Interview, Part 1

Once upon a time, I eagerly signed up for Citizen of the Month’s Great Interview Experiment. I nervously sent off questions to my interviewee, Jen, and she answered them right away. It was very entertaining to read her responses, and I awaited my own set of questions with anticipation. Between two no-show interviewers, eight weeks passed before I whined to Nancy Pearl Wannabe in all-caps hysterics — I believe I asked melodramatically, “When is my moment in the spotlight?!” — and she volunteered to put me out of my misery. Thank you! Hooray! She sent me twenty awesome questions, which I have split into two parts. Enjoy!

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I know that Madeleine L’Engle is your favorite author. What is it about her writing that you enjoy so much?
When I first read the Time Travel series in middle school, I loved how the books were this odd, otherworldly combination of science and literature. I wanted to know where to find those quotations, and if farandolae really existed in my mitochondria. I felt like Madeleine (because we are on a first-name basis) was laying her smarts on the page, so she helped me embrace my nerdy nature. Later, as I included her contemporary fiction and memoir into my reading repertoire, I loved what she had to say about writing, faith, and the creaks that go along with life transitions. Madeleine didn’t just rattle off a litany of twelve steps to change my life; she kind of walked alongside me and bounced ideas around, feeling them out and seeing which ones stuck. Every time I re-read one of her books, it’s a comforting cadence of a strong vocabulary, interwoven themes and sources, and an underlying sense of hope, even when circumstances seem absolutely hopeless. She makes heroes out of flawed people, and I don’t perceive a hint of contrivance in her writing. I find her utterly inspiring.

When I read about her death last year, I had the strange sense that I had lost a wise aunt with whom I’d been exchanging letters for my whole life. I’m still not used to the idea that there won’t be a new book of hers for me to add to my Christmas list. My one enduring hope is that her death will result in the reissuing of some of her out-of-print works so that I can quickly snatch them up for my collection. (#25)

As a librarian, I always love to see what other people are reading, especially when I find someone who enjoys young adult literature as much as I. Does it ever bother you that people tend to ignore YA [young adult] literature as a valued genre?
Yes! In high school, I always got sideways glances when people thought I was reading a “kids’ book,” but they didn’t know what they were missing. In one of Madeleine’s books on writing (A Circle of Quiet, I think?), she talks about fielding a question that implied that writing for children is easier than writing for adults. She says, and I agree, that children require more consideration from their authors because they don’t necessarily have social or cultural constructs in which to slide the ideas of the book. I also think that YA authors have a greater responsibility to their audience because what they read is so important to forming views on the world and the people in it, so neither the author nor the reader should take accountability lightly. My blood boils when people characterize youth literature as a sort of cash cow that only includes serials like Goosebumps. Dig deeper, people.

Do you have any other recommendations for people who may be interested in checking out other young adult authors?
Because I’m not exactly plugged in to the YA world right now, I’m going to ride the Madeleine train one more time. Of course, there is the Time Travel series, with A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, Many Waters, and A Swiftly Tilting Planet. These are classics, and they never get old for me.

If you’ve already read those, I highly recommend the books that center around Meg Murry’s oldest daughter, Poly (short for Polyhymnia):

• Dragons in the Water
• The Arm of the Starfish
• A House Like a Lotus
  
• An Acceptable Time

These novels are less science-oriented, but they incorporate more of a typical coming-of-age storyline, in addition to some exotic locales.

When you sit down to write a blog post, do you always have a definite idea in your mind of what you are going to write about?
Yes, I do. Whenever I’ve looked back to my archives and noticed a post that I don’t particularly like, it’s usually a result of trying to manufacture a narrative when it isn’t there. So I do my best to to write when I have something to say and I feel like the end result is something coherent and somewhat compelling. Sometimes, I’ve spent an hour or so chugging through what I think I want to write, but it ends up being worthless, so I don’t post it. If I think it’s a waste of my time to proof, then I know it should be deleted or at least sit for a while in the drafts folder.

Do you see blogging as more of an extension of the journals you kept when you were younger, or as a way to constantly better your writing (which, by the way, is already excellent)?
Aw, thanks, NPW! I view my journals of yore as mere vehicles for processing my teenage and college years, which were not very exciting, despite my propensity to underline and overuse exclamation points. I didn’t say anything profound or new, I just spewed out events and reactions onto the page. Journaling was more about the physical act of putting pen to paper than anything else, which helped me develop the habit of processing my experiences through words. In these parts, I try to write cogent pieces that are worth my time spent writing and others’ time spent reading. I want to have accomplished something from the first word to the last, even if it’s just getting a clearer idea of a hard time at work or why I love autumn. I like how the blog allows me to experiment with different formats and points of view to accommodate what I want to communicate. I hope to show, not tell, and I like to challenge myself to find the best possible words to describe what I want to convey. I know that I am not successful at this challenge every single time I post, but that’s the goal, nonetheless. I hesitate to say that this site exists solely for me to improve my writing, but that’s definitely my top priority. (#23)

I’ve always enjoyed your photographs and how they match the narrative of your writing. Do you like taking photos as a record of events, or more for an artistic type of composition?
I think that I take pictures more as a record-keeping device than an artistic expression, mostly because I don’t really know what the heck I’m doing. I’m totally tickled when people say I’ve taken a good picture because I just line it up how I think it should go, hold my breath, and press the button. I intentionally bought the camera I have so that I wouldn’t have to do a lot of book study on the technical aspects of photography, so taking pictures is 100% fun and 0% work. If anything, I might have an eye for composition, but I still take a million pictures before I whittle them down to the ones I eventually post on Flickr. I think I got the photos-as-documentation gene from my dad, who wouldn’t let us dig into the Thanksgiving dinner until he had shot it from all angles. I’m always that girl at events who makes people pose for pictures, and everyone groans at me, but guess what — they always want the pictures in the end, so what’s all the complaining about?

In the past you have mentioned that while you have a home in Pennsylvania, you are a New Englander at heart. If money were not an issue, could you see yourself moving back to the northeast?
I would love to have a small-ish Cape Cod house with dormers and window seats, a fireplace, a terrace out back, and a yard full of glacially-deposited boulders. Unfortunately, I fear that JG would feel terribly out of place and relatively Southern, and therefore, the target of good old Puritan disdain. Plus, I am very bad at driving in inclement weather. So, no, we probably would not move back to New England with boundless funds. I appreciate my homeland as a place to visit and a topic on which to wax poetic, and I don’t mind being the source of dissent here in Pennsylvania. None of those Philadelphia teams will ever get my support, do you hear me?!

If you could keep Ted but also had to adopt an additional animal that was not a cat, dog, fish, or bird, what would you choose?
I think I will go with a turtle, even though I’ve heard that they can smell bad. I’m allergic to cats, so I’m wary of any unknown furry animals, and rodents make me screech and jump up on a chair, so anything hamster-like is out of the question. So, yes, a turtle named Sheldon. Or maybe Testudo.

If JG decided to take you on your dream vacation tomorrow, where would he bring you and what would you do?
I would love to travel across Europe and take in all of the history, cathedrals, museums, music, and food. I would take millions of pictures and complain about how pedestrian life in the United States would be. Sigh. Thankfully, this type of vacation is not completely out of the picture; JG and I have decided that once we pay off our mortgage, we’ll go on one of those Mediterranean cruises and hopefully hit a happy medium between tourism and relaxation. Woo! Of course, if we end up selling our current house and buying a new one at some point, that cruise will be delayed accordingly, but I don’t care. The mere fact that JG would come with me as I geek out on architecture and food is enough for now.

If you had to choose between spending the rest of your life as either a CSI or a mortician, which would you choose?
Without a doubt, I’d be a CSI. Specifically, I think I’d like to work with Hodges in Trace because I love mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography. After all, one of my favorite courses in my chemistry minor was Instrumental Methods Analysis; I am very good at writing up lab reports. Best of all, there would be no blood and guts, which would minimize the chances of me getting sick to my stomach. (#19, 75)