1. I noticed in some other interviews you've done that you have been reading and writing since your earliest years. So have I, but for me it was always a way of escaping the stress at home... this grew into a massive love for the capacity of 26 little letters and as an adult I find that I am drawn (in an almost sacred manner) to the artistic aspects of writing.
So what is it about the written word that draws you?
I love being taken into other worlds, even when my own is perfectly satisfactory (and also of course when it's not). That's certainly what drew me to reading in the first place. As for writing--I did it for fun from an early age. I wrote stories, plays, newspaper articles, character sketches, poems, all kinds of things. I just wanted to put words together. In junior high, I had a teacher who taught me grammar (including diagramming sentences). I loved it. My mother scrutinized everything I wrote for clarity, spelling, punctuation, and proper organization. It was annoying at the time, but extremely helpful. I learned to put my writing skills together with my thoughts, my imagination, and my feelings and come up with an effective and sometimes even a powerful piece of writing. That was a wonderful thing. Still is.
2. What is the earliest novel you remember falling in love with? (mine is The Case of the Vanishing Boy by Alexander Key)
It's hard to choose just one. I loved The Moffats, by Eleanor Estes; I loved The Four-Story Mistake, by Elizabeth Enright; I loved The Secret Garden, and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and Tom Sawyer, and so many more... I can't put one above the rest.
3. What types of music do you prefer?
Classical music--all eras except the discordantly modern; lots in the vast archives of folk, rock, and (to a lesser degree) pop; opera (but only the gorgeous arias, not so much the parts in between). I'm learning to like some kinds of jazz.
4. I find that music influences me to strongly during the writing process. If the song is sad all my characters become depressed. If the music is chipper my fingers fly across the keyboard and I end up with frolicking men and dancing women. So it might not come as a surprise that I avoid music when writing.
Do you listen to music as you write?
Almost never. It's too distracting--I can't hear the rhythm of my own words if I'm listening to music. Very occasionally, I'll put music on when I actually don't want to pay attention to what I'm writing, when I want to just spill out words and make it impossible for my inner editor to do its job.
How do you think music affects your style?
I don't know that it does. My style tends toward the spare and direct rather than the lush and complex, and my taste in music is sort of like that, too. I like solo piano and chamber music, for instance, better than symphonies.
5. The flip-side of that question is, do you find that listening to music can create characters in your mind? Or have created characters?
Yes, but not while I'm writing. Once I saw a very striking dance performed by two people on a blue-lit stage, and it stirred up a feeling in me that turned into a story. But I haven't had this experience very often.
6. What is your current favorite book/author?
I'm always asked this question by kids at schools I visit--and I can never answer! I just don't seem to think in terms of favorites.
7. Every Friday on Literary Soundtrack we feature a book that we want to read but haven't gotten around to yet. (City of Ember was on there recently... I had to wait for my 8 year old and then my husband to finish it!).
What's on your reading wish list?
I want to read Ian McEwan's new book, Solar; also Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood, and Jane Smiley's Private Life; and I'm always looking for really good books about dogs.
8. Are there any songs that bring to mind a certain book for you? Are there any books that bring to mind a song?
I can't think of any, except when a book explicitly references a song, like Fair and Tender Ladies, by Lee Smith.
9. The classic question everyone seems to ask you about your books is who are you more like Lina or Doon. You've said you're like both of them, but what I'm curious about is whether there has ever been a time when you were annoyed with either of them? Do you ever get to the point when writing a scene when you just want to tell the character to shut-up!?
This hasn't happened to me. The opposite is more likely to happen--that my characters aren't doing enough, they're sitting around and thinking and worrying too much. I want to tell them to DO something!
10. Is there anything you want to add that you feel I didn't touch on?
Music is important in The City of Ember. There's a night when the people of Ember all come together and sing the three songs that celebrate their city. For one of those songs, I had a particular tune in mind, a dark and gorgeous hymn called "Once to Every Man and Nation." When the movie of the book was made, I told the moviemakers about that hymn, but they made up a completely different (and to my mind, completely inappropriate) song. So disappointing! It could have been a powerful scene.
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