1. What inspired you to write for young readers?
With the first few books I wrote for kids, I thought it was just that I’d fallen in love with ideas that seemed to fit a kid audience. Now that I have the advantage of decades of hindsight, I can see that the inspiration was actually a lot deeper than that. Books were so important to me when I was a kid—especially ages 8-16. So it makes a lot of sense that almost all of my books have been either middle grades or young adult. I’m writing for readers who are in the same phase I was in when books took on such a giant role in my life.
2. How do you go about crafting the worlds you create in your books?
I often don’t feel as though I’m “crafting” them, as much as they reveal themselves to me gradually. It often feels as though I’m zooming out from a particular situation or a particular character to wanting to see the rest of the world that character lives in. That said, sometimes I also draw heavily on research. One of my majors in college was history, and that’s turned out to be much more useful than I ever would have dreamed, for creating fictional worlds. I also have to think beyond how the world feels to my characters—who, as kids, may not have a full grasp of the situation--and try to figure out why supposedly logical adults would set up their world like that.
3. What message/s do you want to share through your work?
I am hesitant to focus too much on a book’s message, since I think kids can smell didactic writing a mile away. My first focus is always to tell a good story. But I am always happy to hear from kids that, for example, reading about a character’s bravery has made them more courageous in their own lives. That is a great outcome. Overall, though, the biggest thing I would like kids to get from my books (or anyone’s books) is a sense of empathy. Books give readers the chance to put themselves in someone else’s shoes, and understand the character’s thoughts and feelings—and hopefully that then makes it easier for readers to understand and have compassion for other people in real life.
4. What does writing in speculative fiction allow you to do as an author?
It allows me to have more fun! I hope that makes it possible for the reader to have more fun, too. It’s a delight to be able to imagine even unlikely scenarios, and share those with kids as well.
5. Any message for children who want to grow up and become writers?
My main message would be: Go for it! I hope you have as much fun writing as I do!
But if you are looking for more of an “advice” type message, I would say 1) read a lot, because the more you read, the better you are as a writer; 2) write a lot, because the more practice you get, the better you’ll write; and 3) make sure you have time to think, to figure out what the thoughts are in your own head, because the better you are at thinking, the better you are at writing. Actually, those are all good things to do, regardless of what kids want to do when they grow up!
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