Monthly Archives: March 2013

A Look Back at Children’s Fantasy Classics

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Writing for a younger audience as an adult is a tricky business. Granted, I still feel like an 11-year-old kid on the inside, but actual 11 year olds tell me that I am, in fact, a grown woman who should probably not hog the swings at the park. And in my writing, as much as I try to channel my inner child, I know that sometimes I may be missing some of the intense wonder and possibility that most people only feel until a certain age.

Wrinkle in TimeWhen that happens I think back to the fantasy and sci-fi books that drew me in as a child, the ones I read over and over. One series that I loved was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. I read them again and again through the years, and every time I would get something new. As an eight year old, I struggled to wrap my brain around the concept but was fascinated by the raw emotions of Meg and her family. At 12 I only cared about the romance between Meg and Calvin. And in high school I was finally able to marvel at the complexity of the world and the characters.

I also loved The Girl with the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts, where the main character moves things with her mind. She was an outsider (like me) who found friends and mastered her powers to do cool things. I remember logging serious time staring at objects and trying to move them with the power of my thoughts, or trying to have conversations with my friends telepathically.

The series on my shelf that had the most worn spines was The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander. The main character was a boy, Taran, but I could completely relate to him. And the world that Alexander created was so rich that you could practically smell the pig pen that Taran had to keep clean. To this day just seeing the covers reminds me of rainy days huddled by a window with a book and nights with a flashlight under the blanket.

PrydainI could go on and on. But these blasts from my past always help me realize that a great fantasy or sci-fi is less about a cool concept or a fascinating world, and more about a character who feels real to a kid. The character can be as smart or powerful as an adult, but they must approach the world with curiosity and hope, and believe that they still have the power to make a difference, even if it is in a small way. And when they do, every kid who reads that story feels for a minute like they might be special too.

What are the books that you read as a child that still inspire you now?

What’s your writing playlist?

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shutterstock_121057780I love playing music while I’m intensively writing. Years ago when I wrote a Christmas movie, I blared Christmas carols for four months straight. To this day when I hear certain Christmas songs I start having the itch to grab a pen.

But when I was writing Into the Dark, I received a different kind of inspiration from one song on my playlist, Viva la Vida by Coldplay. The song is about someone who falls from power, and the mood of the song subconsciously became associated with one of the characters I was writing. Suddenly his personality was just like the song, bittersweet and self-reflective. I didn’t completely understand what I was doing until I was listening to the song in the car one day and imagining key scenes from the character’s life in association with different verses.

Realizing how affected I am by what I’m listening to, I make very specific, tailored playlists based on which scenes I’m writing. Sometimes I have to make purely instrumental playlists so the lyrics don’t distract me.

What’s your writing playlist?

Vote on Cover Art for Into the Dark

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The time has come to refresh the cover image for my young adult fantasy novel, Into the Dark, which is the first book in The Conjurors series. Below are the three options that I am considering. Which image would make you want to pick up my book and learn more?

Option A

Option A

Option B

Option B

Option C

Option C

Thank you for your vote!

Attempting to Channel the Bard

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NEW121I was 13 when I discovered William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and it changed my life. I had always loved writing, but when I encountered his words and saw how poetry and fantasy could merge together, I knew I found something special. It’s been almost two decades since then, but Shakespeare remains the biggest inspiration in my life. The best thing about Shakespeare is that you never run out of angles to analyze, from word choice to character development to plot.

When I developed the Globe, which is the world in my YA fantasy series The Conjurors, I named most of the major countries after locations from my favorite Shakespeare plays. The atmosphere of the play that the location came from inspired how I felt about the people who lived there.

Arden is the capital of the Globe, named after the forest in As You Like It. It is the home of my main character, Valerie, when she travels to the Globe from Earth. In As You Like It, Arden is a forest, a place of possibility, where the rules that apply to the civilized world can be bent. It is a place of art and philosophy and love, which is why I made it the beating heart of the Globe.

The mountains of Dunsinane are where the villain of the story, Reaper, lurks. Dunsinane is where much of the action in Macbeth occurs, and that play has such a heavy darkness to it that I felt it reflected the depth of evil that Reaper is capable of. To me, just hearing the name “Dunsinane” sends chills down my back, and I think of ruthless ambition and decaying morality.

Other countries inShakespeareclude Messina, from Much Ado About Nothing, a land where the people have forbidden the use of magic, and Elsinore, from Hamlet, where royalty and betrayal are the obsessions of the people.

Using these plays as inspiration gives me a sense of place when the characters in my stories travel from land to land. The countries are strongly differentiated in my mind, which makes it easier to create cultures that are unique, but somehow fit together enough that it is realistic that they could all inhabit the same world.

What makes a fantasy world feel real to you?

Let the plotting begin…

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A course more promising / Than a wild dedication of yourselves / To unpathed waters, undreamed shores ~William Shakespeare Winter’s Tale, Act IV, Scene 4

Life is never more interesting for me than when I’m plotting out a novel. Suddenly, everything I encounter feels like inspiration. Watching my husband beat a video game, a news article on an exciting archeological dig in Egypt, or a friend’s work horror story all fill my mind like puzzle pieces begging to be put together to show me a bigger picture.

The characters come first – a name, a face, a mannerism. Soon I’m wondering what advice they’d give me about a coworker who is trying to sabotage me, or thinking about how they would react if they woke up in a completely new world. Would they panic? Or would they relish the adventure?

Next, I sense connections between the characters, how their personalities fit together. Romance and rivalries start to emerge, and I find myself empathizing with one character above the others. I’m rooting for that person to win and be happy, logically aware I’m rooting for a figment of my own imagination, but emotionally invested anyway.

Last comes the action. This is my favorite part. On the outside, I’m living my life as usual, driving to work, sitting in meetings, cooking dinner. But as my body goes through the motions, I’m really watching a movie unfold in my mind. The movie stops and starts, rewinds and zips to the end, only to wind up back where I left off. I start to feel like I’m living two lives, one in the real world and one in my head, but I know one thing for sure. Life is thrilling and full of possibilities.

When you are writing a new story, how does your creative process begin?