globally successful children's author, and I haven't looked back since!" Note: I watched "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant," a film adaptation of Cirque du Freak this past weekend, and highly recommended it. Don't miss the special features.
Enter to win a copy of Morpheus Road: The Light by by D. J. MacHale (Aladdin, 2010). To enter, email me (scroll and click envelope) with your name and snail/street mail address and type "Morpheus Road: The Light" in the subject line (Facebook, JacketFlap, MySpace, and Twitter readers are welcome to just privately message/comment me with the name in the header/post; I'll write you for contact information, if you win). Deadline: May 31. Publisher sponsored; U.S. entries only. See also the book trailer.
More Personally
Interview with Cynthia Leitich Smith by Naomi Canale from Dreams Can Be Reached. Peek: "I would likely relate most to Kieren Morales from Tantalize and the upcoming graphic novel Tantalize: Kieren's Story (Candlewick). He’s a serious reader with aspirations of being a writer and he excels academically. He’s also family oriented, loyal, and takes commitment very much to heart."
"Occasionally, a character will emerge who’s something of a composite of a number of folks I’ve known.
"Nora from Eternal is someone like that. She’s an older lady—the chef at the castle, nurturing, likes to treat trouble with a hot meal, and is always willing to listen. She’s a tribute of sorts to my grandmothers and aunties."
When I was a teen, you read a book, you reached the end. You put it down and started the next. The experience ended at "The End." But for today's teens, "The End" is just the beginning.
The DVD extras generation is looking for an entire multimedia experience when he or she delves into a book. They want the world the author created to live and breathe, and they want to become a part of it. And as an author, you can build an incredibly loyal fan base by taking steps offer that enhanced experience to them.
These days, when a tween or teen finishes a book they enjoy, the first thing they do is Google the author or series title. They're looking for author websites with cool downloads, fan sites with forums they can chat on, videos on YouTube to watch, Facebook pages they can "like," and secret inside information about what's coming up next. In short, they're looking to become a part of the world in any way they can.
Publishers have been slow to realize this, and a lot of initial multimedia/online content originated with the authors themselves, using their own budgets to enrich the reading experience. Now publishers are starting to catch on and will develop websites and videos for their top-selling authors. But mid-listers are still going to have to go it alone.
Don't worry--you don't have to spend a ton of money to create these multimedia extras. For example, while fancy book trailers can cost thousands of dollars to produce, a local college student might produce one at a big discount--or even free--just for the experience and exposure they get from being listed on your website. And don't think that free necessarily means inferior quality--I've seen fan videos with way more sophistication than some of the professional ones. Just make sure you supervise where they get their images and music from. They need to be royalty free to use or you might get in trouble down the road.
As an alternative, a simple webcam video with you chatting one-on-one with readers can be just as effective as a full on book trailer, if not more so. Mainly because this is what teens do themselves.
Look up "haul videos" on YouTube sometime to see what I mean. There are thousands of teens just sitting in front of their webcams, chatting about what they bought at the mall. They talk right into the camera and there's little, if any editing.
Since most newer laptops come with cameras already installed, this could be an easy, completely free way to promote yourself and your book. In these videos, you can talk about what's going on with the books. Give readers top secret advanced information or just chat about the plot of the next installment or even your life or writing process in general.
The key is to be natural and lighthearted and make the videos fun. (And not too long--three-to-five minutes is perfect.)
Other things that teens love? Widgets which can provide countdowns to your book release. Widgetbox.com has a free service or a pro service for $29.99 a year. You can also create (or have your webmaster create) AIM icons, Twitter Icons, Blog Avatars and wallpaper downloads--all with your book covers. In addition to allowing teens to become a part of your book's world and remember your series between releases, you're also getting free advertising to all their friends when they stick your book cover on their AIM or Facebook page.
One thing I did--which has been time consuming, but instrumental in pushing my series--was creating a fan club. On my website, www.bloodcovenvampires.com, I have a "Want to Join the Blood Coven?" page where kids can sign up to become Vampires in Training. The kits I send contain a welcome letter from the vampire master, Magnus, a plastic "Vampire in Training" card to stick in their wallets (like a credit card--so much cooler than paper and you can get them made overseas pretty cheap - like $200 for 2,000 cards). They also get a magnet (I have those designed for free at VistaPrint and just pay shipping) and an autograph sticker they can place in their book. And lastly, I include six bookmarks. One to keep and five to give out to potential vampires in training that they deem worthy of the coven. There's also a forum where they can role play with the other vampires in training or just chat about the books.
Overwhelmed yet? Well, don't be. You don't have to do everything yourself. The thing is, readers don't just want to hang out in your world, they want to contribute to it. Encourage them to create fan videos and put them up on YouTube. Or draw pictures and post them to DeviantArt. Since a lot of kids will do this on their own and not tell you, you should regularly search these sites for content based on your books. If you find some, write to the user and ask them if you can post it on your blog. You can guarantee they'll say "yes" and send all their friends to your website to check out their stuff.
This is something teachers and librarians can help out with too. Buy a cheap webcam or a netbook with webcam installed and have kids do their own "book haul" videos by speaking into the camera about their favorite books and why they like them. Then upload the videos to YouTube (free) and send a link to the authors they mention, asking if they would consider embedding the video on their blogs or Facebook pages. How cool would it be to see your students' videos featured on their favorite author's page?
And lastly authors--communicate with your readers. When they write to you, answer them. When they post on your Facebook page, reply. I know it can be overwhelming, but even a one-line answer can build a relationship with a reader that will last a lifetime. They want to feel valued, important, part of the world. And sending a quick reply will make their day. They'll tell their friends and family and that's the kind of advertisement that money can't buy.
Because at the end of the day, it's not what medium you provide the "DVD Extras" in--video, podcast, website, downloads--it's how those extras make your readers feel about the world you've built for them. Draw them in, make them feel a part of things and let them know they're valuable to you. Because let's face it, the world couldn't exist without them!
Anyway, I could go on and on, but the point is this. Building a successful teen series and cultivating lifelong fans depends on a well-written book, a good publisher/distribution, and a whole lot of luck. But you can tip the scales in your favor by taking simple steps to build an online world that compliments your series. Not only will it spur sales and keep the momentum going between books, but it'll bring you closer to your readers and you'll all have a lot of fun!
Mari Mancusi used to wish she could become a vampire back in high school. But she ended up in another blood sucking profession--journalism --instead. Today she works as a freelance TV producer and author of books for teens, including The Blood Coven Vampire series.
When not writing about creatures of the night, Mari enjoys traveling, cooking, goth clubbing, watching horror movies, and her favorite guilty pleasure--video games. A graduate of Boston University and a two time Emmy Award winner, she lives in Austin, Texas; with her husband Jacob and their dog Molly. You can find Mari online at www.marimancusi.com.
To enter, email me (scroll and click envelope) with your name and snail/street mail address and type "Morpheus Road: The Light" in the subject line (Facebook, JacketFlap, MySpace, and Twitter readers are welcome to just privately message/comment me with the name in the header/post; I'll write you for contact information, if you win). Deadline: May 31. Publisher sponsored; U.S. entries only.
More News
Interview with Author R.L. LaFevers by Leah Cypress from The Enchanted Inkpot. Peek: "In addition to researching the British Museum, I poured over antique street maps of London, pictures of buildings, studied the Edwardian period and its differences from the Victorian period, London street life, clothing, funeral customs."
Check out the book trailer for Sea by Heidi R. Kling (Putnam, June 2010).
More Personally
Inquiry 1: Cynthia Leitich Smith: an author interview by Erin Moulton from The Day Job: A Writer's Inquiry. Peek: "With love to the literature and logic of the law, it's perhaps not the most poetic or action-packet reading, and it was a treat to come home again to those [children's-YA] books." Note: Erin's debut novel, Maple T. Rittle and the Quest for a Miracle, will be released by Philomel in summer 2011, and it's utterly splendid.
Attention Austinites: look for signed stock of Tantalize at Barnes & Noble in Round Rock and at the Arboretum. Signed stock of Eternal (Candlewick, 2010) also is available at the Round Rock store. And, as always, you can find signed copies of my books at BookPeople downtown.
I'm thrilled to announce that Ming Doyle is in the process of illustrating the interior art for my upcoming graphic novel, Tantalize: Kieren's Story (Candlewick, Feb. 2011).
The graphic novel is set during the same time as the Tantalize prose novel (Candlewick, 2007, 2008), is told from the character Kieren Morales's point of view, and includes several new scenes.
My editor was kind enough to share with me Ming's early sketches, and wow! What a treat to see Quincie, Kieren, Brad, and Sanguini's: A Very Rare Restaurant brought to life. Ming absolutely "gets" the world and its players while bringing her own fresh energy and perspective.
According to her bio, Ming is originally from Boston, the daughter of an Irish American sailor and a Chinese Canadian librarian. She's a 2007 graduate of Cornell with a dual concentration in painting and drawing. She says, "I am currently working on art all night and every day. I would probably love an espresso."
Rescued from the gallows in 1850s London, young orphan (and thief) Mary Quinn is surprised to be offered a singular education, instruction in fine manners -- and an unusual vocation.
Miss Scrimshaw’s Academy for Girls is a cover for an all-female investigative unit called The Agency, and at seventeen, Mary is about to put her training to the test.
Assuming the guise of a lady’s companion, she must infiltrate a rich merchant’s home in hopes of tracing his missing cargo ships. But the household is full of dangerous deceptions, and there is no one to trust -- or is there?
Packed with action and suspense, banter and romance, and evoking the gritty backstreets of Victorian London, this breezy mystery debuts a daring young detective who lives by her wits while uncovering secrets -- including those of her own past.
Introducing an exciting new series! Steeped in Victorian atmosphere and intrigue, this diverting mystery trails a feisty heroine as she takes on a precarious secret assignment.
How did you approach the research process for your story? What resources did you turn to? What roadblocks did you run into? How did you overcome them? What was your greatest coup, and how did it inform your manuscript?
I’m supposed to be an expert on the Victorian era. But while researching my PhD thesis, I realized I didn't know much about daily life in the 1850s.
Take the Great Stink of 1858, for example. We know the bare facts: toilets flushed right into the Thames, and Londoners pumped the water straight back out for cooking and bathing. People thought the smell made you sick – not germs. And future prime minister Benjamin Disraeli fled the House of Commons one day with a handkerchief over his nose, so evil was the stench.
Juicy, right?
But vivid as they are, these facts don’t tell what it was like in individual houses; for people who lived and worked and walked around the city every day; for those who lived beside the river. This squelchy, sticky reality is the Victorian period you don’t read about in nineteenth-century novels or diaries, and that’s why I chose the Great Stink as the backdrop for Spy.
However, I didn’t want to write an entire novel about sewage; for one thing, it’s hard to identify with it as a character. And I also wondered what happened to smart, unconventional women in the period. If you weren't a good little girl, and you didn’t have a lot of money, what on earth happened to you?
Women’s choices were grim, even for the clever. You could be a governess (underpaid, powerless – look at Jane Eyre, and remember that’s a happily-ever-after story!). You could live with your rich relatives as a semi-servant (Jane Austen has a lot to say about that). You could try for a job as a clerk (and earn half what the man next to you did, for doing the same work – some things haven’t changed that much).
And to do any of these jobs, you had to be respectable, educated, and extremely long-suffering. Just thinking about it makes me want to scream.
So this is where I’ve gone my own way. If you’re curious about the nitty-gritty of Victorian domesticity, I highly recommend Judith Flanders’s The Victorian House (Harper Perennial, 2003), an absolutely gripping account of daily life in each room of a nineteenth-century home.
On germs and cholera epidemics, I love Steven Johnson’s The Ghost Map (Penguin, 2006), which came out after I’d researched Spy, but devoured anyway.
But my "greatest coup" in writing Spy was leaping away from history and imagining a bold, alternative fate for a girl like Mary Quinn.
As a historical fiction writer, how did you capture the voices of the era? What resources did you turn to? Did you run into challenges translating the language of the era for today's young readers? What advice do you have for other authors along these lines?
Oh, I’m still proud of this one: I queried UK agents as a test of authenticity, and it wasn’t until my agent offered representation that she realized I wasn’t British!
Clearly, having spent most of my adult life reading English literature helped with this act of ventriloquism.
Also, living in England gave me a first-hand understanding of the rhythms of British speech, and how Byzantine their regional and social distinctions can be.
So I was confident about how English my narrator sounded. But there was the additional problem of transposing the language back in time 150 years.
In practice, this means preserving the cadence of an English sentence – swift, staccato, with emphasis in different places than an American one – while using appropriately nineteenth century vocabulary. At the same time, the meaning has to be clear.
I often tried to define things in context: you may not know what a hansom is, but if I tell you that a man hailed one, climbed in, and asked the driver to take him to Bedford Square, it becomes perfectly clear that it’s a taxi cab. My vocabulary came straight from the great Victorian novelists: Dickens, Eliot, the Brontës. But I disagree with them in one respect.
In most Victorian novels, people speak in perfect, grammatical sentences (unless they’re working-class characters, in which case their speech is often spelled out fo-net-ick-ly – a major pet peeve of mine. It’s patronizing.) Did educated people never use slang, or contractions, or run-on sentences? And did the poor struggle to speak in their mother tongue? I think not.
Instead, I’d argue that people in Victorian England spoke more vividly and casually than we think – more "you and me" than "thee and thou." And this is what I’ve tried to do in Spy.
Cynsational Notes
From Candlewick Press: "Y. S. Lee has a PhD in Victorian literature and culture and says her research inspired her to write A Spy in the House, 'a totally unrealistic, completely fictitious antidote to the fate that would otherwise swallow a girl like Mary Quinn.'" Y. S. Lee lives in Ontario, Canada."
"'I literally gasped,' Smith laughs. 'I’ve always read that: 'She gasped,' and I thought no one ever really does it. But, apparently, yes, if you make The New York Times best-selling list for the first time and you had no idea it was going to happen, you will gasp.'"
