I realized two things this morning:

1) My book piles are getting seriously, dangerously out of control.
2) I still want more books.

So, I have hatched a brilliant plan to address both of these issues:

Everyday this week, I will offer up a book that I have read and enjoyed to swap with one lucky reader. I’m talking good books here folks.

I will link to my review, just to prove that it is, indeed, a book worth swapping for.

Then you, dear elf-y readers, will leave a comment, offering me a book in exchange.

You will receive extra special consideration if:

a) you link to a review you’ve written of the book you’re offering to trade
b) you can tempt me with one of the books on my Wish List of Happiness. (I am entirely happy to receive other fab suggestions!)

The Wish List of Happiness
Newsgirl -  Liza Ketchum
Princess of the Midnight Ball -  Jessica Day George
Hold Still -  Nina LaCour
The Indigo Notebook – Laura Resau
Into the Wild Nerd Yonder – Julie Halpern
The Season – Sarah Maclean
Ash – Malinda Lo
Angus, thongs, and full-frontal snogging – Louise Rennison (been stuck on my TBR list for years!)

At the end of the week, I will contact the 7 winners, and we’ll arrange the swaps. We will all be content. I will also send every trader a tiny surprise something along with the books, just to say thanks for joining in on the Swap-er-ama.

So… let’s get going. The first title I offer for the Swap-er-ama is…

Sara Zarr’s Once Was Lost is one the best YA books of the year. Read my review here, and my interview with Sara here.

Then, drop off a comment with your name, your suggested swap title and your review link (if possible).

(Note #1: Open only to residents of the US and Canada, since the Elf’s penny supply for shipping is limited.
Note #2: Ms. Elf lives in Canada, so you’ll need to mail it to me here).

This morning I read an article in the Globe & Mail by Ian Brown, in which he more or less trashes the Kindle. Towards the end he writes:

I whizzed through four chapters of Twilight on Kindle, inhaling screenfuls of text at a single glance. She’s a very readable writer. But that’s also the secret of Kindle: It’s brilliant for popular stuff, for the kind of genre book that delivers reliable, not-too-radical thrills you can absorb with half your brain elsewhere. Kindle is a marketing gadget that could make the consumption of certain kinds of book more convenient and efficient. Unlike its battery, a life of the mind is not included.

Read the full article here. I’m not getting one (not that I was considering it before reading Brown’s piece). I like books, the old-fashioned way. The only thing that tempts me in this technology is the cut-back on paper consumption. I wonder what the user demographics are with this device? It seems like more younger techy types might want one, but it would be interesting to see who is actually buying them most of the time. Are booklovers and avid readers buying Kindles? Older people who want to take advantage of the text to speech feature?

Any bookworms out there who are Kindle believers?

Phew! Here we are after a week packed with absolutely fantastic author and illustrator interviews for WBBT 2009. A giant thank you to Nova Ren Suma, Beth Kephart and Laini Taylor for their stops here at Shelf Elf. You spoiled us by spilling lots of secrets and stories.

For a full round-up of who said what when and where, visit Colleen’s day-by-day listing here, at Chasing Ray.

Now don’t fret, you’ve still got six more outstanding interviews to enjoy today. Here’s the schedule:

Lisa Schroeder at Writing & Ruminating
Alan DeNiro at Shaken & Stirred
Joan Holub at Bildungsroman
Pam Bachorz at Mother Reader
Sheba Karim at Finding Wonderland
R.L. LaFevers at Hip Writer Mama

It’s been fun gang!

I am so, SO excited to be hosting Laini Taylor today for WBBT. *dancing elf* I am a giant, GIANT fan of Laini’s books, Blackbringer, Silksinger, and the National Book Award nominated, Lips Touch. Laini is one miraculously talented writer, and she’s an artist too. All of Laini’s novels have earned places on my “special shelf.” You know the shelf where you put the few books that you actually embraced once you finished reading them? Laini’s writing is that special. Laini blogs about her art and writing and other things besides at Grow Wings, and today she’s right here, chatting with me about creativity, her characters, and her pixie-faced baby daughter, Clementine Pie.

You might want to start off by reading my reviews of Laini’s books, just to get in the general spirit of celebration and excitement: my review of Blackbringer, my review of Silksinger, my review of Lips Touch. Good. Now we’re ready.

Welcome Laini!

In Silksinger, your latest novel in the Dreamdark collection, Whisper is a phenomenal character. She’s more than she seems. She’s a creative force. She’s bold when she needs to be. What do you most admire about her, and what was the first scene you imagined her in?

I dreamed up Whisper alongside Magpie and Poppy, before I even started writing Blackbringer. They were a trio, but I decided to save Whisper for another book—her own book. I knew that she would be a singer of flying carpets who [mild spoiler alert!] gets captured and held prisoner, and I knew she would be completely different than bold, brave Magpie. The first scene I imagined her in was in prison, though in the early conception, the power of her voice was even greater: she could whisper open passageways in solid rock. Which made it difficult to keep her prisoner, obviously. When writing magic, one must be careful not to give characters too much power, or there can be no tension! So, I scaled back Whisper’s power. (As for Magpie, she has to have a slow learning curve with her power, or else no villain would ever be a match for her.)

(Here’s a picture of the paper dolls I made that were the earliest incarnation of the characters, before I even thought of writing the books. Left to right: Poppy, Magpie, Whisper; I drew and oil-painted them, with multiple outfits, and turned them into fully articulated dolls. I was obsessed with them for months!)

Something I admire about Whisper is her tenacity. From the first chapter of the book she’s thrust completely outside of her sphere of experience, into a nightmare, really. It’s so overwhelming and terrifying she really just wants to give up and join her loved ones in the Moonlit Gardens, but she doesn’t. She musters her courage and she tries. And tries. And tries.

It’s not a bad metaphor for writing a book! Here’s a great quote:

“Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal: my strength lies solely in my tenacity.” – Louis Pasteur

In your acknowledgements in Silksinger you reveal the rather serendipitous way you found the name for your spooky devil general Ethiag. How do you name your characters? Do you have different sources of inspiration of do the names just come? How is naming a character the same as / different from naming your own child?

Yes, the word verification function on blogs is kind of a pain when you’re commenting, but I have gleaned quite a few cool-sounding words from it. So far Ethiag is the only one to find its way into a story.

I love naming characters. When I was a kid this was my favorite part of writing, and often was as far as I got. Now, I have lists in various notebooks—weird names I hear in the news or see in film credits; made-up names; names from other cultures, including languages I’d never even heard of until I stumbled upon them doing research—like Tamazight, the Berber language spoken by a character in my current book). Dreamdark names mostly come from nature: birds, plants, etc. Some are nature words in other languages. Kipepeo is Swahili for butterfly, and briefly mentioned in Blackbringer, Bellatrix’s mother was the Ice Princess Fidrildi, which is Icelandic for butterfly. (Do they have butterflies in Iceland?)

As for baby names, that’s so much harder than character names! With characters, you know you can always do a search/replace and change their name at the slightest whim. With babies, it’s got to stick. Jim would probably tell you I wasn’t fun when it came to naming Clementine. He was always thinking up new names, and I was always shooting them down. By the time I went into labor we had two to choose between and it took us a couple of days in the hospital to finally settle on Clementine. It’s inspired by Kate Winslet’s character in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which is also what inspired me to dye my hair, so I guess that movie made quite an impact on us. As for her middle name Pie, it’s in honor of Magpie, of course. We didn’t come up with that one until after she was born, when the other options we had in mind seemed suddenly not cute enough.

Lips Touch is a collection full of strong and complex female characters: Kizzy, Estella, Anamique, Esme, Mab and the Druj Queen. Who was the trickiest of these to create? Who would you especially like to write more stories about?

Each character presented their own challenges. Anamique was difficult because she doesn’t talk. It’s hard to give a character “voice” when they literally don’t speak! And the Druj Queen was tricky because she’s incredibly unsympathetic, but I still wanted the reader to care what happens to her. Kizzy was the character who came the most naturally, because I was sort of channeling (and exaggerating—slightly) my own long-ago teen angst and longing.

I could see continuing Kizzy’s story, because of the way it ends. I’m curious to know how readers take the ending: does it seem ambiguous, or do you have a pretty solid feeling of authorly intent there? What I was shooting for was ambiguity that leans in one particular direction, that is, where the reader comes away feeling, “This is probably what happens to Kizzy.” Still, I think there’s room to play there, and maybe some day I will pick it up and make Goblin Fruit the beginning of a novel. I’d like to see more of Kizzy, Cactus, and Evie, and certainly more of the goblins.

Anamique’s story feels complete to me so I don’t think I would revisit it, but I do hope some day to write a whole [unrelated] novel set in Raj-era India. I’m fascinated by that period, but I need to do a lot more reading and I need to travel in India before undertaking such a thing. Historical fiction is daunting; this was my first stab at it. What I’d really love is if someone could please invent a time machine just for writers of historical fiction. Wouldn’t that be fabulous?

As for Hatchling, I will certainly be writing more stories about the Druj. I have lots of ideas!

One of the themes in Silksinger that caught me the most is the idea that you create the world you want. At one point, Hirik says, “New ages don’t just dawn all by themselves. They’re not sunrises. If you want a new age, you don’t wait for it – you make it.” The dedication echoes this sentiment as well. To me, this notion also relates to an artist or writer’s creative process, especially for a writer of fantasy, for whom world-building is key. Describe how you envisioned and created your faerie world in Blackbringer and Silksinger.

I hadn’t really thought about it, but you’re right—this does relate well to creativity! You might as well say, “Novels don’t just happen all by themselves. If you want a novel, you don’t just daydream about it, you write it.” I wasted a lot of years daydreaming about the novels I would write. That’s just sooo much easier than writing!

I heard Karen Cushman speak a few years ago, and I love the story of how she came to write her first novel, Catherine, Called Birdy. When she had ideas for stories or books, she would tell her husband about them, but she never actually wrote them. Then one day he said: no more! (I’m paraphrasing.) He said he didn’t want to hear about it, but if she wrote the book, he’d read it. Tough love! All writers need to be that to themselves, the voice that says: quit imagining it and make it real. Be the one to do the work.

As for world-building, it is a joy. Although Dreamdark is fantasy, its world is this world, just from a different perspective: that of the faeries who in a way represent nature. From the perspective of *nature*, how do humans come across? Not well! The fun part of the world-building is the challenge of turning our real Earth into a fantasy world—imagining castles in ancient yew trees and an entire city tucked into a fissure of rock in the Himalayas, not to mention researching what kind of snake might give chase in a murky bat cave in Uganda, etc. To children it seems so possible that there are other worlds tucked into our own. I want my fictional world to be that glittering place where something magical is just out of view.

There’s a local artist here in Portland (Rachel’s Fairy Houses) who builds incredible faerie dollhouses that look straight out of Dreamdark, and I’m so planning to commission one for Clementine one of these days. When I was little girl I’d have had a heart attack if I saw them. Even now, I want it just as much for myself as for Clementine!

Tell us more about your creative partnership with your husband, Jim Di Bartolo, who has completed cover art and illustrations for all of your books so far.

I like to tell writers they should marry illustrators if they possibly can! Jim and I met on the first day of art school—he was literally the first person I set eyes on my first day of art school. It turned out we were in the same class (Illustration I), where we were randomly assigned to draw each other. I really, truly don’t believe in destiny or any guiding force in life. I think this was just plain luck (or, to quote Spicy Little Curses: “that mad choreographer, Chance.”)

Jim and I have been together for eleven years now, and for pretty much all of that time we’ve wanted to do illustrated novels together. Of course, there aren’t a lot of illustrated novels out there, which perplexes me. The prevailing belief seems to be that art is just for little kids, and that teens and grown-ups don’t want it in their books. I don’t understand! Doesn’t everyone love art?

We were so pleased that Arthur Levine and Scholastic were willing to give it a try for this book, and I hope that we may be able to collaborate much more in the future. We have a few things “in development” now.

In your Author’s Note at the end of Lips Touch (yes… I read every single word in your books!) you write, “Like a magpie, I am a scavenger of shiny things: fairy tales, dead languages, weird folk beliefs, fascinating religions, and more.” If you had to choose 5 things (ideas / books / objects / topics / people) that have most inspired your art and writing, what would you choose?

1. Bizarre science and nature—Sometimes fact is stranger than fiction. Did you know that there is a kind of parasite that lives only in the left ear of one species of moth??? How crazy is that? I get all kinds of ideas (especially for devils and villains) from nature.
2. Folklore—I have several shelves of books on folktales, superstition, witchcraft, and all manner of supernatural weirdness. I think of folklore, basically, as the human imagination throughout history, and it is a treasure trove of the weird and wonderful. I’m always writing down tidbits in my notebooks; some I’ve used in stories, others not yet.

3. Travel—I was lucky, as a Navy brat, to grow up traveling. For school field trips in middle school I got to go places like Pompeii and the isle of Capri. As an adult I’ve gone to some exciting places like Halong Bay in Vietnam (Silksinger’s Bay of Drowned Dragons), Cappadoccia in Turkey, the Mayan ruins in Chiapas, Mexico. Jim and I rented an apartment in Old Town Prague for a week and a half and that’s where much of my current novel is set. The more you see and experience, the more spice is added to the imagination curry. You never know how it will emerge in your creative expression.
4. Harry Potter—At a time when I wasn’t writing much because the *literary* writing I did in college wasn’t lighting my mind on fire, Harry Potter came along and reminded me of the kind of books I loved. Here I am in the lobby of the Scholastic building, with the boy wizard himself:

I’ll give the last one to the “art” side of the question:
5. Collage and scrapbooking magazines like Somerset Studio and Cloth, Paper, Scissors—These got me playing with new media, which led to Laini’s Ladies and a lot of fun artistic exploration. There’s a world of art-making out there beyond what they taught us in art school.

(One of Laini’s Ladies!)

What books are you most excited to share with your daughter, Clementine Pie?

We’ve been reading to her since she was in my belly; it’s one of our favorite things. I absolutely love this photo:

As sweet as it is now, I can’t wait to read with her when she’s older. I wonder what her favorite books will be, which ones we’ll read over and over. Jim and I have both found that our favorites to read her now are Holly Hobby’s Toot and Puddle books; we’re collecting them all. One of my favorite picture books is Max Makes a Million by Maira Kalman. It’s a great sing-songy read-aloud with colorful artwork and a great message about following your creative dreams.

And one day, we will be reading Harry Potter together, and perhaps by then the Dreamdark series will be complete, and we’ll be reading that too!

If Clementine lived in the faerie land of your books, which clan do you think she’d belong to?

Early in the writing of Dreamdark I imagined a clan responsible for painting the patterns on butterfly wings. They haven’t made it into a book yet, but surely they will one day, and I think that would be a lovely clan to belong to. Still, I think I’d have to go with the Windwitch clan, because I have such a wanderlust. I want to travel the world by airborne gypsy caravan, performing plays and rescuing the waning magic of the faerie race. I love writing the campfire scenes for Magpie and the crows—the camaraderie and adventure. I don’t know what Clementine’s personality will be like or which clan will fit her best, but I like the image of her as a wild-haired, bright-eyed world traveler with a real sense of purpose and a loyalty to the world, doing what she can to keep it safe.

(There she is – in all of her adorable fairy glory)

You’ve dedicated Silksinger to “those who will grow up to build the new age.” Describe the world you want for Clementine.

What I want for Clementine must be what all parents want for their children: a peaceful world in which to pursue her happiness; a world of beauty and opportunity. I want there to still be tigers and polar bears at large in the jungles and on the Arctic ice (but sadly, I don’t believe there will be). I want the economy to be strong so she can get a good job doing something she loves. I want a hopeful future. I could get all political here, but I’d better not. The thing is that I find myself really pessimistic about the chances of humanity curbing its destructive spree and pulling together to save the planet. I’m so pessimistic about it that it seems a little crazy to have children. Really, in my heart I don’t believe humanity will save itself from itself but … I still chose to have a child. I can’t rationalize it.

I’m so in love with Clementine, I want the world to be saved for her. But not just for her. I wonder if other parents feel this way: in a way, becoming a parent has made me feel like a *universal parent*. I have empathy for all families in a way I didn’t before. I didn’t know I didn’t. I thought I had empathy, but it was nothing compared to now. Now, when I think about a child being hungry, about being a parent who can’t feed his/her child, I’m totally flooded with misery. It’s visceral, not philosophical. The idea of pain or hardship endured by a child is too much. When I’m holding Clementine, the thought of not being able to be there the moment she needs comforting, it kills me. I can’t handle sad news stories at all.

It makes it that much harder to understand the rich, evil men who, for personal gain, are willfully destroying the planet that their own grandchildren will inherit. What dialogue happens in their heads to enable them to do what they do? Are they missing a piece?

Going forward, if a Djinn offered to grant you three wishes, what would you wish the future would bring you:

For years Jim and I have been so bent on developing our careers that we’ve got in that insidious mindset that so many people do, where we keep thinking real life starts some time in the future. Part of what excites me about being a parent is the huge incentive it gives us to live every day, not just for work but for the joy of building a life for our child, making as many wonderful memories as possible, in addition to as many works of art or fiction, etc. I want to balance a rich “real life” with a full creative life, in a way we haven’t always done.

a) as a mother?
Happy, creative children with rich, interesting lives. Travel. Books. Game nights. Beach holidays. Awesome Halloween costumes. All the good stuff.

b) as a writer?
Mental progress! I want to become increasingly efficient. There are so many books in my skull waiting to get themselves written—sometimes I imagine them as a dole queue! I hope I can give employment to as many of them as possible, as well as the new ones who are sure to jump in line as the months and years go by.

c) as an artist?
I’m not really sure. I’ve found it hard to devote equal time to art and writing, and there are a lot of art opportunities I’ve let pass me by. I want to find a way to keep art in my life. That is an ongoing effort.

Laini, thanks bunches for being here today, and for sharing so much about your creative process, your books and your family. It’s been a treat!

Visit all of the other stops for WBBT today:

Sy Montgomery Pt 2 at Chasing Ray
Jim DiBartolo at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast (Laini’s fella! Check it out!)
Amanda Marrone at Writing & Ruminating
Thomas Randall at Bildungsroman
Michael Hague at Fuse Number 8

I am honoured to be able to treat all of you to my amazing recent chat with Beth Kephart, for the Winter Blast Blog Tour. In my opinion, Beth is one of the most gifted authors writing for young adults right now. Her books are richly poetic and I love every one of them. Lots. Read my reviews: of Undercover, House of Dance, Nothing but Ghosts, and the upcoming The Heart is Not a Size.

Welcome to Shelf Elf Beth!

You wrote a post at your blog recently about the huge popularity of series like Gossip Girl, The Luxe and The Clique, which you described as “write-by-numbers” books. I feel like your YA novels exist at the completely opposite end of the writing spectrum, with their richness of theme and immaculate poetic language – almost like antidotes to Gossip Girl. What’s it like to write books like yours when it seems like so much publicity and media pushes girls towards the write-by-number reads?

Oh, what a great question (and what a hard one, too). I was responding, in my blog, to the fascinating New Yorker piece by Rebecca Mead titled “The Gossip Mill,” which featured Alloy, the entertainment packaging company behind the wildly popular series you mention here. I was wondering out loud whether I would have the skill to write such concoctions, and I was deciding, rather assuredly, that I would not. I write what I know how to write. I write the stories that interest me, the characters I understand, the scenes that are most alive and vivid, either in memory or in the imagination. My novels are about young people facing the big questions—identity, loss, secrets, anxieties—and it is difficult for books that dwell in those themes to gain traction against books that have been explicitly conceived and crafted for a well-researched market. My books are not advertised or toured; they must be discovered. My books are not off-the-chart sellers; I am in jeopardy, with each new book I write, of finally being told, You know, you are just not hitting the numbers; you are no longer an author we can support. (Indeed, I have been told that; miraculously I have been saved again and again by an editor willing to take a risk.) My writing life is full of uncertainty, therefore, but I know of no other way to work the page.

If you had to choose 5 things (ideas / books / objects / topics / people / hobbies) that have most inspired your writing, what would you choose?

This young girl who became a character in Heart:

Dance, in all its beauty:

Chanticleer (the setting of Ghosts), and the young writers and readers who teach me:

Kids learning to see the world:

Dreams keep me alive:

Your books are, in my opinion, about how everyday life can be miraculous – full of mystery and beauty and sadness all at once. I think that Nothing but Ghosts is about this in so many ways. You write, “Beauty and sadness can both live in one place.” I think this is a huge truth contained in this novel. If you could identify other “truths” that readers might discover in Nothing But Ghosts and The Heart is Not a Size, what would they be?

The importance of being an authentic self. The power of honest conversation. The understanding that emerges from well-told stories. The danger of secrets. The power of friendship and love.

In Nothing But Ghosts, Katie struggles to live with the loss of her mother, and can’t accept that a person as vibrant as her mom could be there and then just be gone. Is this emotion something you’ve experienced in your own life?

Absolutely, yes. I think the first time I felt this way was when my grandmother passed away. I was nine years old and had loved her dearly. I kept looking for her in the cloud forms; the truth is, I still do. When my uncle—an utterly lovable eccentric who let me know, always, that I was loved—passed away years later, I was devastated. My mother’s own passing, three years ago, was complex and terrible and cruel; in her final months, I was with her every day. The absoluteness of loss is something I do struggle with. I’m not sure that I’ll ever entirely accept it.

If you could give Katie and Georgia advice, at any point in their stories, what would it be and when would you give it?

What an interesting question. As the writer writing these stories, I do feel as if I am advising my characters all the way through—that they go where I urge them to go, though sometimes it takes them awhile to get there. With Katie, who has isolated herself in a certain respect after her mother’s passing, I would urge her to trust her friends more than she does—trust them with her heartache, allow them back in to her life. With Georgia, who knows that her best friend, Riley, has stopped eating but doesn’t confront her about it until it is almost too late, I would say, Speak sooner than later. Trust that you will work through the consequences.

The Heart is Not a Size follows a group of teens who experience a life-changing trip to Anapra, in Jaurez, Mexico. Tell us more about your travels to Anapra and how that journey influenced you personally, and as a writer.

With my husband, son, and some two dozen others, I traveled in 2005 to Anapra, a squatter’s village. Our goal was to help build a community bathroom in a place heavy with dust and nearly absent of running water, where the houses are built of such found materials as mattress springs and shredded tarp. Despite the fact that I never slept, that the temperature was impossible, and that I swallowed more dust than my body weight, it was one of the most beautiful trips of my life. You hear all these terrible things about Juarez—the murders, the drug wars, the desperation. You imagine that such extreme poverty will produce a bitter, burdened people. But in fact the people that we met were full of soul and laughter. The children would emerge from their one-room houses in gorgeous, colorful clothes. The families would gather to help us build. I loved the teens we traveled with. I loved the people we met. I took photograph after photograph, and Georgia, my character in Heart, is a budding photographer, too. She is seeing that world the way that I saw it. The journey gave me unexpected hope. It gave me a newness to which to attach my writing.

Is there a topic or genre that you have thought you might like to try writing in the future?

In September 2010, I have an historical novel due out from Egmont USA, that takes place on a single day in Philadelphia 1876, at the Centennial Exposition. I loved writing this book which is titled Dangerous Neighbors, and have loved the process of returning to Laura Geringer, who edited my first three books at Harper, for the collaboration. Dangerous Neighbors is about twin sisters, one of whom has died. It’s about a massive fire that threatens to bring the Exposition down. It’s mostly about guilt, though, and loss, for Katherine, the protagonist, believes she is responsible for her sister’s death and no longer wants to live in this world.

At the moment, I’m about three chapters away from finishing a novel for adults, which has been a fascinating, utterly absorbing process. It’s a deeply researched book inspired in large part by an asylum known in Philadelphia as Byberry. I need to wait to finish this novel before I can determine if there’ll be interest on the part of a publishing house.

When I finish that novel, I have another novel, which I’ve been writing for I think forever, that concerns a young woman who finds herself pregnant and sent to a cortijo in southern Spain to live out those difficult months. It’s the story of a friendship that emerges between the old cook at the cortijo (a Spanish Civil War survivor) and the young woman. There’s a lot of history in this book, a lot of research, and so it has taken me a while.

What is the most difficult part of writing for you, and what aspect of writing is the most fulfilling?

The most difficult part of writing is working on a project for years and years, as I do, with the grave uncertainty of whether or not anyone but me will ever love the book, will ever publish it, will ever buy it. It is a lonely and trembling enterprise. The most fulfilling is finding a way to tell the story you want to tell and finding those readers with whom the story resonates.

When I’m finished reading your books, I keep thinking about the main characters. They stay with me. I feel like your characters are going places in their lives, going to be change-makers and risk-takers and people who live life with everything they’ve got. Do you imagine your characters’ futures? If yes, where do you see Katie and Georgia and Riley down the road?

My main characters are always in large part rustled up from parts of me, so that I know them well. I knew Elisa, that young, struggling poet of Undercover. I knew Rosie, desperate to do right by her dying grandfather in House of Dance. I knew Kate of Ghosts and I am so very like Georgia of Heart. They live with me, these characters. I know who they were, and I know who they’ve become. They’ve become a woman who feels blessed, every day, to be alive. A woman who struggles, every day, to be a better person. A woman who wishes, every day, that she could seize the world with words and photographs—hold it, own it, yield it back to others.

You seem like the kind of person who might have a motto, or at least, might be able to identify some wise words to guide your life. If you have a motto, tell us about it. If you don’t, what might be some possibilities for you?

Wow, no. I don’t have a motto. I don’t think that way, perhaps don’t have the mind for one. But if there’s one thing that I go around telling myself every day, it’s these two words: Pay attention.

Thank you for being here Beth, for your words and your photographs!

Continue visiting all of today’s interviews for WBBT:

Sy Montgomery at Chasing Ray
Jacqui Robbins at Bildungsroman
Sarwat Chadda at Finding Wonderland
Cynthia Leitich Smith at Hip Writer Mama
Annie Barrows at Great Kids Books

Aren’t you the lucky ones, that today, for another fab stop on the 2009 Winter Blog Blast Tour, you get to meet the lovely Nova Ren Suma, debut author of the 100% wonderful Dani Noir (which I loved, muchly: read review right now).

I’m so excited to have Nova here, because she is a cool gal and a wonderfully talented fresh new voice in kids’ books. Welcome Nova! Thanks for hanging out with me here today.

I read in another interview that your motto is “What if?” How does this motto influence you as a writer?

First, before I answer all these great questions, let me take a second to tell you how thrilled I am to be interviewed here on Shelf Elf. I’m so glad you enjoyed DANI NOIR!

Now on to the interview… When it comes to writing, I can’t help but keep the question “What if?” in the back of my mind. Even when I’ve outlined an entire novel and think I know exactly what I’m putting down in every chapter, I still can’t be sure if I’ll follow it when the time comes. My characters tend to do things I don’t expect, and I wouldn’t want to stop them. What if she says this? What if she’s hiding that in her pocket? What if he saw? What if…? There are so many ways a story could go, and it comes most alive for me when I keep my mind open to the possibilities. DANI NOIR definitely has a lot of these “What if?” moments.

I ended up asking myself this question in my writing career, too, back when I was struggling to get an agent for an adult novel. It was hard, I won’t lie, but when it wasn’t working out I thought, What if I tried something completely different? And that’s how DANI NOIR came to be. The irony is that writing for tweens and teens turns out to be the perfect fit for me, so maybe I should ask myself the “What if?” question way sooner and far more often.

At the outset of your book, film is an escape for Dani. Later it helps to inform how she sees people and the world and leads her to recognize what is interesting about her own life. Then she is able to step back into real life and in a way, start fresh. How do you experience film – as an escape, as a window to the world, a mirror to your own life…?

Watching a good film is one of my only true escapes. When a movie is on, you usually stay put and watch it all the way through—everything else falls away and you see and hear only what’s up there on screen. When I’m stressed, I want to slip into a movie for a while and forget what’s bothering me. Maybe I shouldn’t admit this, but I’ve been known to procrastinate up to the very edges of a deadline by taking a break to watch a movie.

I guess that’s why the movie theater is an escape route for Dani at the start of the story—it seemed so natural to send her there. Where else could she be so completely transported out of her boring small town where nothing ever happens (or so she thinks…) if not at the movies?

Name 3 films that have changed your life (and tell us why!)

Heathers: So in this cult classic, there’s a clique of three girls named Heather plus one lone Veronica who ends up taking them down. In school—I am not kidding—I did have three friends named Heather, and of course my name is Nova, so I didn’t really fit, but that was just a simple coincidence; “Heather” was a very popular name back then. Really, this movie taught me some meaningful lessons about being a misfit. I’ve learned that I’d rather NOT fit in than turn evil just to be part of the in-crowd. Actually, I don’t even want to be part of a perfectly sweet and non-evil in-crowd. I’d much rather be a Veronica.

Edward Scissorhands: (OK, someone really likes Winona Ryder.) I’ve always loved fairy tales—my favorites, as a kid, were “Sleeping Beauty” and “The Snow Queen”—and this movie brought to life a fantastical modern-day fairy tale in the midst of the suburbs. I love that kind of contrast. It’s movies like this that change me as a writer and inspire me to push boundaries, which is just what I’m doing in my next book.

Gilda: Clearly this movie changed my life because it’s what inspired DANI NOIR. I was floundering with the first chapter, not sure which direction the story should go in, when I saw Gilda, really saw it, for the first time. There was something about the moment when Gilda, played by the fabulous Rita Hayworth, first appears on screen that stopped me in my tracks—I remember standing in the middle of my living room, staring at the TV. All these emotions play across her face—an entire story in a few seconds. I was completely energized. Here’s that moment if you’re curious: http://www.youtube.com/user/novarensuma#p/a/f/0/tgdKgV9Y62w.

Describe Dani. What kind of girl is she?

Dani is thirteen. She’s got a little bit of an obsession with old black-and-white noir movies, and if she could be anyone in the universe she’d be a mysterious and glamorous femme fatale, like her favorite movie star Rita Hayworth. Only thing is… in real life, Dani’s no femme fatale. Not even close. She gets herself into messes and makes mistakes, says a whole lot of things she shouldn’t, and ends up grounded so she can’t even go out at night like any self-respecting femme fatale should. Dani’s trying hard to be someone she’s not, but in doing so she starts to figure out who she maybe really is.

If you had to choose five things (ideas / books / films / objects / topics…) that have most inspired your writing, what would you choose? (Pictures of any / all things would be fantastic!)

1. Places I’ve lived:

(View out my apartment window)

2. Eavesdropping

3. Graffiti messages

(Message on a wall in downtown Manhattan)

4. Slow songs

(Scary Mansion – here’s their publicity site)

5. Secrets

Best Cure for Writer’s Block:
A walk around the block—literally. My writing spot is in downtown Manhattan and there’s a great little walk I do when I’m stuck. It takes me past this old landmark building that was originally built in the 1830s and is still standing. I like looking up into its old windows, imagining what must have gone on inside all those years ago. I also like walking the avenue looking for new graffiti. Graffiti messages on the landmark building would probably be the most inspiring thing ever, but that’s surely illegal.

Best Writing Snack:
A mocha, preferably hot and foamy. I don’t like to break to eat when I’m writing—I lose momentum; maybe it’s all the chewing—but a good mocha (chocolate + caffeine) can keep me going for hours.

Your Author Idol:
Don’t want to embarrass myself by being a fangirl here, but I really admire Sara Zarr. I absolutely love her novels, but I also love how she handles herself as an author with her fans and with aspiring writers online. She’s immensely talented, very smart, and also clearly a good, generous person. She’s the kind of author I’d like to grow up to be.

Fav Writing Spot:
I have two: I write early mornings in a café in Greenwich Village that serves the best mochas possibly in the universe (see above re: writing snack), and I am also a member of an urban writers colony, where I rent a desk in a big loft space with other writers. This is the place I get most of my work done, and feel most at home (which may explain why I sometimes go wearing pajamas), though they don’t serve mochas. I can’t imagine being a productive writer in this city without having my writing space to escape to.

Best Writing Advice:

Make your own rules, and then break them when you need to.

I think it’s important to make up your own rules for YOU. Other people may have great success with their writing methods, but that doesn’t mean they’ll translate for someone else. I try to force myself to write every morning; some people write better at night or like to save it all up for the weekend. I outline first; lots of writers abhor outlines (and I admire them for it!). I line-edit my first draft as I go; apparently that’s a big no-no and it would probably be the worst possible advice I could give another writer. Once you start experimenting, you’ll know what works for you.

As for breaking the rules. I do this more than I should, but so far it’s worked for me. Like, when I was writing DANI, I was determined to write it straight through from start to finish, no skipping around and no putting scenes aside to write later. Then I got all muddled up in the middle and had no idea how to get myself out. I was NOT ALLOWED to skip any chapters (this was my rule), so for weeks I struggled and fought and put down awful sentences and then erased them and replaced them with even more awful sentences. Then I realized I was the only one keeping myself to this rule of not skipping around. So I jumped—to the end of the book. I wrote the last four chapters and went back and wrote the middle. It was exactly what I needed to write that particular book. Now I’m writing a new manuscript without allowing myself to skip around (but I’ll totally break my own rule if I think I have to, shh!).

DANI NOIR captures a summer in Dani’s life that is a real time of change for her. If you had to identify a similarly transformative period in your life, what would you choose?

The year I turned fifteen was the most transformative time of my life—I started it as one person and ended it as a whole other person, the person that led me straight ahead to who I am today. This also happened to be the most painful year of my life, but I guess you can’t transform without it hurting at least a little.

What part of this novel are you most proud of?

I wanted Dani’s voice to feel real and honest—I tried to imagine her as a real person and, soon enough, it began to feel like I was channeling her when I wrote it. (Disclaimer: I don’t think I should be held responsible for any melodramatic or snarky things I may have said or done during the writing of this book.) Now, looking back on DANI NOIR all this time after writing it, I do still like Dani’s voice best out of everything in the book. I still feel like she’s a real-live girl and not a character I created, so I have to say I’m most happy about that.

Could you select a few quotes from DANI NOIR that best capture the spirit or themes of your book?

Dani, on Rita Hayworth:

“Say there was this movie and both Rita Hayworth and Jessica Alba were in it. Jessica would say her lines and she’d be great like normal, but then it would be Rita Hayworth’s turn.

Rita Hayworth would toss her hair (red in real life, but in black-and-white it could be any color). She’d blink super-slow, like she was underwater. Then she’d turn, finally, and settle her eyes on Jessica. It would take a few seconds but feel like forever and you wouldn’t be able to stop staring. Then Rita Hayworth would say maybe one word, drawing it out, making it sound like the most beautiful word anyone could say, like in any language, ever. The word could be “hi” or “mayonnaise,” it doesn’t matter. And before you know it, Rita Hayworth will have eaten Jessica Alba alive.”

Dani, lamenting the hideous monstrosity that is her cell phone:

“Besides, the phone is pink. Pink! A femme fatale would have a sleek black phone with tiny buttons, a thin sliver kept in her hip pocket. She’d set the ringer to silent. And she’d get calls all the time, but she’d rarely answer. What femme fatale would?”

Dani, on real life vs. the movies:

“It’s complicated, people tell me, like I can’t understand the huge messes grown-ups make of relationships.
But I do understand.
I understand how—in the movies—you walk away at the end knowing who the bad guy is. It’s not like in real life when you walk around all confused, wondering if you’re the bad one for hating them.”

If you had a magic movie camera that could zoom in on your future, what would you hope to see yourself doing / writing ten years down the road?

I’ll give the answer I’m sure everyone expects me to—but it’s most definitely the truth: I’d still be writing and publishing books, YA novels and more tween novels, and maybe when the camera zoomed in on me I’d be putting the finishing touches on a new novel I haven’t even had an inkling of a thought about yet.

Oh, and I’d live in Paris with my husband, because I’ve decided we have to live in Paris before we die, and we’d have a balcony because it would be really nice to have a balcony. And we’d have a kitten too (my annoying cat allergy would have gone away, this camera’s magic, right?), and I’d be happy. I hope that magic movie camera finds me happy.

Thank you so much again for having me here on Shelf Elf!

It was a treat for me Nova! Say hi to Dani for me!

Be sure to visit all of the other stops on the Winter Blast Blog Tour today. Here are the links:

Ann Marie Fleming at Chasing Ray
Laurie Faria Stolarz at Bildungsroman
Patrick Carman at Miss Erin
Jacqueline Kelly at Hip Writer Mama
Dan Santat at Fuse Number 8

Dani Noir is published by Aladdin.

The Heart is Not a Size is a book that will make you want to go out in the world and do something that matters. It will take you into a community that you likely will never visit, and it will make you think about how much you have and what you really need. No surprise that the writer behind this inspiring and thought-provoking novel is Beth Kephart. It’s not released until March 2010, but you should put it on your TBR list right now. Books like this don’t come along every day.

The Heart is Not a Size was inspired by a trip Beth took a few years ago to a squatter’s village called Anapra, near Juarez, in Mexico. Like the characters in her novel, she went there with a church group of teens and adults, to build a community washroom. Her experiences led to this story. First, take a look at some photos Beth took in this short video, where she reads from the novel:

It’s a testament to the strength of Beth’s writing that her words brought to mind so much of what you see in those images – the openness of the children and their smiling faces, the dust everywhere, the shacks made of cast off materials. I’ve never been anywhere like Anapra, but I could imagine it through Beth’s words. The Heart is Not a Size is about a teen named Georgia, who convinces her best friend Riley to go on a trip to Anapra with an organization called Good Works to do community service. Georgia wants to go to Anapra to get perspective and to start believing in herself. Everyone thinks she’s a grounded, reliable sort of girl, and Georgia isn’t sure. She’s ready for something, but she isn’t even sure what that something is. So when she finds a flyer about Anapra she makes a choice and she wants Riley to come too. Riley is vulnerable in her own way, and the girls’ friendship is deep and complicated. When they get to Anapra, things that they used to be certain about start to change.

The Heart is Not a Size would stand up to rereading, so that you could feel you were getting everything out of it. It’s a quiet book that sneaks up on you. You’ll meet so many characters that are complex and present enough to make you imagine their whole life stories – even secondary characters who appear only briefly stand out more than many central characters in other novels, like Socorro, the little girl who hovers outside the compound where the visiting group is living. The novel is divided into two parts, which I think reflects the way Georgia’s experiences in Anapra have really changed her. There was her life before Anapra, and then after. This is a novel about the potential in people, and not just in the people who go to Anapra to do what they can to contribute to that community, but the potential and worth of the residents of Anapra as well. Almost at the end of her time in Anapra, Georgia thinks, “there was no measure for the people we were becoming, no limit to what we might become.” She sees the possibility of her own life and the lives of the people of Anapra too. The Heart is Not a Size is a novel worth thinking about. There is nothing moralizing about it. Rather, the characters experience first hand how life is messy and brutal and beautiful and the opposite of simple. Georgia doesn’t find easy answers in Anapra and we don’t get the sense that she finds just what she expected, but her experience gave her what she needed nonetheless. Give this book to a teen as a graduation gift. I wish I’d been able to read it when I was 18.

The Heart is Not a Size will be published by Harper Teen in March 2010.

So it’s finally here, the week I’ve been anticipating for… well… weeks! The annual Winter Blog Blast Tour begins today. What is the WBBT you ask? Only a week packed with some of the best interviews you’ll read in the kidlitosphere, with a whole lot of outstanding authors at many of my favourite blogs. Each day this week I’ll be posting the schedule with links to all of the interviews. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I’ll be hosting Nova Ren Suma, Beth Kephart and Laini Taylor. Wow – that’s some trio! Here’s what’s on today for the first day of the tour:

Jim Ottaviani at Chasing Ray
Courtney Sheinmel at Bildungsroman
Derek Landy at Finding Wonderland
Mary E. Pearson at Miss Erin
Megan Whalen Turner at Hip Writer Mama
Frances Hardinge at Fuse Number 8

Sometimes I use my feisty 1/2 Irish heritage as an excuse to choose quick temper over patience. I confess. More and more though, I’ve learned that choosing the high road, the open hand held out, leads to better things, and I think I’m starting to get pretty good at making this better choice. This week I had a few lessons in this. I’ve liked this poem for a long time.

Choose – by Carl Sandburg

The single clenched fist lifted and ready,
Or the open asking hand held out and waiting.
Choose:
For we meet by one or the other.

(Poem from Poetry Foundation. Photo from stock.xchng)

Evidently, Scholastic is already very much in the Christmas spirit, because here I am, reviewing two new picture books for the upcoming holiday season. I’m also delighted to be giving away to two lucky readers, copies of both The Christmas Magic by Lauren Thompson with illustrations by Jon J. Muth, and The Nutcracker and the Mouse King adapted by Wren Maysen and illustrated by Gail de Marcken. Leave a comment on this post, naming your favourite holiday picture book ever (doesn’t have to be Christmas!). Be sure to include a contact email so that I can reach you.

If I had to make a list of my favourite illustrators for children, Jon J. Muth would be on it, for sure. I am such a fan of his light style, the delicacy of his watercolours and the sense of humour he infuses into so many of his illustrations. He’s an artist whose studio I would love to be able to visit. I find all of his books impressive and evocative, and The Christmas Magic is no exception. Here’s a short trailer, to give you a glimpse of the text and pictures:

The text is sweet and simple and made up of few words – allowing so much space for Muth’s illustrations to shine. I like the way this one already feels like a classic tale, and I also like that Thompson isn’t trying to do a single gimmicky thing. Her story is about the magic of the season, a magic that many readers know well. There aren’t dancing snowmen or talking toys or penguins wearing cute hats. This is a calm book, about Santa’s quiet preparations for his busiest night of the year. I can imagine reading this on Christmas Eve to my niece, who could use all the help she can get trying to keep the anticipation under control. I’m definitely passing this one on to my sister before December. Here’s just one of the beautiful pictures (note the adorable sleeping reindeer – I want one):

When I was a girl, one of my most-loved Christmas books was an edition of The Nutcracker. I can’t remember which one I had, but I read that book over and over again. The first Christmas I worked at the bookstore, I couldn’t believe the number of different versions of the story that were out there. I guess everyone has a favourite. I imagine that The Nutcracker and the Mouse King would satisfy most people looking for a traditional, straight-up presentation of the classic story. Marcken’s illustrations are detailed and the palette is bright and rich. There are several double-page spreads which will encourage readers to stop and take in all of the detail. Here’s one picture of little Marie:

I can see this version being quite popular with someone wanting to give a child a classic tale, in an edition that feels like a gift book. I’m more partial to the subdued tones and understated style of Lisbeth Zwerger’s version, but I think Marcken’s might have more child appeal.

Just leave a comment, sharing your favourite holiday picture book, if you’d like to have copies of these two titles. Winners will be contacted after December 1st. Open to US addresses only.