Giveaways

Interview with Hollow Earth author, Carole Barrowman!

By on February 22, 2013   /   Author Interviews, Giveaways  

Hollow Earth takes readers on a classic fantasy-adventure featuring twins with the power to bring art to life, Animare, and a secret society determined to use that ability at any cost, including the twins’ lives.  Written by real-life brother and sister Carole Barrowman and John Barrowman, the story ranges from the National Gallery in London to the remote shores of Scotland to a place called Hollow Earth, where demons and devils are trapped for eternity.  Carole is Professor of English and Director of Creative Studies in Writing at Alverno College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  John may be familiar to fans of Doctor Who as Captain Jack Harkness.  Carole was kind enough to take a few moments to visit us on the Files.

Hollow Earth US

The author’s note says that you and John cooked up the characters and plot while on a trip together.  Had you ever worked together before?  What was your process like?  (Did you ever pull rank as big sister?)  

This is our fourth book together, but our first novel. We’ve also collaborated on a comic (adapted from one of my short stories and featuring the character, Captain Jack, that John plays on television) so we have a good working relationship. We outline together, brainstorm etc. and then I return to Milwaukee and I do the writing. When I have a solid draft, I send to John for comments etc. I’m the big sister. Of course, I try to pull rank… some things never change no matter how old we are.

You said it!  You have two fascinating mythologies in your book – the idea of Animare, or people who can bring their own drawings into existence, and Hollow Earth, a place where mythological beasts are kept.  How did you come up with these ideas?  

Many of the books we love have strong mythologies (The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter series, The Golden Compass, etc.) and we wanted to create something that had some weight to the adventure, something that connects the twins to more than their immediate family. We also both loved Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl as children so we also wanted to make the stories epic adventures or sorts. I’m also a fan of William Blake and John Milton so their mythologies influenced us too.

William Blake - poet, painter and middle-grade inspiration

William Blake – poet, painter and middle-grade inspiration

That’s a fabulous range of influences.  Did anything happen during the course of writing the book that surprised you, i.e., a character or a plot twist?

Oh my, yes. Solon was not supposed to stick around, but as I wrote he just kept coming back and so when I sent the finished draft and sent it to John we knew we had to keep him.

You write about the Art of the Mystery for The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.  How do you think the traditions of mystery-writing in adult fiction translate in kid fiction? 

Although there’s also a significant supernatural element, there’s certainly a mystery at the core of Hollow Earth. By its nature, the mystery genre is about moral dilemmas and questions of life and death and loss and I think lots of great kidlit has adapted the traditions and the conventions of the mystery.

Well put! What are some of your favorite kidlit mysteries?

I’m a fan of many of the books that I think follow the conventions of traditional thrillers and mysteries like Anthony Horowitz Alex Rider series.

I think readers who enjoy the adrenalin rush of Alex Rider will feel quite at home with Hollow Earth.  I noticed that you have two distinctly different covers – one with a bird on the cover, and one featuring the twin main characters.  Is there a story behind this?  Do you prefer one over the other?

Buster Books first released Hollow Earth in the UK and they put the caladrius on the cover. The twins and the peryton are on the US cover. Most books have different covers when published in UK and US.

Hollow Earth - UK Edition

Hollow Earth – UK Edition

You’ll have to read the book to find out what role the peryton plays.  Hollow Earth definitely ends with the reader wanting to know what happens next!  What should readers expect next?

John and I imagined a trilogy so the second book (Bone Quill) will be released in the UK in February of 2013 and in the US in July/August. Our plan is a book a year if there are readers…

Bone Quill

I’m sure there will be many readers, including one lucky winner on the Files!  To enter to win a copy of Hollow Earth, post a comment below on what famous painting you would bring to life if you were an Animare.

Wendy Shang would get lost in the swirls of Van Gogh’s Starry Night.

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MALCOLM AT MIDNIGHT: Interview and Giveaway with W.H. Beck

By on January 14, 2013   /   Author Interviews, Giveaways  

W.H. Beck

W.H. Beck is an elementary school librarian by day and a middle-grade writer by night (well, actually, very early mornings). She lives and reads in Wisconsin, sharing her home and books with a husband, two sons, and a sneaky dog. MALCOLM AT MIDNIGHT (Houghton Mifflin, 2012) is her first novel.

Previous books include the FOLLOW THAT FOOD CHAIN (Lerner, 2009) series, a choose-your-own-adventure interactive look at different habitats, and DR. KATE: ANGEL ON SNOWSHOES, a regional biography about one of first doctors in the northwoods of Wisconsin.

 

Watch the Book Trailer!

What’s your favorite thing about middle-grade fiction?

My favorite thing about middle- grade fiction is the same thing I love about middle- grade kids: they’re funny, they’re serious, they’re unexpected, they’re full of truth about what’s really important in the world. I love working with middle-grade kids because they’re sophisticated enough to think deeply about what they believe in, yet at the same time, a clever joke about toilets is always appreciated.

 Why do you write middle-grade?

I write middle-grade because that’s how my writing comes out. I don’t mean that to sound flippant, but I do feel like that’s my voice and an age I connect with. Middle -grade books have always been my favorites, even long after I had “outgrown” them. They’re why I became a teacher—and an elementary school librarian.

You’ve written a lot of nonfiction. What led you to write a novel?

Novel writing—middle -grade novel writing, in particular—has always been my first love and aspiration. It just took a while for me to learn how to write a novel that was worth reading!

That’s not to say I don’t enjoy writing nonfiction. I love learning new things and sharing that information with others. In fact, MALCOLM came about because of the nonfiction research I was doing for my FOLLOW THAT FOOD CHAIN series. It struck me that animals can do so many amazing things—they kind of have super powers, really. What if I wrote a mystery about an animal who used his “superpowers” to prove his innocence?

I did make a conscious decision to set aside my nonfiction writing, though. It was a gamble—I turned down some nonfiction offers to finish MALCOLM. I know that sounds crazy, but one of the things I learned was that I only have time for one writing project at a time. And if I really wanted to be a middle- grade novelist, then I needed to give it a chance.

As you were writing, did you imagine there would be illustrations? How involved were you in the decision and in the process?

Part of my own writing process is drawing doodles of my characters and settings, so I did dream that it might be illustrated someday (although I would definitely have “settled” for just publication!).

Malcolm sketch

My first sketch of Malcolm

When I sold MALCOLM, I was lucky enough to have more than one publisher interested in it. As I spoke to the different editors, Kate O’Sullivan told me not only did Houghton Mifflin want to have it illustrated, but Brian Lies had already read it and wanted to work on it.  Well, I almost fell over—I actually teach Brian’s bat books with the first graders in my library! So I knew his work, and I knew that he’d be perfect for my critters.

As far as input into the process, Brian and I didn’t talk directly until the whole book was pretty much finished. When he had questions, he’d ask our editor and she’d relay them to me. I’d see snippets of his work, but mostly, I tried to stay out of his way and let him do his magic. The only thing I did request (through my agent and editor) was that, even though it’s not stated explicitly in the text, Amelia was Amelia Vang—and she was Hmong. This was important to me because I really wanted to honor some of my students who don’t often get to see themselves in the books they read.

Midnight academy

Malcolm at Midnight artwork by Brian Lies (http://www.brianlies.com), courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Books for Children

Brian and I finally met for the first time last fall at some book events. It’s been great fun swapping stories about how we went about working on the book. It turns out we have a lot in common, and I now count him as a friend.

Why an iguana?

I don’t know where Aggy came from! There is an iguana that my kids visit at our local pet store, so maybe that’s it. Other animals are easier to trace. My dad raised oscar fish while I was growing up; my brother’s fifth grade teacher had a hedgehog; my own sixth grade classroom had a tarantula; and Beert came from a talk on owls at a nearby nature center.

How did you come up with the unique point of view?

I went through many, many, MANY different starts to this book, but I wasn’t happy with any of them. I knew the main events of the mystery, but the telling of it felt flat. One of the things I sometimes do to help me learn about my characters is write letters from each of them, explaining the outcome of the story—why they did what they did. When I wrote Amelia’s, it just felt right, and the whole story finally started to flow.

If there was one single thing that you wanted readers to get from MALCOLM AT MIDNIGHT, what would it be?

That reading is fun. I certainly hope readers take away more—like not letting people label you and that you can choose to be the kind of person you want to be—but I’ve done some recent thinking about why I write funny talking animal stories, and what it comes down to is that I want kids to READ. I believe to be an adult with choices, you need to be a reader, and the only way to become a reader is to read. A lot. And it’s so much easier to practice something if you find enjoyment in it.

What books do you recommend to readers who enjoyed MALCOLM AT MIDNIGHT?

Mysteries: HALF MOON INVESTIGATIONS, THE FOURTH STALL, THREE TIMES LUCKY, ICEFALL

Animal fantasy: BUNNICULA, THE RESCUERS, CHARLOTTE’S WEB, THE FAMILIARS, THE CHESHIRE CHEESE CAT, THE UNDERNEATH

Rats as heroes, NOT villains: NIGHTSHADE CITY, MRS. FRISBY AND THE RATS OF NIMH

School stories: anything by Andrew Clements, BECAUSE OF MR. TERUPT, FLYING SOLO, the ORIGAMI YODA books, THE BOY PROJECT

 

GIVEAWAY!

Leave a comment to be entered in a giveaway for a signed copy of MALCOLM AT MIDNIGHT and a cute little stuffed rat. Enter by midnight (how appropriate) on Wednesday, January 16. The winner will be announced on Thursday, January 17.

 

Jacqueline Houtman is the author of THE REINVENTION OF EDISON THOMAS. In her former life as a scientist, she poked at the insides of many rodents. These days, she can be found trembling on a kitchen chair whenever a mouse finds its way into her house.

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