Interview and Giveaway: The Isle of the Lost by Melissa de la Cruz (Disney Descendants)

Earlier this week I was thrilled to be part of a group interview with the best-selling author Melissa de la Cruz, who was talking about her current project with Disney.

That's right, I said Disney! De la Cruz's new book, The Isle of the Lost (in stores on May 5), fills in the back story of this summer's Disney Chanel original TV movie Disney Descendants. There is so much to love about this book and the upcoming movie.

Here's what's happening in The Isle of the Lost. At the end of the every fairy tale, the evil character has been defeated and the good character gets a happily every after. But what happens to the Evil Queen, Maleficent, and the others? You may think they have died, but they were really banished to the Isle of the Lost, where they live in much reduced conditions and without their magic. What do they teach their children? How to be evil and how not to make the same mistakes--because someday the exile spell will be broken and all the characters will return to Auradon (the good kingdom) to wreak havoc once again.

The interview with de la Cruz. We all had thoughtful questions for Melissa de la Cruz, who graciously took time out of her day to talk to us. Come listen in on some of the highlights of the interview.

We all wanted to know whether de la Cruz was a fan of fairy tales:

I [am] a big, big fan of fairy tales. . . . I really had an early education in myth and fairy tales, and I've always loved them.

De la Cruz mentioned that she had a treasury of fairy tales from around the world, which she read and reread many times. Of course, then we wanted to know about her favorite fairy tale and her favorite Disney movie:

My favorite fairy tale, I think because it was so scary to me as a child, was "Hansel and Gretel," you know, abandoned by your parents and kind of given over to the witch.

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My favorite [movie]: I saw Cinderella when I was three years old. And it was the first Disney movie I'd ever seen. And it's always been my favorite. . . . I just think there's something really magical about that story. And I've always liked it. And, you know, the pettiness of the stepmother and the stepsisters just felt really realistic to me.

De la Cruz also told us that she's been a lifelong Disney fan and has seen all the classic movies multiple times, not only on her own but also with her young daughter.

The Isle of the Lost focuses mostly on the evil fairy tale characters and their children (the descendants). We asked de la Cruz several questions about the classic villains.

On Maleficent: Why do I think Maleficent is the most feared? I think she's probably the most powerful. I mean she did put an entire kingdom to sleep. When you look at the powers of the other villains, the evil stepmother is kind of mostly petty.

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On why we like evil characters: So it's kind of like we know them really well because we know what they want. And even though what they want isn't very good or noble, having that desire is very human and [also] that ambition.

And naturally, we wanted to know which of the evil descendants she liked the best:

I really felt really close to [all of] them. And Carlos [son of Cruella De Vil]: just really his journey because he's kind of shy. And he's kind of a geeky computer nerd. I really felt for him from the beginning. But . . . as I wrote him I also discovered he has a very sly sense of humor and a lot of survival instincts. . . . I think I really did get close to him. And I really enjoyed him growing up a little but still having that sense of humor.

De la Cruz also set part of her book in the land of Auradon, where all the good characters live. I found it interesting that the children of the good characters also had issues with their parents and that life wasn't always "happily ever after," even in a world of sunshine and light.

I think that was something that I really wanted to write about . . . that no matter who your parents are it's still really hard to live up to them, whether they're big, bad villains or, you know, a noble prince. He's the Beast, you know, and Queen Belle.

I mean . . . it's not that I was more sympathetic to Ben [Beast and Belle's son], but I really understood the plight of somebody who has so much privilege . . . the world is open to him. . . . But, he has very little life choices. . . . He's just as trapped as the villains on the island. So I really wanted to paint this picture of both of these kids on the Isle of the Lost and in Auradon as being really similar and, like you said, universal.

We asked de la Cruz about some of the issues involved with writing a prequel for a story that wasn't her own. Her first issue was the audience because it was her first middle-grade fantasy. She found it a challenge to find just right voice and tone.

To make sure the book matched the film, de la Cruz visited the movie set of Descendants to watch the filming, meet the characters, and see the costumes. All of which helped her with continuity between her story and the film. She noted,

It was a little bit more of a challenge [to write this book] because you are working with a world that's already been constructed. So, whatever you make up has to fit in that world.

Finally, she talked about what it was like to work with the Disney staff, who have a deep knowledge of their universe. For example, the animals (Cinderella's mice, the Dalmations) don't speak English in the movies, so for them to be talking characters in her book, de la Cruz had to write in a translator. She said,

You know, I think I didn't realize how big the [Disney] team is. . . . It was so interesting to see so many creative people working together. And they were really excited for the book.

Thanks so much to Melissa de la Cruz for taking the time to talk to us about her book The Isle of the Lost and her creative process. And thanks to Big Honcho Media for organizing the interview and inviting me to participate.

The Giveaway

Thanks to Disney Publishing, I'm able to offer one of my readers with a U.S. mailing address a fabulous The Isle of the Lost prize pack.

Here's what one lucky winner will receive: A copy of Melissa de la Cruz's book The Isle of the Lost, a super green tank top with the book title on it, a branded water bottle, temporary The Isle of the Lost tattoos, and a GadgetGrip smartphone home button sticker. (To get a better look at the prize pack, click the image to enlarge it.)

I've read the book and can recommend it to all Disney and fairy tale fans. I just love the idea of learning about the next generation of our favorite characters.

All you have to do to be entered for a chance to win is to fill out the following form (remember: U.S. mailing addresses only). I'll pick a winner via random number generator on May 11 and then pass his or her mailing address along to the publicists. Once the winner has been confirmed, I'll erase all personal information from my computer.

• To read an excerpt from The Isle of the Lost, visit the Disney movie site.
• To lean more about the movie, visit the official Descendants site.
• To learn more about Melissa de la Cruz, visit her website.
• To follow the news across your social media sites, use and search for #DisneyDescendants.

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Interview: David Baldacci on Pushing Boundaries and Supporting Literacy

Last week I had the great good fortune to be invited to participate in a group interview of best-selling author David Baldacci.

Baldacci is known throughout the world for his thriller novels, of which he's written several series starring well-loved protagonists. His latest, The Escape, is a John Puller book and was just recently released.

What you might not know is that Baldacci has written several books for young readers, including an entry in the popular 39 Clues series. This year he branched out to reach the young adult audience with the first in a new fantasy series, The Finisher.

As you can imagine, everyone participating in the telephone interview with Baldacci was interested in how he came to write The Finisher, which is so different from his other books. Baldacci noted that he has always loved fantasy. Besides, he believes that as

a writer, if you don't stretch, you sort of wither on the vine. So, for me, it was a challenge to get out of my comfort zone and write in a genre and in a way that I'd never written about before.

The novel took years to write from its initial conception to completion. Here's how he started:

I wrote the name down, Vega Jane, and I knew she was going to be the lead character, but I didn't know what she was going to be doing. And it took me over four years to finally figure out the world that I wanted to place her in, what her role would be in that, and what the total story, plot, and narrative would be and what the other characters around her would be like.

Baldacci noted that part of inventing a whole new world is imaging the history, and to do that, he had to conduct quite a bit of research into "mythology, classical works of fantasy, and religion."

Good news for you fantasy fans: There will likely be at least four books in the Vegas Jane series. If you haven't read this one yet, I encourage you to wait no longer. I read it one afternoon because I just couldn't put it down.

Moving beyond asking Baldacci about his work as a writer, I was interested in his role as an advocate for literacy. I asked about the foundation Baldacci and his wife started, called Wish You Well. Baldacci explained that

the foundation's been in existence for about 15 years. My wife and I founded it, and it's really based on our immersion in the issues of illiteracy in the United States. We have a huge illiteracy problem here. . . .

So, what [the foundation does] is fund literacy organization programs across the United States. We have funded programs in virtually all 50 states and counting, and will continue to do so. We have a board of directors. We meet six times a year. We receive about 5,000 applications for funding from across the country, which is quite a few applications to go through, but we look through every single one of them.

Isn't that fantastic? If you click the link above, you can learn how you can help. One easy way is to donate books, and everyone knows that we book bloggers usually have a book or two to spare for a good cause. Here's what Baldacci told us about Feeding Body & Mind, which deals with the book collection effort:

We are partnered with Feeding America, which runs all the nation's food banks. And we collect books during my tours, and then we ship them to food banks across the country. People going in to seek food assistance tend to have low literacy skills. And sending them home with books is always a good thing. . . . We've shipped out over a million books in the last four years.

Please keep this in mind when you go out to see Baldacci on tour. You know you have books you can donate.

Baldacci went on to talk about libraries and the huge role they played in his development as a person and a reader:

I take support of libraries very seriously. You know, I tell people to support them, cherish them, fund them because, once you don't, they could very well one day go away. And they're too important to what we are as a country and who we are as a people. . . .

My wife and I got behind a movement and helped build a public library here in our own community. Filling a place with books and walking in and seeing these ideas on a shelf is just the coolest thing in the world. We're a nation that's built on that type of concept, and we're a nation of libraries. And that's something we have to keep and hold dear.

Baldacci not only has helped build libraries but he has gotten personally involved by serving on library boards for the state of Virginia and for the Library of Congress.

I can't tell you what a pleasure it was to get a chance to talk with David Baldacci. I admire his talent and ability to tell an action-packed story to readers of all ages, and I'm very impressed with his advocacy work with literary programs and libraries.

For more on David Balacci, visit his website and Facebook page and follow him on Twitter. Don't forget to click through to the Wish You Well foundation and the Feeding Body & Mind website and see how you can help promote a country of readers.

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Celebrating The Book Thief Movie: A Talk with Author Markus Zusak

Earlier this fall I was given the exciting opportunity to be part of a group interview with Markus Zusak, author of the multi-award-winning novel The Book Thief. He graciously answered our questions about his book, the newly released motion picture based on it, and his life as a reader and writer.

In celebration of the movie The Book Thief, which opens in theaters nationwide on November 15, I want to share Markus's thoughts about the process of transforming his powerful book from print to screen.

The Book Thief is an emotionally strong story all on its own, but its effect on the reader was enhanced by the particular way the words were presented on the page: from the formation of the paragraphs to the size of the margins and the surprise of the artwork. I was curious how the impact of the unique design of the book would be captured by the fluid medium of film.

Markus Zusak: Every visual aspect of the book is something that I concerned myself [with] when I was writing it. . . . It's really nice that you mentioned just the way even the words are set on the page. I always wanted gaps between the paragraphs in certain ways because I wanted every little paragraph to almost be a story of its own. So [they] all add up to one big story, and a lot of little pictures that add up to one big picture.

I think, for me, the best thing I can say [about changing the medium] is I was really comfortable handing the material over to Brian [Percival], the director. . . . I hoped that the film [would] be different from the book in a whole lot of ways. But I think it'll have the same heart. And . . ., as the writer of the book, you can't really ask for any more than that.

Many of my fellow interviewers were curious whether Death would have a part in The Book Thief movie, seeing that his perspective is so important in the book.

MZ: I can definitely say that Death will narrate the film, just as happens in the book. I haven't seen the film yet. I just want to pay the respect to the producers and Brian [Percival, the director] to see it when it's 100 percent. . . . I'm just as curious [as you are] about how Death is going to make his mark on the story just the way he does in the book. So we'll see what happens.

Although Markus did not write the screenplay or see the dailies or first cuts of The Book Thief movie, he did have some input with the writer (Michael Petroni) and the producers. In particular, they discussed which scenes from the book Markus could live without seeing on the big screen. He was philosophical about these kinds of changes.

MZ: You've only got couple of hours [for a movie], whereas in a book, you can kind of keep writing forever. And that's the luxury of being an author I think. . . . As a writer of novels, you're going to have a bit more room to sort of go on tangents and just to move around a little bit more, whereas I feel like it's a lot more constricting in a film, just mainly because of time.

When I read The Book Thief, I thought one of the major themes was the power of reading and the power of words and just how far-reaching the effects of what people say to each other can be. I asked Markus if he thought this theme was still an important part of the film. [Note: I understood that although Markus hadn't seen the movie at the time of the interview he had read at least one version of the screenplay.]

MZ: Some colleagues of mine from Knopf or from Random House, all really trusted people I know, have seen a rough cut of the movie. A publisher [who was] there wrote to me and said, ". . . the film is magnificent. It's all about the words. It's really about the words."

Markus was understandably happy to hear this "affirmation of what we're going to see."

When asked about his thoughts about how the actors will be able to convey the internal thoughts of his characters, Markus was enthusiastically optimistic, commenting particularly on Emily Watson, who plays Rosa Hubermann:

MZ: I think [Watson will] be absolutely be perfect. She'll be brilliant. . . . I saw the international trailer, [which] is quite different from the one here. I think you see more of [Watson] in that. I looked at her, and I thought, "I bet she's going to be, as I expected, just totally amazing."

By now, I'm sure Markus Zusak has seen the film. I'm confident that his (and our) expectations have been more than met.

Thanks to Markus for taking the time to talk to us and to Twentieth-Century Fox for asking me to participate in the interview. I can't tell you what a thrill it was to meet Markus through the phone lines and how warm and kind he was to all of us.

Take a look at the beautiful trailer for the movie version of The Book Thief:

Can't get enough of The Book Thief movie? Be sure to visit the official website, like The Book Thief movie on Facebook, like author Markus Zusak on Facebook, and follow @BookThiefMovie on Twitter.

Thanks to Fox studios and for the movie stills that appear in this post (click images to see them full size). All right are retained by the original copyright holders.

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Going Public . . . In Shorts with Narrator John Lee (June Is Audiobook Month)

You must know by now that June is Audiobook Month (#JIAM2013, for those of you on Twitter). To help celebrate the month, I'm thrilled to be involved with the Going Public Project, which has put together an audiobook of short stories. All proceeds From this Spoken Freely project will go the Reach Out and Read literacy advocacy organization.

Every day in June, one or two of these stories (in the public domain) will be released on the Going Public blog as well on other blogs in the book blog community. Each story is free for listening (no downloads) for one week. On June 30, in collaboration with Blackstone Audio, the entire collection will be available for download via Downpour.

To find out when each story will be released and which narrator is reading it, check out the Going Public site. Jeffrey Kafer and SpringBrook Audio did the engineering and mastering and f power design did the graphic design. Blackstone Audio is the publisher. A huge thank you goes to project coordinator and executive producer Xe Sands.

I can't tell you how happy I was to be teamed up with veteran narrator John Lee for the Going Public . . . In Shorts project. I have spent many an hour with John as he's accompanied me on my walks and entertained me in my kitchen. No, I've never met him, but I know his voice well.



For Going Public . . . In Shorts, John read "Eveline" by James Joyce. To hear the story for free, just hit the play button above and be transported to Joyce's Dublin. To learn more about John Lee and what's it's like to be an audiobook narrator, listen in on our conversation:

Beth Fish Reads (BFR): We've never met, but I feel as if I'd know your voice anywhere, considering that I've had you in my head (earbuds) for almost 200 hours over the years. When you're recording a book, do you feel the pressure from repeat listeners' expectations for another stellar performance?

John Lee (JL): I do worry that people will either get tired of listening to me or will realize that I am not particularly good at certain kinds of books. I find myself thinking either that I should be sure to sound just like I did on the last book or thinking I should vary this a little because surely people are tired of me by now. Fortunately the sheer concentration it takes to narrate prevents me from thinking too deeply. Or maybe that's just my lack of intellectual depth.

BFR: You've recorded quite a variety of genres, although I'm most familiar with your narrations of historical fiction. Do you have a favorite genre for recording audiobooks? Is it different from what you might pick up for your personal reading?

JL: My personal reading consists almost entirely of nonfiction. If I did not narrate audiobooks I would probably never read anything fictional. This is just a function of my obsession with history, not any reflection on the quality of fiction. There are certain writers I love revisiting that I read when I was younger. Dickens, Conrad, Lawrence. I like the sort of history books that inject real personality. Ben Macintyre, whose books include Double Cross and The Napoleon of Crime, is an expert at this. Though I love nonfiction the best discovery I have made in narrating is Orhan Pahmuk, the Turkish Nobel Laureate. His books are wonderful, real gems. I always recommend them.

BFR: I'm a full-time professional book editor, and I turned to audiobooks in the late 1980s because, after reading all day for work, I needed to rest my eyes. Plus, I often silently edit when I'm reading. Do you have similar issues? When reading for pleasure do you begin to create voices for the characters or think about pacing and volume?

JL: Oh, yes. All the time. I now create voices in my head not just for my own amusement but in a way that I feel would be appropriate for a listener. I find myself thinking—You know, the writer really could have made that paragraph easier to read aloud. I find myself thinking that the writing is awkward because it's not easily read aloud when it might well be a perfectly lovely line as it sits on the page. I sometimes wonder if writers look at their work and think it looks lovely on the page. Perhaps they write in such a way as to shape their paragraphs nicely.

BFR: You've mostly recorded solo performances but in some cases, The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society comes to mind, you've been part of a collaboration. Can you talk a little bit about the pros and cons of working alone vs. working with others?

JL: The first difficulty with multicast productions is pronunciation. The first person to complete their part gets to tell everyone else how things are pronounced. The English have so many ways of pronouncing so many things that we all have to contort ourselves if a different pronunciation from our "normal" pronunciation is used. Trying to match at least the tone of another actor's interpretation of a character is quite difficult. I imagine that multicast projects are fun for listeners, and I try to make sure that the differences between narrators are not so glaring as to take people out of the flow of the book.

BFR: I'm sure you're asked this all the time, but I'm curious. What happens if you have to narrate a book you're not enjoying. I know that as an editor, sometimes that makes my job easier; when I'm less caught up in the story, I can more easily concentrate on the editorial issues. But what about for an audiobook narrator?

JL: My father was a construction carpenter. He made what Americans call "forms," what the English and Irish call "shuttering," the forms into which concrete is poured to make a foundation or a wall or a post. My father oversaw the pouring of more concrete than anyone outside of the Grand Coulee Dam. He helped build some of the ugliest buildings I've ever seen. However, those ugly buildings will stand as long as the elegant structures he helped build. He never asked why the building had to be so ugly, he just made sure it would stand up and stay up. I have the same attitude to narrating books. First of all, my dad might not have been a good judge of architecture and I might not be a good judge of a book. I write myself, plays and screenplays, so I know how hard it is to write anything, even bad work, so I have nothing but admiration for someone who can write a novel or a historical work and convince people who know books better than I do that it's worth publishing. Each writer deserves the best we can give him or her. Of course, it's a lot easier to narrate a book I enjoy. I do wonder sometimes if my attitude to a book comes across in the narration.

BFR: As an avid audiobook listener, one thing I always appreciate is when a narrator hits that sweet spot of adding emotion, drama, tension, and characterizations to a novel while at the same time leaving me space to form my own connections and reactions. Is that something you consciously strive for or is that a just part of the job?

JL: It's always what I strive for. It's similar to being on stage and doing just enough to tell an audience what they need to know while letting them come to their own conclusions or get that laugh without being pushed or find those tears without being forced. It's the trickiest part of the process.

BFR: Finally, I have another question that I bet audiobook narrators are often asked. What kind of research do you do when the book you're narrating contains a number of foreign words or regional cities or towns that might have a distinct pronunciation? In some cases, how do you even know that a town name (Cairo, Georgia, comes to mind) might not be pronounced as it's spelled?

JL: Two parts to this answer. Let's say I am reading a book set in Sweden. I come across the city of Gothenburg. I know, of course that this is pronounced Goth-un-berg. However, I decide to look it up. In fact it is pronounced Got-a-burr-ya. Now, if it's a Swede speaking it must be pronounced in this way. However, can we get away with saying Gothenberg for the sake of the non-Swedish listener? It's a dance between accuracy and reality. Back when I started narrating you had to look all these things up in books or call someone in Cairo, Georgia, and ask them how they say the name. Google has saved us all a lot of time. Who those people are who take time out to record all these words I have no idea but I thank them. There is a difference, too, if I am working with a director. The director will also have pronunciation research.

The part of research that is more difficult ultimately comes down to skill as a narrator, but the narrator does need to know something about the context of a given book. I mentioned Orhan Pahmuk, not just a Turkish writer but, very specifically, an Istanbul writer. It helps my reading if I know something about Turkey, about Kemal Ataturk, the military junta that ruled there, something about Turkish Islam. I won't be able to convey all that to a listener but it adds something very important to my narration, something intangible.

BFR: Thanks so much for taking the time to talk with me, John. I learned quite a bit about what's it's like to be the person on the other side of the mic. I'm particularly amazed by all the decisions that must be made about pronunciations, whether foreign words, names of cities, or matching other performers on a multicast project. I also want to thank you for giving me so many, many hours of pleasure when I've listened to books you've narrated.

More about John Lee (the most evil man in the world?): His voice can be heard in MTV’s Aeon Flux, as Trevor Goodchild, the most evil man in the world: in HBO’s Spawn, as Jason Wynn, the most evil man in the world, and in Jet Li's The Black Mask he dubbed the voice of Commander Hung, the most evil man in the world. He also provided the voice for Meier, the conflicted vampire in Vampire Hunter D and worked on Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke.

John’s voice can be heard all over the gaming world, in Final Fantasy, The Mists of Avalon, Warhawk, Ninja Scrolls, Blackjack, and Everquest.

His book narration continues apace. In 2007 he recorded the monumental World Without End, Ken Follet’s sequel to the equally grand Pillars of the Earth, which John recorded in 2006. He has been lucky enough to read the remarkable works of Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk and Philip Kerr’s wonderfully researched detective novels set in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. He has not quite recovered from narrating James Joyce’s Ulysses but hopes that large quantities of stout will solve that problem.

For more about Going Public . . . In Shorts, visit yesterday's host The Guilded Earlobe and tomorrow's host Jen's Book Thoughts.

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Safe Haven Movie Set Visit: Part 2 and Giveaway

Last week, in Safe Haven Movie Set Visit: Part 1, I took you through a visual tour of my August 2012 visit to the North Carolina setting of the movie Safe Haven, which comes out on February 14 and stars Josh Duhamel, Julianne Hough, David Lyons, and Cobie Smulders

Today, I want to concentrate on author/producer Nicholas Sparks. During the course of the trip, we had four formal opportunities to talk with Mr. Sparks and rather than simply provide you with a disjointed transcript, I plan to focus on three principal topics: the film, the setting, and the writing.

First, I want to stress how much I enjoyed meeting Nicholas Sparks. He's an easygoing, down-to-earth guy with no pretensions. Almost from the first moment you meet him, Sparks makes you feel as if he were a good friend. If you look at the photos I posted last week, you can see how comfortable he is. The photos from the movie Safe Haven shown here are courtesy of the studio (click to enlarge).

Book to Film: As we all know, a movie made from a novel invariably deviates from the book's plot. And this is also the case with Safe Haven. Sparks gave us a few clues of some of those changes and explained why such differences must occur. He stressed repeatedly that print and film are two quite different media, and what he has 30 or 40 pages to explore in a book, the screenwriters have only a few minutes to demonstrate. Thus sometimes plot points have to be changed. As Sparks noted:

It is a different kind of thinking. You have to be able to capture things. It's the picture first. And if you have a scene of introspection that you can't capture in a quick picture, sometimes you have to invent things or put things in or take things out to make it work. That’s just the nature of it.

In addition to subtly changing some of the scenes, long narrative sections of Safe Haven (or any book to film) have to be projected to the audience by the emotions displayed by the actors. Sparks went on to say:

A novel is a story told in words. A film is a story told in pictures. You’re trying to get these pictures to fill in all that introspection that I could do and you don't have a lot of time. You really need . . . quality performances that make you say, "I know who that person is. I relate to them. And I'm going to root for them by the end of the film."

Sparks was more than satisfied that all three stars (Duhael, Hough, and Lyons) conveyed the emotional impact of Safe Haven, giving the audience characters to root for and to boo.

North Carolina: If you've read Nicholas Sparks's novels, then you already know that they all take place in eastern North Carolina. Sparks is partial to the area not only because that's where he lives but because he loves the small towns, where everyone looks out for one another and where kids can grow up safe. He said:

The reason I write about this place is that not too many people write about eastern North Carolina and eastern North Carolina is very different because it's all small towns. It is a different way of life here than it is in other places, all small towns.

He went on to talk about the strong sense of community, the beauty of the water, the friendliness, the history, and even the abundance of live oaks. He noted that although his books take place in the state, they have not all been filmed there. Regardless, he had been wanting to shoot a film in Southport, North Carolina, for years, and Safe Haven was the lucky movie that won the location. Here's what he told us:

I mean, I think this is one of the most beautiful towns. Ten years ago, I was here for the filming of A Walk to Remember. I remember walking down here and I said, "I have to find a book for this place one day."

Thus Safe Haven fulfilled one of Sparks's dreams.

Sparks as an Author: Nicholas Sparks has a unique way of starting all his novels. He knows from the beginning that the story will involve "love and something." So the first two decisions he makes are the age of his main characters and the extra:

We all know that [one of my books will be] love and something. . . . You can have love and mystery, love and forgiveness, love and loss, first love, right? You can have all these things. [Safe Haven] was love and danger. I chose love and danger because it'd been a long time since I'd [written about that].

The next thing Sparks works out is how make his story fresh and stay believable. Some of those decisions are based on the age of this characters and the "something" that adds to the story. In addition, he likes to write to a wide audience, so some readers might be drawn to the central issue of the book, whereas others will be attracted to the love story or to the friendships. But he is always looking for a different approach. Sparks gave us several examples, including this:

What you're looking for is three things. You're looking for things to be interesting, original, and universal. That goes to the theme of the story, the journeys of the character, but also the specific elements in the book. For example, one of the questions I always have to answer is, "What's an interesting, original, universal way for the characters to meet and come together?"

As for the central issue of Safe Haven--and for all his novels, for that matter--Sparks was quick to point out that he doesn't have a particular agenda. Instead he wants to explore personal growth and how one moves beyond adversity or learns to accept and cope when life gives us sorrow:

What I'm trying to do more is to say that, if there's any message at all (and I don't write any messages), . . . [is] that [a single issue] doesn't define you entirely. It's one part of your life. But most importantly, parts you can change. I'm an author. But, I'm also a father, right? I also work out a lot, I also have brothers, I have friends. So, which one am I? You know, you're not just one thing.

The two central people in Safe Haven are also multidimensional individuals who have several roles, and author Nicholas Sparks couldn't be happier with the way actors Duhamel and Hough have made it easy for audiences to connect with them and to hope that their characters can learn to grow, change, and trust.

Of course Sparks talked about many other things, such as his experiences as an audiobook narrator, his answer to his most-asked question (Are you the most romantic guy on the planet?), his writing process, and his favorite scenes in the movie. Those stories will have to wait for another day.

The Giveaway. Now at last the long-awaiting giveaway. Thanks to Big Honcho Media (and I have lots to thank them for), I am able to offer one of my readers who lives in the United States a chance to win tickets to the film Safe Haven and a copy of the movie tie-in edition of the novel. One winner will receive $25 in Fandango Bucks (like a gift card you can redeem online at Fandango.com to buy your tickets) and one copy of the book. All you have to do to enter for a chance to win is to fill out the form. I'll pick a winner, using a random-number generator on February 14, the day the movie Safe Haven opens in theaters.



Good luck! And look for Safe Haven to open in theaters next week. If you want to stay current on the movie's doings, you have plenty of opportunity. Check out the Safe Haven Facebook Page or follow them on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest.

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Weekend Cooking: Review/Interview: The Mom 100 Cookbook by Katie Workman

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.

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Welcome to a special edition of Weekend Cooking. Today I'm going to introduce you to my new favorite cookbook. I've owned Katie Workman's The Mom 100 Cookbook for only a few weeks, but I've cooked out it so often, I'm not sure it's left the kitchen.

Instead of a conventional review, I'm thrilled to tell you about the book through a short interview I did with Katie. I know she's terribly busy with her book tour, so I'm especially grateful that she took the time to talk to us about The Mom 100 Cookbook.

Before I get to the interview, I want to say a couple of things about the fresh, fun design of the cookbook. I know I've said this a million times, but I think the Workman Publishing cookbook designers are the best, and they did a fabulous job with Katie's book. The photographs are stunning, the colors are appetizing, and the sidebars and fonts catch your eye, inviting you to stop a moment to read and learn. Because I wanted to share the design with you, I scanned one of the recipes we liked instead of typing it out.

Now let's get to the heart of the post. Say hello to cookbook author Katie Workman and listen in while we chat about The Mom 100 Cookbook.

Beth Fish Reads (BFR): The Mom 100 Cookbook is full of useful information that is just perfect for the new cook or anyone who appreciates a little help in the kitchen. Almost every recipe comes with cooking tips, explanations of techniques, serving suggestions, and storage information. Timid cooks will be forever grateful for your longer boxes that talk about equipment, ethnic ingredients, terminology, and food safety. How did you know what kinds of information to provide to your readers? Did you pay attention to questions you asked yourself or were asked by your recipe testers?

Katie Workman (KW): We have so many friends over for meals, and I get asked all kinds of questions, and people always share their kitchen and cooking frustrations with me. And then if a less-confident cook is with me in the kitchen, he or she is often asking, "Why did you do that?" "What are you adding from that can?" So over the years I've gotten a feeling for what kind of information is helpful, and I try to present it in a conversational way, because that's actually how I am usually sharing it.

BFR: Your cookbook has three features that will make it a favorite with real-life families. These are the variations, vegetarian options, and "Fork in the Road." I know busy cooks will turn to your advice time and again when they want to cook a single meal that will appeal to everyone in the group. Can you explain the "Fork in the Road" idea and just how helpful this idea is to the family cook?

KW: The "Fork in the Road" concept is the idea that you can prepare a meal up to a certain point, then separate some of it out, leaving it plainer and simpler for the pickier eaters at the table. Then you continue on with the recipe, adding more flavors, spices, maybe some heat, so that the rest of the dish is more fully seasoned for the more adventurous eaters. Of course you want to encourage the kids to try some of the more flavorful version, and hopefully they'll be ready to give it a go the next time round, but this allows everyone to essentially share the same meal (which feels more like a family dinner), doesn't turn you into a short order cook, and keeps you out of the chicken nugget trap.

BFR: Another aspect of your cookbook that makes it a winner is that you use real ingredients, real food, and a variety of flavors. You don't shy away from canned beans and tomatoes or no-boil lasagna noodles, but you stress fresh veggies whenever practical. What types of dishes, cooking techniques, or flavors help kids eat their vegetables?

KW: Sautéing vegetables in a little bit of butter or olive oil, then steaming them in water to turn the bit of butter into a light glaze is a great technique. Topping tacos with veggies, letting your kids help you put together a vegetable bin soup from whatever you have on hand or picked up at the market, working some veggies into dishes like quesadillas or wraps, all of this works. Roasting is also a great method for cooking vegetables, since the high heat plus a bit of olive oil caramelizes the natural sugars in vegetables, giving them a richness and slight sweetness.

BFR: I'm a strong believer in the idea that if kids help make the food, they'll be more inclined to eat it, so I love your tips called "What the Kids Can Do." Your sense of humor and obvious experience with being in the kitchen with children really shine through. Are either of your sons turning out to be a natural chef?

KW: Both my kids have an interest in the kitchen, and both have been mostly intrigued when I shove my control-mom impulses to one side and let them be inventive. Jack once made pear muffins that were truly delicious, and Charlie has created a house dish called Charlie's Olive Percenter, which are eggs scrambled with sliced pimento-stuffed olives, topped with slices of cucumber. Delicious. The baking soda muffins were less successful.

BFR: Despite your tricks and tips, what types of foods or flavors are still a hard sell for your children?

KW: Fish is the albatross of most parents. Charlie used to really like fish, and Jack was not interested . . . then Jack started to like it and I thought we were almost in the clear, and Charlie started to be pickier about it. Now it's better, but still very much hit or miss, completely mercurial. And Charlie hates scallops--I was making them recently and he asked me if from now on I would only make them when he was out at a sleepover so he wouldn't have to smell them.

BFR: Although the title of your book is The Mom 100 Cookbook, it could just as easily be called the "Working Person's Cookbook." I don't cook for children, but I find myself turning to your recipes time and again. Most of my readers struggle with putting a meal on the table after a very busy day. Which two recipes from the book are your go-to meals when you're too tired to fuss?

KW: First, of all, thanks. And yes, absolutely, some nights it's about speed more than anything else. The Fresh Mozzarella Pasta casserole is the simplest and fastest recipe in the book, I think. And I almost always have the ingredients for the Mexican Tortilla Casserole in the pantry, and it comes together in a snap.

BFR: Finally, I have to ask: What's on the menu for tonight's dinner?

KW: Last night was pork ribs and chicken noodle matzoh ball soup. Possibly one of the few times these two foods have appeared at the same meal. Tonight we are going to DC to visit my sister's family, and we are taking our kids on a long ago-promised trip to Dave and Buster's so I'm quite sure there will be nachos and fries involved.

Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to us, Katie. I was so pleased to see that the Mexican Tortilla Casserole was one of your go-to recipes for a couple of reasons. First, that's one I've made a couple of times already, and it's a big hit. Second, that's the recipe I planned to share with my readers.

Before I get to the scans, I wanted to let all of you know that Katie Workman is the founding editor-in-chief of the site Cookstr.com, where you can find wonderful cookbook recipes. And don't miss visiting Katie's The Mom 100 Cookbook site. There you'll find videos, tips, and other great information about the book.

Now onto the recipe. To read the recipe, click the images to enlarge (you may have to click a second time to read them clearly), and you'll see just how quickly you'll fall in love with this cookbook. Here's an additional tip for the Mexican Tortilla Casserole. I used 10-inch tortillas because they fit my springform pan better than the 8-inch tortillas. I made the recipe exactly as directed. The only difference was that my stack was a little shorter. Enjoy!

Vegetarian/Vegan alert: Vegetarians will find many recipes to try, including the one I scanned. Vegans should look through the cookbook before buying.

Buy The Mom 100 Cookbook at an Indie, at Powell's, at Book Depository, or at bookstore near you. These links lead to affiliate programs
Published by Workman Publishing, 2012
ISBN-13: 9780761166030
Rating: A
Source: Review (see review policy)
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy)

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Thursday Tea: A Conversation with Author Sarah McCoy

You've already read, were planning to read, already own, or are planning to buy multiple copies of Sarah McCoy's The Baker's Daughter, right? Let me tell you right now, this novel is one of my recent favorites. I loved the characters, the settings, and especially the rhythms and aromas of the bakeries.

Just in case you've missed the premise of Sarah's new novel, here's part of the publisher's summary:

In 1945, Elsie Schmidt is a naive teenager, as eager for her first sip of champagne as she is for her first kiss. She and her family have been protected from the worst of the terror and desperation overtaking her country by a high-ranking Nazi who wishes to marry her. So when an escaped Jewish boy arrives on Elsie’s doorstep in the dead of night on Christmas Eve, Elsie understands that opening the door would put all she loves in danger.

Sixty years later, in El Paso, Texas, Reba Adams is trying to file a feel-good Christmas piece for the local magazine. . . . [Her] latest assignment has brought her to the shop of an elderly baker across town. The interview should take a few hours at most, but the owner of Elsie’s German Bakery is no easy subject. . . . As Elsie [and] Reba's . . . lives become more intertwined, [they] are forced to confront the uncomfortable truths of the past and seek out the courage to forgive.

In honor of the recent release of The Baker's Daughter and in keeping with a Thursday tradition here at Beth Fish Reads, I've invited Sarah over for a chat and tea party. We both baked plenty of goodies, so I hope you'll pull up a chair, pour yourself a mug of tea, grab a pastry, and join in the fun.

Beth Fish Reads: Welcome to Beth Fish Reads, Sarah. Sit right down and we'll have a little something to nibble on while we sip our peppermint tea, just like Reba (p. 74).

Sarah McCoy: Why thank you, Candace, I do fancy a good cup of tea and nibbles.

BFR: There are so many aspects of your wonderful The Baker's Daughter that I want to talk about, I'm not sure where to start. Your characters were very real to me, not just Reba and Elsie but also their families and friends. One thing that struck me was that, although the two women came of age in very different times and a half a world away from each other, they are quite similar. They're both survivors, neither is afraid of hard work, and they're both people who question. Did you grow up in an atmosphere that encouraged you to question your government, your parents, and the general beliefs of society?

SM: First off, I’m thrilled the characters spoke to you and you identified so strongly with them. They are quite real to me, too. It’s as if we’re chatting about mutual friends, not just characters in a novel.

Now, to your very good question about my own upbringing: I didn’t necessarily grow up in an atmosphere that encouraged questioning of authority. In fact, one might even say the opposite was true. I am the daughter of a career Army officer. So authority was always championed and honored. We lived on a military post for years where to enter the installation, you had to show your military ID to guards with rifles slung across their chest. “Authority” wasn’t an idea to be question. It was tangible in my everyday reality. All that being said, my parents are also very spiritual and raised us to believe that there is a greater power than any human or governing precedent. There is the law of man and there is the law of goodness and love. They often go hand-in-hand, but we were taught by example that if a disparity ever arose, the latter always trumped the former. So I guess my answer is yes and no. I grew up in a home where I was encouraged to respect the world’s laws but be accountable to more.

BFR: I think that's a great way to be: respectful but not a lemming.

Although I lived in northern Arizona for a few years in the 1970s, I was oblivious to illegal immigration issues. I don't know if that's from my own self-absorption or if Mexican immigration took a backseat to Watergate and the gas crisis, headline news of the day. Of course immigration is at the top of political rhetoric these days, but it doesn't affect my daily life here in central Pennsylvania. Are the issues of illegal border crossings a constant in your life in El Paso? Do people talk about U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers and policies or is it too divisive to bring up in casual conversation?

SM: Oh, no, it’s as normal as apple pie—or I guess churros might be a better analogy. There’s a Border Protection truck that drives along the irrigation ditch behind my house at least once a week. I’ve almost taken to waving to him. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection is simply a part of the landscape here. Watching some of the evening news (CNN, Fox or what have you), it seems the gentlefolk in Washington, D.C. get more riled up about the topic than most borderland (El Paso–Juarez) residents. For us, we’re just neighbors—just people trying to get by day to day, make a living, feed our families, take the kids to school, get cough medicine for relatives, pay for gas . . . same as folks in Pennsylvania, I’m sure.

Most of the billboards on El Paso’s Interstate-10 are in Spanish and if you stop at a fast-food restaurant, you’ll probably have more trouble ordering in English than if you habla español. The fact that so-in-so three doors down is from Mexico is . . . well, not really any of my business. Is he here legally? Hope so, for his sake. But what if he isn’t? Well, then I bet he’s more worried about it than we, his neighbors, are. The lines are blurred between cultural and national identities, and it’s all too difficult to tell.

So that might not sound very politically correct, and I’m praying I don’t get hammered for it, but my book isn’t about politics. I’m no politician, and it’d be my personal nightmare to step a toe into the political realm. It’s not my calling. I write fiction. I write through the eyes of characters and simply relay their perspective. That’s the beauty of books. They are for you, the readers, to interpret as relevant or not, based on your own beliefs. For me, the pain and needless suffering of people entangled in this illegal immigration “issue” is what weighs on my conscience and keeps me up at night. But again, that’s my subjective response.

BFR: Oh I totally understand what you mean about separating fiction and what your characters say and do from your personal life. How crazy it'd be to think that every issue brought up in a novel was part of the author's own agenda. But The Baker's Daughter certainly made me think.

You spent at least part of your childhood in Germany but consider Virginia your home and now live in Texas; The Baker's Daughter has roots in all three locations. In addition, you have strong ties to the military thanks to your father and husband. One principal theme in your novel is the conflict some characters have between their personal beliefs and obeying the laws of their country and doing their duty. Others blindly accept what their government tells them, and still others hold strict to their own sense of human rights, despite personal danger. Among the obvious differences between being an officer in Hitler's Germany and being a USCBP officer today is the idea of choice. How did your personal experiences in Germany and Texas help inform those differences between Josef and Riki?

SM: I’ll be honest, all of my memories and experiences in Germany are rimmed in sugar crystals. However, history clearly portrays a bitter and sinister alter ego. So I suppose I was much like all of my characters—torn between feeling and fact as I wrote the novel. Having spent a good amount of time in the German community, I’ve experienced the jovial, beloved aspects of their culture and seen glimpses of the dark side. But then . . . isn’t that true of us all? The same goes for the Tex–Mex border. On one side of the line, there’s fancy boots, barbeque, and “everything is bigger in Texas,” while on the other, people live in shanties, burn their trash to stay warm in the winter and collapse from heat and hunger in the summer.

It makes you slap your forehead. Because it’s a line. Yes, a very important line but a line nonetheless. And those are people over there—breathing, feeling, hurting, loving, and dreaming. What their birth certificates state as nationality has no bearing on the worth of their lives. Only their legacies and God can make that proclamation. Here again, however, is where I’m reminded that these are my personal beliefs. Part of the greatness of our nation is that we are afforded the right to those without penalty—that wasn’t the case for citizens in WWII Germany.

BFR: It's so easy to forget that when talk about a huge historical or political event that we're talking about individuals. And each person is different and has different fears and motivations. You can't paint a whole nation with one brush.

I'm curious about the German attitude toward U.S. soldiers at the end of the war. In France, the Netherlands, and Belgium, Allied forces were cheered and citizens opened their hearts and homes to their liberators. In Germany, of course, things were different. Citizens didn't know what to expect from either the foreigners or their own desperate military, who knew they would soon be forced to justify their actions. Elsie, for a number of reasons, saw the U.S. soldiers as her personal liberators. Not everyone in her household had the same attitude. In The Baker's Daughter the GIs were respectful of the Schmidt family's bakery, and the soldiers were friendly with the townspeople. Was that common throughout Germany or were there generally more hostilities on both sides?

SM: This is where I had to rely on the documents and stories told by survivors aided by my imagination. Of course there was much hostility on both sides and many accounts of some U.S. soldiers being terribly harsh to the German people, which, to a certain degree, is understandable. I very much doubt I would be smiling and befriending townspeople after A) we just took their country by military force and B) I was made aware of the Jewish atrocities. No, ma’am. That would be extremely difficult. However, over and over, I heard accounts of U.S. soldiers not just befriending but falling in love and marrying Germans.

This, in fact, is what incited Elsie’s narrative. I was at a German Christkindlmarkt and purchased a loaf of Stollen from an elderly German woman. In casual conversation as I fished dollar bills out of my purse, I asked how and when she came “all the way out here” to El Paso. She said she married an American soldier just after the war and moved with him. It was as if lightning struck and branded me with Elsie’s entire story. I took up my German bread, left the bazaar, and never saw her again. Yet I see her every time I pick up a copy of The Baker’s Daughter. She is very much a part of Elsie’s spirit.

Hmm . . . I’m not sure if that directly answered your original question, but I hope it spoke to it somewhat.

BFR: Ha! This is conversation, not a pop quiz, you can talk about whatever you want. I have had several friends who have German mothers. They, like Elsie, fell in love with a U.S. soldier and made a new life in America. How difficult that must have been for them, just like for Elsie.

I know you like to cook and bake. Now that you live in the United States again, do you still miss European breads and baked goods? What is with Americans? Why isn't there a fabulous bakery and coffee shop (I'm not talking about national chains or cupcake shops) on every corner? The thing I miss most about Europe and the U.K. and about not living in a U.S. city with major ethnic enclaves is the family-owned bakery with the glass cases full of beautiful pastries, tarts, croissants, buns, crusty breads, and . . . well you get the picture. Is there such a bakery in El Paso or is Elsie's German Bakery just a dream?

SM: Amen, amen, amen! Bakeries in Europe are like 7/11s here—there’s one on every corner! Little mom and pop shops selling homemade breads with a cup of coffee or tea. As you pointed out, they aren’t simply in major metropolitan areas like our Au Bon Pains or Starbucks shops. They’re nestled into the neighborhoods—residential homes and businesses overlapping— so that whole streets smells like heaven. Usually there’s a meat and cheese shop next door. It’s like that nursery rhyme: the butcher, the baker, the candlestick-maker. And they’ve all been neighbors for generations. It’s magical.

I happened to have the opportunity to experience this kind of setting at the beginning of my marriage. My husband and I lived in an apartment above a mother and daughter-run bakery in Norfolk, Virginia. Particularly on rainy days, they’d bake up a storm and our whole apartment smelled of cinnamon, vanilla, sugar, and butter. No need for a scented candle! It was delicious. So I certainly used those memories to conjure the sensory descriptions.

In El Paso, we have a handful of lovely bakeries that I’ve frequented on occasion. Many of them are Mexican and bake the most unique confections I’ve ever seen. Of course, there are German bakeries. That’s where I cultivated Reba’s storyline. When I first moved to El Paso, I was asked to write a feature article for the city magazine about the German community. I went to Marina’s German Bakery to interview the staff, poke around the kitchen, meet the owner, Herr Michael Groemling, and chat with faithful patrons. I also took home quite a bit of brötchen, sesame see rolls, farmer’s bread and other items. My husband thought he’d died and gone back to Garmisch.

BFR: Oh no! I feel the need to get baking. I bet it was wonderful to live above a bakery. Sigh . . . Oh, yeah, let me ask you one more question: If I came to your house for a weekend, what kinds of foods and drink would we be indulging in? What fun it would be to share a kitchen with you.

SM: You, my dear, have an open invitation. We’ve been friends for many months now. You’ve had my peppers in your kitchen, on your table and your taste buds. We’ve shared stories of our husbands, our cooking, our love of pajamas, tea, and books. I feel as if I’ve known you for years, and I’m grateful to the Twitter-verse for bringing our stars together.

BFR: Awwww. Now I'm blushing but you know the feeling is mutual.

SM: If you came to my house, we’d most certainly have tea, as we are now. Since we’re having an herbal sip at your house, I’d brew us something rich and dark. A good, stout Bewley’s Irish Afternoon or Breakfast. And while both Reba and Elsie are more “sweets” ladies, I’m a salt lover. I could suck a saltlick and be happy as a toddler with a lolly. So for your visit, I’d probably stuff some roasted peppers with a bit of goat cheese and a sprinkle of sea salt on top. Easy does it, yet so scrumptious!

Oh, and I might make us a batch of kale chips. Just recently, I’ve been infatuated with making them. Have you ever had any? My Twitter friend Julie Klam gave me a recipe and I’m sold—they’re vegetable crack, and I can’t stop myself. I’ve made them ten different ways: garlic kale chips, Italian seasoning kale chips, Parmesan kale chips, chili pepper kale chips, etc. I think my favorite are the simple sea salt with a spritz of butter-flavored non-stick cooking spray. That keeps them light but crispy. I promise to make those on your visit west.

However, on my visit east to Beth Fish Reads, I baked up some pumpkin-cranberry-nut muffins. I apologize that I only have ten in my basket now. My husband gobbled two straight out of the oven and gave them a rave review, so I hope you enjoy too.

BFR: *mumble mumble swallow* Sorry, my mouth was full. Yummy muffins. I love pumpkin and cranberry. They go nicely with the crumb cake I baked in honor of Elsie. And um, wow. I'm packing my bag so we can share some good eats.

SM: One of the magical aspects of this novel is that in a way, we are sharing a kitchen. We’re in The Baker’s Daughter’s kitchen together. When you make Elsie’s “Lebkuchen Hearts” recipe, it’s as if she and I, by virtue of having invented her, are there beside you, measuring, mixing, rolling, laughing, baking and sharing.

BFR: Thanks so much for stopping by, Sarah. I had a great time chatting with you and I hope everyone else did too. Oh, can I just have one more muffin? Mr. BFR would love to have it for breakfast tomorrow.
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Sarah McCoy's The Baker's Daughter is available at a bookstore near you and at an Indie, Powell's, and Book Depository. (These links lead to affiliate programs.) My review of The Baker's Daughter will appear on the SheKnows Book Lounge site later this month.

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Spotlight on . . . Jillian Cantor

Welcome to the Literary Road Trip and my Spotlight on . . . Jillian Cantor. I'm thrilled to be featuring Jillian today for a number of reasons. First, I've have read nothing but glowing reviews of her debut novel, The September Sisters (just check these out). Second, I'm currently reading her second novel, The Life of Glass (see my teaser), and Jillian's writing style truly resonates with me. Finally, she graduated from Penn State, which is just a few miles from my little town; who knows, we may have crossed paths!

Let's get to know Jillian a little better.

Beth Fish Reads (BFR): Both your books deal with loss and are told from the perspective of a young teenage girl. What attracts you to this theme and point of view?

Jillian Cantor (JC): My first book, The September Sisters, really stemmed from this idea I had to think about what my childhood would’ve been like without my sister. I wrote it at a time in my life when we’d just started to become friends (after many years of bickering). I knew The Life of Glass would be the follow-up, as The September Sisters sold in a two-book deal. So when I started coming up with ideas for the second book, I wanted something that could draw to a similar audience as the first one. Also, it was just after my grandfather had died, and so it just felt natural for me at the time to have Melissa dealing with her own loss.

As for the point of view, I feel very comfortable writing in the female first-person voice (whether it be a teenage girl as in my first two YA books, or a 30-something-year old woman as in my upcoming adult book).

BFR: You have wanted to be a writer all your life, but a less-than-wonderful high-school English teacher almost derailed you. How did that experience influence your own teaching style?

JC: Good question! I’m not sure that it did necessarily. I would say that my teaching style has been much more influenced by the good teachers I’ve had and learned from than the horrible ones. Honestly, by this point in my life I’ve blocked out most of that 11th-grade English class (and that teacher), so I can’t say that experience has had much of a lasting impact on my life. On the other hand, I can still vividly remember my amazing 12th-grade AP English teacher and class and the books we read that year.

BFR: I know that you graduated from Penn State, but did you also grow up in Pennsylvania?

JC: Yes, I did! I grew up just outside of Philadelphia, in Bucks County.

BFR: The September Sisters takes place in the Philadelphia suburbs, and although The Life of Glass is set in Arizona, the family travels to Philadelphia for medical treatment. What is the role of place (setting) in your work?

JC: Setting plays a huge role in both books! In The September Sisters, I used so much of my memories of the setting from growing up—from the snow and ice and the snow days to the feel of the neighborhood and the communities. And this setting also reflects a lot of the mood of the book—the frozen world, the cold—it has a lot to do with how Abby and her family are feeling in the aftermath of her sister’s disappearance.

In The Life of Glass, the setting and the landscape of the desert also play a role—mirroring, in a lot of ways, the way Melissa feels about herself and the idea of beauty. The desert, somewhat like Melissa herself, is a place that might not always look stereotypically beautiful, but underneath, it is. The beauty is there—if you know where to look for it.

As for the idea of traveling to Philadelphia in The Life of Glass, I chose that because I wanted it to be somewhere cold, somewhere far away, somewhere completely different than the desert, and, having lived there myself, it always comes to mind as a possibility!

BFR: Do you have any favorite Pennsylvania authors (living or dead)? Or perhaps a favorite literary site in the state?

JC: Two of my favorite YA authors happen to live in Pennsylvania—Beth Kephart and Cecilia Galante!

BFR: Can you tell us a bit about your next project, or is that top secret?

JC: No—it’s not top secret! The next book I have coming out is my first book for adults, and it actually takes place in Pennsylvania, in a fictional suburb of Philadelphia! It’s called The Transformation of Things and is the story of a woman who, after a fall from grace, begins dreaming about her friends and family, only to learn her dreams might be real and the life she thought she knew might all be a lie. It’ll be published by Avon/HarperCollins this coming fall.

I just finished working on a new YA book, that is now out on submission with editors (so cross your fingers for me!). It’s about a girl from Philadelphia who is sent to live with her grandmother in a small town on the US/Mexico border for the summer. The book recounts her summer, where she not only falls in love but also learns that nothing on the border is what is seems.

BFR: When you were an undergraduate at Penn State, where did you hang out? Favorite bar or restaurant? Favorite place to get a cup of coffee and read or write?

JC: Oh! Such a great question!! I have great memories of going to The Corner Room, The Deli, and, on weekend mornings, The Waffle Shop. I didn’t have a laptop in college, so I did all my writing in my dorm room and the apartment, but I do remember on beautiful sunny warm days (of which there weren’t that many), I used to love to lay out on the lawn by the Pollock commons and read a book. I also worked at The Writing Center as a tutor, so I remember spending a lot of time there as well.

Thanks so much Jillian!

_______

I'm always fascinated to see what experiences inform an author's work, it's interesting to see that both personal events and location can have an influence. Okay, I have to say it: I don't know about you, but now I'm not only looking forward to finishing Jillian's current novels but I can't wait for the next two to come out.

And for those of you who have never been to Penn State, let me say that she just named three of my favorite places to get a cup of coffee. You're always bound to see someone you know.

Here are the covers to Jillian's current novels:

Jillian Cantor at an Indie

Jillian Cantor at Powell's
Jillian Cantor at Amazon
These 3 links lead to affiliate programs.

Jillian Cantor received her MFA from The University of Arizona and was the recipient of the national Jacob K. Javits fellowship. Her first novel, The September Sisters, was called "memorable" and "startlingly real" by Publishers Weekly and was nominated as a YALSA Best Book for Young Adults. Her second novel, The Life of Glass, will be available from HarperTeen in February 2010, and her debut novel for adults, The Transformation of Things, will be available from Avon/HarperCollins in Fall 2010. She currently lives in Arizona with her husband and two sons.

Be sure to visit Jillian's website to learn more about her and her work.


For more posts in the Literary Road Trip project, visit the LRT link page. Thanks to Michelle of GalleySmith for hosting this fabulous project.

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