Girls in the Stacks.com - Read. Review. Laugh.

Recently, we had an opportunity to “chat” with author Cynthia Leitich Smith. She is one extremely dedicated and fascinating Texas gal who says coke and uses a thesaurus, just like us!

Growing up, what were you like? Were you an avid reader/writer? Was writing something you had always planned on doing?
As a teen, I was involved in school activities but, socially, tended to hide behind my friends a bit. I’d loved reading since early elementary school, and had begun writing short stories and poems by third grade. By sixth grade, I had a column “Dear Gabby” in my classroom newspaper, and I went on to become editor of my junior high and high school newspapers.

I always assumed I’d become a professional writer, in part because it was what I was best at and in part because I loved story per se. I spent a lot of time imagining.

Was there one book that really got you hooked to reading/writing?
Again, I’d always written—on my own and for the school paper. But thinking back on favorite early books, I’d guess that The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Spare (Houghton Mifflin) was one of the most influential. I also read the Nancy Drew series and, later, everything by Stephen King.

What inspired you to write YA books and how did you make that jump from children’s’ books?
It was a YA novel—Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause (Delacorte)—that largely pulled me back to youth literature after law school. I remember seeing it in a bookstore, reading the flap copy, going home, and then, the next day, walking back to Michigan Avenue to buy a copy. (This was when I was living in Chicago).

But like a lot of writers, I began writing what I knew—realistic fiction, set in the mid-to-southwest about middle class characters, some of whom were Native Americans. I’m glad I did. Those stories are important to me, and writing realism helped me to build skills.

I’m always astounded by writers who begin with fantasy. It demands everything that realism does, plus the fantasy element has to hold together and be “earned” by the plot and protagonist.

That said, I began writing for YAs via short stories. My first published short for teens was “A Real-Live Blond Cherokee and His Equally Annoyed Soul Mate,” published in Moccasin Thunder: American Indian Stories for Today, edited by Lori M. Carlson (Harper). I continue to write shorts for the attributes of the form itself, but they also served as a launching pad for my YA novels.

Tantalize and Eternal both center on vampires (and weres and angels.) What motivated you to write in the supernatural/fantasy genre? Was it your fascination with Dracula? 
I  think of my books as Gothic fantasies in part because, as your second questions suggests, they are a conversation of sorts with Abraham Stoker about his signature novel.

Gothic fantasy is sort of old-school horror with make-believe monsters, touching on classic themes like alienation, plague, the “dark” other, gender-power dynamics, etc. It often has strong romantic elements, but deviates from the romance genre tradition.

In Gothics, the inciting incident is usually horrific, the central question goes to one of the classic themes, magic has a price, and there’s no guarantee of a happy ending. You have to read the book to find out what happens.

I mentioned earlier that I read Stephen King, and really, I’m a fan of thoughtful horror going way back. I’m talking edge-of-your-seat, page-turning, suspenseful stories. Mind benders. And I love a monster with a set of teeth on him/her.

I’m a “Buffy” fan from way back.

And it’s partly that “Buffy”-esque take-back-the-night attitude that triggered my interest when I started doing my homework. You see, anytime you write in a longstanding tradition, it’s important to see what’s come before you—both in terms of the literature, and, in the case of fantasy elements, often the folklore that came before it.

Ultimately, that will determine whether your work is derivative or honors and makes a thoughtful contribution to the conversation of books.

When it came time for me to re-read the novel Dracula (1897), I was struck by the fact that the female lead, Mina, for her time, is a “modern woman.” She organizes information, can use that newfangled “typewriter,” comforts her friends, and helps track the monster. Don’t get me wrong—she’s still sent off to bed (to protect her delicate sensibilities) and goes, but you know, for the era.

Then when I saw the 1931 film, starring Bela Lugosi, I realized that Mina’s character had been minimized, reduced to “the girl” AKA “the victim.”

By the time Francis Ford Coppola got a hold of her in 1992, she was in love with the monster (and his wife in a past life), even after he killed her best friend Lucy and tried to kill her husband Jonathan. I mean, really! It’s like we’re sliding backwards.

So I took one of Stoker’s male heroes—the gallant Texan Quincey P. Morris—gender-flipped him into a girl named Quincie and decided to join that conversation by writing Tantalize.

Neither Quincie nor Miranda (from Eternal) is a super slayer, and the series isn’t one big girl-empowerment trip—two of the protagonists so far (Kieren and Zachary) are guys. But considering the theme of gender and power was an entry point for me, and the studying the various retellings of Dracula is what brought it to my attention.

Are you at all like Quincie from Tantalize or Miranda from Eternal?
I have things in common with both, though they’re definitely their own young women.

Like Quincie, I’m organized and ambitious and deeply loyal to the people I care about. I also worked in restaurants as a teen and live in Austin, Texas (her hometown).

Like Miranda, as a teen, I loved to read fantasy, was sometimes overshadowed by my best friend, and longed for the courage to try out for the school play. I also lived for a while in both Dallas (her hometown) and Chicago (where much of Eternal takes place).

Will there be a sequel to either book?
Yes, there are two more prose novels already in the works.

Blessed (Candlewick Feb. 2011) will crossover the casts, picking up where we left off at the end of Tantalize and is a more direct sequel to Tantalize.

And an as-yet untitled novel to follow will be a more direct sequel to Eternal.

There also are graphic novel adaptations of both novels (from different points of view and with new scenes) in the works. The Tantalize graphic is told from Kieren’s point of view and will be released in February 2011.

Blessed is described on your website as “a gothic fantasy novel.” Can you tell us more? Will we see more vampires (or weres or angels)?
Let’s see… I’ve already talked about Gothic and the fact that Blessed will crossover the two casts.

I’ll expand on that a little. If it helps, I’m not writing a linear, sequential—one, two, three—series about the same character. I’m writing stories of a world.

Each story has an arc. But as one character turns a corner and the reader turns the page, they may run into someone from another book.

There is also a sort of global conflict brewing in the universe, but how it manifests in any one story depends greatly on the point of view character.

To this end, I should probably mentioned that there are two published short stories set in the universe: “Haunted Love” appears in Immortal: Love Stories with Bite, edited by P.C. Cast (BenBella) and “Cat Calls” appears in Sideshow: Ten Original Tales of Freaks, Illusionists, and Other Matters Odd and Magical, edited by Deborah Noyes (Candlewick).

And yes, there are more vampires, angels, and various kinds of shapeshifters to come!

You are one busy girl! How do you juggle your website (which is quite impressive, do you ever sleep?), blog, teaching, speaking engagements and writing? Really, we are awed.
I’ll admit it is a busy schedule. I often put in more than 80 hours a week. A full day off is extraordinarily rare, and that includes holidays.

But if someone had told me when I was seven or ten or fourteen or seventeen or twenty-five, that I would get to do this when I grew up…. Wow. I mean, wow. I love books and writing and readers and writers and artists more than I can say. It’s a passion that fills my heart, mind, and life, and I’m absolutely honored and thrilled by it.

What is currently in your STACK?
Bruiser by Neal Shusterman (Harper)
Glimpse by Carol Lynch Williams (Simon & Schuster)
Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins (Hyperion)
The Less-Dead by April Lurie (Delacorte)
The Night Fairy by Laura Amy Schlitz (Candlewick)_
Rage: A Love Story by Julie Anne Peters (Knopf)

Not a question, but a statement. We both just adore Austin, heck we are Texas girls through and through!
Now, that’s something we have in common!

STACKGirls interesting author tidbits:
*salty or sweet – Salty
*cook at home, take-out or dinner out – Very cute husband cooks at home.
*do you say pop, soda or coke - coke
*thesaurus or dictionary  – thesaurus
*country, hip-hop, rock or classical - Classic jazz
*Star Wars, Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings - Star Wars (1977-1983)
*fiction or non-fiction – yes, both.
*texting, emailing or talking on the phone - Email
*truth or dare – Fiction
*werewolf or vampire – Angel

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click on the book jackets for more information on Tantalize and Eternal!
   

Tags: angels, cynthia leitich smith, gothic fantasy, interview, vampires
Posted in Interviews, YA, YA author interview | 8 Comments »