Chapter 37 - AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Saundra Mitchell

I am so excited to post our very first author interview! Saundra Mitchell has already appeared on MFA recently as a guest-blogger in our "Idea to Bookshelf" series (here).




Author Info
A screenwriter and author, Saundra Mitchell penned the screenplays for the Fresh Films and Girls in the Director's Chair short film series. Her short story "Ready to Wear" was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and her first feature film, Revenge Ends, debuted on the festival circuit in 2008. In her free time, she enjoys ghost hunting, papermaking, and spending time with her husband and her two children. Ms. Mitchell lives in Indianapolis, with her family. She is represented by Sara Crowe of Harvey Klinger,Inc..



Okay, so let's get started with the obvious questions: What is your book called? When is the release date? What is it about?

Shadowed Summer
February 10, 2009


"Nothing ever happened in Ondine, Louisiana, not even the summer Elijah Landry disappeared. His mother knew he ascended to heaven, the police believed he ranaway, and his girlfriend thought he was murdered. Decades later, certain she saw his ghost in the town cemetery, fourteen-year-old Iris Rhame is determined to find out the truth behind "The Incident With the Landry Boy." Enlisting the help of her best friend Collette, and forced to endure the company of Collette's latest crush, Ben, Iris spends a summer digging into the past and stirring old ghosts, in search of a boy she never knew. What she doesn't realize is that in a town as small as Ondine, every secret is a family secret. "



Do you have a website and/or blog we can point people to?


http://www.saundramitchell.com/
http://www.shadowedsummer.com/

The websites are great! I love how you blog about "real life" ghost stories and I found it incredibly amusing that during October you had the hardest time tracking those stories down! You'd think in October there would be more than enough material out there to post about!

Have you always been interested in ghost/scary stories?

I enjoy seeking them out, and I always have. When I was a kid, I was addicted to Betty Ren Wright's books- THE DOLLHOUSE MURDERS, particularly. I hunted for ghost stories, hunted for actual ghosts- the first book I ever attempted to write was about a ghost who pulled a girl down into a river- yeah, I kinda like ghosts. (And rivers, now that I think about it...)

I saw on your bio that you have been called as a guest expert in Urban Legends and Folklore ... interesting!

How long have you been writing? When did you know that wanted to bean author? When/Why did you decide to try getting published?

I've always written- plays and comic books, quick stories, silly songs, stuff like that. But in high school, I had an incredibly laid-back, unflappable friend named Braden. It was a challenge to get him to react in a big way, so I started writing these cyberpunk stories starring us as futuristic assassins. Those were the first real short stories I ever wrote.

The funny thing is, it never occurred to me that I wanted to be a writer. Even while I was writing and publishing short fiction after high school, I thought I was still trying to find my calling. Even after I talked my way into selling my first screenplay, I still wondered what I wanted to do with my life. It wasn't until I'd been the sole screenwriter for Dreaming Tree Films for probably two or three years that it occurred to me that I had stumbled into my future.Once I realized that, I really dug in, working hard on my craft and seeking representation. :)


Isn't that just the way it goes? I think a lot of us are looking for our "calling" in life to be something dramatically different from what we already do and love.

Can you briefly explain your path to becoming a published author andany obstacles you had to deal with in that process? Was there somethingyou feel like you did absolutely right or absolutely wrong along the way?

I mentioned I sort of stumbled into doing this as a career- I was already doing it, I just didn't realize it right away. But I think the one thing I did absolutely right was I always said yes to opportunity. When a company contacted me to find out if I could write a screenplay based on a short story of mine they'd read- I said yes! Then I spent the weekend in the library learning how to write a screenplay. You have to be honest- if you know for a fact you can't accomplish something, save everyone the trouble and say no. But if you don't know- and you're willing to work hard to find out- say yes. Always say yes.

The one thing I did absolutely wrong- I told a prospective agent that I saw myself as "a little midwestern housewife." He didn't offer to represent me- probably because he was looking for a writer, not a housewife. You don't have to be conceited to be confident, but you definitely have to be confident to succeed.


Good advice! It's great advice for everyone (even non-writers like myself).


How much control do you have over your book once you get an agentand/or editor? What happens if you don't like the suggested edits?Title? Cover? Jacket blurb? etc.

You always have the ultimate control- you can refuse to do any and everything. They can just choose to cancel your contract. :)

In my experience, the house wants two things. They want you to be happy and they want to make money on your book. They'll listen to your point of view about anything- they may not take your suggestions, but they will listen.

And it's not impossible to ask for changes and get them. I have friends who've gotten tweaks on their covers, who've been allowed to rewrite their jacket copy. You can disagree with some edits and even get your way from time to time. But we're writers, and they're businesspeople- sometimes we have to step back and let them do business.

It helps to realize that everybody working on the book is invested in its success- when your designer delivers your cover, she genuinely wants you to love it. Your editor genuinely wants your story to be the best story possible. Your copyeditors genuinely want you to look like you know what the subjunctive mood is.

Keeping that in mind, it makes it a lot easier to put edits, titles, covers, blurbs- all of that, into perspective.


Interesting.


Where did you get the idea for "Shadowed Summer"?


"Shadowed Summer" didn't arrive as an idea for a story. The main character, Iris, showed up in my head one day- fully formed, I knew her name, and what she looked like, where she was from- but nothing else. She sort of hung out in my head over the course of several months, which was really annoying. Finally, I got tired of this and decided if she didn't want to tell me her story, I would just create one for her.


I decided that I wanted to write a book that made me feel the way I felt when I read Annette Curtis Klause's "The Silver Kiss" when I was a teenager. My plan was a romantic ghost story, but when I sat down to write that, Iris balked. She was not the least bit interested in a romance, and absolutely refused to fall in love with my ghost. On the downside, I didn't get to tell the story I planned. On the upside, cooperative Iris was a lot more fun than silently looming Iris.


I think it's really interesting when authors say that they are really just telling the character's story and that they couldn't go a certain direction with it because the character didn't want it to go that way. Fascinating.


Who is your favorite character in "Shadowed Summer" and why?


Honestly, I'm kind of partial to the troublemaking Delancie brothers. They just make me laugh!


They are great! I love how many of my favorite characters in books are not the main characters.


What is your favorite line or quote from "Shadowed Summer"?


Ohhhh, I was delighted to get the finished cover, because wow, somebody picked out my favorite line and put it on the back!


"Wind kissed my ear, cool and soft, and I heard a voice. It sounded like clover tastes, green and new and sweet."


That's a great line! I'll share my favorite line when I post my book review!

Why did you choose the South as the setting for "Shadowed Summer"? You mentioned that Iris as a character came to you fully formed and that you told her story as she "wanted" it, but did you know from the get-go that she was from Louisiana? Have you ever lived in the South? If not, how were you able to create that setting so well?

Yes; when Iris showed up, she brought the whole package. I knew her father's name, her best friend's name, and I knew they were from Louisiana. So I didn't choose the South; Iris did. But I got to pick where in Louisiana- I chose Ascension Parish for the name (it goes with Elijah/the Prophet Elijah ascending to heaven.)

Then I did a LOT of research- finding out the names of highways, the history of the area, making sure the graveyards still used crypts north of New Orleans, what kind of wildflowers... that kind of thing. And then I made up Ondine to fit between the real cities of St. Amant and Donaldsonville, so I would have the latitude I needed, but the realism I enjoy.

And then I ran it all past Wendi, my best friend and all around peas to my carrots- and lifelong resident of Georgia. Some details, I could only get by calling or writing down to Louisiana to bother nice people (like the lovely PR officer with the Louisiana state police,) but Wendi helped me get the southern feel and cadence right.

So, uh... I've been to Georgia, and I had a Georgian doing my southern spot checks, but me? Never been to Lousiana. Not even close. So I'm really glad that it's ringing true so far!

I see that "Shadowed Summer" has been chosen as a Junior LibraryGuild selection for 2009. Tell me a little bit about what this means,how you were chosen, etc.

Being chosen for Junior Library Guild has been such an honor! They're a selection and review program. They sift through thousands of advance copies and pull out what they feel are the best 336 young adult and children's books for the year.

They sort their selections into categories which describe the type of book and the age range, and then they sell subscriptions to librarians all over the United States. It's kind of like a Book of the Month club, but designed for libraries.

"Shadowed Summer" is the Mystery Middle selection for March of 2009 and it's so exciting to get such a seal of approval. Their titles tend to get starred reviews, and go on to win awards, so I'm so pleased to be in such good company.

Right now, though, I'm most excited to know for sure that this time next year, community and school libraries will definitely have a copy of my book on their shelves because of this program!

Congratulations, then! How exciting for you!

Do you have more books planned for the future? Do they follow thissame story or is it something completely different?

"Shadowed Summer" is its own world, and totally finished. Right now, I'm working on two new YA novels. The first, "Vespertine," is about a girl who has visions, but only at dusk. The other is "The Last Will & Testament of Evan Todd," which is about a boy who drowned, but seems to be the only one who realizes he's dead.

Interesting ... I loved "Shadowed Summer" so I am excited to read what you have next!

What do you love more - reading or writing?

Ooh, I can't even answer that one- they're entirely different things to me. Writing, for me, is playing with words and trying to order the world. Reading is the chance to go to another place entirely. I love books that transport me.

Has becoming a published author made you a more forgiving or a more critical reader?

Hmmm, this is hard. I have always been a critical reader to some extent. Because of the screenwriting, I read lots of scripts, but see few movies- they're just too expensive if I'm not sure I'm going to love it.

Watching TV is tricky too; I spend a lot of time thinking about the structure and form of the screenplay under the show- this helps me work on my writing, but unless the show is unrepentantly trashy or absolutely amazing, I just can't watch it.

It's not as bad as that with novels. Novels are more personal; they don't have rigorous structure requirements beyond needing a beginning, middle, and end. I'll try just about anything! But I'll abandon a book pretty quickly if I'm spending more time thinking about how I'd revise Chapter One than actually reading Chapter One.

Who is your favorite author(s)? I'm unapologetically selfish when it comes to this question because I'm really just trying to find new authors. I figure if I like a book that an author has written, then I'll probably like the authors they like to read!

I love Anneli Rufus, David Simon and Stephen King; Carrie Ryan, Maureen Johnson and Maurice Sendak. And I have to stop now because I willseriously list fifty seven authors and keep going.

Well, I know I won't be adding Stephen King to my TBR list because I'm not really a fan of scary stuff. I know, I'm a wuss. But I am excited about Carrie Ryan's debut novel, "Forest of Hands and Teeth"! What a title!

What author are you reading right now?

Right now, I'm reading ARCs of R.J. Anderson's "Spell Hunter" and Sarah Rees Brennan's "The Demon's Lexicon." I just finished Maggie Stiefvater's "Lament" and it rocked my socks hardcore.
Sorry, another shameless plug for books to add to my TBR list ... as if I need any more!

What author are you most excited about reading next?

I'm totally looking forward to Sarah Cross' "Dull Boy" and AprilynnePike's "Wings."

Those are two books I've got on my list as well! I've heard great things about them both!

If you could meet any author, who would it be?

Why? Man, I am really bad at meeting people! I'm very shy, and I tend to go on and on. (Poor John Green, I sent him a terrible, babbling e-mail about fried Coca Cola once when I was just trying to ask him about accountants!) But I think it would be a blast to IM with Maureen Johnson because I love her books, I love her blog, and in IM, she wouldn't be able to see me fangirling!

Yeah, that would be my problem, too!

Is there anything you want us to add to this Q&A that we didn'talready ask?

This is pretty comprehensive. Do you want to know how many fillings I've had? (3- and one was in a baby tooth that promptly fell out!)

Awesome! Thanks so much to Saundra Mitchell for taking the time to answer a few questions for us! It was so fun to correspond with her! Put her book, "Shadowed Summer" on your list and go get it when it comes out in February 2009!