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Marissa Doyle, Daphne Grab, Albert Borris (2k9 Co-Pres), Nancy Viau, Nina Nelson

New Jersey has one of the largest SCBWI chapters on the East coast, and writers from Maine to Maryland sign-up early to attend the annual conference in lovely Princeton. This year top editors like Cheryl Klein, Robin Tordini, Jessica Dandino Garrison, Samantha McFerrin, Stacy Cantor, Nick Eliopulos, and came ready to dish out advice, provide critiques, and give workshops. Approachable agents were in the mix, as well, and the line-up included Dan Lazar of Writers House, Stephen Barbara of Donald Maass Literary, and Linda Pratt of the Sheldon Fogelman Agency.

Today, Marissa Doyle, author of the historical young adult novel, Bewitching Season, talks about which teacher inspired her to become a writer. Take it away, Marissa...

The teacher who got me started writing was…

I think that it was actually one teacher and assignments given by two other teachers that helped make me a writer. Coincidentally, they were in grades 3, 5, and 7.

In third grade my teacher, Miss Billington, was very happy to let us go to the bookshelf and read when we’d finished our classwork…but she also liked us to do projects about the books we read when we were done reading them. I cut my hands into ribbons carving a dugout canoe from a hideous bright gold bar of Dial soap after reading a book about Pocahontas, so it was with great relief that at Halloween we were given the option to write and illustrate a spooky story. My illustrations were (and still are) limited to stick figures…but I had a great time writing about a little girl named Geraldine who didn’t believe in Halloween and who ended up being sacrificed to the Halloween God for her impiety by an outraged group of witches, ghosts, and vampires. I’ve since come to prefer happier endings, but I still remember how exciting it was to create that story.






In seventh grade I discovered the usefulness of writing prompts when my English teacher Mrs. LaBelle sent around little bags of words in strict order (adjective-adjective-noun-verb-adverb-adverbial phrase) that we had to pull one word out of, then write a paragraph or story based on the sentence we formed. Almost miraculously, my sentence read, “Several confused stewardesses fell bitterly without stopping”. No, I didn’t peek when I pulled my words…and darn, I had fun with that topic sentence.





But my fifth grade Language Arts teacher, Mr. Souza, gave me the most valuable writing gifts of all--those of discipline and craft. He assigned us projects that involved A LOT of writing--chapter summaries (I wrote a summary of every single chapter of Little Women, all fifty-odd of them), informational paragraphs culled from reading the classroom encyclopedia, or our own original stories and opinion pieces. By the end of that year, we'd each written a couple hundred one or two paragraph essays. You’d better believe I learned grammar and usage…and how to sit my backside in a chair and just write.

Thanks, you three.

We're back with Marissa Doyle, debut young adult author of Bewitching Season. Our goal on this second day of Marissa's book launch week: a hard-hitting interview that gets to the heart of this talented author. Let the interview begin...


2k8: Where do you do most of your writing? We want a picture. And please don't tidy up before snapping the shot.



Marissa Doyle: It used to be the guest bedroom…and there is still a bed in there, so I suppose technically a guest could still sleep there. But first they’d have to remove the stacks of papers and reference books for the story I’m currently working on and albums of nineteenth century fashion plates and pile of fluffy bunnies and my Jane Austen action figure from the bed. They could always put it all on the other side of the room, but that’s where my boxes of fabric and sewing machine and quilts in progress are. It’s a good thing my family are all relatively nearby and don’t need to stay overnight very often.

The room is very cozy and very mine, full of things (books and rabbits and antique china on the walls) and colors (periwinkle blue and yellow) that I love. I’m a nester, so I can go in and close the door and lose myself in my work-in-progress and feel secure and happy.

2k8: You revealed yesterday that you began writing Bewitching Season from a prompt at a RWA meeting. More details, please.



Marissa Doyle: The prompt, “Oh my God, you killed him!”, worked very well for an opening. After that, the story mostly just came out like a ribbon unrolling from a spool. I write very linearly, and almost never skip around writing scenes as they occur to me though I will jot down notes if I have an idea for later on in the action. And I always know what the end will be when I start a book. It’s so much easier to write if you have something to aim at.

2k8: And how did it find a publisher? Give us the *real* dirt!

Marissa Doyle: It was all very boring and textbook, actually. I researched and queried agents and signed with one, and she sold the book a couple of months later. It always bemuses me when people say, “The only way to get an agent/sell a book is to have connections! It’s all a matter of who you know!” Umm…maybe sometimes having an “in” somewhere will help. But it’s certainly not the only way. Utter newbie authors sell. Most of us in 2k8 will attest to that.

2k8: Did anything surprise you or catch you off guard when you were writing your book?


Marissa Doyle: Oh, you bet. Before selling, I was very fond of entering writing contests. The RWA has dozens of them, with finalists having their entries judged by editors and agents. It’s a great way to get feedback on your work and possibly get it in front of an acquiring editor. Bewitching Season did pretty well on the contest circuit, winning contests and getting requests from editors, but one anonymous first-round judge whom I will forever bless wrote on my entry something along the lines of, “This reads more like a young adult story than a romance.”

Well, it was like sirens and klieg lights suddenly switched on in my head. I was writing young adult? Really? I’d had no idea! So I could focus on my heroine’s character growth and not force the story into romance conventions and have fun!
This was a major moment for me, though I feel like rather an idiot for not having figured it out myself.

2k8: Imagine you have an offer from your dream press to publish your dream book, no matter how insane or unmarketable it might be (though of course it might not be). What story do you want to write next/someday and why?

Marissa Doyle: My secret dream book is already written and on my hard drive--I just haven’t asked my agent to try selling it yet because the end needs work and I’m up to my eyeballs in other books. It’s a contemporary fantasy for adults and begins with the premise that the Greco-Roman pantheon is (secretly) alive and well and teaching Classics at a large, prestigious New England university. I LOVE this story, and hope to sell it someday. But for now I’ll be focusing on young adult books.

2k8: What question won’t most people know to ask you? What is your answer?

Marissa Doyle: “Were you really once an avid curler?”

Okay, the answer is obviously yes…but first, how many of you know what curling is? ☺


2k8: To recap, we uncovered that Marissa Doyle mostly writes in a cute converted periwinkle blue + yellow guest bedroom. Bewitching Season began with a writing prompt from a Romance Writer's meeting. She realized she was writing young adult thanks to a comment on a contest entry. Her dream book is already written. She was an avid curler.

Not too shabby an interview. If we do say so ourselves. :)

Psst. News that's hot off the press! Bewitching Season is an Editor's Choice pick for this quarter at the Historical Novel Society, a review mag dedicated to historical fiction. And it's a super nice review too. :)

Sunday, Aug 19 4:20pm:
As I type, we’re roaring down the New York Throughway past Exit 31 to Utica, NY. Karen is blasting the Lemonheads album It’s a Shame About Ray, the album that gave us our son's name (after Evan Dando, the singer/songwriter). Outside the window, it looks and feels like we’re almost home. So far our minivan has traveled almost 12,000 miles in 54 days, with only 2 sunsets left until we’re back at our little cape house in Wayland, MA. :-)

Let’s catch up:

MICHIGAN


On Tuesday we arrived in Michigan, where we stayed with our friend and Karen’s college housemate Kelly McDonnell (no nickname—go figure). It was a quick visit of only one night, and Kelly made us a delish BBQ and we pretty much just hung out—just what we needed. Thanks, Kelly!

The next day we were off to meet the pastor who married us eleven years ago. We hadn’t seen Father Lew Towler since September of 1996, but we called and asked if he wanted to meet us for coffee—and he said yes! So…we were psyched to drop by and say hello. :-) First, some quick background on our wedding:


We were married in Wickford, RI in the Old Narragansett Church, a tiny, 200-year-old colonial church built in 1707. The wedding took place in a hurricane (Hurricane Fran) so it poured with rain and roared with thunder and lightning and was very dramatic. For our reception afterwards, guests dressed up as either something Latin (Karen’s family is from Argentina) or something English (my family is from England). So people came as burritos, teabags, mad cows, banditos—you get the idea. Anyway, here are a couple of pictures, including one of Father Lew dressed in some kind of British military outfit (he’s on the left, next to my father). Father Lew is a fun and funny guy:


So…here we are with Father Lew eleven years later—with his dog, Bella. Lew moved from RI to Ann Arbor, MI in 2000-ish. It was so cool to meet him again. Still a warm, sweet guy. Terrific to see you again, Father Lew! :-)


By the way, Ann Arbor was great—a busy college town with a lot of coffee shops. We wished we could have stayed there longer.


ORIGAMI AND CRISPY NOODLE SNACKS IN WEST BLOOMFIELD, MI



That night we stayed with our friends Greg and Tomie, their kids Alex, Amelia, and Skyler. Here’s Evan:

EVAN: This was a very enjoyable part of the trip because we got to try Japanese snacks like chocolate covered macadamia nuts and crispy noodle snacks, and we played Japanese video games and it was very relaxing. Alex was very nice. He taught us how to make origami boxes and he played a lot of games with us. Greg and Tomie made us a very good dinner of roasted chicken and a great breakfast too.

Thanks, Greg and Tomie, Alex, Amelia and Skyler!


O CANADA!

We had a quick and easy ride passage through customs and then, on Friday, we arrived in Ontario, Canada.




LAKE HURON

We were lucky enough to spend a couple days visiting our friends Philippa and Steve and their son Dylan (Look, Daddy! Actual Canadians!) on their lake house near Bayfield, Ontario on beautiful, amazing, magical Lake Huron. It perfect and relaxing:


Here’s something weird about me: I keep a list of the very best years, months, weeks, days and hours of my life. Apart from the obvious births, weddings, etc., my list includes things like the day I spent writing in the shade overlooking a coffee farm in Costa Rica, and the three hours I spent in Tijuana in April of 1996 – these are some of the best, best times of my life. This trip will definitely go on the list, of course. But in particular I’ll also have a separate entry for the two hours I spent on Saturday morning reading on Phil and Steve’s porch. It was fantastic. I took a picture – here I am, enjoying Harry Potter 7 and just listening to the waves:



Thanks, Phil and Steve!

THE VILLAGE BOOKSHOP

The village of Bayfield, Ontario is home to a friendly independent bookstore with a devoted following of local readers. Right on the main thoroughfare of town, the store gets its share of tourist traffic, and it also hosts many author visits including big-name Canadian authors like Margaret Atwood and Jane Urquhart. Here I am with bookseller Mary Wolfe. Thanks for your support, Mary! It was great to meet you!



LUCY IS STUNG BY A CANADIAN BEE

In the park in Bayfield, Lucy was stung on the shoulder by a Canadian bee. Lucy was very brave, and screamed only briefly.  A pastry from the local bakery worked miracles.  Bzzzz, eh?  (Something to ponder:  Due to the exchange rate, are Canadian bees only 90% as painful as U.S. bees?)




TORONTO, ¿QUE PASA?

As it turns out, everyone in Toronto speaks Spanish. At least everyone I met there did. We stayed with Karen’s cousins Victor and Betty, and their lovely family—they’re all from Argentina, Venezuela, and parts thereabouts. Here’s Karen.

KAREN: Wow! I never expected to do a US road trip and to find myself in Toronto at a “Parrillada” with my extended family from Argentina! It was awesome! For those of you who don’t know, a Parrillada is a giant barbecue with beef, sausages etc (many types of meat are cooked in a special Argentine way and are very, very tasty!) I officially vote my cousin Victor as the Supreme Parrillada Chef!! I met my cousin Andrea who lives in Montreal (Victor and Betty’s Daughter…Ana, Andrea’s sister is in Belgium..hi Ana!). I also met Andres, a cousin that I haven’t seen since I was a wee little child! There were lots of other cousins there too. We all ate, drank lots of wine, and spoke in Spanish. Mark held his own really well, did you know that he speaks Spanish too? I can’t wait to go back! Besos a todos!!




Another trip through customs--including a looooong, sloooow traffic jam to get across the border--and we’re back in the U.S.A! :-)


NEW YORK



NIAGARA FALLS

We stopped in Niagara Falls this morning. It was rainy and crowded, and the surrounding streets looked disturbingly like Las Vegas. But you can’t see that in the photo:



This part was written the following day...Monday, Aug 20 6:30pm:
FLYING PIGS FARM



We arrived last night in Shushan, NY on the far eastern border of the state. It's a green, hilly area that looks like something out of the old sitcom where Bob Newhart used to run a hotel. (I know, I know…that was Vermont not New York--but Vermont is almost literally a stone’s throw away!). It’s also the home of Flying Pigs Farm, which is owned and run by my friends Jennifer Small and Mike Yezzi—I grew up with Jennifer in Barrington, RI and have known her since kindergarten. We were lucky enough to spend a day there. It truly felt like something out of Dick and Jane Go to the Farm. There were pigs and cows and roosters and all the other usual suspects. Evan even got to do some chores, and we all stepped in plenty of animal poop. It was so much fun! Here’s Evan:

EVAN: There were lots of pigs and chickens and three cows. I got to collect the eggs from the chicken roosts. Some of the chickens were vicious, but I wore a glove to protect my hand. One of the chickens pecked at an egg in the egg basket and ate the inside. That chicken was a cannibal! Or was it a chicken-ibal?!



It was great to see you, Jen and Mike! Thanks for a memorable day on the farm!


VERMONT


NORTHSHIRE BOOKSTORE

We've just finished our final official book stop—Northshire Bookstore is a fantastic, big independent in Manchester Center, Vermont. They obviously had one heck of a Harry Potter event because in addition to having an entire “stone” entrance to Hogwarts, they also had a giant Sorting Hat and an absolutely humungous spider. Here I am with event coordinator Linda Ellingsworth and general manager Chris Morrow. Thanks, guys, for making my last official bookstore stop so much fun!



But hang on…we’re still not quite done with the trip yet! There’s one more day to go!

Next blog entry: The Berkshires, home, and deep questions like, “Oh my God! Did We Really Just Drive 13,000 miles?” and “Holy Crap, Was It All Worth It?”

Best,
--Mark

LEMONADE MOUTH (Delacorte Press, 2007)
I AM THE WALLPAPER (Delacorte Press, 2005)
www.markpeterhughes.com