Interview with Anita Silvey, Children's Book A Day Almanac

Today on Kid Lit Frenzy, I am welcoming Anita Silvey whose Children's Book-A-Day Almanac is the one blog that I check out daily no matter what.  I love the book reviews, fun facts, and events in children's literature.  One day I hope to meet this amazing woman in real life, share a meal, and talk books for hours.  Until then, I will have to settle for a virtual chats and interviews.

For people who might not be familiar with Children's Book-A-Day Almanac, can you tell us a little bit about how and why you created it?

The idea for the Children’s Book-A-Day Almanac was proposed to me by my Editor at Roaring Brook, Simon Boughton. He thought it would be a creative way for me to recommend the best books to teachers, parents, librarians, booksellers, and those who love children’s books. Like a regular Almanac, it is organized around the calendar. For each day of the year, I talk about a book and what makes it special and sometimes tell the story behind its creation. Essentially each essay is a love letter to a book or person. Readers can and, thankfully, do comment – often discussing their own experiences with the book. On a side bar I note other events of the day -- authors’ birthdays or historic events--and link them to other books people might want to use.

You have been reading and writing about Children's Books/Children's Literature for many years. Are there trends that you see being repeated or new ones that you are excited about?

I always say that trends don’t matter but individual books and authors do. Our great works almost never appeared as part of a trend and were often rejected by editors because they were so different from the prevailing publishing norm. One of my mentors used to say that trends in publishing are like sun spots – they come and go for no earthly reason. But great books endure.

If you could hang out for the day with your favorite book characters, who would they be and what would you do together?

After reading Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart, I’m skeptical about the idea of actually befriending my favorite character in the real world! But as a child, I desperately wanted to have Anne of Green Gables as my best friend. And I still do.

As a child, did you have a book that you would identify as "the book" that got you hooked on reading?

I don’t have a single book. I loved books from my earliest memory. My grandmother trained to be a teacher at the turn of the 1900s, and I was her last, and I hope, her best pupil. My father, an engineer, pioneered all the commercial electronic devices of the 1950s and 1960s. We had the first black-and-white television and the first color television in the area. I would humor him, pay attention to each new invention to please him, and then go back to reading books. I really think there must be a genetic component for me. I even organized my stuffed animals, putting them in groups, and helped them develop reading skills.

Knowing that you have read literally 1,000's of books, do you have a favorite author or illustrator that rises to the top for you? Maybe someone who no matter what type of book they release you know you will pick it up?

I could never choose a favorite author or illustrator – there are too many. On the Almanac you will see one favorite each day! But I have often said that if I had only one book to take to a desert island, it would have to be Natalie Babbit’s Tuck Everlasting. Every time I read it, I am moved in a different way.

What advice might you give to teachers who think they are too busy to keep on top of current book releases or those who might have gotten stuck in a rut and continue to assign or recommend the same books?

They should just spend five minutes every day on the Almanac to learn about the best of the new books and to be reminded of the classics they may not have used recently in the classroom. If they want to scroll through the archives, quite easy to do, they can read about more books and often find testimonies from teachers in the comment section. The Almanac, in fact, was invented for a teacher or a parent who wants to spend a little time catching up with books --but doesn’t have hours each day.

Do you have a guilty pleasure type of book that you love to read?

I always say that all reading is good reading. To relax at night I love picking up murder mysteries – who knows why? Currently I’m working my way through Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallander Mysteries, classic detective stories set in Sweden.

Thank you Anita for stopping by to tell us a little more about yourself and your love of books!  

For more information about Anita Silvey, check out her website: http://www.anitasilvey.com/
To follow her on twitter: @anitasilvey
To find her on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/anita.silvey

Interview with Chris Rylander, Author of The Fourth Stall

Today, I would like to welcome Debut Author, Chris Rylander to Kid Lit Frenzy.  As part of The Fourth Stall Blog Tour, Chris has done several guest posts and interviews.  To check on all of the posts, head on over to Walden Pond Press for more details.

THE FOURTH STALL is your debut novel. Did you intentionally start out to write a Middle Grade novel, or did the story come first and then you realized it was Middle Grade?

It was a definite decision to write a middle grade novel. I’d recently read a few middle grade novels at the suggestion of an agent who eventually became the agent who signed me and sold THE FOURTH STALL. And one thing I noticed about middle grade books, is that it seemed like you could get away with breaking the fourth wall more often and that use of a conversational, treat-the-reader-as-a-friend type voice was more common in middle grade fiction than young adult. I don’t know if that’s actually true or not, but at the time, it seemed like it was. And I thought that style of storytelling would better suit my writing. I wanted to write a casual and fun and kind of wacky book, and I just thought I’d have more freedom to do all of those with a middle grade novel. An interesting fact, though, is that about twenty pages into THE FOURTH STALL, I kind of abandoned it and wrote two other young adult novels… then after those didn’t work out, I returned to the THE FOURTH STALL. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened, how things would have turned out, had I not taken those six months away from THE FOURTH STALL…

In developing a book which has such a familiar voice (a little bit mob, a little bit noir), were there things that you felt you needed to add or avoid to keep it from being too predictable?

This is a great question, and there probably are things I should have conscientiously avoided or added to keep it unpredictable. But the truth is, I didn’t really think about it that much. I just kind of dived into the story without much planning or thought. And I think it was that, more than anything else, that helped to (hopefully) keep the story surprising and different and unpredictable. And if all else failed, I always had the talking unicorn factor in my back pocket. Whenever I hit a wall in a story that feels too familiar, I just bust out the talking unicorn with an eye patch and that usually solves everything. Luckily, or maybe unfortunately, the unicorn was never needed for THE FOURTH STALL.

In writing The Fourth Stall, did you base any of the story on situations that you faced as a sixth grader? Did any of the characters resemble people from your life?

Actually, there is only one scene and one character based on actual events/people. The origin story of Mac and Vince’s business was based on something that actually happened to my brother and I back when we were in kindergarten and first grade respectively. Except the real life version was actually a lot more strange and violent and macabre than what ended up in the book. I already push the boundaries a little regarding violence in a middle grade novel, so the real story, which involved a battle axe and a kid who threw steak knives with deadly precision, had to be edited down a bit. The only character who is based entirely on a real former classmate is Kitten. Which is what makes the fact that he’s most readers’ favorite character so interesting to me.

Did you always want to be a writer? When did you first start writing and what was the story about?

I’d always wanted to someday write a book. But that was just it, I always thought, well someday maybe when I’m like 50 years old and have tons of time, I’ll give writing a try. So based on that logic I never did much writing as a kid. Actually, I didn’t do any writing outside of school assignments. I did like to draw cartoons, though, so there always existed a desire to tell stories. I first started writing when I was 23. And interestingly enough, the very first bit of writing I did was a proposal and sample chapters for a non-fiction book about the bizarre history of the earliest divorces in American history. And the funny thing was, the concept garnered a lot of interest from agents, but none of them liked my sample chapters. Finally there was one agent who kind of gave it to me straight and said, basically, this is a great concept, but your writing is just way too boring, terrible almost. And I really appreciated his honesty, I truly did. It was that rejection that propelled me in the opposite direction… I was kind of like, well, I can do exciting and funny and weird if I want to. And so then I wrote my first bit if fiction, which was a novel for adults about a teacher named Abe Lincoln who gets kidnapped by a guy with a mustache and a chick with an eye patch. The story also had these characters: a Canadian Mounted Police Officer with palindrome and candy necklace obsessions, a packrat wolf, a mannequin who fishes, Elvis, and a talking mustache. I’m not kidding, that’s really what the novel was about and I really did finish it and actually submitted it to agents. And not one of them told me my writing was boring. Ha!

If you could spend that day with 1 or 2 of your favorite children's book characters (doesn't have to be from Fourth Stall), who would they be and what would you do?

Definitely the characters from the HARRY POTTER books. They might be some of the best contemporary children’s literature characters ever created. They really come to life in the pages and when you’re reading about them, you’re just dying to be friends with them. I think that is a large part of the magnetic draw of those books. Plus, they’re British, which means I’d listen to whatever it was they wanted to tell me. And they can do magic, which opens up those two days to be full of crazy-fun stuff.

What kind of writing advice would you give to children who want to become a writer?

This is actually the topic and main point of many of the school visits I do: You’re never too young to be a writer. I wish someone had given me this advice when I was a kid! All I ever heard was that it was impossible to get published, so there was no point in trying. So I didn’t! I mean, I started writing when I was 23 and then had my first book deal within two years and now all the time I wonder… what if I’d started writing at age 9 or 10? Could I have been published by 21? By 16? By 13? I’ll never know, because I never tried.

If someone picked up your iPod/MP3 player, what music would they find on it? Do you find yourself listening to music while you write?

They’d find all sorts of stuff that not many people have heard of: The Weakerthans; Son, Ambulance; Desaparecidos; Karate; David Bazan; Cursive; Damien Jurado; Les Savy Fav; The Elected; Okkervil River; Pavement; and many, many others. They all have one thing in common: great lyrics. I rarely listen to music while I write… but more often than not, listening to music is what inspires me to sit down and write.

What's currently in your book stack to read?

Right now I’m reading a book called YOU KILLED WESLEY PAYNE by Sean Beaudoin. And that has been brilliant and hilarious so far. Also in my To Be Read pile: FAT VAMPIRE by Adam Rex, THE BRIEF AND FRIGHTENING REIGN OF PHIL by George Saunders, JACKBLANK by Matt Myklusch, WORLD WAR Z by Max Brooks, THE GAME OF SUNKEN PLACES by M.T. Anderson, and literally over 100 others (and these are just the books I’ve already purchased, but haven’t had time to read yet.) My actual physical list (and yes I keep an actual written list in a notebook) has well over 1000 titles in it. I definitely wish I were a faster reader!

Thanks Chris for stopping by...I have already started to check out some of your book and music recommendations.  And of course, we are thrilled that you didn't wait until you were 50 to write your first book!!!

To find out more about Chris and The Fourth Stall, check out his blog here.

You can follow him on Twitter: @chris_rylander

For details on how to win a copy of The Fourth Stall, check out my interview here.
To order The Fourth Stall, check out IndieBound here.

Check out this YouTube interview with Chris for some additional insights into The Fourth Stall.

The Crossroads Tour: Day 15 Angie Frazier

Each day of The Crossroads Tour, a new question will be revealed on The Crossroad Blog Tour main page and each day the answer to that question will be found within one of the 16 different blog posts by Crossroads Tour authors. Your job is to get the question, read the blog posts, and collect all 16 answers by the end of the tour, on Halloween. Go HERE to get today's question and links.

Today's guest for the Crossroads Tour is author Angie Frazier.  Her debut YA novel Everlasting was released in June of 2010.  A little piece of trivia....Angie and I attended the same college (though not at the same time) in New Hampshire (Keene State).  I am so excited to be able to support a fellow alumni. 
 

Did you have a book that you read either in Middle School or High School that scared you the most? What was it and what about it scared you?

Oh man, all of Stephen King’s books scared the living bleep out of me. Probably the one that scared me the most was Pet Sematery—the book managed to scare me more than the movie.

Did you have a paranormal experience that prompted you in writing the story that you did? 

As a kid, I lived in a house in Louisiana that was supposedly built over an old burial ground. I was five or six and I had awful nightmares all of the time--even now they give me goosebumps when I think of them. And yes, there were ghosts. My parents even saw them. So, you could say I’ve been curious about the paranormal ever since.

Where did you get the idea for your story? Did you use a real life situation and put a twist on it? 

No, honestly I have just always been a little obsessed with death and resurrection and eternal life. This
was my way to explore it a little further in my own way.

Did you have a favorite paranormal/horror story writer as a child/teen that you wanted to emulate? If so, who and why?

I wasn’t trying to emulate anyone really. I respect and admire a lot of writers. When it comes to horror, Stephen King takes the cake in my opinion. But he also captures a human element that makes the story he’s telling that much richer.

What kind of research did you do for your story and did you run into anything weird while you were doing research? 

Most of my research revolved around historical details of the time period and place. The best research was the superstitions of the sailors at that time. I especially love the eerie folklore of Fiddler’s Green, the afterlife for sailors where there is endless mirth, a fiddle always playing, dancers—and all of it happening nine miles from the gates of Hell.

What helps you to create characters that people will feel passionate about either in liking them or disliking them? 

I think crafting a character with depth is the most difficult task for me. I’m very plot driven as a
writer. For characters worth caring about, I like giving them flaws, wants, dreams, regrets, and secrets they want to keep hidden.  It’s hard, because a character someone loves will be a character someone else couldn’t understand or “get.”

If you could have a supernatural power or gift what would it be?  

I would love to be able to “see” into the past…like if I was in an old house or near an ancient object and touched it, I’d love to be able to see the history of the place or object as if I was right there.

For more information about Angie Frazier, check out her website: http://angiefrazier.com

To follow her on Twitter:  @angie_frazier

The talented Vania of VLC Productions created the book trailer for Everlasting.  So lovely.

The Crossroads Tour: Day 13 Stacey Kade

 

Each day of The Crossroads Tour, a new question will be revealed on The Crossroad Blog Tour main page and each day the answer to that question will be found within one of the 16 different blog posts by Crossroads Tour authors. Your job is to get the question, read the blog posts, and collect all 16 answers by the end of the tour, on Halloween. Go HERE to get today's question and links.

Today's guest for the Crossroads Tour is author Stacey Kade.  Her debut YA novel The Ghost & The Goth was released in June of 2010. 

 What was your favorite paranormal/horror/fantasy story as a child/teen? And why did you like it so much?

The Girl with the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts.  It was, if I remember correctly, about a girl who gained telekinetic powers because her mother took a medicine with side effects when she was pregnant.
What I recall liking about the story was the girl felt kind of like a freak until she realized there were others like her.

Where did you get the idea for your story? Did you use a real life situation and put a twist on it?

You know, I don’t know where ideas come from. They just sort of show up! And I like it that way—it’s fun to be surprised. That being said, the stories of ghosts and mediums (and popular girls and outcast boys) have been around forever. I just combined the two.

Especially in Y.A., there seems to be a big emphasis on paranormal romance? Do you consider the romance part when you are writing your story or do you consider writing your story and see where the romance fits in?

That’s a good question. I’m guilty of thinking too much about the main story and not enough about the romance. I figured that out in the first draft of the second book (Queen of the Dead, June 2011) and needed to rewrite it! The funny thing is, as a reader, I’m far more interested in the romance angle of the story.  I just have trouble remembering that when I’m the one behind the wheel, so to speak!

What helps you to create characters that people will feel passionate about either in liking them or disliking them?

I try to be honest in reflecting who the characters are. I don’t set out to make them either likeable or unlikeable. I just try to get them on the page as close as I can to how they appear/sound in my head.

What characteristics were critical to you in creating your characters?

I knew Alona was a snob, but I also knew that she had her own world-view in which her perspective made sense (skewed though it may seem to the rest of us). I wanted to make sure that snobbery came across but also her humanity. With Will, I thought it was very important to get across the struggle he has
within himself over this gift he has, which he does not want, and the obligation he feels to use it to help others and the guilt he feels when he doesn’t.

What kind of research did you do for your story and did you run into anything weird while you were doing research?

I’ve been reading about ghosts practically my whole life, so I didn’t have to do a great deal of research on that topic. However, I did research specific haunted locations and also how mediums describe seeing spirits. Nothing weird happened, but I also refuse to visit most haunted places! : )

If you could have a supernatural power or gift what would it be?

Oh, see, this is dangerous. Because I believe in a writing principle we call the price of magic. Which means the ability to do something amazing comes with a cost. If I could have a supernatural power or gift, I’d like to be able to heal people (ala Max on Roswell) but the price of that magic seems like it would probably be pretty high. So, I think I’m pretty happy being non-supernatural!

For information about Stacey Kade and her books, check out her website: www.staceykade.com

You can find her on Twitter: @staceykade



My review of The Ghost & The Goth will be up later today and there will even be a chance to win a signed copy of Stacey's debut novel. 

The Familiars Halloween Blog Tour & Interview

As part of The Familiars Halloween Blog Tour, Andrew stops by to answer a few questions.  Let's see if he tells any of Adam's secrets.

What was your scariest/funniest/weirdest Halloween experience?

(Andrew) Every year I trick-or-treated with my older brother, who was a die hard Halloween guy. In my suburban home town of Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, we always had trick-or-treating on the Sunday afternoon of Halloween week from 1-4 pm. And my big bro's game plan was always to hit houses after 4 o'clock, say we lost track of time, and hope that we could clean people out of all their left-over candy. Well, one year, on a typically cool late October afternoon, we trick-or-treated well past dark, in a neighborhood far, far away from our house on Cumberland Blvd. We were lost and we really didn't know what time it was. This being a long time before cell phones, we ultimately had to ask to use someone's telephone to call home, and our parents had to come pick us up. Luckily my mom and dad knew my brother well enough not to panic and call the police. The next year I trick-or-treated with some friends around my block. My brother didn't get home until after six o'clock.

Did you have a book that you read either in Middle School or High School that scared you the most? What was it and what about it scared you?

(Andrew) Back in middle school, I remember the Stephen King book It was turned into a miniseries on TV. After watching some of it I read the book and it was terrifying. Mostly because there was a clown in it!

What writing rituals do you have?

We meet every day at 9:30 and write until 5 pm. Andrew is the typist (because he's a much faster typer) and Adam sits across from him in a big comfy chair, usually with a bowl of snacks at his side. Then we talk. And talk. And talk some more.

I am always fascinated by authors who co-write a book. What was that process like for both of you? And did it come naturally or did it evolve over time?

We talked a little about our process in the previous question. Our partnership did evolve over time. We met about ten years ago and began writing screenplays together. Over time, what started out as a somewhat inefficient back and forth, became more and more well-oiled, to the point where we can now finish each other's sentences (in real life and on the page). The two of us sit in the same room, writing every word, sentence, and paragraph together.

What advice would you give children who are interested in becoming writers?

Write! And read as much as you can. The hardest part of writing sometimes is just sitting down and writing. There are so many distractions nowadays, it's most important to be disciplined about doing the work. Also to remember not to be discouraged by rejection. You have to always believe that the impossible is possible.

How did you come up with the idea for the Familiars?

When Adam was growing up, he didn't have a pet of his own, so on walks home from school he would pretend that he had a fire-breathing dragon on his shoulder. He always dreamed of having a familiar. So one day Adam asked Andrew, do you know what a familiar is? And from that question, the two of us were off and running, creating a fantastical world filled with our shared love of magic and animals.


You probably get a lot of questions about what animal familiar you would be so let me put a small twist on it - What special powers or abilities would you like to have?


(Andrew) I would love to have the special power of superstrength. If you saw my arms, you would know why.

In an age where everyone seems to be wanting to write for YA, how did you decide on writing for a Middle Grade audience (those of us working with this age group express our appreciation for your decision)?


The funny thing is, the two of us didn't even know there was such a thing as Middle Grade. We knew we were writing a book targeting the same readers who loved Harry Potter and Chronicles of Narnia, and it was only later that our publisher educated us about the category of Middle Readers. Having visited a dozen elementary schools around the country, we have so enjoyed meeting the enthusiastic young audience for our story.

Familiars-themed Halloween Scavenger Hunt! 

Directions:
After you fill in your answer, the letter that falls in the place of the * can be placed in the corresponding number of the larger puzzle. So for example, since this is question number 7, the letter that lands in the space where the * is can be filled in where the 7 is in the larger puzzle. The larger puzzle will form yet another clue, and anyone who answers it correctly will be entered into a drawing for an autographed book as well as a few other Halloween treats!

Be sure to visit The Familiars blog at thefamiliars.blogspot.com to find links to all other blog stops and find out where to send in your answers! All entries must be entered by November 15.

7. Telekinesis is the ability to _*_ ___ ___ ___ things with your mind.

Hint: Chapter Five, Page 80

11 5 18 8 15 1 9 7 19 14 23 2 25 16 10 12 20
__ __ __ __ __ __ ' __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __


17 3 22 6 21 4 24 13
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __