First off, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to do this interview. I know how crazy busy you are working on Promised. I don't know how you found time, but thank you! And congratulations once again on having both of your books be on YALSA's Best Fiction for Young Adults list. As a fellow Connecticut author, I was so excited for you when I saw your name in the School Library Journal. I was going back to look at your blog tour you did at the end of last year, and I have to say, I'm going to try my hardest to ask original questions that others haven't yet but forgive me if I fail miserably.
How long did it take you to dream up the two dystopian societies you've already created?
Thank you so much, Candyce, for having me by. It’s great to connect up with another local writer and I can tell from your questions that we’re equally interested in the writing process.
I thought up the two societies in the Birthmaked series one at a time, as needed, so to speak. I had a clear idea of the Enclave/Wharfton split society in a couple of months as I wrote the first draft, and the process for the matriarchy in Prized took more like half a year. The interesting developments came with revising, especially with Prized, when I needed to refine the rules that governed how men and women could interact with each other, and how the characters would break those rules.
Now that you’re working on Promised, is there anything you would go back and change about Birthmarked or Prized?
Most of the changes I was able to make, actually, because we had some overlapping of drafts before the first two books were finalized. I have run into a funny snag, though. Some of the minor characters end up becoming more visible in Promised, and I wasn’t particularly careful about choosing their names early on. I have both a Mryna and a Maya, a Will and a Bill, Chardos and a Chiaro, which is more confusing than I’d like. It’s not too bad as quirks go, though.
You wrote Tortured as a bridge between Birthmarked and Prized. Will we see a similar bridge between Prized and Promised?
Yes. I’ve sent a draft of Story 2.5 to my editor for her suggestions. It’s also from Leon’s point of view, and gives a peek at what happens between novels. It is fun to be working with my favorite characters again. We hope to have it out before Promised is released.
How long before your books are released does all of the editing/revising have to be done by?
I sent my revisions to the first pass pages of Promised (my very last changes to the book) to my editor, Nancy Mercado, in mid-April, about five and a half months before the book will be released on October 2, 2012. Theoretically, it’s done. Knowing Nan, I won’t be surprised if she still asks me about tweaking one more word. For a frame of reference, I first sent an early draft of the novel to Nan on March 14, 2011, so it’s accurate to say I spent more than a year on revisions going back and forth with her. A copyeditor and a proofreader have worked on the novel, too. I’m not sure the measurement of the time captures the depth of revision involved, but for me, at least, the revising is really how the novel is created and that’s where I find the most satisfying work.
I'm sure you'll be both relieved and sad once the trilogy is complete. Do you have a good idea yet of what your next project is going to be?
Yes. I have a chunk of it started, and I’m working on it now.
There are a lot of aspiring young adult writers out there (not unlike myself). I've been scouring the internet to try to find the answer to this question, but if it's out there Google isn't finding it for me, so who better to ask than someone who's already been through the process! As the author, do you have any say in your books' covers? Can you choose the designer, give basic ideas, have veto power?
It’s a bit different for each house, I believe. Writers do not, typically, have much say in what happens to their covers, as usually those decisions are left to the publisher’s editorial, art and marketing teams. Roaring Brook has been unfailingly courteous with me, including sending me key drafts of my covers and inviting my input. For the third novel, we discussed concepts for the cover art, and those exchanges informed how I combined and reimagined significant objects in the novel. When I saw a version of artist Tim Green’s design, I was able to adjust the book to match the bracelet image he created. That was very cool for me.
Thanks again, Candyce, for inviting me for an interview. I wish you all the best with your own writing! Here’s hoping you’ll soon be seeing the cover of your own novel.
Thanks, Caragh!
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