Tag: best selling books

5 Questions for Cece Bell

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In preparing the exhibit and book launch of Cece Bell’s Newbery Honor Award-winning El Deafo for the Salem Museum (now a virtual exhibit, which you can see here), I asked author Cece Bell a few questions to help me prepare a press release. She was kind enough to share her frank and thoughtful answers.

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1. When writing El Deafo, you had to dig deep into events of the past. How did you go about finding the truth of your memories?

Some of my friends have told me I have a freakish memory…but I think it’s more likely that I have a freakish ability to tell tall tales about the past. Seriously, though, I was aiming at capturing the feelings of that period more than the absolute truth of that period, so I do tend to exaggerate my own personal story a bit. To make the story flow, I had to slightly readjust my personal timeline (for example, some of the things that happened in the third grade occur in the fifth grade in the book); I also developed a few characters by making composites of the people I knew, because otherwise there would be too many characters in the book and it would get confusing.

I didn’t have to dig very deep to get to those memories and feelings, however. My hearing loss was quite traumatic, and adjusting to the hearing aid in school caused so much embarrassment and personal agony, that the memories and feelings from this period of my life have pretty much been accessible to me forever. I’m glad they were easy to get to—it made writing and illustrating the book that much easier.

2. Tell me about your process in approaching and writing the book. What did you have to go through to draft and draw El Deafo?

It was brutal work that took a lot of time, and a lot of brain power, too. I started with a detailed outline, which I wrote and rewrote I don’t know how many times. Then, each chapter of that outline became a chapter in the book, with drawings and speech balloons and panels. Each chapter went through many, many drafts (evolving from rough to polished) before I even showed a chapter to my editor, Susan Van Metre. Susan read each chapter, and made suggestions—all of which were useful. But making even one change in a graphic novel is difficult—a change to one panel means other surrounding panels—and even other pages—must change, too. It’s a domino effect, and very labor-intensive.

Once the chapters were finally the way Susan and I wanted them, I then had to go through the long, long process of inking the book. Fortunately, Susan was willing to hire someone else to do the coloring. My good friend from college, graphic novelist David Lasky did a wonderful job with this. When he finished coloring the pages, he passed them back to me. I fine-tuned the work David had done, and after about three intense years of work, the book was done. Whew!

3. What was the most difficult part (emotionally) in writing this book? Did you have any reservations or worries along the way?

Chapter 9, the chapter about sign language, was the most difficult chapter to write. I had a bad attitude about sign language when I was a kid, and so I struggled with how to show this without being disrespectful to all the people who use sign language as their primary means of communication. I also struggled with a few less-than-complimentary depictions of friends from that period. Do I put these representations—which are probably unfair, since they are based solely on my feelings, and not on my friends’ feelings—out in the world? Is it worth taking the risk of hurting these people’s feelings? Or do I stay true to my own childhood feelings and tell a better story? I chose the latter, mostly because I think the story will resonate more with the kids who might benefit from reading stories about surviving difficult friendships. I’m a little worried about the repercussions of this decision, though.

4. What are you most excited about in getting El Deafo out in the world?

I’m excited about today’s deaf kids reading it, because they’ll get to see that even though the technology has changed, a lot of the struggles are the same…and hopefully a lot of the fun things you can do with the technology is similar, too.I’m excited about hearing kids reading it, because they’ll get a better understanding of what their deaf classmates are going through (and this, in turn, will help deaf kids in a way that I would have loved when I was a kid). I’m excited about kids with any disability reading it, because even though the physical struggles might be different, the emotional ones are the same.Everyone deserves a chance to see themselves in books and television and movies. I think all kids, deaf and hearing, will understand that first crush, and that quest to find a true friend, which are both featured in the book. I’m especially excited for teachers, and adults in general, to read it, too—perhaps the book will serve as a reminder to treat all kids the same way, regardless of their abilities. But I’m mostly excited about making people laugh. In spite of its sometimes heavy subject matter, it’s ultimately supposed to be a funny book.

5. Say something (if you haven’t already) about the local connection to El Deafo. (Basically, why should Roanoke Valley people be particularly interested in this book?)

Roanoke Valley folks should be VERY interested in this book! Most of the book takes place in Salem, since that’s where I grew up. There are lots of Salem landmarks in the book: Academy Street School, GW Carver Elementary School, downtown Salem, the interior of Brooks-Byrd Pharmacy (no book about Salem, VA is allowed to exist without this location in it!), my house on Broad Street and Broad Street in general. If you taught in the Salem schools between 1976 and 1982, you might see yourself in the book somewhere—and sometimes in unflattering situations (sorry about that). If you were a kid during this period and remember going to school with me, you might see a few characters that you recognize…and maybe you’ll even see someone who looks like YOU! Who doesn’t want to see themselves portrayed as a cute rabbit? No one, that’s who! I’ve always thought it was very enjoyable to see someone or something I recognized in a graphic novel, so I think this book will give the local folks who read it a lot of pleasure for that reason alone. Hopefully they’ll enjoy the rest of the story, too.

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Note: These questions were asked and answered before El Deafo was awarded the Newbery Honor Award. Since that time, Ralph Berrier of the Roanoke Times has spoken with Cece. I’ll post a link to his interview with her when it’s available.

In the meantime, you can check out this video showing Cece’s reaction to the news:

The 3rd, 2nd & 1st Best Thing Kiera Cass Said @ the Blacksburg Public Library / PART 4

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(These last three are short so I’m just clustering them together.)

3. “I knew there was something a little off about me; I just didn’t know what it was… but now I own it. I’m okay with being a weirdo.”

If that isn’t the journey through young adulthood, I don’t know what is. Everyone is off, and everyone feels that it’s only them. And then they get over it.

2. CENSORED.

Ok, this one was really odd and funny, but I’m editing it out. For those of you in attendance: no, this was not Keira’s comment about “soft core porn.” It was better than that. But after some reflection, I couldn’t recall with 100% clarity whether or not this was one of the “hushhush secrets not to leave this room” or not. To be on the safe side, I’m just cutting it. One might ask why I didn’t go with FIVE Best Things in the first place? Well, that would have made sense of course, and in a perfect world I would have planned better. Sorry! For now, I just need a placeholder… or a math tutor… or something.

KieraCass (1024x656)1. “Maybe I can be there for your next baby, too.”

This has nothing to do with Kiera Cass the writer, but a good bit to do with Kiera Cass the person. Earlier in the evening, Kiera had mentioned how she was tweeting in the delivery room after the birth of her daughter. When I got my book signed, I told her I would follow her on twitter so I could be there for the birth of her next baby. (Not that she’s pregnant, people… don’t get excited! I mean in the far future, whenever that day should come.) As I walked away, she called, “Maybe I can be there for your next baby too!”

And as unlikely as that is (I have four kids already, which is, let me tell you, a LOT of kids), I thought it was so sweet of her to make that gesture—in essence to say that there might be a world in which we could be actual friends.

The Fourth Best Thing Kiera Cass Said @ the Blacksburg Public Library / PART 3

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“Who decides to start a career when you have a two month old?”

I loved this because it is so life.

Kiera was talking about how she was had just given birth and gotten her land-legs as a new parent when she started trying to find an agent to represent her for The Selection. In something of a whirlwind, she found several agents who wanted to sell her book and subsequently received bids from a couple of different publishing houses.

Meanwhile, as she set forth on this new career path, she was also doing all the normal diaper-changing/singing-the-baby-back-to-sleep-at-2-in-the-morning things that infants require. And somehow, it worked.

As I repeatedly tell my husband (usually after he asks me “What were we thinking?!”): if we waited until we were ready to have kids, we’d never have them.

Life doesn’t just stop and present you with a flawless bubble in which to birth and rear your children. Case in point: I am literally nursing my son as I write this blog.

(Sorry if that was TMI, but it had to be said.)

So here’s the nutshell: Don’t wait for the perfect hour to start something. The perfect hour doesn’t exist. Just figure out where your priorities are and start acting on them.

The Fifth Best Thing Kiera Cass Said @ the Blacksburg Public Library / PART 2

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IMG_2131“I couldn’t find a place to put it, so I just put it in the future.”

When planning out her setting for The Selection, Kiera Cass (a history major in college) struggled to find the right moment in time for her story. She knew she wanted something with a bit of a fairy-tale gloss, but the whole long-ago/far-away thing just wasn’t working for her. So she decided to free herself from the confines of the past and place her tale in an imaginary future.

This, folks, is problem solving at its best.

Sure, there’s the whole world-building thing to figure out, but there’s also a blessed freedom to the idea of going out into the unknown—in an entirely opposite direction from your own preconceived notions about what should or should not be.

So when life gives you lemons, you don’t have to make lemonade. You can just cut up the lemons and add them to your iced tea. Or juggle them while gargling soda. Or throw them out altogether and pour yourself a glass of bourbon. Whatever works.

Good to remember. Thanks, Kiera.

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The Sixth Best Thing Kiera Cass Said @ the Blacksburg Public Library… plus way too much randomness from me / PART 1

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Kiera Cass @ library book signing

“My soul is seventeen.”

Kiera Cass is a woman with open arms. Open eyes. Open mouth. (And I mean that as a compliment. Open mouths lead to all kinds of good things: understanding, song, the eating of peanut butter M&Ms.) Unlike certain writers I know, she appears genuinely to appreciate the existence of other human beings, specifically young ones.

In the hour or so that she chatted with a smattering of folks at her hometown library on Tuesday, Kiera had kind words to say about the gazillion people she’s encountered in her career as a writer. However, the one (nameless) person about which she did NOT have nice things to say was a young adult writer she met who hated young adults.

Kiera may have been too polite to ask the obvious question—“WHY IN THE HECK ARE YOU WRITING FOR TEENS?”—but it’s a question worth asking.

It’s one I’ve had to ask myself of late. Not because I’m a hater; I happen to adore teenagers and all their energy and intelligence and worry and wildness. The question is one I need to ask myself for the simple reason that I am also writing for teens. So really, why am I doing it?

When I was myself a young adult, I wasn’t exposed to a lot in the teen lit genre. I went straight from Ella Fannie’s Elephant Joke Book to Chronicles of Narnia to Kurt Vonnegut. Oh yeah, I cried me good over some Judy Bloom at some point in between, but that was about it.

Thus, as a young writer, it never occurred to me to write for young people specifically. I didn’t know people DID that. (And at that time, not so many of them did.) Plus, I just wanted to play with language and make up tiny stories and think about true things. Translation: I became a poet. And in good poet fashion, I spent years and years writing lyric observations of the sky that were ignored by everyone and everything, including the sky.

Then I had an idea that was not a poem and was not a tiny story and was not “great literature.” It was fun and light and entertaining (or at least it entertained me). Around the same time I was teaching a class on the American bestseller, and a whole slew of college freshmen started telling me about their favorite books. I started reading the books they were excited about, which were in this new (to me) genre called “young adult.” As a writer, the notion that authors could write books for young people—not for snooty intellectual-types—was quite frankly a revelation.

Suddenly, writing the big bad novel was not so scary anymore. I just needed to focus on the idea of telling an entertaining story and let the rest take care of itself. I didn’t have to impress Kurt Vonnegut or the people who read Kurt Vonnegut. I didn’t even have to impress the people who kept books by Kurt Vonnegut unopened on their bedside tables. I simply had to please myself and my imagined audience. (Oh yes, and my co-writer, the astounding Madelyn Rosenberg… but more about her in a future blog.)

This experience of writing a YA novel has opened a sort of floodgate of possibilities for me. When I was in high school, I may have had the soul of a crusty 80-year-old fisherman… but now, as I have gone forward into life, I think my soul may be aging in reverse order.

I’m not quite sure I could say, like Kiera Cass, that it’s seventeen.

My soul is a little more gawky and hopeful and clueless than that.

Closer, I think, to sixteen.

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** FOOTNOTE: Just want to add that I do not intend to dis Kurt Vonnegut in any way. He is one of my faves. And he had some great stuff to say about the writing process, too.