I’m not yet published, and I’ve already had my first author interview. 🙂
One of my teen beta readers, who is doing a book report project on my novel for school (!) asked if she could interview me. Victoria told me that the students were just expected to come up with a list of questions they’d want to ask the author, if they could. She asked her teacher if she could include the answers, since, well, she knows me. (Credit for initiative, right?)
It was really cool to talk about my book like that. Victoria had some great questions–it was intriguing to listen to her insight about my book, based on what she wanted to know. Here are some of them that also got me thinking:
- “What was your inspiration for the novel?”
I have heard this question so many times as a reader and teacher (it’s what my students always want to ask Lawrence Hill, the author of The Book of Negros, whom I know personally). I’ve always thought it was a great question–until I was asked it myself.
It’s not that I haven’t thought about it; in fact, the inspiration–the “why-I-want-to-write-this-book”–is one of the first questions Jennie, my book coach asked me. But to answer it succinctly and on the spot was different.
I thought about it and here’s the story I finally told Victoria:
I taught a student many years ago now who had recently immigrated from Libya. In class, we were discussing fights we’ve had with our mothers. Most students gave exasperated examples of how their moms wouldn’t give them late enough curfews or were making them clean their rooms. But Ibrahim had a different story. “Oh man,” he said, “my mom wouldn’t let me join the Revolution!”
“The Revolution in Libya?” I asked. “The one that overthrew the dictator Gaddafi?”
“Yeah,” he said, still indignant a year after the fact, “She wouldn’t let me fight.”
“Because…” I said slowly, “she didn’t want you to, oh, I don’t know, die!” I fired back, fully, completely, 100% on his mom’s side.
“But all my friends were fighting!” He retorted.
At first I thought he sounded childish (can you hear your mom saying “if all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you?”) but then, who am I to judge his situation? He saw his country at war and his friends fighting for a cause they believed in; how could I dismiss his desires to fight for a better world?
Yet how could I not side with his mom? He was 16 at the time. Of course I wouldn’t let my 16-year-old kid go off and fight in a rebellion.
So who’s right? Ibrahim or his mom? Neither. Both. And that’s where my inspiration for Lyra’s story came from. Not the plot. Not the circumstances, but the conflict. Ibrahim’s mom and Lyra’s parents wanted to keep their children safe from the ravages of a larger world they knew their children couldn’t yet comprehend. Yet Ibrahim and Lyra also felt passionately about doing something, making a difference. Not sitting on the sidelines.
So it’s from Ibrahim’s story that Lyra’s story grew.
2. “What did you think was the most suspenseful part?”
Great question. Turns out it’s impossible to answer.
You know why? Because as the writer, I know what’s going to happen! I know the end point of every scene, so where’s the suspense there? In the how? No, not really because I’m also creating the how in very logical steps. I had to admit I couldn’t answer Victoria’s question exactly, but I did tell her what scene I was hoping the readers would most find suspenseful. It’s where Lyra is trying to escape and the stakes are high and she gets help from an unexpected source. (no spoilers!) And it’s because the story takes a dramatic turn at that point and I love the idea of the reader getting to that part and saying “Whoa, I didn’t see that coming!” Which just reminded me how different the experience of writing a book is from reading one. I always thought it would be fun as a writer to inhabit the world you create the way we readers inhabit the world created by other authors. Turns out it’s not the same when you’re trying to build up that world and make it all make sense than when it’s fully constructed and you’re just a visitor. Victoria’s question reminded me I’ll never make that mistake again. 🙂
3. “Why do you think your book makes such a good story?”
Wow. Yeah. Umm. Huh. It got me thinking. I know why I like reading the books I read. And I know why I wrote the way I did. But what did I do that makes it good for readers?
Characters, I finally said. It’s getting the characters right. It’s making the reader feel like they can relate to Lyra in some way. Again, not in plot or circumstance, but in feelings and thoughts and emotions. My teen readers may not feel stifled by their parents because they’ve been on the run from government agents for nine years, but maybe they feel stifled nonetheless because of early curfews or nagging expectations about clean rooms.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s something else that makes my novel a good story. Maybe it’s up to the reader to determine that and I, as the author, should just butt out. But since Victoria asked, that’s what I said.
I’m still waiting to hear back from the first literary agent. She assured me she’d get back to me in early January (it’s early January! It’s January 3! Why haven’t I heard from her yet?!) But regardless of what she says when I do hear from her, I know IÂ do have a good story and I’m going to keep searching until I find the right people to help me get it out there.
Because now I have all my author answers at the ready. I’m prepared. I’m psyched. I can handle the flood of media attention. Anything for all you little people out there. 🙂