Hi,
I'm happy to take part
1.What have you written? (genre, titles, topics). Anything you want us to know about your book (s).
I have two middle grade books out.
A DOG OF WAR is a historical fiction. My MC is Tierza, a small farm dog owned by a young Jewish boy, Aaron. She narrates their story as the Germans invade and her family is relocated to the Warsaw Ghetto. When her boy is sent away on a train, she follows the tracks to find him.
BILLY AND THE GARGOYLES is a fantasy. Billy is 10 and has moved with his mother to NYC for her new job. His father is absent from his life and his mother is obsessed with her job. Loneliness compels Billy to talk to the stone gargoyles on the ledge outside his bedroom window and they come to life.
2. Why did you write it? / Why do you write?
Honestly, you answered both questions with your next question. I write because the stories are there and I want to tell them.
3. “You have to write the book that wants to be written" is this true?
Yes, absolutely. It is hard for me to say why I wrote A Dog of War but I had to write it. The story itself was the driving force that kept me writing, revising and never giving up on it. I had agents and publishers say the story was too depressing, kids and adults don’t want to read history, etc, but the story kept pushing.
For me, Billy and the Gargoyles is a story that I think many kids and adults can relate to. So many kids and adults feel like outsiders and forgotten in their own families. They find and create the best families for themselves however unconventional
4. What inspired you to write this/these book(s)?
My late dog Chelsea and several documentaries about WW2 inspired A Dog of War. During one of the documentaries the Germans forced everyone from a village to leave. Tails wagging, the dogs were trotting happily beside their families, as they were marched away, I looked at my Chelsea, who was such a sweet, gentle natured dog and wondered what would she think if something like that happened to us. The more I thought about it, the more the story began to play like a movie in my mind.
My own love of gargoyles and feelings of not fitting in inspired Billy & The Gargoyles. I love fantasy and believing in what others don’t believe in. As a kid I checked every closet and wardrobe I saw to find the entrance to Narnia and would have liked nothing better than to have a family of live gargoyles.
5. What is the most important thing you have learned about writing for children?
I never want to talk down to kids, but have to balance what is age appropriate for the story I am telling. Writing about the Holocaust I had to be honest with what happened without being too brutal or graphic.
As in Billy, kids are forgotten about by their parents or ignored every day, it is something too many are painfully aware of. Talking about it on their level by having my MC angry at them for his pain is honest. There aren’t always happy families working things out by then end of the story.
6. What is the best and worst thing about writing?
The best for me so far has been inspiring a young boy to learn more about WW2 and the Holocaust. A woman gave her grandson A Dog of War. He hadn’t learned about WW2 in school and started asking questions. Every night after he read a chapter with his parents, they would then get maps and look at where the story was taking place and other books to read more about actual events.
The worst part is writer’s block. I’m having a serious bout if it now. I have most of the next story I want to write spinning in my head but can’t find the words to tell it. It is so frustrating.
7. H.A. Rey the author of "Curious George" said: “I know what I liked as a child, and I don’t do any book that I, as a child, wouldn’t have liked.” do you agree?
Yes. I can’t imagine writing something I don’t like just to put a book out.
8. What is your favourite book / author?
The Giving Tree-Shel Silverstein
9. Who would play your main character(s) in a movie adaptation?
That’s tough. I’ve always seen my Chelsea as Tierza. She’s the dog on the cover of the book.
As for Aaron and Billy I don’t have anyone specific, just an actor who can identify with how the boys feel. Aaron truly believes as long as he and Tierza are together they can survive whatever befalls them. Billy is lost and angry but can accept he needs to let his anger go for his own happiness.
10. If someone had to read your book on audio tape who would you like to read it?
I would love Kate Winslet to read A Dog of War and Freddie Highmore to read Billy and the Gargoyles.
