Interview with Ellen Jensen Abbott

Today we are thrilled to present an interview with Ellen Jensen Abbott, author of the debut novel, Watersmeet. Ellen is a member of the Class of 2K9.

Here’s a little bit about WATERSMEET (Marshall Cavendish Children’s Books):

From her birth, Abisina has been an outcast—for the color of her eyes and skin, and for her lack of a father. Only her mother’s status as the village healer has kept her safe. But when a mythic leader arrives, Abisina’s life is ripped apart. She escapes alone to try to find the father and the home she has never known. In a world of extremes, from the deepest prejudice to the greatest bonds of duty and loyalty, Abisina must find her own way and decide where her true hope lies.

Welcome, Ellen. I’m so excited for the opportunity to chat with you about your book. All of us Slushies are as of yet unpublished in the children’s lit. world, so we’re just dying to know:

As of April 1st you are officially a published author…how does it feel?

Thrilling—to hold that solid, glossy, real book in my hands. Overwhelming—to realize that I am so central to the process of getting the word out about my book. I didn't realize until publication neared that I needed an MBA in marketing! Unbelievable—I walked into a Barnes and Noble recently and saw a poster of myself. A poster. Of me. How did this happen?

Talk a bit about your journey to publication. How did it all start? How long did it take you? We all know it’s hard to get published; give us some insights into how you got there.

It was yen years from the moment I started my first novel to a book arriving on my doorstep. The book I sold was the second book I wrote and submitted for publication; the first did not sell. Key to the publication process for me was the networking I did. As everyone will tell you, you have to write well and have a solid manuscript to offer. But I found that it also really helped to meet people in the industry, learn from them, and develop relationships with them. I attended the Rutgers University Council on Children's Literature One-on-One Conference three different times. While there I met two critical mentors, the woman who became my agent, and the woman who became my publisher. From each of these four women, I learned both about the business and about writing. I made a point of staying in touch with each over the years as I continued to hone my skills. When I had a manuscript ready, I had people to send it to who knew me. I also felt like I had allies out there—folks I could contact who were in the business and would answer questions and encourage me when I got despondent. My advice is to make a point of meeting those people at conferences with whom you feel a connection, whose work you admire, or who you respect. Get their cards. Follow up with a quick e-mail. Stay in touch—not so much that you are annoying, but enough to keep you on their radar.

From the first few pages of Watersmeet you plunge the reader into a bleak and dangerous world. We can feel it, smell it, (almost) taste it along with your MC, Abisina. Can you give all us fantasy writers out there a few tips on world-building?

World building is the work and joy of writing fantasy. At times it is frustrating because you have worked out a complex plot point only to realize that the mountains you had to have in the last scene now prevent you doing what you want in the next! My advice is to go insane with details—and then cut lots of them out. You need to be familiar with all the particulars of your world to give it verisimilitude, but if you weigh it down with too much, your reader can get lost in minutia. Record keeping is key for me, too. I kept a calendar of my main character's quest, so that I knew how the weather would be changing as the days passed. I also marked phases of the moon so that it wouldn't be full in each scene. I also kept a map both of villages and the land as a whole so that I always knew which way Abisina, the main character, was headed, where the sun would be, and what she would see on the horizon. My world is pre-industrial and forested, so I keep tree books, bird books, animal books on hand. I researched survival guides, herbal remedies, and pre-industrial economies. Even a little reading in these areas gave me all kinds of ideas that translated into plot progression or details that gave more depth to my world.

Take us through a typical day in your life as a writer. How do you organize your time?

Ah! How I long for words like "typical" and "organized" in my life! The truth is that my writing life at the moment is catch as catch can. For the last two years, I have been teaching high school English. I'm not full time, but I am 80%. Think grading, grading, grading. I also have two children who play sports, take music lessons and go to a school that requires a lot of parent involvement. Then there's the mundane stuff: paying bills, cleaning the house, feeding the chickens. (Yeah—we have a tiny flock of chickens!) I've learned not to look for huge chunks of time for writing. If I wait until then, I will simply never write. I grab an hour here and an hour there—between when I get home from work and before my kids get home from school; on a free period at school; after the family has gone to bed. On weekends I take a bit more time, leaving the house for a café so that my husband and kids don't feel tempted to interrupt me. Summers are heaven! And I am cutting back on my teaching next year so I can find more time.

What are you working on now?

The sequel, of course! It's great to be back in the same world, working with characters I am familiar with. At the same time, it's really exciting that these familiar folk are facing new problems and challenges.

Because we are a critique group, the Slushbusters help each other improve our writing and support each other through successes and failures. How have other writers in your community done the same for you?

One of the worst aspects of my ridiculously busy schedule is that I don't have time for a critique group. I can’t even scrape together the time I need to do my own writing! I have been in critique groups before and I know how valuable it can be to get feedback. I have just teamed up with another member of the Class of 2k9, which is a group of authors debuting YA and MG novels in 2009. (Check us out at www.classof2k9.com) Joy Preble, my partner, lives in Texas and I live in Pennsylvania, but we are both writing sequels to our fantasy novels. We've agreed NOT to read each other's first book. It's killing me because I really, really want to read her book (Dreaming Anastasia) but by being a new reader to her second book, I can see more clearly where there is too much or too little back-story about the first book. She can do the same for me. She recently read my first two chapters and helped me rethink some of the narrative style. I think readers are critical, in part, to remind you of what you know. She marked one spot saying, "I'm hearing you here instead of your MC." Duh! How many times have I given the same advice to authors or students—but here I was making the same mistake! That one comment sent me back to the whole MS as I realized there were loads of places I could do more with my character's voice.

What is the question you never get asked but are always dying to answer? And then, of course, give us the answer.

I really want to be asked what it feels like to win a Newbery Award! And as soon as I know the answer, I'll let you know!

And when that happens, I'll be one of the first to ask you! Ellen, it's been a pleasure chatting with you. Thanks for sharing. Best of luck with the sequel!

Sparkly rocks

Noelle is one of the children I take care of. (My inner grammar geek is pointing and shrieking at the dangling participle, but I'm valiantly ignoring it because "of whom I take care" is far too formal.) 

She is one of the most perceptive children I know. I think part of it is because her neuromuscular disease has often kept her watching children play rather than joining them. As I was driving her and her siblings home earlier this week, five year old Noelle and I had the following conversation:

"Sarah, I'm glad I'm a kid and not an adult."

I'm concentrating on the road, but manage, "Why, Noelle?"

"Because adults move fast."

"What do you mean?"

"They walk fast. They don't see good things on the ground," says the collector of sparkly rocks and spotter of lucky pennies.

So I've been pondering the good things I miss when I concentrate on where I should be- instead of where I am. 

Take writing. I've been seeing only how I'm behind, how I've not written as much as I should and how I'm not too pleased with what has been written. But then I started looking at how I now know what I need to do with my MC. I'm pleased if I get 500 words down rather than wish I'd accomplished 1,000. Such things are the sparkly rocks of my writing, but noticing them does make a difference.

How about you? What are some of the small victories you've seen in your writing lately? 

Moving Home

Five days ago, I came back to my home town--not to visit, but to live. Yikes! I haven't lived here since the 90's. It's a small town nestled in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. There are swaths of farmland all around and mountains rising up in the distance. It's a cute town, a conservative town, but we have the first transgender mayor in the US. Go Silverton!

Moving back to Silverton inspires me to write. After all, this is where I first sounded out letters and read my first stilted sentence. This is where I first fell in love with the magic of books, where I met Miss Suzy, Harold, and Sylvester, where I was first swept away into the worlds of Jane, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, Heathcliff, and Bilbo. It is where I walked down the broken sidewalks, kicked leaves in the gutter, and thought that maybe I could make something beautiful out of this world with words on a page.

Years later, I'm back, and still striving for beauty. Oh, and a little truth too.

So, I guess I'm interested in hearing: What made you a writer?

Procrastination Post

This is a procrastinating post. I'm supposed to be working on cover letters and applications. Instead, I'm ... here. 

However, my writing has helped this whole boy-do-I-need-a-new-job-that-includes-health-and-dental-by-September process along.

I think of cover letters as queries. I try to make sure the prospective employer finds the MC (that would be moi) engrossing. I include salient details, and trim everything else. I work to make every word count and keep the reading as enjoyable as possible. And I know that it will always take a while to write.

I'm applying (querying) widely.  I found my prior jobs through recommendations, so this full-tilt job search is new to me. I am so lucky, though, that I learned early in my oh-this-is-beautiful-stuff-I'm-writing-how-do-I-let-the-world-read-it* journey that I'd have to query a lot. A lot, a lot. So when my manuscript (that hasn't been worked on in over two weeks because I've been working on applications and cover letters) is finished, I'm know I'll have to beat the bushes and send out tons of queries. And I'm fine with that. I'm learning to be fine with that when it comes to applications as well. 

I just write it. You can have writer's block with applications as well. I want this one school to realize how hire-able I am, and , I swear, I could not fill out that one part that asks you to list Other Skills. I remembered what I do with my MS: just write something, 'cause it will get the blather out of the way. So, I made a copy of the application, and just wrote. It was blather, but now I know what to write. 

But enough about me. I'm need to take my advice and just write a bit more. I'd love to hear, though, how your writing helps you in the rest of your life. 

*That journey has long since been downgraded to the I-now-know-I'm-nowhere-near-Rowling-but-the-Slushies-say-I'm-improving shuffle.

From the desktop of a newbie children’s writer

Well, I finally went to my first children’s author talk. About time! I’ve been part of a writing critique group for over a year and writing children’s stories for about three years. Of course, in order to get me there the talk had to be in my hometown (Charlottesville, VA), literally a five-minute drive away, and it helped that the author was also from here – Fran Slayton. Her first book, When the Whistle Blows, was just released.

Fran spoke about her “Cinderella” publishing story and gave an overview of children’s publishing, complete with handouts.

Cinderella’s, I mean Fran’s, publishing story is quite unusual. In a nutshell, she got invited to the ball complete with expensive gown. She applied for and won a scholarship to the Highlights Foundation Writer’s Workshop (a pricey one!). This week-long conference for children’s writers and illustrators is held each summer at the Chautauqua Institute, in southwestern New York. This is where she found her prince charming of an editor (Patti Gauch) who coached her along the writing process. The book jacket fit because she is a great writer with a great story.

After telling her publishing story, she talked about the publishing business, bringing up the usual points – if an editor likes your story they take it to the acquisition group and so on. But she also pointed out a few other things I had not yet heard. For example, a publishing company invests about $50,000 in you upfront. This is the cost of all the employees needed to get your book ready to print and then to print it – editors, marketing personnel, illustrators, cost of paper, etc. (No wonder they are so choosy!) She’s been an astute learner of the field of publishing.

Her handouts included a “to do list” for aspiring children’s writers and one on tips for improving your craft. Below I have culled some of her best advice that I found of interest:

1. Participate in children’s writers discussion boards.
- SCBWI.org (You must be a member)
- Verla Kay discussion board
2. Get a professional critique of your work. The best way to accomplish this is to attend a conference.
3. Join a mentorship program.
- Nevada SCBWI Mentorship program
4. Subscribe to writers’ magazines:
- Writer Magazine
- Writer’s Digest
- Children’s Writer Newsletter
5. Books on writing to read.
- Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
- Walking on Water by Madeleine L’Engle
- The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing Children’s Books by Harold Underdown
6. Buy yourself a copy of this year’s edition of Children’s Writers and Illustrators Market.

Place Names

I'm on the road with my husband and two year old. We've loaded up all our worldly possessions and are off on the epic family road trip from Charlottesville, VA to Silverton, OR. No, I'm not crazy. Really, I'm not. We've made it to Owatonna, MN without anyone going crazy and without resorting to the DVD player.

The only problem is I'm not writing. At all. It makes me nervous to be away from my story and characters for so long. To assuage my guilt, I'm doing writerly things like making lists of place names I like the sound of and filing them away for later use. Here's some I've lifted directly from road signs:

Trillium
White Sulfur Springs
Summersville
Lick Creek Road
Snap Dragon Falls
Tamarack
Laurel Springs
Eagle Creek
Greenup

How do you name the places in your stories? I always have a hard time with this. If I make them up they sound too airy and fanciful, and if I lift them from somewhere they sound too, well, real. The right name is hard to find.

I came across a website recently that is a random place name generator. After clicking through about 30 names I realized I wasn't going to find my answer. Still, it's kinda fun. Here's another for fantasy names...like you need more ways to waste time on the internet.

Going there...

One thing that stood out most to me in the Richard Peck SCBWI Master Class dvd was a comment on writing about rape. He described the all the research he'd done, how deeply he'd dug to accurately depict all his main character experienced. His manuscript was 400 pages long. 

Then he realized his manuscript was so long because he didn't want to write that one scene. He didn't want his MC to be raped. It was easier to research than to write. 

Ya think?

His point was that we have to be willing to let all sorts of things happen to our characters. We have to be willing to go there.

Now, I get that from a writing-an-interesting-story perspective. Conflict=story. (That's why I never, ever liked the fiction in Highlights, by the way. The editors don't want external conflict.) 

But as much as I like a good adventure, I long to protect the people that I love. In a weird, writerly sort of way, that means I want to protect my characters as well. I don't want anything REALLY bad to happen. I don't want to wonder if it's going to turn out okay. Funny as it sounds, there are times when I'm writing a scene and I shy away from some aspect of it. I know that if I go there, the story might not end the way I wish it would. 

Then I got to thinking about some folks in my life:

My sister. She tried to help a friend leave an abusive boyfriend. She watched her friend's murder and the boyfriend's suicide.

My friend. She was in the Bosnian army when she was a young teen. Worked in a war hospital. Lived with genocide, hunger, shellings. 

A child I watch. He's 4 years old and recently had his second open heart surgery. There was no way his parents could explain to him why all those adults kept hurting him.

A girl I taught. She wasn't adopted till she was 9. She also had open heart surgery when she was tiny, but she didn't have a parent there to comfort her. No one.

Now that writerly part of me knows I have your attention. 

And my conscience knows I'd be a b**ch if I mentioned those things just because it might increase blog readership. Truth be told, I already feel slimy.

But one of the things I love about my sister ... my friend ... those children is how they responded when life took them someplace no one should ever have to go. 

My sister would do it all again. She didn't let the trauma of that experience shape her, and she's ferociously protective of women in abusive relationships.

My friend from Bosnia is one of the most open hearted people I know. She has friends who are Serbs. She works to help all sorts of refugees. She regularly tells me how lucky she is.

That little boy has a smile that- I can't describe it, but it's precious. He trusts his mom enough thatwalked with her into a doctor's office, even though in his mind  it might mean surgery all over again.

That girl who knew so little affection as a child- and certainly not during her heart surgery- has been learning how to give and receive love the past few years. She can be so tender with her younger siblings.

So here's what I think. I don't want awful things to happen to the characters I love. I hit a point where I figure the story can take a hike if it means going there. But if I've seen anything in my life, amazing good can come from the most heartbreaking situations. 

And that might be a reason to let my characters go there.