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Q: Tell us a little bit about yourself as an author and
everyday person? What are your likes/dislikes?
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A: I am also a mother, so a lot of my time is dedicated
to my 5
year old and 2 year old. We live north of
New York City, in a more rural
area, and a lot of our
activities involve playing on nearby farms, going out
in the
forest, and wading through creeks to catch frogs. We like to
get
dirty. When I have some rare time to myself, I run,
hike, or bake cakes. And,
if I’m not writing, or doing
any of the above…I’m reading.
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Q: When did you know you had a gift
of writing?
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A: I discovered a love of writing when I was a young girl.
I
would sit in my room, on my scratchy green rug, and
write stories in marble
notebooks. I wrote my first novel
when I was twelve. It was called Ten Is
Enough and was
loosely (i.e. entirely) based on the sitcom: Eight Is Enough.
In seventh grade my English teacher, Mr. Bell, took one
of my
assignments and hung it up on the bulletin board
because he liked my story so
much. He hadn’t done
that with anyone else’s work and it made me think
that,
maybe, writing was something I was good at.
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Q: Where did the inspiration come
for A Swirl of Ocean?
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A: A Swirl of Ocean was
inspired by a dream I had years
ago about a girl and the ocean. It was one of
those hazy,
blurry dreams, I could sense more than see and I
had a
deep feeling in my gut that it was about a girl who was a
part of the
ocean and the ocean was a part of her. I didn’t
know what that meant or where
it would lead but every time
I thought about what I would write “next” I
thought of that girl.
Years later I was watching a documentary about the secrets
of the ocean and
how we can understand and uncover
entire histories and civilizations by
studying the depths
of the ocean floor. It fascinated me that the ocean could
“hold” on to a history and I began to wonder what it would
be like if we
could understand that history in mysterious ways,
by making the ocean a part
of who we are, too.
My main character, Summer, wants to understand something
about her own
history. Her own past. And she learns it by
capturing ocean water, swallowing
it, and dreaming an
entire mysterious history that she slowly learns belongs
to her.
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Q: Did you do any research for A Swirl of Ocean?
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A: I had to do research on turtles and shells. I learned
about
the Diamondback Terrapin, one of the few turtles
who live in brackish water,
which is marshland. And
the spirula shell, which is found in more tropical
climates,
and comes from a ram’s horn squid. A sighting of a ram’s
horn squid
is very rare because they live in the depths of
the ocean, so most people
have only seen their shells.
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Q; What was the hardest scene to write?
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A: All of them! Drafting is a long, difficult process that
I
often find quite painful. It isn’t until I get to the revision
stage, when I
feel like I finally have the framework for
the story and characters, that I
can refine, gain some
momentum, and put together an intricate puzzle.
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Q: What are you currently reading?
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A: In middle grade, I recently finished the fantastic graphic
memoir by Shannon Hale and Leuyen Pham, Best
Friends, and the beautiful My
Jasper June by Laurel Snyder.
I also read a lot of adult literary fiction
and I’m catching
up on a new-to-me Japanese author, Banana Yoshimoto,
whose
spare prose, even in translation, is really amazing.
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Q: How do you get started on your writing, and what
advice
would you give to middle grade students who are writing?
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A: Writing, for me, started out as play. It was a “game” I
played on the computer, typing little sentences and stories
on the keyboard,
watching them disappear, then turning on
the computer the next day to write something
else. I began
to enjoy it so much, I started to get those thick marble
notebooks at the drugstore and fill them up with stories.
My best advice for young writers is to be observant. Look
at
your world, think about your day, the people around you,
the places you go,
and write down the things you find most
interesting. Keep a notebook and try
to fill it, each day, with
just one thing, big or small, that intrigued you.
Those little
tidbits start to add up and sometimes they spark ideas for a
larger story.
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Q: Can you describe your revision/editing process for
students?
Also, do you start writing on paper/computer/etc?
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A: I mostly write on the computer. If I’m stuck, I often scurry
over to a notebook and write a little bit there. It gives me a new
view.
Then, once I’m un-stuck, I type what I wrote and keep going.
Once I finish a first draft, I usually let my work sit for a
while.
I do other things I love: read, bake, play with my kids, or go
running. Once I’ve had that time away, could be weeks or months,
I read the
book over and I think about what isn’t working or
what could be better. Then
I start to list the things I’d need to
do to make them better. Sometimes, I
don’t know what would
help, so I just let the problem sit in the back of my
mind and
hope that, someday, I’ll figure it out. Usually, with time, I do.
Once
I’ve made one revision, I send it someone else to read. I
get that person’s
feedback and then I’ll go through the process
again. I’ll go through that
process again and again until I feel
it’s ready. It’s a long slog but it’s
the only way I know of doing it.
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Q: Future projects that you are
currently working on?
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A: I am currently revising one very messy novel and writing
a
new one whose idea I can’t seem to shake. I’ve never played
with two stories
at the same time before, so that’s new for me.
It just feels like the right
thing to do at this moment, to be involved
with both.
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Q: What else would you like teachers and young readers to
know?
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A: When I was a young girl, I wanted to be an author but a lot
of the books I read were written by authors who were dead! I
didn’t know
anyone in my life who had a creative job, like
being a writer or an artist.
So, it wasn’t something I thought I
could
do and, yet, it was the only thing I actually wanted to do. I
want young people to know that writing is a job
and it’s an
important one because stories can change the world. If it’s
something you want to do in your life, remember, there are
many people out
there who do it as a job. They can be examples
to you. Many of them teach
writing classes or provide mentorship
or editing services so, sometimes, you
can even learn from your
favorite writers.
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