You’ve heard that advice before. Probably from the first time you were told to write a story. “Don’t try to get all fancy. Just stick with what you know.” Or, “If you have trouble creating a character, base him/her on someone you know.” It’s sound advice and I’m not going to knock it. And it works for any genre. That evil mermaid from a favorite book? I’m betting money SOMETHING about her was modeled after someone.

But…

Of there’s a but. All this becomes a problem if you’re ONLY basing characters on people you know. If you become too scared to step out of the box you’ve decorated so well to see if you can thrive without it.

My first manuscript was a story about three generations of one Russian-Jewish family. I liked to think of it as a Russian-Jewish JOY LUCK CLUB. It had romance, death, war, betrayal. It was a great premise. A 350 word epic. But it didn’t move. It didn’t sing. The reason? I based too much of it on my own family. Each time I dared to get creative, a voice in my head screamed “That’s not how it really happened! What will your parents say? Get back in the box!” Now, if this was a memoir, this would have been fine, but it was supposed to be fiction. In fiction, events don’t happen as they would in real life. They move quicker, toward something. There are obstacles at every step. My manuscript had obstacles but they didn’t factor in how they should have. The last 1/3 of the manuscript worked the best because that was the part most loosely based on my own life. That’s when I got my A-HA moment.

When I write now, I start with a voice. Sometimes it’s voice of someone I know/knew. Other times, it’s just a girl or guy with something to say. Along the way, they develop. I let my characters borrow some of my traits, some of people I know. I think a small part of me (like how I would react to a situation) appears in many of them. But I know to keep the story moving now, to not hold too tightly to a memory or vision of someone.

The goal is to keep stepping outside the confines of my box.

Why? Health issues, family issues, revisions…just life. It happens, sure. But what can we do to avoid delays like this?

The obvious answer is to write things down on a calendar, which I started doing, and that has helped immensely. However, even with calendars, we get bogged down. Sometimes, I feel like I’m juggling twenty balls in the air at once, and I don’t know how to keep them from falling (ok, since I can’t juggle, this analogy would have worked just fine with three balls, but twenty is more accurate and dramatic). Sometimes, I finish nineteen things and pat myself on the back, only to have the twentieth hit the ground (which is what happened this week). The thing that took the most time these last few weeks was getting my revisions done. I finished them, sent to friends, finished rereading and felt like a load had been lifted, and minutes ago I realized today is the 12th and this post was due yesterday.

I usually try to give advice in these or discuss the writing process, but today I’m asking you what you do to keep all the balls in the air. What keeps your life balanced? Do you have a huge calendar on a wall of your house? Do you use multi-colored sticky notes? Do you just remember everything?

I think it depends on the type of person you are (e.g. visual, etc.). Tomorrow, I’m buying a wall size calendar, maybe three and putting them in various rooms in my house as visual reminders. Other suggestions?

Picture Books:

1. Knuffle Bunny (and others in this series) by Mo Willems
2. You Can Do Anything, Daddy by Michael Rex
3. The Naked Mole Rat by Mo Willems
4. No, David! By David Shannon (and other books in this series)
5. My Father is Taller Than a Tree by Joseph Bruchac

Elementary School/Middle School

1. The Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey
2. Danny and the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl
3. Babe and Me (and others in this series) by Dan Gutman
4. The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman by Chris Singer
5. Ramona and her Father by Beverly Cleary
6. White Fang by Jack London
7. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
8. Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
9. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C. O’Brien
10. Old Yeller by Frederick Gipson
11. Mudville by Kurtis Scaletta
12. The Pigman by Paul Zindel
13. Holes by Louis Sachar

High School

1. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
2. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
3. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
4. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
5. 1984 by George Orwell
6. Animal Farm by George Orwell (this one and 1984 created lots of discussion because we originally came from the former Soviet Union so my dad shared how what he encountered during his childhood related to these books)
7. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

Kitty Keswick

This week, we’re celebrating Kitty’s debut! Kitty Keswick has been an Anglophile since age four when she saw Robin Hood and fell head over heels in love. As she grew up on her grandfather’s California vineyard, Kitty’s imagination was her best friend. At a very tender age, she started writing her stories and reading them to the grapes.

Kitty spends her days with werewolves, Valkyries, vamps, and other creatures that go bump in the night. Check out her website www.kittykeswick.com.

Here’s a little bit about FREAKSVILLE (Leap Books).

A group of teenagers, trapped in a haunted theater on the night of a full moon, discover that ghosts are the least of their worries…

Every woman in the Maxwell family has the gift of sight. A talent sixteen-year-old Kasey would gladly give up. All she wants is a normal life. Shopping and talking about boys with her best friend and long-time sidekick, Gillie Godshall, consume her days until Kasey has a vision about Josh Johnstone, the foreign exchange student from England. The vision leads her into new realms, a lead in a play, a haunted theater … and into the arms of Josh. Yet, both Kasey and Josh have secrets lurking in dark corners. Can Kasey’s new romance survive FREAKSVILLE?

FREAKSVILLE by Kitty Keswick

If you had to give your book a movie rating: G through Rated R, which one would you give and why?

PG13. The book deals with a first boyfriend. There is French kissing, but the romance does not go beyond the kissing stage.

What topics, issues, or themes does your book address? What drove you to write about them?

In a humorous way, the book deals with acceptance. Kasey, the heroine, has the gift of sight, which she feels makes her a freak. The underlying theme is “to thine own self be true.” A modern Romeo-and-Juliet story plays out in a haunted theater with fashion, mystery, and the occasional werewolf.

The book supports strong friendships and family. Gillie, Kasey’s best friend is supportive and not a “frenemy.” Kasey’s parents are married and deal with conflicts in a loving and supportive manner. Kasey and Gillie are also strong female role models who support Girl Power.

Name a few examples of readers who would identify or like your book.

A 13-year-old girl who’s feeling a little awkward. A 15-year-old girl who loves fashion. Anyone who’s had to deal with feeling like they are a little freakish. Because of the crushes on boys and fashion, it would appeal to any girl who enjoys a light paranormal mystery laced with humor.

How can your book be used in the classroom?

The Romeo and Juliet theme can be explored by comparing the original version to modern adaptations. Freaksville not only incorporates quotes from Shakespeare but also ties in an ancient feud (based in actual history) that occurred on the border of Scotland and England for centuries.

Discussions on how the traits that make us unique and different can really be an asset rather than a negative. Self-acceptance and discovering hidden talents play a major part in the story, and the heroine also has to deal with bullying, an important issue in the lives of many teens.

Parts of the book are based in Norse mythology, so exploring those ancient themes and the ways the modern story parallels these tales, along with discussing various cultures’ myths and beliefs surrounding death and the afterlife (the heroine learns about her connection to Valkyries and their role of ferrying the souls of the dead).

Now whet our appetites with a teaser.

Huge crisis. —I’m in Freaksville!
Monday, January 15th

I so needed a filter between my brain and my body, one with big flashy lights and blaring sirens that ruptured my eardrums if I was about to do anything stupid.

The last six months had been a regular freak show, as if being me wasn’t already strange enough. On my sixteenth birthday, I got the gift. Not a gift, but The Gift, as in the gift of sight. Now that was something I totally wished I had a receipt for, so I could return to sender. Unfortunately for me, it was in the family genes. Every female of the Maxwell clan had the gift. My great, great, great, a million-times-back grandmother in the sixteenth century—Gran­nie Maxwell—was the first to have the gift of sight, premonition, the sixth sense. Whatever way you spun it, it still ranked big time, as in stunk.

Are you offering authors visits to schools, libraries, or other organizations?

Yes.

Are you willing to speak nationally?

Yes.

List a few example titles of presentations, talks, or workshops you might give for an author visit.

• Fur and Fangs, Writing YA Paranormals, Beyond the Vampire
• Strange Worlds, Understanding Setting and World Building
• Scene and Sequels, the Action and the Glue
• Young Writers Workshop, (basic novel writing, geared toward teens.)

This concludes our interview with our latest author, Kitty Keswick. We wish her much success with her debut novel FREAKSVILLE. To see what Kitty is up to these days, visit her website at http://www.kittykeswick.com or her blog at http://wolfychicks.blogspot.com.

*GIVEAWAY ALERT* Kitty Keswick is giving away a signed copy of FREAKSVILLE to a winner. Tell your friends and leave a comment for the author! Enter by March 8th, 2011 11:59 PM CST. (U.S. and Canadian residents only, please.)

Your email address will not be displayed publicly and will only be used to contact you if you win! And don’t forget to participate in our other AuthorsNow! giveaways.

INSIGHT by Diana Greenwood

• Publication Season/Year: Spring 2011
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Release Date: April 15, 2011
• ISBN (hardcover): 0310723140
• ISBN (paperback): TBD

Some secrets won’t let you go.

Elvira Witsil lives about as far away from civilization as you can get, in a remote corner of Wisconsin where nothing much ever happens. In a house crowded with her mother, her cantankerous grandmother, and her little sister, Jessie, Elvira feels forgotten and alone.

Their house also contains numerous secrets, and Elvira’s family holds their secrets closely. Secrets about the father that Jessie never knew, and that Elvira can’t forget. Secrets about that day five years ago. And the one secret that Elvira can’t quite understand: that Jessie sees things no one else can see.

These secrets will lead Elvira and her family on a journey far away from home—on a journey toward redemption and healing—if she can just bring herself to believe.

Tía Isa wants a car. Something big enough for the whole family when they’re together. A special car to take them all the places where the bus cannot go. But how can a girl and her tía find the money – and where will they find that one special car?

FOR THE LOVE OF STRANGERS by Jacqueline Horsfall

• Publication Season/Year: Fall 2010]
• Publisher: Leap Books
• Release Date: October 2010
• ISBN (hardcover):
• ISBN (paperback): 978-1-61603-003-2

For the Love of Strangers puts a new spin on the classic hero-savior myth as 16-year-old Darya realizes that she is descended from a line of Russian deer-women who reincarnate over eons. Whitetail deer follow her. She talks to them, meets them in the most unlikely places, unaware that she is one of them. From Neolithic caves to the safety of a modern-day women’s shelter, Darya’s cycle of rebirths sweep her closer to her destiny: to save a wild species from extermination.

Stupid Fast is the story of Felton Reinstein, a fifteen-turning-sixteen-year-old in a rural Wisconsin town whose sudden growth spurt turns him from a small, sad, jumpy, picked-on kid (called squirrel nut) to a powerful athlete.  In Felton’s voice, speaking from his bedroom in the middle of the night, we learn of his broken home, his mother’s intensifying depression, his little brother’s pirate-clothed struggles, and the seeming root of all trouble – his father’s suicide ten years earlier, against the back-drop of his growing athletic success, his first love – a young African-American pianist named Aleah, and growing relationships with the same kids who tortured him through-out his childhood.  As his home crumbles, literally and figuratively, Felton finds triumph on the field born of real kindness from new friends, from the support he’s given by Aleah and her father, from his once estranged grandmother’s rescue mission, and, most importantly, from his new understanding of his father, his self, and his potential for both destruction and magnificence.  Stupid Fast asks us to know ourselves, to be compassionate, and to be unremittingly passionate about what we love.

FREAKSVILLE by Kitty Keswick

• Publication Season/Year: Winter 2010
• Publisher: Leap Books
• Release Date: January 8, 2010
• ISBN (hardcover): TBD
• ISBN (paperback): ISBN-13:978-1-61603-001-8

FREAKSVILLE

A group of teenagers, trapped in a haunted theater on the night of a full moon, discover that ghosts are the least of their worries…

Every woman in the Maxwell family has the gift of sight. A talent sixteen-year-old Kasey would gladly give up. All she wants is a normal life. Shopping and talking about boys with her best friend and long-time sidekick, Gillie Godshall, consume her days. Until Kasey has a vision about Josh Johnstone, the foreign exchange student from England. The vision leads her into new realms, a lead in a play, a haunted theater … and into the arms of Josh. Yet, both Kasey and Josh have secrets lurking in dark corners. Can Kasey’s new romance survive FREAKSVILLE?

Travis Stephenson is a 19-year-old Marine on leave after his first deployment to Afghanistan, struggling with PTSD, a disintegrating family, and friendships that no longer fit. When his path crosses that of Harper Gray, a girl whose reputation he trashed with a middle school lie, Travis feels like he’s found something to hold onto–someone who helps him feel normal. Whatever that means.

BORN AT MIDNIGHT by C.C. Hunter

• Publication Season/Year:  Spring, 2011
• Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
• Release Date: March 29, 2011
• ISBN (hardcover): None
• ISBN (paperback): 978-0312624675

Kylie Galen has had a lot of crap tossed in her lap. Her parents are getting a divorce. Her boyfriend broke up with her because she wouldn’t put out. Her grandmother died and now Kylie’s acquired a stalker. Unfortunately, she’s the only one who seems to be able to see the stalker. And that gets her sent to a psychologist’s sofa. The kooky psychologist gets Kylie sent to Shadow Falls Camp. Kylie and her parents think it’s a camp for troubled teens. They thought wrong. It’s a camp of supernaturals: vampires, werewolves, fairies, witches and shape shifters. And if she believes the camp leader, Kylie is one of them, too.

SHOES FOR ME! by Sue Fliess

• Publication Season/Year: Spring/2011
• Publisher: Marshall Cavendish Children’s Books, Pinwheel Books
• Release Date: March 1, 2011
• ISBN (hardcover): 978-0761458258

When Hippo realizes her feet have grown, she and Mom set off to buy new shoes. Hippo tries on every pair until she finally finds the perfect shoes for her.

Let’s be honest. Once you’re published, things do change. You no longer write in a vacuum. You ponder over words and characters in a way you haven’t before because you know better what editors and readers look for. You can’t help but think of writing in terms of what sells; and while I won’t write solely for the market (because the market and what’s hot changes often and today’s trend may not be around a year from now and I so can’t create vampires or werewolves), if I get two ideas I like, I’ll pursue the one that’s more sellable first. I used to believe giving any thought to the market when writing was selling out and somehow hindered creative expression. But I realize now that’s silly. If you want to make a living, you explore those options. It’s like telling an architect to follow his dreams and design that fanciful building regardless of whether it will collapse. And I used to think that looking at writing in any other sense than just being one with the paper (or computer) and idea, would take away the love I have for the written word. Not true.

So, in honor of Valentine’s Day (yes, I know it’s on Monday but I’m sure people are having weekend celebrations), I’m creating a list of what I have always loved about writing and still do.

1. The euphoric feeling I get when a new idea enters my head
2. The need to stop whatever I’m doing, grab a notebook, and write two pages of a new scene that’s been nagging at me
3. Being captivated as the characters I created in my head come to life on paper, speaking their own thoughts, following their own dreams, blocking some decisions I have made for them
4. Getting that idea which fixes—so perfectly—the major plot issues I’ve been having
5. Creating words and sentences that sound poetic
6. Writing banter that cracks me up
7. Successfully tackling a paragraph or scene I found daunting
8. Having others be affected by my words, story, or characters. We may think we write in a vacuum but I think we all want to reach someone.

PRISONERS IN THE PALACE by Michaela MacColl

• Publication Season/Year: Fall, 2010
• Publisher: Chronicle Books
• Release Date: October 13, 2010
• ISBN (hardcover): 978-0-8118-7300-0
• ISBN (paperback): TBD

London, 1836. Sixteen-year-old Liza’s dreams of her society debut are dashed when her parents are killed in an accident. Penniless, she accepts the position of lady’s maid to young Princess Victoria and steps unwittingly into the gossipy intrigue of the servant’s world below-stairs as well as the trickery and treason above. Is it possible that her changing circumstances may offer Liza the chance to determine her own fate, find true love, and secure the throne for her future queen? Meticulously based on new interpretations of history, this riveting novel is as rich in historical detail as Catherine, Called Birdy, and as sizzling with intrigue as The Luxe.

It feels like all Ember Miller has ever known is war.  After the major cities were destroyed, the government began enforcing the Moral Statutes – the faith-based regulations governing almost every aspect of Ember’s daily life.  She and her mom know how to get what they need and pass the random inspections of their home made Federal Bureau of Reformation, but despite their low profile the unthinkable happens: Ember’s mother is arrested for violating Article 5 of the Moral Statutes by Chase Jennings, the only boy Ember has ever loved.

Now Ember is on the run, desperate to find her mother.  She is forced to place her trust in her betrayer, but it’s going to take a lot more than crossing over to the wrong side of the law for Chase to win back Ember’s trust and her heart – this time, if they get caught, they face a fate far worse than prison.