I went to the SCBWI Storybook Intensive here in Portland, Oregon on June 10th and got to meet the AWE...mazing April Henry and the inspiring Christy Ottaviano (editor extraordinaire at MacMillan Books)
I wanted to share some of the wonderful tips, tricks and hints they shared with us at this workshop and . . . I will...but first, I wanted to share a short interview April was kind enough to give me.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
April, when did you
first realize you wanted to be a writer?
When
I was in third or fourth grade, I started writing stories. But as I got older,
I decided that authors didn’t come from little logging towns in Southern
Oregon.
How many hours a
day do you devote to writing?
About
four of solid writing, then an hour or two of business stuff, like answering
fan mail or crafting Facebook posts.
What’s more
important to you when you write, character or plot?
Plot.
What is the
hardest part of writing a story for you?
When
a deadline creeps up and I have no idea how to have an exciting and satisfying
and yet surprising ending.
What did your
family think of your writing career when you first started out?
Everyone
was supportive, but I think only my mom really believed I would be published.
What do you like
to do when you’re not writing?
I
love to do Brazilian jiujitsu. I just
got my third stripe!
What authors do
you like to read?
I
read widely. I just read Wildman by JC
Geiger, a first novel by an SCWBI member who lives in Eugene. Next up The Scribe of Sienna, an adult book
which I think has some time travel in it, by Melodie Winawar and Refugee, a
middle grade book about three refugee children in three different time periods
by Alan Gratz.
Do you have
future projects in mind?
Next
May, Run, Hide, Fight Back comes out.
It’s about a shooting that traps six teenagers at a shopping mall, and
it’s basically Die Hard meets Breakfast Club.
And after that, it’s The Lonely Dead, about a girl who can talk to the
dead.
How many books
have you written and how many of those have been published?
It’s
got to be close to 30. So far, 21 have
been published, and three more are under contract.
Can you tell us a
little bit about your latest book?
CountAll Her Bones is a companion novel to Girl,
Stolen, which was about a blind girl who was accidentally kidnapped
when a teenage boy stole her stepmother’s car.
The new book takes place about six months after the previous one, on the
eve of the trial for the thief’s father (who decided to hold her for
ransom). For that book I spent a lot of
time learning various martial arts that blind people could use to defend
themselves. The book has a great twist
that was a surprise to me when I thought of it - that was really fun!
(Tips, Tricks and Hints on Monday)
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