Author Interview: David Wiesner

by Jennifer Sheffield

Welcome to three-time Caldecott winner and local author David Wiesner, who joins us to talk about his newest book, Mr. Wuffles!

“I’ve been calling it a nearly wordless picture book that’s full of dialogue that nobody can read.” - Dinah Stevenson, Clarion Books

This is a story of a cat with ennui, the aliens who enliven his day, and the help they receive from the locals.



Hi, David! I have to start by saying that Mr. Wuffles! is a fabulous book. How did you come up with the idea?

Mr. Wuffles! was a long time coming together. It began with a cover I did for Cricket magazine in 1993. On the front was an image of a flying saucer that had landed in the desert. The crew has emerged and is posing for a picture. When you opened the back to see the full image, it is revealed that they have in fact landed in a sandbox and are tiny.

In 2001 I began to try and turn this idea into a book. The opening was visually terrific. We follow the ship as it lands and the visitors begin to explore. Fingertips then enter one frame to set up the turn of the page that reveals the true nature of the situation.

The trouble was, I couldn’t come up with anything else that good for the rest of the story. I tried on and off for several years, but it never gelled.

One thing that did come out of these attempts was the idea that each species would speak in a different language. This was a very appealing visual concept.

And then one day as I was drawing random things in my sketchbook, a solution appeared. I drew a flying saucer –a common occurrence – but this time I covered the ship with little pointy things. I really liked the texture of it. And I thought, “You know, my cat would love to scratch its neck on this. What a cool cat toy.”

And there was my story. I immediately saw a funny and antagonistic relationship between the cat and the little aliens. The story just flowed out.

Does your cat Cricket, as the model for Mr. Wuffles, also disdain store-bought cat toys? If so, what alternate toy did you find that was engaging enough to produce such a brilliant series of play poses?

Cricket’s indifference to store bought toys led me to the storyline. Getting a cat to pose is an impossible task. So, I wasn’t hopeful about her being cooperative.

I had a very small video camera that I put on the bottom of pole so that I could film her down at floor level, since that is where the action takes place. To my surprise, she was very playful. A piece of string was enough to get her rolling around.

As it turned out, she was hyperthyroid, so her metabolism was really revved up! She’s on meds now and back to her old aloof self.

I understand you consulted with a linguist to help derive the aliens’ language. As a linguist myself, I’ve been fascinated with the system of symbols and keep trying to work out what different parts mean. Aside from the group photo, where I’m fairly certain I know exactly what the camera alien is saying and what the response is, I haven’t been able to pull any of the rest of it apart. (Well, except that the square might mean “Ow,” and Δ! is clearly a widely used, strong interjection of some kind.) Do you have a specific translation in mind for each element and utterance, or are they just meant to convey the general sense of what’s going on?

Creating a fully translatable language is a tall order and not something I was aiming for. But, I did want repetition of forms/symbols, which is a significant part of any language. I created a group of about 30 symbols based on geometric forms.

You’re right about the photo scene and the triangle. Also, I figured that the engineer – the one in the green robe (Think Scotty from Star Trek) – would speak a lot of technical jargon. His word balloons have the most symbols. I doubled them up as in fractions. This method of increasing the number of characters was a nice visual solution that I got from Nathan Sanders, a linguist at Swarthmore.

The languages are visual signifiers. While they aren’t literally readable, the gist of their meaning can be inferred from the context of the pictures. Body language, gesture, and facial expressions convey what’s happening. It’s this kind of visual storytelling that picture books excel at.

What was involved in designing the spaceship?

I am a big fan of the classic flying saucer shape. They are clean and simple shapes that look great in flight. Very satisfying to draw. Basically, there are three parts – the top half sphere, the lower half sphere, and the middle circular plane. It’s just a matter of adjusting the top and bottom shapes to create different feels for the ship. I found the texture to be a welcome addition.

My very favorite of your books (now joined by Mr. Wuffles!) has always been June 29, 1999. While they both feature (okay, spoiler for June 29) visits from various aliens, what I love most about both books is the resultant mismatches in scale: ordinary humans and familiar landscapes paired with enormous vegetables in June 29, and here the tiny humanoid aliens paired with pencils and screws and marbles...and, of course, Mr. Wuffles. Is this something you’ve always done? When did you first start juxtaposing people and objects of very different sizes?

Scale change is my favorite visual fantasy. Conceptually it is so simple – make something larger or smaller and its relationship to everything around it changes dramatically. For a human shrunk small, their living room and its furniture become like the Grand Canyon.

As a kid, I fell in love with scale change from watching all the 1950’s Atomically Mutated Giant Bug movies on TV. How can you not love huge ants coming down the street? Just as good were the Atomically Mutated Tiny Person movies - the ultimate example being The Incredible Shrinking Man. It even has a fantastic tiny person vs. cat sequence.

I can tell that landscape and surroundings are very important to your artistry. While clearly you haven’t been hanging around under the radiator, I’m wondering how much time you spend in locales similar to those you create, and how much just happens at the drawing table.

I always want to see what I am drawing. If I can’t find the real thing, I build it.

For example, in June 29, 1999, I had a giant broccoli land in the backyard of my main character. Hard to go out and find that situation. So, I made a group of small houses, fences, and driveways and then put a normal size bunch of broccoli into the scene. Now I could walk around it and view it from all angles, plus above and below, to decide how I wanted to compose the picture.

I’m trying to create a convincing fantasy world. These are things that I want to see, too.

[Note: I've just seen a recent blog post of David's with photos of the broccoli-in-the-back-yard model!]

Are there new projects in the works that you’d like to tell us about?

I am in the midst of a graphic novel that seems to be at the middle grade level – whatever that is. I am also working on a new picture book. That’s about all I’ll say for now.

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

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

I am the worst with “What’s your favorite …” type questions.

Early books I loved were The Provensen Animal Book, a giant Golden Book by Alice and Martin Provensen. The Fantastic Four, by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. Later (8th grade), Welcome To The Monkey House, by Kurt Vonnegut.

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

Joshua Ferris’ use of first person plural as a narrative voice in Then We Came To The End totally sucked me in. Adam Hines’ Duncan The Wonder Dog wove words and images together in a wonderfully dense and strange way. Everything Chris Ware does surprises and delights me.

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

Jean Shepard’s In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash taught me how to write humor. Lynd Ward’s Mad Man’s Drum and Edward Gorey’s The West Wing showed me the possibilities of wordless storytelling.

Thank you so much for joining us, David!

As a child growing up in suburban New Jersey, David Wiesner re-created his world daily in his imagination. A swamp, a cemetery and a landfill bounded the outskirts of his neighborhood, exotic lands that became anything from a faraway planet to a prehistoric jungle. When the everyday play stopped, he would follow his imagination into the pages of books, wandering among the dinosaurs of Charles Knight, the surreal landscapes of Salvador Dali and the fantastic universes of Jack Kirby. The images before him generated a love of detail, an admiration for the creative process, and a desire to tell stories with the pictures he himself was drawing. As a student at the Rhode Island School of Design, he developed the narrative aspects of his work and realized that the picture book was the perfect form in which to present his stories and images.

David Wiesner has been awarded the Caldecott Medal three times – for Tuesday in 1992, The Three Pigs in 2002, and Flotsam in 2006. Two other books of his, Sector 7 and FreeFall, were named Caldecott Honor Books.

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 Mr. Wuffles! 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 November 26th, come check out Cordelia's interview with Cori McCarthy, author of The Color of Rain.

Author Interview: Amy Rose Capetta

by Cordelia Jensen

Hi, Amy Rose!

Entangled should be called Imagination. There are so many, many unusual creatures and settings woven into this narrative. Can you give us some insight into your imaginary world? Do these strange characters/lands just come to you fully birthed or do you work hard to conjure them up?

Creating the universe of Entangled was different from any other story I’d written with a big world. I usually have notebooks stuffed with details (in fact, one of the characters who’s obsessed with her notebooks might be a little bit based on me…) But in this case, I started writing and let myself discover the characters and worlds as I went. It was like going on a long trip and being open to whatever you see along the way, and finding the connections those things have to what you’re already thinking about. I would let myself be surprised by the characters and weird alien species and the black holes and then I would ask if they connected to the story I was telling. Almost always, the answer was yes! Which was WEIRD, but that’s okay. Brains are weird.

Agreed. Brains are weird. 

I remember hearing a part of this story at your graduate reading at VCFA. What I remembered the most from the reading was the image of Cade with her bright red guitar on this lonely grey planet. Did she come to you first?

Wow, it’s incredible that you could pinpoint this so specifically. That’s exactly what I had first. Before I knew anything about quantum entanglement, before I had any idea about the plot or the other characters, I had a girl and her guitar on a dusty, unfriendly planet in the fringes of space. That was all I had—for years! I just let her wander around my head in search of the right story.

I'm glad you found it!

How much scientific research did you do for this story? How much of the science is real? How much is invented?

The idea for the plot sprang from my best friend, a scientist, telling me about quantum entanglement. To be fair, she tells me about all kinds of amazing scientific studies, discoveries, and theories, and all of them deserve their own novels. This one just happened to collide with the punk-rock space girl in my head, and the fact that she was so isolated. Entanglement is a radical form of connection between particles, working faster than the speed of light. I stretched the idea to apply to people, but even in stretching it, I tried to use scientific details (like the newly discovered Higgs field!) because I’m a huge nerd. I needed to be able to suspend my own disbelief!

I also love thinking about what the future will bring in terms of science, things we can barely imagine now. There is so much wonder and strangeness. I read books and blogs, listen to podcasts and scour science articles. That being said, there is an element of fantasy mixed into Entangled and, even more, the sequel. There’s always an element to radical new discoveries that we can’t understand, that defies our rules and our boxes, that knocks down a new wall in our minds. Fantasy gives us that same feeling, so to me, it fits.

I know you have some background as a screenwriter. How does this inform your fiction writing? Do you see your scenes in your head like movie scenes?

I wrote many many screenplays before I came back around to novels. It was a great learning experience. I got to spend a lot of time on dialogue, which I’ve always loved, and structure, which I’ve always been scared of. And I’ve never been very visual, so it’s a good challenge for me to see the scene before I write it. It was actually when I combined what I learned from screenwriting with my flailing attempts to write a novel that things started to work!

Can you give us some hints about stories you are working on now?

Just yesterday, I handed in the second draft of the sequel to ENTANGLED, which is called UNMADE. It’s the second book, and the end of the story. My publisher calls it a space duet, which I love! I’m going to miss Cade and Lee and Rennik and ALL OF THEM, but now I get to work on new things! I have about nine ideas that are all fighting for a place in line.

Awesome!

Is there anything else you want our readers to know about Entangled or you as an author?

Almost everything I write has a fantasy or science fiction element, even if it’s small, because that’s what I love to read. I don’t see the world in a very “realistic” way, so finding SFF was a comfort because it showed me I wasn’t alone. It all comes down to perspective, I think. Using your imagination is just a different angle of looking at the same world.

Also, I loved writing Entangled and living in the voice and world of that story. But I jump around a lot! I’m learning that I don’t really have one voice as a writer, or one kind of book that I love best.

And now for our regular “3 for 3 book questions:”

What were your 3 favorite stories from your childhood/teen years?

How is this a hard question, every time? I’ll go with His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, anything by Madeleine L’Engle, and The Stories of Ray Bradbury. I know that I picked a trilogy, an author, and a collection of 100 short stories. I know that I cheated.

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

I like this question! Books can be surprising for so many different reasons. The last book I read was All the Truth That’s In Me by Julie Berry. I was surprised by how she combined small poetic moments with tight pace and suspense. I loved it!

Before that, I read Parched by Melanie Crowder. I knew it was going to be an incredible read, but I’m always so impressed when someone can pull off the point of view of a non-human character.

A realistic YA that stood out to me lately is Blaze (or Love in the Time of Supervillains) by Laurie Boyle Crompton. I was surprised by how much and how hard I laughed, and that is always a great thing.

What are 3 books that inspire/d your writing?

A book that inspired me in writing Entangled is Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino, who has this incredible way of combining scientfic concepts and unexpected characters and poetic language. It’s not YA, though! I wouldn’t have any idea where to shelve it, and I love those books.

I’m a huge fan of A Wrinkle in Time, but I have to mention Madeleine L’Engle’s book A Ring of Endless Light, (about dolphins! and telepathy! and poetry!) because it gave me some of my first ideas about how a story can involve emerging science as well as fantastic elements and realistic characters.

I’m really inspired by ambitious and unique YA writers, like A.S. King. Her book Ask The Passengers is so beautiful, and it makes me want to be even braver in my own writing.

Thanks!!!! I really enjoyed reading Entangled and the world is lucky that it has hit the stores this month.

Amy Rose Capetta graduated from Vermont College of Fine Arts with an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. She has lived all over the country, and is currently located in Michigan. Her first novel, Entangled, is one half of a space duet. The sequel, Unmade, is forthcoming from HMH in 2014.

If you're local to the area, please let the bookstore know if you would like to place a special order for Entangled. 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.

Please look for Jen's interview with the amazingly talented David Wiesner coming in early November!

Grace's Five Books to Awaken Your Artist Within

[More belated staff picks from September. Note that our October promotion is 15% off books with staff pick stickers! Come in and check out what else we're reading!]

The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron (J P Tarcher, $16.99)

Steal Like An Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon (Workman, $10.95)

Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles (Image Continuum, $12.95)

Make Good Art by Neil Gaiman (William Morrow & Co., $12.99)

Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande (J P Tarcher, $13.95)

Grace Gottschalk, September 2013

Five Picture Books That Mariga Loves

[Some belated staff picks from September. Note that our October promotion is 15% off books with staff pick stickers! Come in and check out what else we're reading!]

Little Bird by Germano Zullo (Enchanted Lion Books, $16.95)

Cozy Classics: Pride and Prejudice by Jack Wang (Simply Read Books, $9.95)

The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt (Philomel Books, $17.99)

The Odd Egg by Emily Gravett (Simon & Schuster, $15.99)

Chloe by Peter McCarty (Balzer & Bray, $16.99)

Mariga Temple-West, September 2013

Author Interview: Mary Quattlebaum

by Cordelia Jensen

Today, we have with us the charming Mary Quattlebaum. She is the author of many books including Pirate vs. Pirate and The Jackson Jones series (more details at her website www.maryquattlebaum.com). Her latest picture book is a new installment in the Jo MacDonald series, which centers on a naturalist girl who goes into different environments and learns about the creatures she encounters. Jo MacDonald Hiked in the Woods just hit the shelves this September.

Thanks for having me, Cordelia!  It’s a treat to talk with you and your blog readers.  Hope your writing is going well.

Thanks Mary! It's going . . . but let's talk about you!

       Tell us about how you thought of creating this delightful series.

Being a mom, you probably notice how curious kids are about the natural world--  the ants on the sidewalk, the squirrels in the trees.  Often their connection to and interest in the natural world evolves from experiences close at hand.  The three Jo MacDonald books feature a pond, garden, and forest ecosystem, which are the “nearby nature” of Jo’s world.  I grew up in the country, with all these things, and it has been a great joy to revisit that childhood landscape in writing.  Doing the books have given me a chance, too, to thank my dad, who has shared his knowledge of and love for nature with his kids and grandkids.  My dad is the model for Jo’s grandfather, Old MacDonald, in the books.  In Jo MacDonald Had a Garden, the grandpa even rides a horse, one of my dad’s favorite activities, even at the age of 80.

One of my favorite parts of these books is the four end pages that include nature facts and resource suggestions. I particularly love all the activity ideas. As one of your former students, I was reminded, in a way, of the word play exercises you assign. Tell us about the process of writing these.

They are sort of like your wordplays, Cordelia!  I loved creating these activities, as a way to help deepen a child’s experience both of the book and the wider natural world.  In designing them, I tried to think about how best to engage the various senses and how to “jump off” the books to allow for experiences outdoors, with the creative arts (drawing, writing, drama), and with science.  These activities and those on publisher Dawn’s website www.dawnpub.com connect with National Science Standards for preschool-grade 3.

Hopefully, the books and activities also help to connect with some of the aims of the “Growing Green” movement.  Parents and educators are recognizing the importance of prying kids from screens and getting them outdoors on a regular basis.  Richard Louv brought this need to national attention in his book Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-deficit Disorder and Todd Christopher offered playful models in The Green Hour: A Daily Dose of Nature for Happier, Healthier, Smarter Kids.  The National Wildlife Federation, American Hiking Society, and National Gardening Association are but a few of the organizations with family- and school-related initiatives. 

So far, Jo has sung her way through the Garden, the Pond and the Woods. Is she going anywhere else?

Maybe a meadow—though the series may end with these three books.  The publisher has also done board books of the series and plans to do audio books.

 Sounds are a huge part of these books. I would have had an especially hard time coming up with some of the animal sounds in your book. Like, what does a chipmunk say? You seem to have figured it out. Did you listen to a lot of animal sounds while writing these books? Did you do a lot of the writing “on location?”

I did, indeed, go back to those childhood places and listen.  And YouTube was a big help in the research.  You know how YouTube is, though, so sometimes I found myself digressing to view whining deer and trampoline-jumping foxes.

The Jo MacDonald series is published by Dawn Publications, a press that specializes in connecting children with the natural world. Did you have a press like this in mind when you created these books?

I had long known of Dawn and admired their books, having purchased several for my daughter when she was little.  I didn’t have Dawn in mind initially but they were the perfect fit.  I have loved working with the editor and art director there and was delighted that they chose the very talented Laura J. Bryant as the illustrator.

You don’t only write picture books but you also write books for older children. Does the writing process feel different when writing picture books?

In some ways, the process feels very different because with the picture books, I often have to think about and carefully revise for the “illustratable moments” and to leave space for the illustrator to work her magic.  

Okay, now for our “3 for 3 Book Questions":

What were your three favorite books from childhood/teen years?

I still have my childhood copies and just had to peek at them, in gratitude, as I answered your question.

Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry (a gift from Santa in second grade).

Jane’s Blanket by Henry Miller (the first book I ever owned, all to myself—a rarity in a family of 7 kids).

The Golden Treasury of Poetry, edited by Louis Untermeyer (where I first came across the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop).

What three books have you read recently that surprised you?

I loved Wein’s suspenseful Code Name Verity for its fully realized characters and setting and Tan’s Tales of Outer Suburbia for his ability to find the surreal in the most ordinary of things/circumstances and vice versa and his compressed, beautiful language.  And I recently re-read (for fourth or fifth time) Grace Paley’s three collections of short stories and was amazed, all over again, by her playfulness and ability to capture the pulse of life.

What three books influence/d your writing?

Gosh, that’s a hard question because there are so many! So I’m going to re-name my 3 childhood favorites and the “surprising” ones mentioned above.

Thanks again for this lovely visit, Cordelia.  Wishing you and your readers many creative adventures this fall.  Happy Trails!

Mary Quattlebaum is the author of twenty award-winning children’s novels, picture books, and books of poetry, including Pirate vs. Pirate, Jackson Jones and the Puddle of Thorns, Sparks Fly High, The Hungry Ghost of Rue Orleans, and the Jo MacDonald nature series (picture, board, and audio books). Awards include Random House’s Marguerite de Angeli Prize for a middle-grade novel, Parenting Reading Magic Award, Bank Street Best Book, SIBA Best Picture Book, NAPPA Gold Award, and inclusion on numerous state children’s choice lists.  Mary’s stories and poems are published frequently in children’s magazines (Cricket, Spider, Ladybug, Babybug), and she works regularly for educational publisher Gale/Cengage on projects ranging from famous explorers to Ancient Greece. Mary is on the faculty at the Vermont College MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults and also a creative thesis and independent study advisor for the Johns Hopkins University graduate program in writing. Mary now reviews children’s books regularly for the Washington Post and Washington Parent and blogs with five writer-teachers at penciltipswritingworkshop.blogspot.com.  She lives with her family, dog, and bird in Washington, DC, and tends a backyard wildlife garden to help sustain native birds and beneficial insects. For more information, visit www.maryquattlebaum.com or contact Mary Quattlebaum directly at 202-362-5621 or MQuattle@aol.com

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 Jo MacDonald Hiked in the Woods. 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: Be sure to check back on October 22nd when Cordelia interviews Amy Rose Capetta, author of the new, starred review YA sci-fi book, Entangled.

Author Interview: Caroline Carlson

by Cordelia Jensen

Hi, Caroline! Welcome to the Big Blue Marble Bookstore Blog. We are very happy to have you here so close to your book release. Before we get started, here's a synopsis of Magic Marks the Spot:

Hilary Westfield has always dreamed of being a pirate. She can tread water for thirty-seven minutes. She can tie a knot faster than a fleet of sailors, and she already owns a rather pointy sword. There’s only one problem: The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates refuses to let any girl join their ranks of scourges and scallywags.

    But Hilary is not the kind of girl to take no for answer. To escape a life of petticoats and politeness at her stuffy finishing school, Hilary sets out in search of her own seaworthy adventure, where she gets swept up in a madcap quest involving a map without an X, a magical treasure that likely doesn’t exist, a talking gargoyle, a crew of misfit scallywags, and the most treacherous—and unexpected—villain on the High Seas.

MAGIC MARKS THE SPOT is the first installment in the Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates trilogy. Books 2 and 3 are forthcoming in 2014 and 2015.

Your book is so funny and when my husband read it aloud to my kids, I could hear them laughing and laughing. Is most of your writing humorous? Did you always write funny stories?

I’m so glad your kids thought the book was funny! I’m always a little worried that I’ll be the only one who thinks my jokes are worth laughing at. But I figure if people only laugh at a quarter of my jokes, I’ll throw in four times as many jokes as I think there should be, and then the book will be just funny enough for readers.

I love writing humor, and I find it very difficult to write fiction that’s not funny. I hate being bored while I’m writing—I’m convinced that if I’m bored while I write a scene, my readers will be bored while they read it. So I write little jokes into the manuscript to keep myself laughing, to keep myself engaged in the story, to keep myself glued to the page in the same way I hope my readers will be.

In college, I spent nearly an entire week trying to write Serious Fiction with no jokes in it. I produced the single most obnoxious, pretentious, and dull piece of writing that has ever been created. It was a crime against fiction, so I don’t do things like that anymore. I do enjoy reading other people’s serious books, though.

There is also a lot of heart to your book. And Hilary herself is very brave. Did you know what Hilary's emotional journey would be from the onset or was it something that changed as you did revisions?

One of the things I struggle with most as a writer is remembering to give my characters rich emotional lives—or any emotions at all, really. Characters’ emotional journeys just don’t come as easily to me as their physical journeys do, and that’s been very problematic, because a character’s emotions should always be informing her external actions and the choices she makes.

When I started working on MAGIC MARKS THE SPOT, I knew that I needed to give Hilary a very simple, straightforward emotional journey that I could state in one sentence so I wouldn’t forget about it. And I knew that I would have to be quite deliberate about working her emotional arc into the book. I decided that Hilary’s emotional object of desire would be her father’s respect; her longing to earn her dad’s approval is what drives her forward. I thought keeping track of this emotional thread would be simple, but it actually grew and changed and became much more complex and interesting as I drafted and revised (and revised and revised) the story.

In revisions with my editor, I did a lot of work to draw out Hilary’s emotions in specific moments. It can be difficult to gauge whether you’re giving your readers too much emotion or too little; there’s a fine line between writing characters who are maudlin and writing characters who are emotionless zombies, and I’m still working on finding that balance in every scene I write.

The gargoyle is my favorite. I read on the blog El Space that the gargoyle came from a story you wrote in high school. Are there any other characters in the book that existed before--either in your mind or on the page?

I’m happy to hear you like the gargoyle! I love him, too. Actually, I have to say that I really like all of my characters, even the villains. Other than the gargoyle, all of them are brand-new for MAGIC MARKS THE SPOT, but some characters were planned more thoroughly than others. I knew a lot about Hilary before I started writing the book, and I knew quite a bit about her father and about her mentor, the pirate Jasper Fletcher. Other characters, like Hilary’s school friend Claire and her governess, Miss Greyson, showed up without any introduction and proceeded to make themselves at home; I had to learn about them as I wrote.

What scene in the book do you feel most proud of? (Without giving too much away . . .) Is it one you struggled to write or one that came to you all at once?

There were two scenes that I rewrote dozens of times each: the second scene in the book, and the scene that takes place at the story’s climax. I’m sure I could rewrite them both another dozen times, but I’m proud of the work I put into them, and I’m happy that I was able to make them work more or less the way I’d hoped they would.

My favorite scene in the book, though, is one that came easily to me. I barely touched it in revisions, so it’s still almost exactly the same as it was in the first draft. It’s the scene that involves a lot of pirates standing in line to interview for a job on a treasure-hunting expedition. It also happens to be the only scene in the book that was written at a coffee shop. I don’t like writing in public places, and I prefer to write at my desk at home, but the only two scenes I’ve ever written in coffee shops (one in MAGIC MARKS THE SPOT and one in its sequel) have been two of my favorites, and they haven’t needed much revising. I may need to rethink my stance on coffee-shop writing.

When you write do you think about a specific kind of reader or audience? Do you think about what you want this reader to take away from the story?

In general, I try to write the kinds of stories that I loved when I was a kid, but I’m not usually consciously aware of my audience while I’m writing. (Now that the book is about to come out, though, I feel extremely conscious of my audience!) I also don’t think consciously about the book’s themes or messages, and I’m always surprised when my editor or another early reader points out the themes that have popped up in my manuscript. Somehow, my own interests and questions about the world manage to sneak onto the page while I’m not looking.

I know you are currently working on sequels to Magic Marks the Spot. This must be very time-consuming. Do you ever do any free writing on the side on other stories or do you strictly stay in the Pirate world?

At the moment, I’m thoroughly in pirate mode: I just turned in my final draft of book 2 in the Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates trilogy, and I’ve been doing some brainstorming as I prepare to write book 3. I do have a couple of other projects I’m looking forward to working on when VNHLP #3 is finished, though, and I’ll occasionally take notes on those projects when I get a good idea that I don’t want to forget.

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

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

THE DARK IS RISING by Susan Cooper

HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE by Diana Wynne Jones

I CAPTURE THE CASTLE by Dodie Smith

2. What 3 books have you read recently that surprised you?

LEGACY OF ASHES: A HISTORY OF THE CIA by Tim Weiner

AKATA WITCH by Nnedi Okorafor

OCD LOVE STORY by Corey Ann Haydu

3. What 3 books influence/s your writing?

HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE (again)

THE THIRTEEN CLOCKS by James Thurber

FEELING SORRY FOR CELIA (and its sequels) by Jaclyn Moriarty

Thanks so much!

Caroline Carlson is the author of MAGIC MARKS THE SPOT, a funny and fantastical seafaring adventure for young readers. She grew up in Massachusetts and holds a BA from Swarthmore College and an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Caroline lives with her husband in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, amidst many stacks of books.

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 Magic Marks the Spot (The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates #1), due out September 10. 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: September 24th, Cordelia interviews her former teacher the charming author Mary Quattlebaum!

Author Interview: Catherine Gilbert Murdock

by Jennifer Sheffield

Hi, Catherine! I’m so excited to see a new book from the Dairy Queen universe -- thanks for bringing it to our attention! Heaven is Paved with Oreos was a lot of fun to read, and full of fascinating images and plot turns.

While D.J. Schwenk doesn’t appear all that often in this book, her character is clearly important to Sarah, the narrator. It was cool to see D.J. from the outside, from the point of view of another character. How did it feel to write this shift? Also, is there another person in your life named D.J., or did you really dedicate a book to one of the characters inside it?

Ever since Dairy Queen, I've wanted to show who D.J. is from *our* perspective rather than simply her self-deprecating voice … so the shift to Sarah's POV was really wonderful. I dedicated the book to D.J. because she's been such an important person in my life. In many ways, she's made me who I am, and I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity to thank her. (And, yes, I do understand that she's a fictional character. But as many writers will tell you, fictional characters take on their own voices and power. Writers have much less control than one would think.)

I love Sarah’s voice, which is so different from D.J.’s and yet is imbued with the same sense of being entirely hers. What got you interested in Sarah Zorn as a character with a story of her own? I remember you saying once that you often rewrite scenes from the points of view of other characters, to see how they look different. Did this story come out of that process?

Sarah, I will confess, is the byproduct of my desire to write a book about Rome. Once I decided that, I spent years (literally) searching for a character to narrate the trip. I also had (see question #1) this desire to write a bit more about D.J. With hindsight, Sarah seems the obvious choice, but boy oh boy did it take a while to settle on her. It helped that she was such a minor character within the Dairy Queen trilogy -- I don't think she had a single line of dialogue. This gave me the freedom to really explore her, and make her who *she* is; I didn't have many constraints.

The trip to Rome is full of references to a 150-year-old travel book, Two Lady Pilgrims in Rome, by the intrepid Lillian Hesselgrave. Is this based on a real book? How did you learn about the 7 pilgrim churches?

Oh, Lillian. If I could, I'd write all of Two Lady Pilgrims myself. Sadly, the book doesn't exist outside of my head, though many travel accounts from the era are equally snarky -- the writing of James Jackson Jarves, for example, or the letters of Charlotte Eaton. It seems that most English-speaking visitors were as parochial and misinformed as Miss Hesselgrave. I believe I first learned about the 7 pilgrimage churches from Wikipedia -- one of those little asides that Wikipedia is so good at, "San Paolo fuori le Mura is one of Rome's historic seven pilgrimage churches" kind of thing. So I started digging around -- which was hard, because there's surprisingly little information -- and realized quite quickly that this would be a wonderful organizing principle for the trip. The 7 churches also helped reinforce other story lines, especially Z's. Thank you, 7 churches. Thank you, Miss Hesselgrave, for giving me a way to present the history of Rome.

I spent one day in Rome once (a Monday, which is a bad day for it, as many places are closed) and I was entertained by the occasional flashes of memory when Sarah went someplace I had been – the Spanish Steps, St. Peter’s Basilica, the Coliseum (which she mentioned, though I’m not sure they saw it). What are your experiences with travel abroad, Roman holidays, and pilgrimages, and how have they influenced your writing?

Obviously I had to go to Italy to research the book, so that was a hardship (joke). I went with a friend who'd never been to Rome, and we had the most amazing experiences visiting the seven churches … I'm getting chills, remembering the singing pilgrims in San Paolo, and the Sunday services at San Sebastiano (the church that Sarah doesn't make it to), and the funeral at San Lorenzo. The trip was such an incredibly special experience. If people reading my book then travel to Rome to see these churches … Wow. Wow wow wow.

I've never thought of myself as a pilgrim in the historic Catholic sense of the word. That said, I believe that a pilgrimage like this, even by someone as sniffy as Lillian Hesselgrave or as skeptical as myself, improves the totality of the universe.

I noticed that, along with Oreos, ice cream figures rather heavily in your new book -- as plot device, ice breaker, mood assessment, comic relief… I’ve observed the influence of food on your other books (particularly the fantasy ones), but it generally hasn’t been something so consistent. What role does ice cream play in your own life, and what flavor(s) do you prefer?

It's strange, but I'm not actually that passionate about ice cream, or Oreos. I mean, I like them (WHO WOULDN'T?), but I can live without them, too. Favorite flavors: coffee, vanilla, mint chocolate chip, gianduia (a hazelnut-chocolate gelato that's death) and, oddly, a coconut gelato I had in Paris that I mistakenly ordered thinking that "nois de coco" meant "chocolate nut," not "coco-nut." Surprise! But it was great.

I am passionate about food generally, which you've surmised from my other writings. I enjoy eating only slightly less than I enjoy cooking (because cooking is both cooking + the promise of eating, so it's the best of everything). And I love to write about food, especially when it's so helpful to the story!

In my second read of Oreos, I realized that, like Dairy Queen, this book deals with questions of communication and lack thereof – what people say or don’t say, and how to talk about difficult things. And of course it was funny (and gratifying) for D.J. to be giving advice and being a role model on these matters. Were these conscious decisions, or did they grow organically in the writing?

These were not conscious decisions at all. As I said, much (possibly everything) about Oreos evolved of my desire to write a book about a girl visiting Rome -- specifically visiting San Paolo fuori le Mura and observing pilgrims, and then visiting Santa Maria del Popolo and seeing the Caravaggio. I wanted her to be with an adult who falls apart in front of the Caravaggio so that the girl has to take responsibility. And learning how to talk about difficult things -- how to talk, period -- isn't that what growing up is all about?

The fact that it's D.J. giving advice on communication skills is the cherry on the sundae.

Voilà, more ice cream!
Do you have other projects in the works that you’d like to tell us about?

Last November I returned to Rome (another hardship, I know) with my husband to fact-check Oreos. While visiting our 5th church, I happened to be reading my favorite guidebook that mentioned that walking the 7 churches earned one an indulgence. "Wait a minute," I thought; "If you're supposed to WALK the 7 churches, shouldn't there be, you know, a ROUTE?" So I sniffed and sniffed around the internet, and then when we got home I sniffed around historic guidebooks and church histories, and I couldn't find one. There is no official route! So now I'm writing -- attempting to write -- an adult non-fiction book about the 7 churches and what the route might be. It's quite ambitious. If I think too much about it, I hyperventilate.

And now, for our regular "3 for 3" book questions:

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

Such a difficult question! (I just asked my daughter her 3 favorite, and she wailed, "There are so many!") But I'll try:
- The Animal Family by Randall Jarrell. The prose is so simple and so beautiful.
- Watership Down by Richard Adams. Books don't need to be about "important" subjects; they only need to be brilliant.
- Daddy Long-Legs by Jean Webster. The book was published in 1912, but it could have been published yesterday. Totally adorable.

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

- Heat by Bill Buford. I managed to finish the book without eating everything in our kitchen. I only ate half.
- How to Catch a Bogle by Catherine Jinks. She weaves a history lesson into extraordinary narrative. Amazing.
- No Crystal Stair by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson. I thought it was going to be a typical biography, and it was anything but.

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

- Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer. The voice. The voice. The voice.
- Rome in the Nineteenth Century by Charlotte Eaton. The real Lillian Hesselgrave; she wraps her insults in gilt-covered ribbon.
- Several groupie autobiographies that I won't list by name because they're rated R, but they really helped me understand the 1960s and where Z was coming from.

Thank you for joining us, Catherine!

You're welcome! This was a huge treat!
___

Catherine Gilbert Murdock lives outside Philadelphia with her husband and two children. She is the author of the Dairy Queen trilogy, as well as Princess Ben and Wisdom's Kiss. Unlike Sarah, Catherine loves poached eggs on pizza -- especially when eating pizza in Rome. Although she likes eating almost anything in Rome … For more information, visit her website: catherinemurdock.com.



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 Heaven is Paved with Oreos, due out September 3. 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.

On August 27th, come check out Cordelia's interview with Caroline Carlson, author of the forthcoming Magic Marks the Spot, first in the series The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates.

Janet's Five New Arrivals for Toddlers and Beyond

Where Do We Go When We Disappear? by Isabel Minhos Martins (Tate Publishing, $14.95)
Where do socks go? Where do puddles go? "Nothing is too empty a place to go. And besides, if we all go there, it will cease to be nothing in no time. (We can't do that to it.)" Can we?

Alphablocks by Christopher Franceschelli (Abrams, $16.95)
Presented in this block size book is a large cut out of each letter followed by an engaging illustration.

Journey by Aaron Becker (Candlewick Press, $15.99)
With her red crayon, a young girl creates a journey to a magical world and returns home with the help of a mythical bird.

Global Baby GIRLS by Global Fund for Children (Charlesbridge, $6.95)
Proceeds from this board book of baby girls' faces support organizations around the world which provide "opportunities for girls to grow, thrive and be strong".

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck (book 8!) by Jeff Kinney (Abrams, $13.95)
Coming in November...Preorder your copy THIS Saturday, August 10 (from 10-1), when the Wimpy Kid Book 8 Mobile comes to your own Big Blue Marble Bookstore! Click here for the Facebook event page.

Quote: David Levithan (and Rachel Cohn)

"We believe in the wrong things, I wrote, using the same pen Boomer had used on his arm. That's what frustrates me the most. Not the lack of belief, but the belief in the wrong things. You want meaning? Well, the meanings are out there. we're just so damn good at reading them wrong.

"I wanted to stop there. But I went on.

"It's not going to be explained to you in a prayer. And I'm not going to be able to explain it to you. Not just because I'm as ignorant and hopeful and selectively blind as the next guy, but because I don't think meaning is something that can be explained. You have to understand it on your own. It's like when you're learning to read. First, you learn the letters. Then, once you know what sounds the letters make, you use them to sound out words. You know that c-a-t leads to cat and d-o-g leads to dog. But then you have to make that extra leap, to understand that the word, the sound, the "cat" is connected to an actual cat, and that "dog" is connected to an actual dog. It's that leap, that understanding, that leads to meaning. And a lot of the time in life, we're still just sounding things out. We know the sentences and how to say them. We know the ideas and how to present them. We know the prayers and which words to say in what order. But that's only spelling.

"I don't mean this to sound hopeless. Because in the same way that a kid can realize what "cat" means, I think we can find the truths that live behind our words. I wish I could remember the moment when I was a kid and I discovered that the letters linked into words, and that the words linked to real things. What a revelation that must have been. We don't have the words for it, since we hadn't yet learned the words. It must have been astonishing, to be given the key to the kingdom and see it turn in our hands so easily."

- Dash & Lily's Book of Dares, by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

This quote actually conflates learning to read with learning to talk, which makes the analogy a little inaccurate. However, while currently in the midst of the latter and heading for the former with my own child, I find the magic moment here still takes my breath away.

Five Books Mariga Liked So Far This Summer

Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made by Stephan Pastis (Candlewick Press, $14.99)

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (William Morrow, $25.99)

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill (Vintage, $14.00)

Exclamation Mark by Amy Krouse Rosenthal (Scholastic Press, $17.99)

Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell (Alfred A. Knopf, $24.95)

Mariga Temple-West, July 2013

Janet's Five Suggestions for Hot, Humid Summer Days When Your Brain Turns to Mush and Movement Slows to a Meander

Watch a cat swat at various bugs, watch your garden grow (including the wonderful shapes and sizes of mushrooms and other forms of mold), come to Greene and Carpenter and watch the number of pregnant woman go by...or come and browse in the luxurious air conditioning at 551.

How to be a Cat by Nikki McClure (Abrams Appleseed, $16.95)
Inspired by Bud, an old and blind cat that came with a house the author purchased in 2001, our newest McClure addition appeals to the simple pleasures of cat gazing. McClure adds a kitten to her pages which increases the allure.

Revolutionary Yardscape: Ideas For Repurposing Local Materials To Create Containers, Pathways, Lighting and More by Matthew Levesque (Timber Press, $22.95)
Take a look at this book. It makes me want to take a week off to forage and build.

Beautiful No Mow Yards by Evelyn Y. Hadden (Timber Press, $24.95)
Finally an answer to living in Mt. Airy with sloped yards filled with roots or shade or rocks that we try every year to beautify by mowing, trimming, and pleading.

"Where Did I Come From?" by Peter Mayle (Kensington, $9.95)
So if your child notices and has questions about the new wave of pregnant women and newborns, try answering with this illustrated, no nonsense approach, or the following:

What Makes a Baby by Cory Silverberg (Seven Story Press, $16.95)
Any cover illustrated with a smiling yellow sperm and a blue smiling egg deserves attention.

Janet Elfant, July 2013