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I'm continuing my creative gifts series. This is all about writerly gifts that I've received from others on my journey. I'm extremely wealthy when it comes to receiving these gifts. This week I'm going to talk about Holly Cupala. Holly is someone who has been generous to me in so many ways I cannot count. She is one of the most deeply empathetic people I know. She aware of the feelings of a wide range of people; she feels deeply what they are going through. She is a gift to us all.
I tend to be socially awkward. I do care about other people, but I end up seeming really callous sometimes. One reason is I don't always feel what others feel. I recognize they are feeling something, but inside me I don't feel it. I have deep sympathy for them, but that is not the same as empathy. Everything I write has to relate somehow directly to my experiences, what I have felt. This limits my creative spectrum, but there it is. Exposure to the empathetic has helped me become a better writer and a better person.
Here is how this thing works: I've been bullied so I can write authentically about that. I wasn't at 9:11 and did not personally watch anyone die that day so I cannot write authentically about that. Empathetic people feel what others feel. The clueless part of me is I forget that people are feeling what others are feeling, because I don't. When I see someone writing about something outside his or her experience, I struggle with: "Is this authentic? Some rare individuals really do connect with experiences that are not their own. I'm blessed to know one of these people.
Holly has helped me learn to respect how others feel even if I can't feel it. She has taught me how empathy expands your world. When I am hurting, my first thought is to get away from everyone, wrap myself in blanket and deal with feeling pain. Empathetic people feel something and realize there are people all over feeling that and reach out to others that feeling the same thing they are feeling. Empathetic people surround me. I think they get it more than most that I need some help.
Holly's writing really shows off her empathy for others. Her characters have greatly varied experiences. Even when she is working out of what she knows, she's injecting what she has felt from others too. Her influence has forced me into the shoes of my antagonists. No character should be flat, but each one should be full of life. Exploring the intersection of characters has greatly expanded under exposure to Holly's empathy.
I hope something about empathy helps you march toward authenticity. I will begin a new series in the new year! Happy New Year!
Here is the cover of one of Holly's books.
And finally a quote for you pocket. Good fiction creates empathy. A novel takes you somewhere and asks you to look through the eyes of another person, to live another life. Barbara Kingsolver
0 Comments on Gifts: Empathy as of 12/26/2015 7:44:00 PM
Hello, dear readergirlz, and Happy Anniversary! It's pretty exciting to see the fruition of all of the ideas and hard work of the co-founders--Justina Chen, Dia Calhoun, Janet Lee Carey, and Lorie Ann Grover--and all of the helpers along the way! I'm honored to have been a part of it.
What's new with me? After readergirlz featured TELL ME A SECRET, my second YA novel, DON'T BREATHE A WORD, came out in January 2012 from HarperCollins. Since then, I've been working hard on a third YA (in the home stretch, hopefully!) with secrets...still so many secret stories to tell!
There have been big changes for me personally, too--family up by one, a crazy move to the country, wild forages for ideas and edibles, lots of DIY projects, and...three? four?...novels brewing.
I'm inspired by all of you, readergirlz! Keep up the wonderful work.
Diva Holly Cupala was here to talk about the cover of her debut novel, Tell Me a Secret. Now, her second novel, Don't Breathe a Word, is out this month, and it has a cover that manages to convey both darkness and sparkle! Here's Holly with the Cover Story:
"After the gorgeous cover HarperTeen put together for Tell Me a Secret, I knew to expect something fantastic for my second, Don't Breathe a Word… though it came about in a completely different (and for me, much more nail-biting) way…
"The original working title was Street Creed, which is what the design team initially had to work with. The first cover concept was… steamy (below). It featured two gorgeous creatures, probably Italian models, who met as if by chance after a swirling, beaded-dress-bedecked night for an almost-kiss. Sigh.
"But it didn’t feel like my book.
"Don’t Breathe a Word is the story of Joy, who runs away from home to escape an abusive relationship to the streets of Seattle. She finds allies who have secrets of their own, including Creed—a homeless boy who dreams of making it in the music industry.
"There is a steamy relationship (and Creed is swoonworthy!), but there are no beaded dresses. In fact, the only scene where that dress could have appeared was at a fundraiser party where Joy meets her boyfriend Asher—the dark reason she has to leave. Also, I was worried with the final title, it would look like 'Don’t Breathe a Word about that naughty thing we did after the prom.' No. Oh no..."
So in every organization, there's a flow of staff, coming in and going out. As a volunteer organization, this certainly occurs at readergirlz as every contributor is a YA author herself. It's time to say goodbye to three staff members this month.
First is Holly Cupala, our Design Diva. Holly has been our rgz face, essentially. She has donated hundreds and hundreds and hundred of hours to make posters, videos, banners, bookmarks, newsletters, and other visuals hot and engaging for our community. We will miss Holly so much! Her sweet, giving spirit is always infectious. We send her off with our best as she works on her third YA novel. Thank you, dearest Holly! Thank you, thank you, thank you! We love you dearly.
Liz Gallagher is also stepping away from readergirlz this month. She has been our head rgz HOST, networking and representing us in the industry. Her joy and belief in the organization have always been inspiring. We will miss her in the day-to-day dealings of rgz. Thank you, Liz! Here's to your next YA release! We love you much!
And then the ever-so-brilliant Martha Brockenbrough is stepping down as well. She has been our PR agent and general advisor for all things future. Between her gifts, talents, and networking abilities, she enabled the YA lit world and beyond to know the amazing things we were doing as a community. Thank you, Martha, for every effort, especially those press releases, TBD blog rolls, and Twitter hashtag posts. You-wow-me. Congrats on the sale of your first YA novel! We heart you!
Both Justina Chen and Dia Calhoun, my fellow co-founders, will be retreating toward their own writing as Holly, Liz, and Martha are doing. However they aren't too far away. :~)
So, your current rgz team will be: Micol Ostow, Melissa Walker, Little Willow, with me, Lorie Ann Grover as the representing co-founder. You'll see a few changes, fantastic new ideas and projects, and amazing blog posts as we continue to feature a different author every week.
No worries. Your rgz community is alive and thriving. Spread the word, and take a minute to give your love to our volunteer YA authors who are departing. Thankfully, they are in our Circle of Stars and will always, always, always be readergirlz. Thank you, ladies. We really do love you each so much!
Liz Gallagher and I (Holly) got to chat about readergirlz and YA this weekend with a roomful of librarians and future librarians at the UW Information School's iYouth Conference - a fantastic event! If they sound familiar, perhaps it's because you've seen this?
The brilliant spoof came out of the very same library school, and we even got to meet some of the stars and their friends! These are definitely some cheeky librarians and information specialists, and we were honored to be there.
Bonus: we got to hear keynoter Nancy Pearl tell her meaningful stories about the importance of children's and teen librarians and meet many educators dedicated to the future of learning.
Thank you so much for inviting us, UW Information School!
I've known of Barbara Caridad Ferrer (well-published author of teen and adult lit, known as Barb to her friends) in teenlit circles for a while now, so I was very excited when I found out she was moving Seattle - even better to meet her in person and find out she really is as saucy and generous and funny as you would expect her to be!
I'm very pleased to welcome her today to Story Secrets to spill some secrets about her latest YA novel, WHEN THE STARS GO BLUE. Plus she has promised a signed book to one US winner (see details below).
Welcome, Caridad!
*****
WHEN THE STARS GO BLUE a contemporary reimagining of Bizet's CARMEN, where a career army officer falls in love with a sultry gypsy and gives up everything for her, only to be overthrown for the flamboyant bullfighter. My version is set against the world of drum and bugle corps, where my army officer becomes a disciplined musician, my gyspy is a talented dancer and my bullfighter is a cocky soccer player from Spain. (Read an excerpt here.)
Holly Cupala: music, dancing, bullfighting...STARS has everything! How did the idea strike you?
Caridad Ferrer: One the original story has everything that makes for a great story-- drama, passion, intrigue, a love triangle, betrayals-- plus I'd always wanted to set a story against the world of competitive drum and bugle corps, since it was an activity I was extremely involved in, as an adolescent.
Holly: I've been hearing a lot about this book's unusual trip to the shelves. Will you tell us about it?
Caridad:This book had a pretty twisting journey...
Thanks to the cafés cropping up on every street corner these days, everyone I know seems to be two steps ahead of a caffeine headache - but Sarah Jamila Stevenson, debut author, has an answer: THE LATTE REBELLION. It just hit the shelves this week and promises to be a funny, thoughtful look at a mixed-race girl who must choose her convictions in an increasingly mixed-up world.
readergirlz co-founder Justina Chen (NORTH OF BEAUTIFUL) says, "Get ready to start your own rebellion after gulping down Sarah Stevenson's deftly written, multi-layered story about growing a voice, growing apart, and most of all, growing up girl."
I had the pleasure of meeting Sarah at a kidlit blogger conference a few years ago and am so proud to see her book on the shelf!
Welcome, Sarah!
*****
Asha Jamison, the narrator, and her best friends, Carey and Miranda, decide to make their senior year a little more interesting by creating a fictitious social movement for students of mixed ethnicity: the Latte Rebellion. The proceeds from the t-shirts they sell will go straight into a vacation fund for after they graduate. But their movement gains a life of its own, and various aspects of Asha's life spin out of control as a result—in some good ways as well as not-so-good ways.
Holly Cupala: Welcome to the blog, Sarah! I heard you've had some pretty fascinating stops on the road to publishing this book. Will you tell us about it?
Sarah Jamila Stevenson: It allowed to me to realize one of my geeky lifelong aspirations—to be on NPR! When I was working on the first draft of The Latte Rebellion, it was National Novel Writing Month. A local NPR program, Insight (Capital Public Radio), was doing a segment on NaNoWriMo and posted a call for volunteers to appear on the show along with NaNoWriMo founder Chris Baty. I was one of those selected, and I got to read a passage from my work-in-progress on the air. It's the third and final segment on this show.
Of course, my real dream is to be some kind of expert whose sound advice and/or witty commentary is regularly sought on NPR, but I suspect that'll probably stay a pipe dream...
I'm very pleased to welcome author friend Deborah Reber to the blog today to chat about her first YA novel, LANGUAGE OF LOVE!
But Debbie is no stranger to writing for teens: she's written a bunch of fabulous books to empower teen girls and help them connect to their purpose and passions, like IN HER SHOES, CHILL, and she compiled and edited the amazing teen-authored memoir series Louder Than Words (you might be familiar with titles ALEXIS, RAE, and HANNAH).
Welcome, Deborah!
*****
LANGUAGE OF LOVE is about a shy girl named Janna whose “bad influence best friend” convinces her to impersonate a Hungarian exchange student in order to keep the interest of Julian, a cute boy from another school. At first she thought her prank was harmless - Janna didn’t expect to like her outgoing alter ego so much, and she certainly didn’t realize that Julian was “the one” for her until she’s in way too deep. That’s when things really get complicated…
I’m soooo excited about LANGUAGE OF LOVE because it’s my first stab at writing YA fiction. The book is part of Simon Pulse’s Romantic Comedies series, which they’ve just rebranded by packaging two novels in one book. So Language of Love is actually paired with Caroline Goode’s Cupidity in a new book called Love, Love, Love.
Holly Cupala: Great title, too! So where did the idea come from?
Deborah Reber: How many of us wish we could be someone else every now and then – try on a more interesting persona and see what happens? I wanted to play with that idea, and thought back to an episode of the original Beverly Hills 90210 where Brenda is spending the summer in France with Donna and fools an American boy into thinking she’s French. And the story just evolved from there...
I am happy to be a part of the Tell Me A Secret Tour hosted by The Teen Book Scene. The following is an interview with one of the main characters from this book, Kamran.
____________________________________________
Tell us about yourself.
Well, the first thing you might notice about me (besides my olive eyes, which Miranda likes to mention), is my name: Kamran. It’s not just a fancy way of spelling Cameron, even though you can say it that way. It’s actually a Persian name meaning “prosperous or successful,” which is kind of a lot of pressure to put in a person’s name. I have tried to live up to that, to do the right thing. My parents worked very hard to move to the US and start a restaurant (Café Shiraz in Seattle, if you’re interested), and I have a lot of respect for that.
How did you feel when you found out Miranda was pregnant?
Have you ever been in a car accident? There’s this split second when you realize that you should have looked more carefully before going into that intersection, you should have looked left instead of looking right, and now there’s this tiny sliver of time and space where you haven’t yet crashed into the inevitable, and there’s nothing you can do now to stop it. Then it happens. That’s how I felt.
It was a relief when Delaney told me about the parties and the other guys. At least, she said there were. I know the truth now, but it’s like in that accident. The relief you feel when you realize that other guy missed the stop sign, and it’s not actually your fault. It was easy to believe when I had everything to lose.
What made you want to be with Delaney versus Miranda?
The thing is, Delaney is easy. Not in that way…what I mean is, she doesn’t make demands. She’s easy to be around because she doesn’t have all kinds of expectations. I didn’t feel like I had to choose between her and everything I’ve worked for. And I’m not going to lie—it made me feel good that she was interested in me. I thought she was being honest, so I was surprised when I found out what she was like. Maybe I should have seen it sooner.
Since everything happened, looking back would you have changed anything?
I wish I would have noticed the stop sign. Later, I wish I would have paid attention to my instincts more than my fears. I wanted things to go right with Miranda, but I also knew I had goals. I wasn’t sure at the time if they were compatible.
What are your plans for the future?
Right now I’m studying Aeronautics and Astronautics and hoping to get into the space and theoretical research side. When I’m not in school, I spend a lot of time with Miranda and Lexi. We’re both really busy with school and work, but we make time to see each other. Things are going well.
In honor of World AIDS Day (December 1), I am very pleased to welcome friend Courtney Scheinmel today to tell us her story secrets about her beautiful YA book, POSITIVELY.
I met Courtney in New York City when I went for BEA last summer, and she is honestly one of the nicest YA authors around. I wish I had a pic of us together! After the Teen Author Carnival (yes, another awesome author I met there!), we all went out for yummy Mexican food with a bunch of others and ended up talking the whole time.
I'm very excited to get to feature her today, and also to chat about her upcoming book, SINCERELY. Oh, and check out that amazing Be the Link photo (by Andy Tsagaris) below.
Welcome, Courtney!
*****
POSITIVELY is about a thirteen-year-old girl named Emerson (“Emmy” for short) who was born with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. After her mom dies, Emmy has to move in with her dad and his new wife – who is pregnant and preoccupied with things like baking cookies and getting the house ready for the baby. Emmy feels isolated and filled with grief. Her dad ends up sending her to a camp for girls with HIV, where she finds hope and the will to live, even in a world without her mother.
Holly Cupala: I've been fascinated with this story even before I met you. Where did the idea come from?
Courtney Scheinmel:Okay, to tell you that I have to go back to something that happened nearly two decades ago. It was February of 1991, and I was in eighth grade. I read an article about a woman named Elizabeth Glaser. She was infected with HIV and had unknowingly passed the virus onto her two children. Her daughter died of AIDS in 1988, during a time when there weren’t many medications around to treat people with the disease. A couple months later, Elizabeth founded the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, in hopes of raising money to fund research that would save her son. It was one of the most remarkable stories I had ever heard, and I decided I wanted to get involved...
Holly Cupala was kind enough to ask me to be a part of the current series she's hosting on her blog, What YA Bloggers Want. The guest post I contributed is up on her blog today, and if you comment you have a chance to win books!
2 Comments on What YA Bloggers Want, last added: 11/29/2010
I'm very happy to be hosting Sarah Beth Durst to hail the arrival of her fourth amazing YA fantasy novel, ENCHANTED IVY (and you may remember that she was my very first Story Secrets post last January for ICE).
Sarah Beth and I go way back...all the way back to the SCBWI Conference in New York the year before I signed with my agent and sold Tell Me a Secret. She had just come out with her first book, Into the Wild, and I was almost finished writing the first draft of mine. It didn't take long to become fast friends!
Sarah Beth, welcome back to Story Secrets!
*****
Enchanted Ivy is about getting into college. You know, taking the campus tour, talking to the gargoyles, flirting with the were-tigers, riding the dragons... Essentially, it's about magic at Princeton. (read a first chapter excerpt here)
Holly Cupala: Hi, Sarah Beth! Tell us about Enchanted Ivy.
Sarah Beth Durst: Junior and senior year of high school, I was absolutely obsessed with the whole college application process. I saw college as this huge Life Turning Point (with all capital letters) that would determine the shape of the Rest of My Life, and I was desperate to do everything "right," i.e. choose the right school, write the right essay, etc.
Of course, after all of my neurotic obsessing, I choose my college because I liked the trees and wrote my essay about the trials and tribulations of having curly hair...
Today I'm welcoming Anna Levine, author of FREEFALL, to Story Secrets to share some of the secrets of her second YA novel. Her first, RUNNING ON EGGS, was a NYPL Best Book, and FREEFALL was chosen as a Sydney Taylor Honor book.
I found FREEFALL fascinating, as an in-depth look at a completely different way of life than mine as well as a portrait of a strong girl who faces her fears with wit and courage.
Welcome, Anna!
*****
Freefall (Greenwillow/HarperCollins) is about an eighteen-year old girl, Abigail Jacobs, who has reached the age when all Israelis are drafted into the military. Aggie decides she wants to be a combat soldier. She’s under weight, but that doesn’t hold her back. She gains the weight and faces the grueling physical, emotional and mental challenges of pre-army training. Her family, her friends and her then boyfriend think she’s out of her mind. She proves them wrong.
I came to Israel on my own when I was eighteen. It was right before the First Lebanon war. I know what it is to feel alone, frightened and forced to find the strength within yourself to push forward. Running to bomb shelters, hitching rides across the country (now the bus system is more efficient) to visit my sister, giving aerobics lessons in a bomb shelter in Jerusalem while wearing a gas mask (at the time when Saddam Hussein was firing Scud missiles into Israel) are just a few of my experiences living here...
Hi, Golden Coffee Cuppers! We are one third of the way to our goals. We are so awesome. Today's "Live Long and Prosper" high five comes from author Holly Cupala, author of Tell Me a Secret. We are total Trekkie fan girls.
In Holly's words:
A couple of years ago for Molly’s Golden Coffee Cup, as I questioned my sanity for committing to write 25K words on my work-in-progress, I accidently hit on my best writing secret--actually, a couple of secrets—and had my first 5K day ever...
Ok, so the caramels were great, but they weren't the secret. The secret is this:
I set the timer. For 15 minutes. With a modest goal, 300 words. I usually hit 400 or more, and within an hour, I had over 1500! By the end of the day, I'd hit 5K.
I've been singing the praises of this method ever since. I mentioned the strategy to a new Facebook friend, and here's what she had to say:
I did the egg timer thing and my goodness. It started slow with 96 words in my first 15. The second yielded 193 and so on and so on. My most recent in 15 minutes... 338 words! I was overjoyed.
My crit partner and I have started doing timed writing online at night and comparing counts before dueling again. It's fun for her and working wonders for me.
...Which leads to Secret #2: find a friend to crack the whip with you. For me, this happened accidentally. I posted about my 5k day, and the next day, writing friend Jolie decided to do it, too. The challenge was on!
The novel I started with those 25K words (and later revised during the Summer Revision Smackdown) will release Fall 2011, tentatively titled Don’t Breathe a Word. So I guess that would make Secret #3: Cultivate patience… ______
Thanks, Holly. Come back tomorrow for more sizzling stuff!
Here's a good quote: Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.H. Jackson Brown
3 Comments on Day 10: The Golden Coffee Cup -- Secrets, last added: 11/10/2010
Truly enjoying your "snap, snap, snappy posts." Working toward my revision goal. Not every day is an A+ but this morning was pretty productive. Thanks, Molly (and Holly)!
What a great pleasure it is to chat with rgz co-founder Lorie Ann Grover today about her verse novel, HOLD ME TIGHT.
Readers, this is a *wonderful* book, and an excellent compliment to this week's spotlighted title over at readergirlz, Lauren Oliver's BEFORE I FALL. It's thematically very different, but if you love intense stories with well drawn characters and true emotions, then you will absolutely adore HOLD ME TIGHT.
Welcome, Lorie Ann!
*****
Psst. Holly, here are few secrets from HOLD ME TIGHT.
HOLD ME TIGHT is based on my own life experiences. When I was ten, my father left our family, and the boy who sat in front of me was kidnapped. Thirty years later, I decided to incorporate both events into a novel. Here's my trailer:
And now a few facts not found in the work... (spoiler alert)
It seems like I've been talking about this book all summer, but ADIOS, NIRVANA by my friend and fellow Seattleite Conrad Wesselhoeft is now here!
I didn't even know Conrad until recently, but I'd heard such good things about his writing from our mutual friend Molly Blaisdell, who said we should be friends. We read each other's books, and so we are! We even just did a panel together at Third Place Books in Seattle.
ADIOS, NIRVANA is powerful, poetic, funny, and...savory. As in, you want to savor the flavor of it as you read, and taste each and every nuance. And one of you will get to win a copy (details below).
Welcome, Conrad!
*****
ADIOS, NIRVANA is about a teenaged poet-musician who survives the first anniversary of his twin brother’s death with the help of a dying blind man, the best group of “Thicks” a guy could ask for, a demanding school principal who wants him to play the “pussiest song in the world” at graduation, and one very special guitar.
Holly Cupala: Tell us about the origins of ADIOS!
Conrad Wesselhoeft: I stumbled upon this quote in a newspaper column: “In darkness, it slowly came to me that what happens to a man isn’t nearly as important as how he meets it.” The author of the quote was Victor Riesel, a labor journalist who was blinded when a mobster flung sulphuric acid in his face.” I jotted Riesel’s words in my journal, then added, spur of the moment: “Story about a young man who becomes a stenographer/writer of a blind man’s life, and in so doing exorcises his own demons.”
In 2007, my agent, Erin Murphy, asked to see some of my ideas for future projects. I sent her a long list. The idea for Adios was buried near the bottom, barely an afterthought, yet it was this idea that spoke loudest...
I'm very excited to get to chat with rgz co-founder and award-winning fantasy author Dia Calhoun today about her YA fantasy novel, AVIELLE OF RHIA!
Dia has the soul of fantasy as well as amazing storytelling skills (plus she always has gorgeous covers, don't you think?). Not to mention AVIELLE is engrossing, moving, and suspenseful fantasy at its best.
Dia is here to tell us about the stories behind her fantasies, writing as a way of working through grief, and her next project.
Welcome, Dia!
*****
Avielle of Rhia is about a princess who overcomes grief and fear after a deadly attack kills her family, and comes into her power as queen by learning to face her fears and love her people.
Dia Calhoun, on the story behind the story: AVIELLE OF RHIA was directly inspired by the 9/11 and its aftermath. At first the story was too directly tied to 9/11. I had people waving the flags of Rhia and shopping after the attack to stimulate the economy. I had twin towers. All of that had to go, the story took awhile to find its own form and truth...
Hooray, the dragons are on the shelf! I'm very very very excited (can you tell how excited I am?) to invite my dear friend Janet Lee Carey, one of the most amazing authors and one of my own mentors, to Story Secrets today to talk about her latest YA fantasy, DRAGONS OF NOOR.
It's epic. It's wonderful. I've been incredibly fortunate to get to hear this book from the very beginning, so it's like watching a beloved niece or nephew go off to high school. It's here!
You must read it.
Plus, if you are in the Seattle area, you can come to the launch party at Kirkland Parkplace Books on Saturday, October 23rd, at 7pm!
Ok, enough strongarming...er, recommending. But Janet is wonderful. She contributed to my Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market article, "Telling Your Secrets!" She's the author of STEALING DEATH and DRAGONSKEEP. You will love them. She was also one of the original four co-founders of readergirlz!
Welcome, Janet!
*****
Miles, Hanna, and Taunier are swept into a new adventure in the haunting sequel to THE BEAST OF NOOR. The tale begins when a mysterious wind steals Miles’s and Hanna’s younger brother Tymm. Tymm and other wind-stolen children are swept east across the sea. The three teens sail after Tymm blown by the wind into a Dragon war. Siding with the Dragons of Noor fighting to save the ancient trees is the only way to bridge the broken worlds, the only way to reach the missing children.
Holly Cupala: I love to hear the stories behind the story – how did you come up with the idea for DRAGONS?
Janet Lee Carey: THE DRAGONS OF NOOR began with a daydream. In a kind of trance, I saw a mysterious wind sweep in, steal a child and blow him across the sky. I followed the dream to see what lay behind it. As I asked questions the dream expanded on paper. I was soon traveling across the Noor Sea with Miles, Hanna, and Taunier to find Miles’s and Hanna’s little brother. When I began I didn’t know they’d meet up with Dragons who were fighting their own fierce battle, I didn’t know how the Dragon’s battle for the last great forest of Noor intertwined with the missing children...
It is my pleasure to get to introduce you to Mindi Scott, fellow 2010 debut author of FREEFALL, which comes out in just a few days! In the meantime, Mindi has generously promised a copy of FREEFALL to one lucky reader (see below for details).
I'd heard about Mindi and was so excited to find out she's a hometown Seattle girl! We met at the SCBWI Western Washington Conference last spring - in fact, you can meet Mindi in my TMAS author secrets video:
Welcome, Mindi!
*****
FREEFALL is the tale of sixteen-year-old boy, Seth McCoy, who was the last person to see his best friend alive and the first to find him dead. The story begins about two months after that event when some of the numbness is starting to wear off and Seth has to decide how to move forward with his life.
Holly Cupala: so what is the story behind the story?
Mindi Scott: My husband has been in various bands since he was in high school, so a lot of the dynamics and band details are from my observations being around musicians all the time.
Also, I have certainly experienced loss, grief, and pain. None of the character backstories in Freefall match my life, but I found it very easy to relate to some of them...
Liz Gallagher - author, readergirlz diva, Through the Tollbooth blogger, VCFA grad and all around awesome friend is here to chat with us about her debut book, THE OPPOSITE OF INVISIBLE and the companion novel, MY NOT-SO-STILL LIFE (coming in May 2011!).
Thanks, Liz, for stopping by to tell us your secrets!
*****
THE OPPOSITE OF INVISIBLE is about Alice, a Seattle girl learning the difference between a crush and love and love and best-friendship as she’s caught between her always-been-there boy best friend and a crush who starts noticing her. It’s also about art and confidence, and it’s set at Halloween because I love that time of year.
MY NOT-SO-STILL LIFE is a companion to OPPOSITE. It tells the story, set a few months later, of another Seattle girl’s struggle to keep from growing up too fast as she’s caught between her innocent old friends and a group of not-so-innocent older coworkers at an art shop. The girl in the companion is Vanessa, Alice's rival in OPPOSITE.
Holly Cupala: I love the Seattle in OPPOSITE, almost a character in itself. What was your inspiration?
Liz Gallagher: OPPOSITE was inspired by the fall and the Seattle neighborhood of Fremont, where it’s set. I was walking through Fremont one near-Halloween day, and I got the idea of a character trying on a witch dress at this junk shop. My original first line was, “It all started with this dress.”
The second book has a more unusual origin story: I never planned to do it! My agent and editor both thought it would be cool to explore one of the more minor characters in OPPOSITE, and Vanessa was my natural choice...
I'm so excited to get to host debut author Denise Jaden today, author of the brand spanking, on the shelf as of Tuesday, LOSING FAITH!
I had the priviledge of meeting Denise when I went to NYC for Book Expo America and landed at the Class of 2K10 event at Books of Wonder! Denise read a bit from LOSING FAITH, and I was hooked. Then I found out she only lives a couple of hours away from me. So I not only gained a friend, I gained a YA neighbor!
Please help me congratulate Denise on her debut...all about sisters and secrets, and a story I can't wait to chat with Denise about!
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After Brie’s sister, Faith, dies in a mysterious accident, Brie uncovers her sister’s role in a dark and twisted religious cult…a cult that now wants Brie as a member.
Where did the story idea originate?
I wanted to write an unusual story about sisters, and I came up with the idea of one sister realizing how little she really knew her sister after her death. From there, I talked it through with my critique partner until I discovered Faith’s secrets. I lost a close friend of my own when I was sixteen, and I think that also, in part, was inspiration for the story...
Friend, writing mentor, and fellow Seattle author Kirby Larson is here today with a a brand new treat: THE FENCES BETWEEN US!
Kirby has not only generously shared her writing wisdom with many of us, both through workshops and classes as well as at her Kirby's Lane blog, but she was one of the very first authors to be featured at readergirlz with her Newbery Honor-winning historical novel, Hattie Big Sky. Kirby's writing is voice is warm, funny, and fascinating, and her books much-beloved.
So I am thrilled to welcome Kirby to Story Secrets!
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I was so honored when Scholastic asked me to write a book for the relaunch of their beloved Dear America series, the first new title in 5 years! It officially came out yesterday, September 1st--woo-hoo--and is called THE FENCES BETWEEN US.
Holly Cupala: Tell us the story behind the story!
Kirby Larson: Since writing Hattie Big Sky, I've become a history nerd. I had been working on another historical novel (which takes place between 1927 and 1941) and had thought it would include something about the incarceration camps to which over 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry -- most of them American citizens -- were sent during WWII. That bit of history didn't end up fitting into that particular book (called The Friendship Doll; it will be out in May 2011 from Delacorte) but Scholastic was looking for a WWII story and, boy, did I have it...
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Erin! I haven't visited in forever - I'm so sorry! I'll go check out hour guest post now.
Wonderful guest post - I completely agree with you.