Author Interview: Cordelia Jensen

by Jennifer Sheffield

Hi, Cordelia! Congratulations on the imminent release of Skyscraping! (Details below on the June 6 book launch party!) Here is my synopsis:

"Newborn stars / take millions of years to form ... / But the constellation of a family / can shift shape / in seconds." Mira starts her senior year on top of the world, ready for college, ready to preserve the glories of high school in perfectly laid out yearbook form. But then her world is rocked by family secrets, and, before she can overcome her rage and sense of betrayal, rocked again. And now she needs to pull herself back out of the chaos and get her world in order, while there is still time. Deeply powerful free verse novel about love and fear and family, and how to manage when the world turns upside down.

I know that Skyscraping began as a memoir. What prompted you to change it to fiction, and what was that process like? Did it change how you felt about the writing and about the story?

I changed it to fiction for the creative freedom that decision gave me. It allowed me to change characters and plotlines the way that made sense with the story, as opposed to having to be strictly true to life. It was also a healing process for me to change things—like my own father was too sick to attend my high school graduation but Mira’s dad sees her graduate. However, it was very hard, at times during the revision process, to not feel protective of the original story or characters. For example, my editor (rightly so) really pushed for Mira to act out more against her dad and be angrier with him. This was REALLY hard for me to do because I still miss him a lot and think of him mostly in a positive light now and I had a hard time dredging up the anger. I am glad I fictionalized it. I do feel like I could write a memoir version of the story someday, maybe in essay form or something, but it is relieving to work on my other projects (for now) that have less of a direct tie to my life.

Is it strange, in talking about your work now that it’s out there, to navigate the boundaries between Mira’s life and your own? I could see it being both powerful to talk about and overly personal at the same time.

It is strange! Thanks for asking. The strangest part is telling strangers (ha) about my own father’s death from AIDS. That is obviously not essential when I am blurbing the book, but I somehow think it is and end up telling people the memoir part of it all the time. Definitely overly personal; I’m pretty sure I’ve weirded some people out. :-) But generally I’m not shy about “getting deep quick” and have a hard time with a lot of superficial conversation, so maybe the weirding people out part is fine—it is pretty true to me.

I like a lot of the significant characters in the book and (well, mostly) the ways they treat each other. Are there characters you particularly identify with, aside from Mira herself? Were some characters harder to write than others?

Hmmm . . . well, there were some characters that were cut that were hard for me to cut. Mira used to have another friend named Shay, and Adam’s mom used to be a significant character in the book. So, those two were not hard for me to write but they were hard for me to lose. Cutting them, though, made Mira more alone in her story as well as streamlining some subplots. I think the Mom’s character was the hardest to write because I was most concerned with my own mother and what she would think of this character. So, again, more personal issues getting in the way.

There’s a playfulness to Chloe’s character (who is an amalgam of my best female friends growing up) that I identify with and I think in some ways I was more like a combination of Chloe and Mira because I was a lot more social than Mira is. I love April — and I really love my real sister Julia :-) — and I feel like her openness is more similar to myself today but not to who I was in high school. I feel most connected to April and the dad’s character, and their characters did not really change much from early drafts. I had fun writing Dylan who is really an amalgam of all my male friends in high school; it was fun to spend time with them again.

Last month, when you came to our YA book club discussion of Home of the Brave, I loved the insights you presented about the verse novel form. Was Skyscraping always written in verse, or did that evolve along with the shift in genre?

Thank you! I love talking about the elusive verse novel form! It was always in verse. It’s because the memoir emerged from poems I had written about my family over the span of around fifteen years. I also think verse novels are the perfect form for stories that tackle difficult subject matter: the form leaves the reader with some space to process what is happening and the form highlights the emotional arc of the character which, in trying life situations, is really what matters the most I think.

The way you play with space on the page is beautiful and powerful. I love the full moon page, and the word cascade of “Stranded”. What was it like working with words and space like this? How does it change your sense of story to work on the form at the same time?

I LOVE playing with white space in the verse novel form. Melanie Crowder just wrote a terrific blog post about this. It actually includes my own analysis of the white space in “Stranded.” I like how working with white space feels like making art. You go beyond the words and create the relationship the words have to space and use the space to actually be a part of your poem. It is like creating composition when you are painting. Maybe it is also how a sculptor feels as she carves. This is something you can’t do nearly as much when you are writing a novel. And I do miss it when I am writing regular prose.

What were the sources of your space and flight and time imagery? Did you, as Mira did with the yearbook, try out other images for framing the story before finding this one?

What a great question, Jen! I actually did take astronomy my senior year of high school from a really talented teacher named Mr. Thompson. He was one of those teachers that the whole school sort of worshipped. When I first started writing the fictionalized draft of the memoir (originally titled “Sundialing”) I wrote original versions of the poems “Where Windows Are Stars” and “Something Stellar” and it was through writing these poems that I figured out I could carry this celestial imagery through the book.

The emphasis on time came from yearbook itself. I was also the yearbook editor my senior year and I wrote some version of the poem “Capturing Time” and I started to think about how interesting it was that I sort of chose to spend so much time in high school doing yearbook (something so nostalgic oriented) while my father had this ticking time clock and so did my high school career. I sort of built the whole story on the idea that “everything was ending at once.”

But to answer your question, no, there was only ever that image system. Though I think as it became revised I extended it naturally to include any kind of sky image, not just space and time. I like how this image system also works with Mira’s existential crisis. I also took philosophy my senior year of high school from a very skilled teacher and loved thinking about Existentialism in particular. Not going to lie, though, I do own the book Astronomy for Dummies. Here’s a blog post where I talk about creating an image system in a verse novel.

What kinds of research did you need to do to build your story and the world in which it takes place? There are lots of details about Manhattan in the '90s and about the growing awareness of HIV that clearly read like the living of it, and then there are lots of facts about the disease and the stars. Were you going mainly on things you already knew and remembered?

It is definitely a combination of remembering things and Googling! I also watched movies that take place in NYC in the early-mid nineties…like Home Alone 2 and Green Card. :-) Google is amazing: I could Google the whole Phish show playlist from the New Year's show, I watched Tom Hanks’s best actor speech for Philadelphia, I looked at movie releases throughout the year. The most research I did, though, was astronomy related. I bought some books (see confession above) and spent a lot of time looking at astronomy term definitions. I listened to all my music from that time and made a playlist. I also kept extensive diaries in high school which I re-read and had my own senior year yearbook by my side throughout the process.

I also researched natural remedies and HIV/AIDS facts from that time. And how certain sicknesses worked. This was hard for me. Because I was a teen and not really sure what was going with my own father medically throughout the years he was sick (my father was HIV Positive in 1986 and really very sick from 1992-1994) I had to go back and try to figure out more about the medical part of it. And then alter it to match the book’s own timeframe. I also am very indebted to my friend Jenna Conley for taking time to fact check the medical part of the book.

Along with your writing and teaching, you’ve been running wonderful writing workshops for kids at the bookstore, and with your students you’ve created the Mt. Airy Musers literary journal. I love seeing how enthusiastic the kids are! Do you have other current or upcoming projects you’d like to tell us about?

Thank you! It is so fun to work on this journal with such enthusiastic young writers and artists. We have our second issue coming out at the end of May and hoping to do a third next fall. Other than MAM and teaching creative writing workshops for kids, I will be teaching a Writing for Children & Young Adults class at Bryn Mawr College for the second time next spring. In terms of writing, I have two other completed manuscripts that will hopefully sell sometime soon and I am working on another WIP. I’ll keep you posted!

Excellent! And now for our "3 for 3" book questions:

1. What were 3 of your favorite books from childhood/teen years?

Betsy & Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace; Just As Long As We’re Together by Judy Blume; The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy

2. What are 3 books that you've read recently that surprised you?

Denton Little’s Death Date by Lance Rubin, because it’s a real laugh out loud comedy despite harrowing circumstances; The Cost of All Things by Maggie Lehrman because I really enjoyed the magical realism in this book and just the premise itself was, for no better word, COOL; None of the Above by I.W. Gregorio because the main character is SO relatable while being an intersex character.

3. What are 3 books that influence/d your work?

I would say e.e. cummings poetry had a profound effect on me when I was a teen, and I still think about the freedom he took with word play when I write; the first verse novels I read when I was writing my own helped me understand the form: Katherine Appelgate’s Home of the Brave was one of these as well as Kirsten Smith’s The Geography of Girlhood; I really am drawn to beautiful/sad stories like Jandy Nelson’s I’ll Give You the Sun or Karen Foxlee’s The Anatomy of Wings and I surround myself with the MOOD of these sort of books, carving a white space around me, as I write.

Thank you so much for joining us!

Thanks for having me, Jen. Such great questions!!!

Cordelia Jensen is a YA writer. She graduated in 2012 with a MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Cordelia graduated from Kenyon College where she majored in English, with a Concentration in Creative Writing. Cordelia was Poet Laureate of Perry County in 2006 & 2007. She has also had nonfiction work appear in Literary Mama. Cordelia has worked with young people for most of her career; with a Masters of Education in Counseling, she has worked as a counselor and teacher and spent ten summers as a camp counselor in Central PA. She teaches writing workshops for children at the Big Blue Marble and loves being surrounded by books and people who love stories and language. Cordelia lives in West Mt. Airy with her husband, Jon, and twin nine-year-olds, Tate and Lily.

Thanks for reading!!! If you're local to the area, please let the bookstore know if you would like to order a copy of Skyscraping. You can also come to Cordelia's Book Launch Party, Saturday, June 6, 7pm, offsite at local used bookstore Mt. Airy Read & Eat! If you can't make the party, you can email orders to orders [at] bigbluemarblebooks [dot] com, call (215) 844-1870, or come see us at 551 Carpenter Lane, in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Author Interview: Rachel Wilson

by Cordelia Jensen

This month on our blog, Cordelia Jensen interviewed Rachel Wilson, author of Don’t Touch.

Here's a summary of Rachel's book:

Step on a crack, break your mother's back,
Touch another person's skin, and Dad's gone for good...

Caddie has a history of magical thinking—of playing games in her head to cope with her surroundings—but it's never been this bad before.

When her parents split up, Don't touch becomes Caddie's mantra. Maybe if she keeps from touching another person's skin, Dad will come home. She knows it doesn't make sense, but her games have never been logical. Soon, despite Alabama's humidity, she's covering every inch of her skin and wearing evening gloves to school.

And that's where things get tricky. Even though Caddie's the new girl, it's hard to pass off her compulsions as artistic quirks. Friends notice things. Her drama class is all about interacting with her scene partners, especially Peter, who's auditioning for the role of Hamlet. Caddie desperately wants to play Ophelia, but if she does, she'll have to touch Peter . . . and kiss him. Part of Caddie would love nothing more than to kiss Peter—but the other part isn't sure she's brave enough to let herself fall.

From rising star Rachel M. Wilson comes a powerful, moving debut novel of the friendship and love that are there for us, if only we'll let them in.

Hi Rachel! I really loved your book. So, first question, I know you are an actress. Have you ever been in a production of Hamlet? The story is so expertly woven into your novel; you must know the play inside and out. Did the idea of writing a girl playing Ophelia come to you first or did Caddie as a character?

Thank you, Cordelia! I haven’t! The only times I’ve gotten to perform Shakespeare were for classes. In college acting class, I played Helena from A Midsummer Night’s Dream (on a playground, which was super fun), Lady Anne in Richard III, and Macbeth—not the Lady, regular Macbeth. In high school, I almost got to play Juliet, but most of the actor guys played basketball, and we ended up doing a courtroom drama instead. Le sigh.

I have seen many stage and screen productions of Hamlet, including some inventive explorations of the play (like the Neo-Futurists’ Daredevils: Hamlet in which five guys explore masculinity and perform risky stunts while trying to perfect Hamlet), and I’ve studied it from a literary angle.

Caddie came way before Ophelia. In an early draft, she was actually a ballet dancer rather than an actress, and later on, she was performing in The Glass Menagerie. I changed things up because I wanted to use a play that I could pull text from without trouble. There’s a lot of water imagery and swimming pool scenes in Don’t Touch, so I’d been considering having Caddie play Ophelia when one of my writing advisors suggested it. I thought, this is some kind of kismet, and ran with it.

I was curious about Caddie’s relationship with her brother. Although he does not appear very often in the book, he is actually the person who helps her see her own irrational thinking. Did you do much free-writing on the relationship between these two? I almost felt like he could’ve had his own book, he felt so three-dimensional even though he has so few scenes.

That is lovely to hear. Thank you! The Jordan who appears in his first scene—his angry, acting-out self—showed up as is. I always saw him as someone Caddie would feel responsible to and be able to bounce ideas off of without fear of judgment, and I saw him as a foil to Caddie in that he’s acting out while she’s containing her feelings. Siblings are often in a unique position to give us feedback—they’re very close to us but not necessarily an authority or peer, and are pretty much contractually obligated to love us unconditionally. Or that’s what I tell my sister, anyway.

In revision with my editors, I brought out more of the positive relationship between Jordan and Caddie. In my mind, Jordan and Caddie were loving, but I didn’t show that much in early drafts. I’d cut an important scene between them for length that made its way back in—the one where they’re cooking together. I’m really glad my editors pushed me to soften Jordan’s edges and find the sibling love between the two.

Caddie’s gloves are a huge part of the story. Without giving too much away, did you always know you would use the gloves as a vehicle for Caddie’s OCD?

Not always, but very early. The novel used to open with a much younger Caddie on a road trip with her family, and the gloves were something she got away with wearing because she was a child. Later on, when I decided to cut those flashback scenes, I realized that it might be even more interesting for a teen to suddenly start wearing gloves. It’s more of a challenge for an older Caddie to explain.

Peter and Mandy both challenge and support Caddie and, really, see her through even as she pushes them away. Was it hard as an author to write a character who keeps pushing people away? Was it hard to prolong her suffering?

Well, I don’t know that it was hard. I can be pretty mean to my characters, and I think that came pretty naturally since that’s so true to my own experience with OCD as a kid. I had perceptive, involved parents and several close friends, and I still managed to hide what was going on with me for years. It is a frustrating part of Caddie’s character—frustrating to her and to her friends. The challenge was less about writing that aspect of Caddie and more about writing it without alienating and totally frustrating readers. I’ll leave it to individual readers to decide whether I’ve managed that. 

I haven’t read any other YA books on OCD; it seems like a really important topic to tackle in teen fiction. Have you read any other books that address this topic so directly?

Yes! Corey Ann Haydu’s OCD Love Story is wonderful and captures how odd and sometimes scary compulsions can be, and it spends time in group therapy sessions, which is really interesting. E. Lockhart’s Ruby Oliver series starting with The Boyfriend List doesn’t deal with OCD but has a great treatment of anxiety and panic attacks. Those are the ones I think of offhand, but I know there are some great ones I haven’t yet read.

What other projects are you working on currently?

About a month after Don’t Touch comes out, I’ll have an e-short story out with HarperTeen Impulse—“The Game of Boys and Monsters.” It’s a spooky, suspenseful story, and I’m working on a novel that’s spooky and suspenseful as well, but it’s still deep in the oven.

Is there anything else about the novel you would like us to know?

I guess I’d like people to know that while this book goes to some dark places, it does have humor. Life is funny, and humor breaks our guard down—it’s often the best entry point to difficult subjects.

And now for our “3 for 3” book-related questions:

1. What are three of your favorite books from childhood/teen years?

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, and Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth by E. L. Konigsburg.

2. What are three books you’ve read recently that surprised you?

The Circle by Dave Eggers, Trent Reedy’s Divided We Fall, and Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone.

3. What are three books that influence/d your writing?

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Looking for Alaska by John Green, and All Rivers Flow to the Sea by Alison McGhee.

Rachel M. Wilson received her MFA in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Don't Touch is her first novel. Originally from Alabama, she now writes, acts, and teaches in Chicago, Illinois.

You can find her at http://www.rachelmwilsonbooks.com

And more about the book here: 

http://www.harpercollins.com/9780062220936/dont-touch

If you're local to the area, please let the bookstore know if you would like to order Don't Touch. You can email orders to orders [at] bigbluemarblebooks [dot] com, call (215) 844-1870, or come see us at 551 Carpenter Lane, in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Young Writers Interview Author Lisa Graff

by Cordelia Jensen and Story Corners Writing Camp

During the last week of June, the bookstore hosted Story Corners Camp for Young Writers. Led by writer Cordelia Jensen, and intern Sarah Alden, the kids worked on creating Mt. Airy Musers, the new Kids Lit Journal for the neighborhood, worked on their own writing craft and had the chance to visit with two local authors. Lisa Graff, author of many books including Absolutely Almost and A Tangle of Knots, visited with us on Tuesday, June 24th. Lisa played a really fun game of Book Truth or Dare with the kids. And students also got to ask her questions, some of which are answered below. Here is our interview with the talented Lisa Graff: 

Q from Annie: How long does it take you to write a book?

It depends on the book. My longest book to write was Umbrella Summer, which took about three years. Absolutely Almost took the least amount of time of any book I’ve written so far—that one probably took about six months, from first draft to final revision. That’s very quick!

Q from Lucy: How many books have you written?

I’ve written seven middle-grade novels, and two young adult novels (I co-write my young-adult novels under the pen name Isla Neal. Those books are part of the Ever-Expanding Universe trilogy). In addition to that, I have another middle-grade novel, Lost in the Sun, coming out next year, as well as the last book in the trilogy of my YA series. I also have my very first picture book, It Is Not Time for Sleeping, coming out in 2016, and I’m working on new things all the time!

Q from Georgia: Why do you write kids’ books?

One of my favorite reasons to write children’s books is that children are really discerning about what they read. If they aren’t being forced to read a book for school, they’ll put it down as soon as it gets even the slightest bit boring. Adults don’t often do that. So I love that my books are held up to such a high standard—it keeps me on my toes as a writer.

Q from Sadie: How old were you when you started writing?

I started writing for fun when I was about eight years old. I didn’t really start writing seriously until I was twenty-one, when I moved to New York City to start graduate school for creative writing.

Q from Maggie: How do you pick the names for your characters?

Names come from all sorts of places. Sometimes I’ll name characters after someone I know, but usually the names are completely made up. I often get inspiration from baby name websites. I love trying to match names to characters—when I’ve found exactly the right name, the character’s personality seems to click perfectly into place.

Q from Mikaela: How much input do you get on your book covers?

Usually not much. For the most part, authors aren’t in charge of what goes on the covers of their books, which can seem unfair until you realize that the people at the publishing house who are in charge (designers, marketing teams) do that sort of thing for a living so they’re generally better at it than most authors would be.

Q from Julia: What’s the publishing process like?

It’s very complicated! But in a nutshell, if you are an author who has written a book, you first need to find an editor at a publishing house who wants to publish your book (often this step is accomplished with the help of an agent, but that’s a whole different story). After that, your editor will give you notes about big and small things you might change to make your story stronger. You may have to go through several rounds of this. Editing can take anywhere from a few months to over a year, depending on the book. When that stage is finished, the editor will do a line edit, which is a smaller edit, mostly looking at words you may have overused or that might be unclear. That can take anywhere from a few days to a month. Then the book goes to copyediting, where the magical person called the copyeditor checks all of your grammar and spelling and punctuation and checks for typos and continuity errors, and other things you and your editor may have missed in the billions of times you read the book (you’d be surprised what you can gloss over!). A book goes through several rounds of copyedits, although you the author may or may not see them all. Meanwhile, other people from the publishing house—designers, production people, publicists—get in on the action and start doing their various jobs, which include everything from making the book look pretty (both on the outside and the inside), and figuring out the logistics of turning an electronic document into a physical book (what sort of paper the book will be printed on, where it will be printed and how it will be shipped, etc.), to making sure booksellers have heard of the book before it comes out. It’s a lot of work! It typically takes a full year after a book has gone to copyediting for it to be officially published and available to the public.

Q from Liam: Why did you choose a character to have a peanut allergy in Double Dog Dare?

I have a brother with a peanut allergy, so it was something I knew a little bit about. Originally I just thought this would be an interesting character trait for Kansas’s little sister, but I later ended up turning it into a major plot point.

Q from Cordelia: The voice in Absolutely Almost is so strong; how did Albie first come to you? What did you know about him right away?

I’m not entirely sure where he came from—his was one of those voices that seemed to pop into my head from nowhere. He’s definitely not based on anyone in particular. Before I started writing, I really only knew that he wouldn’t be as smart as his peers, so his voice would sound very innocent at times, and that there would be several moments where the reader would understand a lot more than Albie did. It’s a challenge to write from the point of view of that sort of narrator, but it was a whole lot of fun too.

We had an awesome time with Lisa and thank her so much for visiting with us!

If you're local to the area, please let the bookstore know if you would like to order any of Lisa's books. You can email orders to orders [at] bigbluemarblebooks [dot] com, call (215) 844-1870, or come see us at 551 Carpenter Lane, in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Author Interview: Jill Santopolo

by Cordelia Jensen

Hi Jill! Thanks for joining us on the Big Blue Marble Bookstore blog. We are also happy you will be participating in our Kids' Literary Festival as part of the Middle Grade roundtable event on Saturday, 5/17, at 3pm, at the store.

Here’s a bit about the Sparkle Spa series:

Making friends one sparkly nail at a time – a new series!

Sisters Aly and Brooke love spending time at their mom’s popular and successful nail salon—it’s their “home away from home.” At the end of another incredibly busy day, Mom complains she is completely overwhelmed at work, even more so by all the kids who come to have manis and pedis. 

That’s when the sisters have a brilliant idea: Why don’t they open up a mini nail salon just for kids within Mom’s store?

My favorite part of the series is how distinct Aly and Brooke are from each other but also how fiercely they’re both devoted to each other and the nail salon. Were Aly and Brooke’s characters clear in your head from the beginning or did they change at all? When you were a kid, were you more like one sister?

Aly and Brooke were both very much themselves from the start—I knew I wanted 
one sister who was super responsible and organized and practical and another who 
was extra creative and artistic and chaotic. But as the books progressed, I added 
to their characters, giving them favorite colors and likes and dislikes and physical 
attributes. I also, knew, though, that even though their personalities were pretty 
different, they would love each other—and the salon—fiercely, and that hasn’t 
changed at all. 

As a kid I was probably a little more like Aly. I was thoughtful and a pretty good 
rule-follower.

How much research did you do for this book? Did you come across new nail polishes you had never heard of before? Did you see any real dogs get their nails done?

The main research I did was attempting to polish my parents’ dog’s nails with 
special puppy nail polish. Sadie the dog was not too happy about it, and I ended up 
doing only two toenails before my sister convinced me to give up. 

The nail polish names in the book are all made up, but they’re based on the sort of 
polish names on the bottles in the nail salons near my apartment. I feel like new ones 
have arrived every time I stop by!

What was fun about writing these books? What was hard?

I had the most fun coming up with the nail polish names and the special manicures 
the girls do in the salon. And I think the hardest part was trying to get everything I 
wanted to write to fit into such a short book!

I like how the message in the series is that you can be a girl who is both “sparkly 
and strong.” As a mother of a sparkly and active sort of girl, I so appreciate this sentiment. I am assuming this was a very important piece for you to work into the story without wanting to seem heavy-handed?

Yes, it absolutely was. I feel like there’s a false dichotomy set up in society that 
says that either a girl can like princesses and sparkles (etc) or she can like sports 
and tree-climbing (etc). And part of why I wanted to write this book is to show that 
it doesn’t have to be an either/or situation. I was a kid who climbed trees wearing 
sparkly party shoes and played soccer with ribbons in my hair. I want girls to know 
that they don’t have to choose—that they can embrace all sides of themselves.

Tell us a little about your other books and upcoming projects.

Well the next Sparkle Spa book is coming out in June. It’s called Makeover Magic 
and it’s about what happens when a new salon opens up across the street and Aly 
and Brooke have to fight to keep their customers for Auden Elementary’s Fall Ball. 
And then I’m also working on a series for teens called Follow Your Heart, in which 
each book has thirteen different endings to choose from and each reader can pick 
the one that’s right for her—or him. The first book, Summer Love, just came out 
a couple of weeks ago. And then there will be more Sparkle Spa and Follow Your 
Heart books to come in 2014 and 2015.

Is there anything else you would like us to know about the Sparkle Spa series or 
about you as an author?

I’m really happy to be coming to the Big Blue Marble Bookstore!

We are very excited to have you--here's a picture of my daughter Lily and her friends with one of the Rainbow Sparkle pedicures featured in the first book of the Sparkle Spa series:

And, lastly, our “3 for 3” book-related questions:

1. What were 3 of your favorite books when you were a child/teen? 
Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson, Harriet The Spy by Louise Fitzhugh, A Tree 
Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

2. What are 3 books you’ve read recently that surprised you? We Were Liars by 
E. Lockhart, I’ll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson, Creativity Inc. by Ed 
Catmull 

3. What are 3 books that influence/d your writing? Kristy’s Big Idea by Ann M. 
Martin, Sunset Island by Cherie Bennett, Here’s To You Rachel Robinson by 
Judy Blume

Thanks! If you live in the Philly area come see Jill at the bookstore on Saturday, May 17th! She'll be part of a roundtable discussion with Shawn Stout, also interviewed here recently, and Kathleen Van Cleve, author of Drizzle.

Jill Santopolo is the author of the Sparkle Spa series, the Alec Flint mysteries and the Follow Your Heart books.  She's also an editor at Penguin Young Reader's Group and an MFA thesis advisor at The New School. You can visit her online at www.jillsantopolo.com or follow her on Twitter @JillSantopolo.

If you're local to the area, please let the bookstore know if you would like to order books from the Sparkle Spa, Follow Your Heart, or the Alex Flint series. You can email orders to orders [at] bigbluemarblebooks [dot] com, call (215) 844-1870, or come see us at 551 Carpenter Lane, in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Finally, join us in June for Cordelia's interview with Lisa Graff, author of many books including A Tangle of Knots and the new Absolutely Almost, both edited by the multi-talented Jill Santopolo! 

Author Interview: Skila Brown

by Cordelia Jensen

Today's interview is with Skila Brown, debut author. Her Middle Grade verse novel Caminar hit the shelves in March. It has received starred reviews from the Horn Book and School Library Journal. Here's a summary of the book:

Set in 1981 Guatemala, a lyrical debut novel tells the powerful tale of a boy who must decide what it means to be a man during a time of war.

Carlos knows that when the soldiers arrive with warnings about the Communist rebels, it is time to be a man and defend the village, keep everyone safe. But Mama tells him not yet—he’s still her quiet moonfaced boy. The soldiers laugh at the villagers, and before they move on, a neighbor is found dangling from a tree, a sign on his neck: Communist.

Mama tells Carlos to run and hide, then try to find her. . . . Numb and alone, he must join a band of guerillas as they trek to the top of the mountain where Carlos’s abuela lives. Will he be in time, and brave enough, to warn them about the soldiers? What will he do then? A novel in verse inspired by actual events during Guatemala’s civil war, Caminar is the moving story of a boy who loses nearly everything before discovering who he really is.

Thanks for joining us on the Big Blue Marble Bookstore blog, Skila! I just finished reading your beautiful book, Caminar. I had the privilege of reading an earlier version, which made the reading (and holding) of the final product that much more amazing. Your book has been receiving sensational reviews (no surprise), so, also, many congratulations on those.

Thank you for having me, Cordelia, and for those kind words. It’s an honor to be here!

What was your initial inspiration for this story? Tell us about how and where it began.

I’d spent ten years reading about the terrible violence in Guatemala, but I never had the intention of writing a story about it. I had several novels in draft form that I was writing, but nothing was really working. Shelley Tanaka, my writing mentor at the time, asked if there wasn’t something I cared more about. Wasn’t there some story I might have hidden away in my heart that I needed to put on the page instead? Turns out there was.

How did you make the decision for Carlos to be an only child? How did that seem integral to his journey?

I don’t remember ever considering a sibling for Carlos. In an earlier draft, he had a father who had been ‘disappeared’ by the Army, though I later whittled that away. I knew it was only Carlos and his mama in his family. I just had that feeling in my gut early on.

I really like the “animal spirit” theme in the book and how Carlos finds his own guide. It gives a sort of playful quality to the book which is, obviously, a serious book overall. Did you play around with a few animals before choosing one? Or was there always one?

It was always an owl. Long before I knew nahuales would make an appearance in the story, I had printed off a picture of an owl and taped it to my notebook. I thought of Carlos like the owl—always watching, perched in a tree, easy to pass over if you aren’t paying attention. It was only when he was literally in that tree and I knew he needed something to look at, something to focus on, that I realized it would be the owl.

Do you have an animal you feel spiritually connected to?

Jellyfish are my favorite animals on the planet. I could spend all day watching a jellyfish move through water. It’s mesmerizing and so calming.

My favorite part of your poetry style is the way you carve white space with your words. The shape of your poems so often reflect the imagery and/or content of the poem. Is this an energizing part of writing for you?

Yes! It’s so fun. I don’t think about shape when I’m drafting a poem; it’s only in revision that I start to play with space and stanza. And that’s always my favorite part.

What draws you to the verse novel form in general?

There’s no fluff in a verse novel. It’s potent, sparse language that cuts to the heart of the emotion without wasting words. I like that novels in verse are accessible to a wide range of readers. They can be a fast page-turner for the reluctant reader or a slow story to savor for someone else. They often leave things unsaid, making it digestible for a wide range of ages.

Anything else you would like us to know about this book?

I’ve had more than one person ask me if this story is really appropriate for a ten-year old child. The answer is a resounding yes. It’s about a tragedy, yes, but it’s also about growing up, facing fears, figuring out the right thing to do. The violence in the story happens off-screen and without graphic detail. I’d encourage teachers and parents to read this first, if they have doubts that a particular reader is ready for the story, but I think we need to give kids the credit they're due. They can handle more than we realize. And stories about survival can be a reassurance for a child reader.

Any other upcoming projects?

I have two books forthcoming with Candlewick—a second novel in verse out next year and a picture book collection of poetry about sharks out in 2016.

And now for our “3 for 3” book-related questions. What were 3 of your favorite books when you were a child/teen?

I was a huge fan of Shel Silverstein and read to my kids now from the dog-eared copy of A Light in the Attic that I had as a child. I read Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret at least a dozen times as a kid. And I’m fairly certain I owned the entire Sweet Valley High collection. (I was Elizabeth – wishing I were Jessica.)

What are 3 books you have read recently that surprised you?

I am always surprised by books because I never read summaries or jacket flaps or even blurbs—I just open them up and dive right in, not knowing what to expect at all. Recently, I loved Amy Timberlake’s One Came Home. The tone of the story was such a surprise to me as it wasn’t what I expected from the cover. P.S. Be Eleven by Rita Williams-Garcia surprised me because it’s so rare to find a sequel even better than its predecessor. Finally, I’ll have to go with Two Boys Kissing. Just when I think David Levithan can’t get any more brilliant, he goes and writes another piece of spectacular.

What are 3 books that influence/d your writing?

Only three?! That seems incredibly unfair. The first three that pop into my head are: George Ella Lyon’s Where I’m From, Katherine Applegate’s Home of the Brave, and Encounter by Jane Yolen (illustrated by David Shannon.)

 Thanks, Skila!

Skila Brown holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She grew up in Kentucky and Tennessee, lived for a bit in Guatemala, and now resides with her family in Indiana. Caminar is her first novel. You can find her at www.skilabrown.com

Thanks for reading!!! If you're local to the area, please let the bookstore know if you would like to order a copy of Caminar. You can email orders to orders [at] bigbluemarblebooks [dot] com, call (215) 844-1870, or come see us at 551 Carpenter Lane, in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Next up on 5/13: Jill Santopolo, author of the new Sparkle Spa series.

Author Interview: Robin Herrera

by Cordelia Jensen

Hi Robin!

Congrats on your Middle Grade debut, Hope Is A Ferris Wheel. It is a terrific book.

Here is a synopsis:

Ten-year-old Star Mackie lives in a trailer park with her flaky mom and her melancholy older sister, Winter, whom Star idolizes. Moving to a new town has made it difficult for Star to make friends, when her classmates tease her because of where she lives and because of her layered blue hair. But when Star starts a poetry club, she develops a love of Emily Dickinson and, through Dickinson’s poetry, learns some important lessons about herself and comes to terms with her hopes for the future. With an unforgettable voice with a lot of heart, Hope Is a Ferris Wheel is the story of a young girl who learns to accept her family and herself while trying to make sense of the world around her.

Star is such a likeable character and, yet, has so many obstacles in her way. Overall, she has this shining, hopeful spirit that had me cheering for her from the start. I also really liked that you used first person perspective for this particular story. Was it always written in first person or did you play around with other perspectives?

I believe I wrote the first chapter in third-person when I started. It never quite took off for me – even in third-person, there should be a voice there. But there wasn’t. It was just blah and bland.

However, I then wrote Star’s first set of Vocabulary sentences using first-person (because she was the one writing them, natch) and her voice came through bright and clear. I decided to write the rest of the manuscript in first-person and haven’t changed it since.

I like how Eddie both challenges Star and sees her strength. He also points to her character flaw a few times. Another author might have chosen one of her family members to point out Star’s stubbornness but I like that you have a character a bit further outside herself that pushes her to grow. Was this your intention?

That was intentional, yes! I’m of the belief that the people closest to you (like your
family) sometimes have glaring blind spots about your flaws. So Eddie was the perfect
person to do that, especially because Star sees him as very flawed herself. It helps that Eddie’s incredibly blunt, even to Langston.

Plus, I think it shows that Eddie actually really likes Star. He’s the only person in the book, I believe, who sees this stubbornness in her. He’s very observant. I wanted that to come across.

The way poetry is weaved throughout the book shows the earnestness of the age group to learn and to absorb beautiful material. As a creative writing teacher of 8-12 year olds, the awe and intrigue the kids had in the poems felt very accurate. Were you an early poetry lover? Did you ever make up a club yourself?

The poetry I loved as a kid was the silly poetry. Shel Silverstein and Judith Viorst were
my favorites. I also listened to a lot of Simon & Garfunkel as a kid, who I think are very
poetic.

The only club I belonged in during Elementary School was, oddly enough, the Stamp
Club. It sounds boring, but I had a lot of fun. We went to a stamp convention once and I
bought some Disney stamps from another country. My favorite stamp was a 3-D stamp
from I think Abu Dhabi? Actually, I just googled it, and they were from Bhutan. But they
were 3-D!

That does NOT sound boring. The relationship between Winter and Star is probably my favorite part of the book. I noticed that the book is dedicated to your sister. Did you do any free-writing from Winter’s perspective? As I was reading, I felt like I could have read a YA book from her point of view simultaneously. She felt as three-dimensional to me as Star.

I never did any free-writing for Winter, though I got a lot of comments on early drafts of
the book that it seemed to center around her too much, so I had to dial that down for the
final drafts. But I felt like I knew Winter very well, though she’s not all that similar to my sister.
The thread I hung onto while writing scenes between Star and Winter was the memory
of looking up to my older sister when I was Star’s age. My sister was the coolest person
I knew. She had the most awesome clothes. Her hair was amazing. She was funny and
witty and smart. So I kept that filter on Star when I wrote, and I’m really glad that so
many people have commented on their relationship. I love those two!

Me too! Anything else you would like us to know about you or your book?

It’s funny! I think that’s something that hasn’t been advertised quite as much, but it’s not
all drama and family secrets and trailer parks. There’s some very funny stuff in there.

And now our “3 for 3” book-related questions:

1. What were three of your favorite books as a child/teen?
 I Am Regina by Sally M Keehn, Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson, and The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm by Nancy Farmer.

2. What three books have you read recently that surprised you?  
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor (because I didn’t like it as a child), Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina (because even though no one dies, it made me weep ugly tears), and Archer Coe and the Thousand Natural Shocks, by Jamie S. Rich and Dan Christensen. Okay, so I read that last one for work, but it still surprised me! Both in plot and art. Dan’s art is fantastic, and I think it’s Jamie’s best work yet.

3. What are three books that influence(d) your writing?  
A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban, The Wayside School Series by Louis Sachar, and probably (oddly enough) Battle Royale by Koushun Takami.

Thanks!

Robin Herrera is an aspiring cat lady living in Portland, Oregon. She has a BA in English from Mills and an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. In the past, she has worked as a waitress, an after-school teacher, a cashier, and an omelet flipper, but she now works as an Associate Editor for Oni Press in addition to being a writer. Hope Is a Ferris Wheel is her first book.

Thanks for reading!!!

If you're local to the area, please let the bookstore know if you would like to order a copy of Hope Is a Ferris Wheel. You can email orders to orders [at] bigbluemarblebooks [dot] com, call (215) 844-1870, or come see us at 551 Carpenter Lane, in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Next up: In mid-April, come check out Jen's interview with Delia Sherman, author of The Freedom Maze.

Author Interview: Bonny Becker

by Cordelia Jensen

Hi Bonny! 

Thanks so much for joining us on the Big Blue Marble Bookstore blog. I have been a huge fan of the Bear picture books since my own (now 8-year-old) twins were small. I love the dynamic between Bear and Mouse. For some reason, reading the books out loud I always read Mouse in a British accent! 

Did Bear or Mouse come to you first? Or their relationship?

Mouse came first. He popped into my head one day full grown as a pesky mouse who just couldn’t be gotten rid of! Then I had the delightful task of figuring out who my mouse would bug. I went through several animals in my head before I hit upon a bear and that seemed perfect.

Are there any more Bear and Mouse books coming soon? Have you ever thought about writing a book from Mouse’s perspective? 

Yes, there are two more Mouse and Bear books in the works. A Library Book for Bear comes out this September. And next year or perhaps the year after that will be A Halloween for Bear. I never thought about doing a book from Mouse’s perspective. I wonder who cheers him up?

Good question! Maybe another tiny animal . . . While having been familiar with the Bear and Mouse picture books for a long time, I just finished reading The Magical Ms. Plum. What a funny book! The kids and I were laughing and laughing. When the first tiny horse came out of the closet I was really surprised. The book has this surreal quality to it. Where did the idea for those books come from?

This book is a lot harder for me to track in terms of how the idea came together. I know I was working on a story about a boy who finds a tiny t-rex. One small enough to fit into his backpack. I just couldn’t seem to make it work! I think that got me thinking about other tiny animals and one thing led to another. I do remember the various elements—at school, a magical school teacher, different kids, different animals, a lesson learned—kind of assembled themselves one by one in my mind.

My kids were wondering what would happen to Lucy if she went into the closet . . . they would like a sequel so they can find out! If you had been in Ms. Plum’s classroom as a child, what animal do you imagine would have come out for you?

That’s a good question and a hard one for me! There are animals I would want to come out like a jaguar or a unicorn. Then there’s the animal that probably would have come out given my personality. I was a huge reader and a thinker and a little odd. I’m thinking maybe an owl? But then again maybe I needed a wild, funny monkey! I am working on a sequel, but it will be a new class not Lucy’s class. I like to think, though, that every kid in Ms. Plum’s class did get a chance to go into the closet. Lucy is such a good sport, I think I’d give her a unicorn.

It is interesting that in both the Magical Ms. Plum book and the Bear and Mouse books, there are small animals in unexpected places. (The Mouse in the cake maybe being my favorite.) What is your own relationship to animals? Do you have many pets?

I have animals in almost all my 12 books! And it’s not something I realized until I’d written about five or six books. My books include The Christmas Crocodile, the story of crocodile who gets delivered to the wrong address at Christmas, An Ant’s Day Off about the first ant in history to take a day off and, of course, the Mouse and Bear books. I’ve written about a lizard who wants to be an artist and one about the way various animals feel to the touch—like the wooly curls of a sheep or the slippery scales of a fish. Animals show up a lot in my work.

I had four sisters and a brother, so I grew up with a lot of siblings and a lot of pets. But I’m not sure if that’s the reason animals show up so much. They are good substitutes for people. They can be such distinct characters. You can have a lot of fun with them without making fun of people themselves

And now, our three for three book-related questions:

1. What were three of your favorite books as a child and/or teen?

All the Oz books, Mary Poppins, and the Narnia books. Anything with magic in
it!

2. What are three books you’ve read recently that surprised you?

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green both surprised me by how caught up in the story I got. I don’t read much YA, but I was impressed! And The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine. I’m just starting it, but it’s full of fascinating facts about brain development and gender differences.

3. What are three books that influence/d your writing?

Charlotte’s Web, The Wizard of Earthsea, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Thanks so much for joining us, Bonny!

Bonny Becker is author of the best-selling Mouse and Bear books, including A Visitor for Bear, New York Times bestseller, winner of the E.B. White Read Aloud Award and Amazon’s Picture Book of the Year. Her latest book is A Birthday for Bear. Poor Bear is even grumpy about birthdays! Her middle-grade novel, The Magical Ms. Plum, won the 2010 Washington State Children’s Book Award. In all, she’s published 12 books for children. She is also an instructor for the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts, an accredited program for a Masters of Fine Arts in Writing. Visit her at bonnybecker.com.

Thanks for reading!!! If you're local to the area, please let the bookstore know if you would like a copy of A Visitor for Bear, or any of Bonny's other books. You can email orders to orders [at] bigbluemarblebooks [dot] com, call us at (215) 844-1870, or come see us at 551 Carpenter Lane, in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Next up: In mid-March, come check out Jen's interview with Elisa Ludwig, author of Pretty Crooked and the upcoming Pretty Sly.

Author Interview: Miriam Glassman

by Cordelia Jensen

Hi Miriam!

Your book Call Me Oklahoma! was my daughter’s favorite book of the summer. Here's a brief synopsis:

"From now on, call me Oklahoma!" nine-year-old Paige Turner announces on the first day of fourth grade. She is determined that this year she will be different: someone gutsy—brave enough to stand up to her tormentor, class bully Viveca Frye. It takes a lot of work for Paige to bring out her inner Oklahoma, but she's helped along the way by her best friend, her sympathetic teacher, her bratty cousin, and some hilarious but inspiring events at home and at school.

Paige does manage to overcome most of her fears, and in the process she learns that a true friend offers all the courage she needs.

First, let’s talk names. My daughter’s name Lily is in this book. And my name, Cordelia, is also in this book. And Paige’s whole idea is that she will be a braver person if she has a name like Oklahoma as opposed to Paige. Is this concept what first brought on the idea for the story? Was she ever going to be named a different state besides Oklahoma or was it always Oklahoma? Did you ever wish you could change your name when you were a kid? 

Hi Cordelia!

I’m so delighted that your daughter enjoyed Call Me Oklahoma! And how great to meet an actual Cordelia! As you know, it’s Cordelia who inspires Paige to reinvent herself. I love the name, and it seemed fitting for the bouncy, dynamic cousin in my book.

But why Oklahoma? Well, the seed of the story came from my younger daughter who came home from camp one day and mentioned a girl named, Oklahoma. I said, “Wait a minute. You have a friend named, Oklahoma?” And my daughter said, “Well, that’s not her real name. It’s just what she asked people to call her.” That got me thinking: Why would a person ever choose the name, Oklahoma? And would having a feisty name like that change one’s self-perception? That’s when Paige Turner stepped into my life. I wanted to write about a kid who feels the power of names, and who tries to embody the spirit of her new name and become more courageous. I never thought about Paige taking on any other name. Oklahoma is not only fun to say, but in this book, also has associations with the musical, which is about the Oklahoma territory becoming a state--another story of change and promise. It seemed logical to me that Paige would be moved by the optimism of the title song and the spirited characters. And in her choice of such a unique name, she signals that she’s already begun connecting with her inner Oklahoma.

As for my own name, yes, absolutely, I wanted to change it. Growing up in the 60’s and 70’s, my friends all had fun, high-energy names: Amy! Debbie! Lisa! Donna! Karen! Vicki! And then there was...Miriam. It felt like a heavy, wool coat I had to wear all year round, and I dearly wished my name was Julie. Incidentally, the editor on this book is named, Julie. I’d also like to add that I’ve since made peace with my name.

Your illustrations are terrific. Did you submit the story with them or add them 
later? How does your writing process compare to your drawing process? Is one more energizing than the other? More frustrating? 

I had a lot of trepidation about sending illustrations with the story. Although my agent wanted to include my sketches with the manuscript, I made her promise she wouldn’t unless the story was accepted. I hadn’t illustrated professionally for years, and had galloping insecurities about my drawings. I got a little zing of courage, however, when the story was accepted; so the sketches were sent to Holiday House. I figured by then, it couldn’t hurt. Turned out, the editor felt the spot illustrations made the piece stronger. That really surprised me and the lesson I took away from that experience is, don’t hold back anything that enriches or energizes a piece for you.

I enjoy both writing and illustrating, but writing is often more frustrating. It’s much
harder for me to get narrative and characters down on paper than it is to realize my ideas for drawings. That said, I went through pads of tracing paper till I was happy with the way the characters looked. I’m sure that was partly due to being so out of practice. Also, because I draw in a cartoon style, each line has to feel just right to me. The size of a dot for an eye or the slant in the line of a mouth radically affects the look and feel of a character.

I love the final paragraph of the book. And the idea that we all have so many 
possibilities inside of us and we don’t just have to be this one way or one thing. I like how you encourage self-exploration in the book and I am glad that Paige’s parents do too. Is this something that grew out of your own experience as a parent? As a kid? Or was it just the logical way to take Paige’s story?

The idea of reinventing oneself and the struggle to be one’s true self has long been a theme I’ve been interested in, both as an individual and as a parent. I’m fascinated by how we define ourselves, and the courage it takes to redefine ourselves as we grow and change.

Viveca Frye is a strong antagonist and a multi-dimensional one. Did you do any free writing from her perspective? 

I didn’t do any free-writing for Viveca, but she emerged more fully in revision. I wanted her to be more of a power player than textbook bully. We’ve all known kids who are both admired and feared and who lean into their insecurities rather than their strengths. Towards the end of the story, however, Paige encourages Viveca to nurture one of strengths, which is her artistic talent. And in embracing it rather than dismissing it, there’s a suggestion that Viveca is on her way to discovering one her many possible selves.

Is there anything else you would like readers to know about this book? 

This was my kitchen sink book in the sense that a lot of the material came from scraps of my life, both past and present: my daughter’s old clogs, the “magic” rubber light bulb, her familiarity with personal jinxes, the cottage cheese monster game I played with my brother, and the pets in the talent show. It was like cleaning out a closet and discovering all this good stuff I could use to build Paige’s world.

What are you working on now? Any chance of a sequel for Paige? 

I am currently working on a middle-grade novel about kids at an overnight camp. And yes, I’d like to follow Paige through fourth grade, maybe focus on the run-up to the winter holidays. So, chances are the title won’t be, Call Me Cincinnati!

And now for our “3 for 3” book-related questions:

What were 3 of your favorite books as a child/teen? 

1. The Lonely Doll by Dare Wright. I truly felt pulled inside this story, and think it
was my first experience of a book as another world I could inhabit just by turning
the pages.

2. Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh. This book totally spoke to me. I admired and greatly envied Harriet’s brash honesty.

3. Agatha Christie mysteries. These books did a spectacular job of blocking out a lot of middle school for me!

What 3 books have you read recently that surprised you? 

Hard to think of a book that surprised me, but recent books that have stayed with me include: Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, P.S. Be Eleven, by Rita Williams-Garcia, and A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra.

What 3 books influence/d your writing? 

1. A Girl Called Al by Constance C. Greene. The economy of dialogue and sharp observations taught me a lot about writing humor. 

2. Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth, by E.L.
Konigsburg. The voice and characters in this book have stayed with me since
I first read it in fifth grade, and Konigsburg’s intelligent, funny stories remain
models I turn to.

3. Birds of America by Lorrie Moore. I love these exquisite short stories, especially for their invigorating blend of anguish and humor.

Thanks so much! 

Thank you, Cordelia!

Miriam Glassman is the author/illustrator of CALL ME OKLAHOMA! (Holiday House, 2013), recently selected as one of the New York Public Library’s list of top children’s books for 2013. She is also the author of BOX TOP DREAMS (Delacorte), and a picture book, HALLOWEENA (Atheneum), illustrated by Victoria Roberts. 

Miriam has a master’s degree in teaching from Simmons College, and an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She has worked in children’s book publishing, as a library assistant, a children’s book reviewer for Publisher’s Weekly and as an illustrator for the educational market. Miriam has two grown daughters and lives with her husband in Massachusetts.

Thanks for reading!!! If you're local to the area, please let the bookstore know if you would like to place a special order for Call Me Oklahoma!  You can email orders to orders [at] bigbluemarblebooks [dot] com, call (215) 844-1870, or come see us at 551 Carpenter Lane, in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Upcoming interviews: In the middle of February, look for Jen's interview with Judy Schachner, author/illustrator of Bits & Pieces and the Skippyjon Jones series.  At the end of the month, check back for Cordelia's interview with the talented Bonny Becker, author of the Bear series and the Ms. Plum books!