Children’s Lit Fabulosity

Karen Healey writes at Strange Horizons about the problematic nature of parents and families in YA, whether you include them or not:

Most young people in the real world don't live independent of their family (many adults also live with family members, of course, but it's easier to justify creating those who don't, should one be inclined to do so). Parents, in particular, pose a problem for writing young adult fiction. In reality, they tend to be more or less active presences, shaping activities and schedules, providing boundaries which can't be broken without consequence, and otherwise providing the sweet, sweet conflict that feeds the writing of compelling plot. In a lot of realistic YA fiction, conflict with family and parents is a major theme, and there's a lot of great work that deals with the complexities of family relationships.

She also includes the thoughts of several other writers–Brenna Yovanoff (The Replacement), Jackie Dolamore (Magic Under Glass), Tara Kelly (Harmonic Feedback) and Cynthia Jay Omololu (Dirty Little Secrets). Well worth checking out.

I'm excited to have one Paolo Bacigalupi stopping by today, fresh off last weekend's Nebula Best Novel win for his first novel The Windup Girl. Here he'll be talking about his young adult debut, the recently-released Ship Breaker. Set in a Gulf Coast region transfigured and supremely dystopian, the book follows teen copper wiring scavenger Nailer as he's confronted with an opportunity to escape his brutal circumstances. A welcome–and rare–dystopia set in America; I'd say more but I'll be reviewing this book elsewhere in more detail soon. So instead I'll say, welcome to Paolo.

GB: As I always do, I'll start by asking you about your writing process with this book. How did you approach it?

PB: In terms of how I actually wrote it, I wrote the first draft in a little over a month, while I was waiting for feedback on another novel, THE WINDUP GIRL. I knew that I wanted to have a new novel to take to a writer's retreat called Blue Heaven, and the deadline was looming. And I was also  looking to write something really different, and sort of cleanse my palate from all of the brutality that populates most of my writing. So, there was an onrushing deadline, I was looking to something different, and I'd been kicking a bunch of ideas around in my head that sounded good in theory–everything from what role I think science fiction should play in the world, to thoughts about adventure stories and environmental topics–but I also knew that I needed to either put up, or shut up. And this seemed like the moment when I could put those ideas to the test.

I think the other thing that was going on was that I'd been getting poked at by a lot of people in science fiction because I write such grim stories. The typical comment was along the lines of: "After I read a Bacigalupi story, I want to slit my wrists," which I'm actually quite proud of–but I also wanted to play with emotional notes other than despair and fear. The problem is that I don't really think adults deserve to live in anything other than despair and fear, because frankly we're entirely too self-satisfied as it is.  So I sure wasn't going to write anything remotely upbeat for them. But the criticism also seemed to have some validity to me, and I realized that I was okay with writing something more inspirational (I hope) for young people, because, well, they haven't turned into selfish short-sighted adults yet.

At any rate, I think in a lot of ways I'd been prewriting the story, maybe for years, because it went fast.  I wrote eight hours a day, mostly at a standing desk, and If I remember correctly the soundtrack was Daddy Yankee, Sean Paul, T.I., and Avril Lavigne. I don't normally write with either this much speed, or this much clarity, but I think I was so grateful not be working on the other book that I could give myself more permission to play with this one, and that was the other thing that was very different from my normal process–I really enjoyed writing SHIP BREAKER. Normally, my writing process features a lot of self-loathing and doubt, but with SHIP BREAKER, it was different. I had a lot of clarity about what I wanted to do, and the voice that I would use, and how I thought the story would move. There were some big discoveries and surprises for me as I worked through it, and it didn't turn out the way that I intended, because ultimately the ideas and themes veered off and the characters changed things as they went, but the bones of the thing were already there, waiting for me to discover and build upon. I doubt I'll ever get to write a book quite like this one again, but boy, I sure liked it.

GB: I know you and I have talked about this before, but you see a real void in the marketplace of  books for teen boys. Do you want to talk a little bit about that and how it inspired Ship Breaker?

PB: It was actually my wife who made me aware of this. She's a middle-school teacher, and she kept coming home from work and describing how reluctant her boy students were to read. When I asked her what books she was trying to hook them with, she named a lot of really good, really literary, really respectable books. Smart and sensitive and nuanced books.

They were also books with a distinct lack of ass-kicking. 

Now, maybe we should leave it to other people to pick apart the question of why boys are all playing Grand Theft Auto and Halo3 and Left 4 Dead, and not reading and not going on to college, but my personal sense when I look at the sorts of good, literarily respectable books that we try to convince kids to read with, is that these look sort of boring in comparison to what's happening on other media.  We might not think GTA is civilized, but damn, its compelling. So about the time a 13-year-old boy is teaching you how to use the chainsaw to kill some gangster on the PlayStation–because, you know, he's already mastered that particular challenge–you've got to think that our literature for young people has failed to adapt. And it seems to have failed to adapt particularly for boys. Not all boys. Insert any number of caveats, here, because I think there are a lot of legitimate ones. But at root, the things we consider young adult literature seems to have veered away from ass-kickery, and in the process it's sort of left part of our population wandering around and becoming both less lettered, and given what I'm seeing in video games, also less civilized.

So in addition to all the other things I wanted to do with SHIP BREAKER, I wanted to create a world where Nailer has to kick some ass to get what he wants. I hope it's not as misanthropic as Grand Theft Auto seems to me, but I definitely wanted physical conflict to be part of the story. So SHIP BREAKER has knife-fights and sea battles and the bio-engineered warbeasts called half-men that are a lethal mix of tiger and dog and hyena and human, because those are the things that make me geek out, and also aren't really celebrated in literature so much. But honestly, I don't think it's really only boys who are missing some of this ass-kickery, because I know plenty of girls who are looking for something other than a vampire love affair as well–but yeah, I definitely think that if I were a boy growing up in today's literary environment that I would probably end up wandering off into video games instead of books, because the things that really entice me are on Xbox and PlayStation in abundance, and seem to be somewhat disdained in literature.

GB: I'm curious whe ther you feel there's a difference in how you come at your work for adult SF readers vs. your YA work?

PB: I think for me, the biggest difference is the tone. When I write for YA, I'm comfortable giving my characters a chance to succeed, and maybe even make their world a little better. Teens still have choices about how they shape their lives, and they still have a chance to make their world better, so I'm happy to write something that's gritty, but also inspiring. But when I write for adults, I mostly just want to use my writing to reach into their guts and twist and twist and twist until they can't stand it anymore. Frankly, I don't think adults deserve happy endings, or escape. We're already far too busy feeling self-satisfied while we rip the planet to shreds to really deserve a whole lot of comfort. So yeah, the difference is really that when I write for teens, I can still feel morally comfortable giving them a story with a "win." With adults, the only real win will be when I our kids come home one day and kick us in the teeth for the world we're handing off to them.  I'm sort of hoping to inspire that in young people as well.

GB: What are you working on now? What's next?

PB: Ship Breaker II – The Drowned Cities. After that… it's a little up in the air. I've got a two-book deal with Night Shade to write some more science fiction for adults, and I've got some more YA ideas that I'm really excited about, but you know, if you talk too much about them before they exist, they sound stupid and evaporate. I'm afraid it's all going to be sekrit projekts for a while, here.

GB: And, last, plug some other people's stuff–what have you been reading/watching/listening to that you think other people should dash out and get?

PB: If you've never seen the Edward Burtinsky documentary called "Manufactured Landscapes" I highly recommend it. It was one of the inspiration points for SHIP BREAKER and it just blew me away. 

I read and loved FEED by MT Anderson. I can't recommend that one highly enough.

And, well, it's sort of embarrassing, but I've been rather enjoying the Gossip Girl books. It's my new addiction.

Thanks, Paolo!

Visit today's other SBBT stops:

Julia Hoban @ Chasing Ray
Stacy Kramer @ A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy
Nancy Bo Flood @ Finding Wonderland
Sarah Kuhn @ Bildungsroman
Jenni & Matt Holm @ Hip Writer Mama

I was lucky enough to get my grubby mitts on an advance copy of debut author Tara Kelly's novel Harmonic Feedback awhile back. From the first page, it became one of the most compelling books I'd read in ages, and it delivered all the way, finishing with an incredibly brave ending. I can't recommend this one highly enough–especially for artistic/outsider teens (or we adults who were those kids) or if you're looking for book with a smart, less-than-perfect romance. You can read more about Tara and Harmonic Feedback at her site; the book releases next week. I'm so pleased to host this interview with her as part of today's SBBT stops.

GB: I love the writing process porn and my blog's readers have not been getting a lot of that recently. So, let's start with process. Tell me about the writing of Harmonic Feedback–how did you approach it? Did your process change as you wrote this book?

TK: With virtually all of my stories, the characters come first…plot later. This is definitely has its share of issues when it comes to the process, especially in the areas of pacing and structure. But I wouldn't have it any other way. Discovering the story along with my characters is a big part of what I love about writing. Plus, I don't always like to know what happens! And many times my characters change the plot on me anyway…they have a mind of their own. That being said, I'm a hardcore editor who isn't afraid to 'kill her darlings' so to speak. So any mess I make not planning beforehand is easy to clean up.

In regards to Harmonic Feedback specifically, my biggest challenge was writing from Drea's POV. While we share some commonalities–being socially clueless for one–I'm not at all literal or rational like Drea is. I'm all about melodies and metaphors where Drea is very technical and to the point. Yet I LOVED being in her head and seeing the world through eyes so different than my own.

TK: Books (my faves in the last year): Ballads of Suburbia by Stephanie Kuehnert, Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers, and Flash Burnout by LK Madigan. These are GREAT examples of beautifully written realistic-contemporary YA. They've got tension, heartbreak, awesome characters…and they're just all around addicting.

Music: I highly recommend giving a listen to a couple bands mentioned in HF–Black Lab and Puracane. They're both hardworking indie bands and they're VERY talented. While writing C-Side, I wanted to listen to similar bands. One of those bands is called The Birthday Massacre–and they are RAD. They are an odd mix of 80's, goth, industrial, and they are like listening to a dark, creepy fairy tale. I ADORE them. There's a few just to get started *grin* but I can make music recommendations for days.

Thanks, Tara!

Visit today's other SBBT stops:

Jenny Boylan @ A Fuse #8 Production
Lisa Mantchev @ Writing and Ruminating
Donna Freitas @ Bildungsroman

I'm thrilled to host a fine debut author (and a good friend) Jessica aka "Jess" Leader today. Her debut novel, Nice and Mean, which I was lucky enough to read earlyish on in its life, will be released on June 8. It's about two girls–one nice, one mean, both complicated–who have to work together on a film project. You will love it.

(photo credit: Marc Bovino)

GB: So, let's start with process.
 Tell me about Nice & Mean–how did you approach it? Did your process
 change for this book, different motivations, challenges, typewriter,
 etc.?


JL: Writing Nice and Mean was a different process for me in that I approached the work with more dedication than I had in the past, and I finally got professional help—on the novel, at least. In the past, my writing goals pretty much fell along the lines of, “Let’s see how much I can get done over this school vacation.” With Nice and Mean, though, I wanted someone else to set the pace, so I joined an online critique group and committed to submitting a chapter a month. At the time, that felt rigorous. When I think about it now, I shudder at the prospect of producing so few pages in so many weeks, but every writer is different, including you and your past self. It was really good for me to write and receive feedback on a regular schedule, and I’m sure the critique group was the reason that I finished a first draft within a year of starting, which is still pretty fast for me.

The other difference between this project and past ones is that after I sold Nice and Mean, I got the help of my editor, my agent, and my grad school advisor in revising it. Oh my word, what a difference that made. Those three women are so insightful, and they express their insights in such different ways, from the pithy one-liner to the purple email to the 22-page letter. (I’m not joking about that last one, and I’m not naming names. But I will say that it was one of the best letters I have ever received.)
 
GB: You and I have talked about this, but I know you worked very hard
 to make sure you accurately represented the diverse cast in the book.
 Can you talk a little bit about the experience of writing characters
 from different ethnic/social backgrounds than yourself?
 
JL: Sure. To give a bit of background to this question: Nice and Mean is told from the perspectives of two seventh-grade girls: Marina, Caucasian, born in the USA, and Sachi, who emigrated from India when she was five. Since I am definitely not Indian-American, I did a lot of research on the front and back ends of the process to make Sachi’s story factually and emotionally true.
 
Before I wrote the book, I read a lot of novels from the point of view of Indian-Americans, studied immigration laws and patterns, and read up on India and Hinduism. Then I drafted. Somewhere in the middle of the process, I got an accuracy check from an Indian-American friend, which was very reassuring, and I pretty much wrote and revised for a while after that without consulting any outside sources.
 
As I prepared the novel for its delivery date, though, I started to panic. This story was going to be published? People were going to read it? What if the details were incorrect?  What if my Sachi seemed like a fraud? I gathered a new corps of Indian-American readers and held my breath to see what they’d say.

Again, I was gratified to hear that my readers felt like I’d expressed something authentic in Sachi. What was most interesting, though, was where I’d gotten details wrong. “The older sister is too much of a bossy care-taker,” they told me. “In an Indian-American family, she wouldn’t be so much in charge. She’d just be another kid.” Beyond cluing me in on family dynamics, that comment helped me open up the character of the older sister. I thought more deeply about why she would object to her younger sister’s transgressions, and in so doing, deepened their sibling relationship. In short, a comment that steered me away from my assumptions made me write a better book…imagine that.

GB: So we did Vermont College MFA together, hurrah. And there is a lot
 of MFA bashing in the world out there, so I'd like you to gab a little
 about what you got out of the MFA experience–how you feel it's 
influenced your work and if it was a positive one. Also, is there 
something that bugs you people believe about MFAs?



JL: Getting my MFA was one of the best decisions I ever made. I mentioned discipline earlier; being challenged to write or revise 40 pages a month, plus read critically and write essays, forced me to find productive work habits and stick to them. And then there was the feedback on what I produced! Talk about your in-depth responses: lengthy letters, inset comments, follow-up emails…my advisors were so generous and smart; I actually started crying every time I tried to write acknowledgements for them in Nice and Mean.

Another enormous benefit of a graduate program is lifelong connections with other writers in your field.  There’s the chance to nerd out with your friends over when the next Hunger Games sequel is coming out, or your shared love for The Girl With the Silver Eyes (and if you want to get that book back in print, I have a very inactive Facebook page devoted to the cause.)
 
Equally important is the chance to exchange critiques with people who have been through the same boot-camp and to learn about the business from those who are further along in the process. There are no bowls large enough to mix the cookies I would bake to thank people like you, Gwenda Bond, and Varian Johnson if he liked sweets more, and Shawn Stout and Tami Lewis Brown and oh…I’m forgetting several, I know. But calling on friends like these in times of need must be one of the “rights and privileges” referred to on my diploma—and only in part because I can hardly think what other rights and privileges an MFA confers.

GB: What are you working on now? What's next?


JL: I’m working on a YA novel, currently titled The Book of the Dead. On Halloween night, our narrator is plagued by memories of an accident on a summer wilderness trip and tries to retell the story by sunrise to exorcise the ghosts.

GB: And, also, make some recommendations–what have you been
 reading/watching/listening to that you think other people should check
 out?
 
JL: For some reason, I’m really enjoying hearing artists talk about their work, whether it’s “Fresh Air” or DVD special features. I recently sampled the special features on Up in the Air and it kind of blew my mind (hm, must be something about air.)
 
First of all, I wanted to cheer after every deleted scene, “Yes!  Good choice for the cutting-room floor!” There was one particularly egregious montage in which George Clooney’s character, who morphs from a loner to a lover, buys an apartment and starts filling it up—a comfy chair, curtains, groceries. I almost shouted, “No!  Do not show him buying tomatoes!” It turned the movie went from spare and strained to a Hugh Grant special, and while About a Boy and, um, Music and Lyrics are two of my favorites (hey, it’s about the artistic process), the Montage of Transformation just did not belong Up in the Air. The montage was technically accomplished, but it didn’t fit, and it was encouraging to see another artist murdering his darlings in the name of finding the right tone for his film.
 
The other special feature I loved from Up in the Air was the director commentary, especially the part about the photo of the main character’s sister. One of the movie’s running motifs is that George has to photograph a cardboard cutout of his sister and her fiancé at various tourist attractions, and his changing attitude toward the task mirrors his feelings about travel and family. I’d have thought something like this appeared in the first draft of the screenplay, or maybe even in Walter Kirn’s novel; it just seemed so integral to the story. But in the director commentary, the writer-director noted that when another director read the script, he said, “You need to give Clooney’s character something to do on the road.”

I couldn’t believe it!  He added the photo in revision? But it was so important—how could it not have been there all along? And what—Academy Award-winning screenwriters don’t always give their characters enough to do? I’m not alone? Whoopee! It was so liberating to know that even a writer with Reitman’s chops gets comments like, “He needs something to do on the road,” and it was inspiring to see how he put it into action. 

Thanks, Jess!

Visit today's other SBBT stops:

Wednesday, May 19

• Michael Trinklein @ Chasing Ray
• Nick Burd @ Fuse Number 8
• Tom Siddell @Wonderland
• Sarah Darer Littman @ A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy

And today's SBBT stops are:

• Mary Jane Beaufrand @ The Ya, Ya, Yas
• Rita Williams-Garcia @ Fuse Number 8
• Jennifer Hubbard @ Writing & Ruminating
• Charise Mericle Harper @ Shelf Elf
• Holly Schindler @ Little Willow

Today's Summer Blog Blast Tour stops are below.

• Kate Milford @ Chasing Ray
• Mac Barnett @ Fuse #8/ School Library Journal
• Hazardous Players @ Finding Wonderland
• Malinda Lo @ Shelf Elf
• Barbara Dee @ Little Willow

The full week's schedule is here. Little change: I'll host interviews with Jess Leader on Wednesday, Tara Kelly on Thursday, and newly-minted Nebula winner Paolo Bacigalupi on Friday–yay!).

A larger link dumpesque post is coming soon, but this deserves a post of its own. The indefatigable Colleen Mondor has put together yet another amazing collaborative event between Guys Lit Wire, Readergirlz, YALSA and If I Can Read, I Can Do Anything to allow all of us to purchase books for Navajo and Apache teens who go to school at Ojo Encino Day School and Alchesay High School. You can read all about it here, browse the wishlist and buy.

Lots of people have already. Again, the place to go to take part is right here–please spread the word far and wide.