Six Impossible Things is the debut YA novel by Fiona Wood. A sweet and heartwarming story folllowing the life of 14 year old Dan Cereill as he adjusts to a life after his parent’s separation and the family going bankrupt. We were lucky enough to  catch up with Fiona for a quick chat – quick warning though, a few small spoilers ahead.

You’ve been working as a successful script writer for many years now, what made you decide to write a novel?

It really comes down to the simple fact that I enjoying reading more than I enjoy watching TV, and finally giving myself the time to try to write a novel. And no matter how good the experience of script writing is, you always end up pouring your creative energy into someone else’s project. So it was wonderfully exciting to start with a blank page and absolutely no brief.

What was your experience in getting the book published?

Lovely Simmone Howell (Notes from the Teenage Underground, Everything Beautiful) read the manuscript and suggested to her publisher that they might like to read it. And they did. Even though they loved Dan, they didn’t think it was quite ready for publication, and I went back to the drawing board with some notes from them and some more ideas of my own, and did a rewrite. When Claire Craig, from Pan Macmillan, read that draft, she thought it was in good shape and offered me a contract. But it was a year between them first reading the manuscript and me doing the rewrite – I was still writing TV scripts, too – and then nearly two years between signing the contract and the book being published, so, as is often the case, it was a longish road. Overall I wrote five drafts in three years. Recently I have been lucky enough to be offered representation with Jill Grinberg Literary Management in New York where Cheryl Pientka is looking after ‘Six Impossible Things’, and me.

Where did the idea of Dan’s story come from?

It all started with Dan. I was working on something else, and the idea of this angsty fourteen  year old boy kept creeping into the margins. And so I started writing him down as a character, and then I wrote a story for him. I liked him so much, and I thought it would be great if this wry, wordy-nerdy boy got to transform himself and go to the ball – or year nine social, in his case. That’s where his name came from – an anagram of Cinderella. I also had the idea of two houses side-by-side, identical from the outside, but so different inside, with a shared attic space. That’s where Dan and Estelle live, though Dan has only just moved in at the beginning of the story. The misread note was something that actually happened to me.

Dan is faced with massive challenges at quite a young age that would make most kids quite bitter and angry, yet Dan is still a well behaved kid who works hard. Estelle has a more “normal” family situation but chooses to rebel against her parents, why do you think that is?

When the family business goes belly-up and his dad moves out, it’s a reality check for Dan, and a bit of a ff on growing up. After hibernating for a while, he rises to the occasion, and he understands that there are new imperatives at play. He gets a job because he really needs the money. The safety net’s gone. And because his mother isn’t coping terrifically well, he also does things like make sure she’s in touch with friends, and encourages her to take the job at Café Phrenology.  When it comes to Estelle, yes, things are more stable in her family, but she doesn’t see an awful lot of her parents. She has quite a combative relationship with her mother, and she does not like being told what to do. She rebels because she is pushing against the restrictions her parents impose. And no one likes being grounded on the night of a school dance…

I didn’t realise Hot Chip was an actual band, are you a fan?

I love Hot Chip!

If you wanted readers to take one thing from Dan’s story, what would it be?

Dan risks his friendship with Estelle because he feels he has to be honest with her. Because that’s who he is. And it comes back to something Oliver says to him, which is that the coolest thing is to be authentically yourself. So that’s what I hope readers might take with them – that it’s worth being on this road to finding out who you really are, and then feeling confident enough to be that person.

Some musicians have been known to do this, but do you think you might ever hang around a bookstore and see if you can spot someone buying your book?

Ha ha. Good idea! I could offer to do a quick reading on their way to the door. Value adding. No, I haven’t done it, but it would be interesting – you’d get an idea of whether the cover is saying ‘pick me up’, and whether the blurbs are making people open the book and dip in. I’d need an invisibility cloak though.

What is currently in your To-Be-Read pile?

There are a few piles (coughs) – in the YA pile at the moment, the top few books are ‘This is Shyness’ Leanne Hall, ‘White Cat’ Holly Black, ‘Little Paradise’ Gabrielle Wang and ‘India Dark’ Kirsty Murray.

Any quirky writing rituals or habits? Where do you prefer to write? Cafe, at home…etc

I have an office away from home, with no internet. It’s the only way to get the stretches of time I need to get lost in the work. On the way to work I pick up a coffee.  When I get to my desk, I always take off my wedding rings – for me that represents putting aside thoughts of family and home – how much laundry there is piled up, what we’re having for dinner, who’s doing what at the weekend etc. So for the time I’m there, it’s just me and the work. That’s the theory, anyway.

Can you tell us about any upcoming projects/novels?

I’m about a third of the way through another YA novel called ‘Pulchritude’ – what an ugly word for beauty – about friendship and betrayal. And I’m at the early planning stage of a middle grade novel.

Six Impossible Things is available now at all good bookstores in Australia and NZ

As you all know, to celebrate the release of her new novel, Return to Paradise, we’re celebrating all things Simone Elkeles this month. Everyone here at yaReads has Elkeles Fever and were stoked when she sat down for an interview with us. If you’ve been following any of Simone’s stories, chances are you’re going to love this interview! Strap yourselves in, folks. This one is too awesome for words.

Return to Paradise gives readers a bit of closure. Is this it for Maggie and Caleb, or will we be treated to another novel?

The story is finished after Return to Paradise.  However, I want to tell my fans that they will feel much better about the ending I have in store for Maggie and Caleb this time!

I know what my favorite moment is, but I’m dying to know what your fave Caleb and Maggie moment in Return to Paradise is…

I would have to say when Maggie and Caleb are kissing in the lake.  Things really heat up and I think my fans are going to be surprised by what Maggie does next.  I’m just so proud of her!  She’s so much stronger than she was in Leaving Paradise.

Will we ever learn what Maggie and Caleb got up to during the year they spent apart?

I think the most important thing that happened while they were apart is that they learned what’s most important in life:  being with the ones you love.  I know many of my fans were upset with the ending of Leaving Paradise, but I didn’t think Maggie and Caleb were ready to be with each other yet.  However, after a year apart. . .

I’m curious to learn what happens to Leah next – will we ever find out?

Everyone has a lot of healing to do, but Leah more than anyone.  I think Leah has a rough road ahead of her, but I have no doubt that she will prevail.

Of all the characters you’ve created, Caleb is definitely my fave. Who is your fave?

I get asked that question a lot, but there’s no way to pick!  (It would be like having to choose my favorite out of my children.)  I love Caleb because he is so strong in most areas of his life, but he needs Maggie to be complete.  I love Maggie for the way she forgives Caleb and Leah even though she’ll have scars forever.  Of course, I love Alex and Carlos for pushing the envelope, but still being very caring.  I respect Brittany and Kiara for not giving up on the guys they love, even when the boys make things very challenging!  See what I mean?  I could never pick!

Of all the characters you’ve created, which did you find the most challenging to write, and why?

All of my characters were challenging in different ways.  I had to do quite a bit of research to write about Alex and Carlos and their gang affiliations as well as Hispanic culture.  I talked to kids in Juvenile Detention facilities, met with police officers who work in tough neighborhoods, and even went on a “ride-along” and got to wear a bullet-proof vest!

You seem to have quite an affiliation with bad boys being reformed by good, wholesome girls. Why is that?

I love bad boys.  They’re my weakness.  Find me a hot and sexy bad boy and I melt.  I think it’s my “female gene” that makes me want to fix those bad boys.  If I can fix a bad boy, I can fix anything! (females are natural people-fixers, in my opinion)  Alex and Carlos and Caleb are a mixture of a bunch of boys I know or did know throughout my life… I’m totally sarcastic and “get” guys like that.  And just like behind a good man you’ll find a good woman, behind most bad boys you’ll find a good heart.  (Not all bad boys are redeemable in real life, but I write fiction and my bad boys are ‘curable!’)

How do you go about choosing your character’s names?

I get asked that question all the time.  Listen, if you were obnoxious in high school your name is somehow connected to the rude girls in my books, ha ha.  My friends laugh when I say to beware of pissing me off because you just might find yourself in one of my books (although Darlene was a great friend of mine in school and she’s the mean girl in Perfect Chemistry and Madison is the daughter of my best friend and the mean girl in Rules of Attraction). I’m a girl scout leader, so I use a lot of my girls’ names in my books.  I use last names of people I know most of the time or I make them up.  I will also go to baby name websites and find names that I like.  Sometimes I even use names from my fan mail.  My fans have some very cool names!

What’s in your TBR pile at the moment?

My “to read” pile is enormous because I can’t remember the last time I felt like I had enough time to read!  But, I definitely want to make time to read Mockingjay when it comes out.  I loved The Hunger Games!

For you, what are the best and worse things about being a writer?

There are so many things I love about being a writer!  I love the satisfying feeling of writing “The End” when I finish a book.  I love my RITA award I just won at the Romance Writers of America conference!  (seriously, she’s so pretty. . . I can’t stop looking at her!)  But, most of all, I LOVE MY FANS!  The wonderful comments I get on my Facebook, myspace, and twitter really keep me going when I’m feeling down or frustrated.

Can you tell us what you’re working on next?

I’m currently working on Chain Reaction, the third book in the Perfect Chemistry series.  This one is about Luis, the youngest Fuentes brother.  He’s such a good guy who doesn’t live with the angst that his big brothers have always lived with.  Luis is smart, funny, and has big dreams.  When he falls for the wrong girl, Luis enters a dark world he’s never known to try and save her from herself.  Just when he thinks he’s got life all figured out, Luis learns some disturbing news about his family that destroys his positive outlook on life.  Will that Fuentes bad boy streak come out with a vengeance and lure Luis to live on the edge like his new girlfriend and his own father?

Maggie Stiefvater’s stellar novel, Linger, is our Book of the Month here for July. As promised, she sat down for a quick Q&A with us (aint she just the cutest?!) Enjoy.

What made you decide to include the additional POV(s)?

Sheer insanity. No, mostly it was because I love to see characters from all sides — often an action they think is very sympathetic is actually very unsympathetic from an outside viewpoint, or vice versa. And with a limited first person POV, you can only see so much. I wanted to see more of Mercy Falls than Sam and Grace could see, and I wanted to see more about Cole in particular. I couldn’t have tackled his character arc without seeing inside his head.

Music is a reoccurring theme in your novels. For those that may be unaware of your affinity with music, please explain.

I . . . just need it. I can’t write unless I have music playing in the background, and I write better if I have dedicated playlists with the mood of the novel or scene or character playing. I also play a bunch of musical instruments so if writing ever stops working out for me, I can go back to busking on the sidewalk with my bagpipes. I’d need to get another kilt, though.

Since the release of SHIVER, your name is now considered among the best of YA authors. How has your life changed lately?

It’s really bizarre, actually, to think that just a few years ago I was reading the “greats” in YA and now I’m on lists with them. It happened so fast that I still sort of just feel as if my hair is on fire. It’s pretty amazing to go into a library, say my name, and have the teen librarian instantly begin nodding her head because she not only knows who you are, but she read your book. It’s just sort of crazy and wonderful and intimidating. I have readers! I don’t want to let these people down!

Can you tell us anything about the SHIVER movie?

Unfortunately I don’t have too much in the way of news. The film rights were optioned by Warner Brothers/ Unique Features, they hired Nick Pustay to adapt the screenplay, and the latest news is that the script is finished. I don’t know anything else other than that! Everything in film movies glacially slowly, and that’s saying a lot, since I’m used to publishing being slow.

Who is your ideal Grace and Sam?

Alex Turner for Sam (I know he’s not an actor) and Rachel Hurd Wood for Grace — or Dakota Blue Richards. She’s a little young at the moment, but movies take so long . . .

Can you give us any information about your next novel

It is not about werewolves. Or kraken. It’s a YA paranormal, mostly realistic with a hint of supernatural, like my other books, and it involves blood and beaches and kissing. That’s all I can say!

We’re featuring Audrey’s memoir, Map, for the month of June here at yaReads. Her story is a brave account of her life as she explores her sexuality, and her candidness continues in this interview. Enjoy yaReaders!

For those that may not know, what is a memoir?

It’s a true story, usually focused on one time period or theme in the life of a regular person, as opposed to an autobiography which is generally about the entire life-to-date of someone famous.  So for instance my memoir Map is a coming-of-age story about a time when it was easier to admit that you were in love with another girl than that you’d met someone on the internet.

Did you decide to use alias names for the people in your story, or did you just tell it how it was?

It was important to me tell the truth, both factually and emotionally, as best as I could.  I even used old credit card receipts and telephone bills and emails to remember facts.  But to respect people’s privacy I used pseudonyms for almost every character in Map, except in the case of two minor characters who gave me explicit permission to use their real names.

How long did MAP take you to write?

Nine-and-a-half years, start to finish.  The first draft took me only a couple of months, but I left out the climax!  My writing group was pretty insistent that that wasn’t allowed.  It took some time for me to get comfortable enough to share the hard parts.  And then with each successive draft, I heard “more,” or “deeper,” or “you need more perspective,” until finally the story was on the page the way it needed to be.

Would you say that writing a memoir is easier, or harder than writing fiction?

Ooh, good question.  I think they’re challenging in different ways.  In both cases, you need to be able to tell a good story and bring compelling characters alive on the page, and neither lets you evade emotional truth if you are doing it well.  I think for me, memoir’s largest challenge was how to write both honestly and respectfully about other real live human beings—many of whom were still a part of my life.  With the novel I recently finished, on the other hand, I had to work to understand multiple characters so that their motivations and actions, not my authorial plot-needs, were driving the story.

At the beginning of MAP, you question your sexuality and essentially conclude that you’re bisexual. Although you were cautious about coming out, it didn’t ever seem like you were completely scared or feared any kind of social rejection. Can you talk about your feelings on this subject?

I’m still not sure how much of my experience was luck of environment. By the time I came out, there were plenty of queer people around me, and I’d witnessed parts of the coming out of a few gay friends and acquaintances.  Some of them had challenges with their families, or with their own comfort levels, but if they experienced any social rejection, I was completely oblivious.  There just didn’t seem to be anything to worry about in that arena.  And I grew up with activist parents, and although their activism was mostly centered around the Jewish community, it was unfathomable that they wouldn’t be supportive of gay rights and whatnot.  So where a lot of people might worry about homophobia, I was more concerned that people would realize I was confused about something, that I wasn’t as “together” and know-it-all as I pretended to be.

How does falling in love with someone you’ve never met in person differ to the more ‘conventional’ way?

Emotionally, I think it’s very much the same, and the differences I’ve experienced in more recent relationships have more to do with the fact that they aren’t “first love.”  But you do miss out on body language, on eye contact, on touch, on scent, which are all different ways to know a person. You find different sort of rhythms.  There’s an intensity to it, a focus and an adrenaline rush that heightens feeling. You rely a lot on voice, both telephone and written, which I think might be hard if the object of your affections was more kinesthetically or visually inclined.  In either situation, you face the challenge of trying to grow an initial falling in love into a sustainable relationship, and although I’ve seen it done successfully both ways, I think the sooner you are fully “in person” present with each other, the better your chances.

Looking back on your relationship with Catrina, do you think that perhaps when reality set in that you were going to meet in person, she freaked out?

I could speculate, but ultimately she is the only one who knows what was going on for her.  It definitely upped the stakes.

Although your relationship with Catrina didn’t work out so great in the end, it appears that she was exactly who she said she was. What advice can you give to teens that might be pursuing online relationships about the dangers associated with meeting online friends?

Don’t do it!  You might get your heart broken!  Just kidding… but there’s always a risk of online chemistry (friendship or otherwise) not translating to in-person interactions.  There’s a great essay by Meghan Daum that I read when I was first working on Map called “On the Fringes of the Physical World” which captures this dynamic and the disappointment really well.  Of course the other danger is the physical safety one, and for that the usual blind date precautions apply: let someone else know where you are going, meet in a public place, have plenty of extra cash and your own way to get home, stay sober and trust your instincts and don’t let embarrassment trump safety.  Someone worth spending time with is going to respect your boundaries, no matter how cautious or quirky, and if you rush off in weird panic and later decide you were overreacting, you can always send an email the next day.

I like this notion of committing to finding a soul mate, not a gender… do you still believe in that, or do you identify more as a lesbian these days?

The “not a gender” part, yes, I still believe, and as to identity, I usually describe myself as queer.  As I get older, “soul mate” speaks to me less than “right choice.”  I think our initial choice of partner is hugely important, but it is over time that we discover whether we are on compatible paths, how we interact, how well we can grow together.  Sometimes right choice means recognizing incompatibility and breaking up. But when we continue to choose each other, choose to give, choose to create something together, choose to make room in our lives for the entirety of another person as they are and as they may become, that’s huge, and it is those continued choices over time that make a partnership.

What happened to the novel that you were working on in MAP?

The novel turned into a short story called The Pre-Fame Days

The short story I was writing in Map, which is called On the Eighth Day came in second place in a national short story contest, and then I got more curious about the characters and spent eight years turning the story into a novel that I’ve begun shopping around to agents and publishers.  (Any agents or publishers reading this, I’d love to hear from you!)

What is in your to-be-read pile right now?

Meghan Daum’s new book, Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived In That House.  A book about homeschooling that I picked up at a library book sale… I love reading about education.  Barbara Kingsolver’s The Lacuna.  Nature Girl by Jane Kelley – a YA novel I discovered on GoodReads about an eleven-year-old who gets lost on the Appalachian Trail in Vermont and decides to hike to Massachusetts to visit her best friend.

If there was going to be a movie made about your story, who would you want to see play Audrey?

I think Winona Ryder, circa 1994, might play me well.  I shudder to think of my life being turned into a movie though.

I love the rock references in your story. What are you listening to these days?

Well I still listen to the Indigo Girls and Ani DiFranco, though not nearly as often, and I’ve been a huge Kris Delmhorst fan since about the time I started writing Map.  One of my cousins turned me on to the Israeli singer Miri Mesika… she’s wonderful.  And I’ve been soaking up Mary Chapin Carpenter’s newest CD, The Age of Miracles.

For the gay teens of our community that might be struggling with their identity and/or coming out, what advice would you give to them?

Trust yourself, take the time you need, and it’s okay to not be sure or to come out as “questioning.”  A world full of richness awaits you and often the good stuff involves taking risks, so start practicing!  (And to those of you who know you’re not queer, you’re still part of the welcoming committee, so let’s see those ally buttons on display!)

Anyone who’s interested in reading Map can find direct links to purchase on my website at http://map.audreybethstein.com, and I believe there’s free shipping all summer if you buy two copies, so it’s a great opportunity to donate a copy to your local library or GLBT youth group.

Recently we brought you the review of Elizabeth Eulberg’s debut novel The Lonely Hearts Club and the story of Penny Lane’s determination to swear of dating guys for her high school life. We are now very excited to bring you an interview with Penny’s Creator herself – Elizabeth. So sit back and enjoy. Just a warning, there are a few spoilers throughout.

How much Beatles music did you listen to while writing The Lonely Hearts Club?

EE: I only listened to the Beatles while writing The Lonely Hearts Club. They are such a huge part of the story and if I needed to evoke a certain feeling, I’d put on a specific song (like “Yesterday” if I needed to feel sad).

What influenced the decision of writing about a novel based on a ‘no dating’ club? Was it an idea that had been with you a while or a result of a recent personal experience?EE: I’ve certainly sworn off guys more than once!  However, the idea for the book came when I was out with a friend one night.  She’s one of those friends who only calls when her boyfriend isn’t around (we all know the type!).  We were out and she was ignoring me to talk to some guys.  I started throwing a pity party for myself and realized, “this is silly, you have so many amazing single girl friends, you should go out every Saturday with them – like a single girls’ club?”  I had the basic idea for the book and the title by the end of the evening.

From the beginning, Penny Lane thought she was alone in her thoughts about swearing off boys, but then discovered that many of her classmates felt the same way, yet weren’t strong enough to say so for themselves. It highlights many of the issues with peer pressure and teen dating. Was this an influence from the start of the novel or developed during the writing process?

EE: From the beginning of the writing process, I knew I wanted anybody to read this book to realize that it is okay to be single and not date. But over the course of rewriting the book, the strength of the Club and how much certain members got out of the Club really grew.

*SPOILER WARNING*

EE: Everybody makes mistakes and nobody is perfect. I feel it is important to grow from every situation. A lot of Penny’s problems through the book were learning how to trust herself and others again after being badly burned by a guy. She was more than happy to open herself to the members of the Club, but shut herself from trusting guys. She really grew the most as a person over the story, and a lot of that was learning from the mistakes she made.

If you wanted readers to take one thing from Penny Lane’s story, what would it be?

EE: Besides being entertained, I want readers to realize that they should never compromise themselves to be with someone and always put yourself and your friends before a guy.

Worse/most embarrassing relationship as a teenager and what you learnt from it?

EE: I didn’t have many bad relationships as a teenager (but I made up for it later in life!). I did go a little boy crazy at the beginning of high school. I had glasses, braces (the metal kind!) and a really bad haircut growing up. Then the summer before freshman year, I got contacts, my braces taken off and a better hair style. I got a lot of attention from guys at the start of school (I NEVER got any looks before). I was sort of overwhelmed by the interest and just started dating different guys. I was more excited about the attention than the guy. Dating at fourteen can be pretty silly (movie then pizza EVERY Friday night). I sort of burned out on dating early. I was more interested in my friends. I didn’t really date my last couple years of school.

The destination that you would choose to go on a romantic getaway to?

EE: Paris seems like such a cliché, so the Greek Islands – gorgeous!

Any quirky writing rituals or habits?

EE: I have to listen to music while writing and I need to know what I’m going to write before I sit down. So during the week I’ll figure out certain plot points and then when I sit down on the weekends, I know what I need to write.

What is currently in your To-Be-Read pile?

EE: A LOT! At the top of the pile is Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan, Somthing, Maybe by Elizabeth Scott, Waiting for You by Susane Colasanti – and that’s just what is on my nightstand. I’ve got an entire bookshelf of books I want to read!

Authors that influenced you growing up?

EE: Louisa May Alcott (I’m named after Beth in Little Women), Maud Hart Lovelace (the Betsy-Tacy books were the first series I ever became addicted to). E.L. Konigsburg (was obsessed with From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler) and Cynthia Voigt (my mum introduced me to her after I ran out of Sweet Valley High books to read).

Check out www.elizabetheulberg.com for more information on Elizabeth and upcoming works!

Maria V. Snyder is the author of extremely popular series such as The Study Series and The Glass Series and various short stories to name a few. April celebrates the release of Maria’s new young adult novel Inside Out and as it is our current book of the month, Maria was kind enough to answer some of our questions for your reading pleasure. I should warn you, there are a few spoiler-ish moments. Enjoy!

Trella has had an interesting childhood, one that has left her with very little trust for anyone else around her, yet it was those people who ultimately Trella needed to survive. Was it a conscious decision to have Trella start from this place of no-trust to slowly understanding why she needed the people around her?

MS: Yes – I did try to have Trella start out basically hating her world and the people in it—except for one person. Then as she learns that not every thing in her world is as she had thought, her view changes with time and experience. I’m like to put my characters in difficult situations and see how they change.

Where did the idea for Inside Out come from? I’ve read it was a dream, but was there any other events that inspired the setting? I’m particularly curious as to how the concept of ‘weeks’ and ‘centiweeks’ came around.

MS: It was from a dream. But I created some of the details in order to turn the idea into a story. The idea to use weeks actually came from my daughter. She was mad at my son and told him she “wouldn’t talk to him again for a million weeks.” Then she paused and asked me how long was a million weeks. So I calculated it out and came up with 19,000 years. I tucked this little nugget of information away and then when I needed a way for the Insiders to keep track of time, weeks sounded better than years. Centiweeks is just like centimeters – my world uses base 10 for everything so centi and deci all worked well.

Originally Trella and Riley are lead to believe that there are vast differences between Upper and Lower lifestyles, largely stemming from lack of knowledge. How important was it to need the Uppers and Lowers to work together to discover a solution to their problems?

MS: It was very important since the uppers controlled all the mechanical systems. And also the Pop Cops encouraged the lack of knowledge between the uppers and lowers so they would not trust each other and wouldn’t compare notes and see how they both suffered under the Pop Cop’s rule. I was trying to show how making assumptions about people because of their race or religion is not the right way to go about it. That you need to learn more about another person before you judge them.

The harsh methods taken by LC Karla to control the scrubs and Uppers were eventually her downfall. If there was more understanding between scrubs and Uppers, would life be better for everyone?

MS: It would be better, but still having that division of people – uppers and lowers and different set of rules for each will make people unhappy.

Favourite holiday destination?

MS: I enjoy spending a week at the beach – any beach will do as long as I have sand, sun and an ocean to swim in

Can you tell us anything about the next instalment, Outside In?

MS: I can’t tell too much as I don’t want to give away the twists of Inside Out, but it continues Trella’s story and how she and the Insiders deal with a new threat – one from Outside.

All time favourite novel?

MS: This is a really hard question for me to answer. I have so many favorites and each is a favorite for a different reason. Since Inside Out has a strong female protagonist, my favorite girl power novel is The Gate to Women’s Country by Sherri S. Tepper.

What is currently in your To-Be-Read pile?

MS: It would probably be easier to list what isn’t in my TBR pile Right now I have a bunch of young adult books in my pile, Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins, Fire, by Kristen Cashore, the last two books of the Percy Jackson Olympians series by Rick Riodian, Ink Exchange, by Melissa Marr, Bad to the Bone, by Jeri Smith-Ready, How to Make a Wish by Mindy Klasky, and I’m eagerly awaiting Rachel Caine’s newest Morganville Vampire book, Fair Fight.

Any quirky writing rituals or habits?

MS: When I sign books, I like the color of my pen to match the color of the book’s cover. Right now, I take 5 different color pens with me and they have to be Uni ball’s vision elite pens

Any last thoughts to share with us?

MS: I like to add that because the layout of Inside can be hard to imagine, I posted maps of all four levels of Inside on my website.  Here’s a link: http://www.mariavsnyder.com/maps.php I was hoping my publisher would print them in the book.  But they are excited about the book and have created a website just for it: http://www.whatsinsideout.com On the website is a personality quiz to see what type of scrub job you’re suited for, and a video book trailer for the book.

Inside Out is available now at all good bookstores.

Melina Marchetta is the author of Australian young adult titles Looking for Alibrandi, Saving Francesca, On the Jellico Road and Finnikin of the Rock. March celebrates the release of Melina’s new book, The Piper’s Son. I recently had the opportunity to catch up with Melina on the phone during her Australian tour, and Melina answered a few of our questions about The Piper’s Son and writing in general. Just a warning, there may be a few spoilery type moments throughout the interview. Enjoy!

Congratulations on the release of The Piper’s Son on Monday. It was an excellent book, and I enjoyed it immensely.

For readers that haven’t read Saving Francesca, I was impressed by the fact that you could read The Piper’s Son, without feeling lost in all the characters. Was this something important for you during the writing of the book?

MM: Defiantly. I didn’t want– in actual fact, I like the idea of people reading The Piper’s Son and then going ‘oh I’d like to go back and see what they were like when they were young’. The thing that probably was the hardest was making sure I wasn’t writing The Piper’s Son without the Francesca readers in my head and that meant sometimes what I was trying to do was maybe spend a bit more time on, say the Will/Francesca relationship. I had to really make sure that didn’t dominate, so that’s why I kind of sent Will overseas, because I had to remind myself not everyone will have an emotional investment in that relationship. So I think that if people have read it will be great to see what they were like five years later but I certainly didn’t want it [Saving Francesca] to be a pre-requisite.

Tom seems to go through some major changes and developments in this books, starting off from a bad place and moving into one that ultimately seems him thrive with new life. Was it difficult to get this development of the character down or did Tom’s progression come naturally?

MM: It came slowly, but naturally. Like I didn’t put– I suppose to have a really basic understanding of where it’s going to go, as the writer you kind of know he’s going to be okay so you just have to work out how to get him to that point and I let it come naturally. I knew that it was going to be once he was in these two locations, one being Georgie’s house and the other being the Union pub and I knew it was going to be through his correspondence with Tara Finke but I had to make sure that that was paced really nicely rather than rushing into it. What worries me sometimes, and I know I was worried about this in the re-writes, was at what point things were happenings sometimes I thought ‘oh god, Tara doesn’t really come into it properly until after page 100, I wonder if people are going to hang out that long’, things like that. But it was kind of the pace of it was really quite important that I let it come as naturally as I could.

To me, Georgie was almost as an important character in the novel as Tom was. Was Georgie always going to have an important role, or did that develop over the course of writing?

MM: I think so; I can’t remember it being any other way in my head that they were going to get a chapter kind of each. I didn’t want it to be a he said, she said, where you kind of get a different perspective of the same incident so I knew it was just going to be his story one chapter, hers the next but somewhere probably a quarter or three quarters into the novel a lot of the times they were together with all their worlds in the same chapters. She was very important to me as a character. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that when I was writing her she was my age and I felt that probably as someone over forty I had probably something to say about relationships and life in general. I love her as much as I love Tom and I love their relationship as prickly as it is. Sometimes what worries me, especially you could tell me this as a reader closer to Tom’s age, I was worried that when people were in Georgie’s chapter they would want to be in Tom’s chapter. Or else people were in Tom’s chapter they wanted to be in Georgie’s chapter. So did you feel that you had a yearning to be in Tom’s chapters when he wasn’t quite on the scene?

Occasionally, but I also really enjoyed reading inside Georgie’s mind and seeing where she was going. I thought she was quite a highlight of the book. I thought there was quite a good balance there.

MM: Because I think that sometimes people– a friend of mine was telling me that, she was actually my age which was surprising, she said I kept on jumping ahead and going to everyone of the letters between Tara and Tom. But then it made me worried. I thought ‘oh god I hope people don’t push Georgie’s story aside’ because to me, what’s taking place in Georgie’s life is very similar to what’s taking place in Tom’s life. They’re both stuffing up relationships, and they’re both grief stricken and they both don’t know how to get out of a particular rut. But they are 20-so years apart, and sometimes there’s no big difference between people, except when you’re older, there are probably bigger ramifications, than when you’re younger.

The London bombings shocked the world on a global scale. What I found interesting was how you decided to show how the aftermath of these attacks can change a family for better and worse. What influenced your decision to use the London attacks as the background to losing Uncle Jim?

MM: Because I think for me, I didn’t want this novel to be about terrorism at all. I didn’t want it to be, I can’t say I didn’t want it to be political, because I think it is a pretty political novel at times. I didn’t want it to be about terrorism but I needed something, sadly I needed something where there wouldn’t be a body, a possibility where there wouldn’t be a body and I suppose a bombing is a classic example of that. Unless someone goes missing, and if someone goes missing then the readership would have thought then ‘oh were going to find him, Joe at the end’. I kind of needed it to be certain, in the same way with Tom Finch. There was a certainty that these men were dead that they couldn’t bury them. I choose London because, I taught for ten years, most of my closest friends have taught in London so it’s such a normal thing for Australian’s to go over to London and teach. I could have based it on the Madrid bombing or September 11, but I just thought there was a bigger chance that Australian people would be affected by something happening in London. I actually remember when it happened, thankfully people didn’t die. But again my cousins, a girl that went to school with my cousin, was on the bus, her fiancé when it happened. This is someone from our suburb so there’s always this idea when something happens overseas, was there an Australian involved, most times Australian’s are somehow involved because we are such big travellers.

The relationship between Tara and Tom takes an interesting climb through the novel. What would your advice to teenagers in similar situations be?

MM: What kind of similar situations? The fact that they are estranged from each other?

I guess the distance and being apart, yet from what we gather from throughout the novel and learn that their parting wasn’t on the best of terms.

MM: I think that, to me it’s a story about forgiveness. Some people say to me that they would never forgive Tom for what he did. Other people say ‘well he was grief stricken’. But I still think that the way he acted was awful. There was a trust thing that happened there and especially coming from a character like Tara Finke, he’s not really a player and she’s not really a confidant person on so many different levels. But I think for me there was just, ultimately I know what he did was wrong but there was such a respect between them as people and I like the fact that he had to actually work instead of trying. Like I think in the past he had found it so easy to charm people but at this particular case because he didn’t have her there in front of him, he actually had to work at wooing her back. And I think he succeeds. And there are so many times when people around him don’t think he is going to succeed at that, there’s no way that she will forgive him and I like the fact that she does, and it’s not because she’s a pushover it’s because Tom has really worked at it that he has opened himself to her in the same that that she kind of opened herself to him. I suppose it’s about trust between people in the end. I would never know what kind of advice to give anyone, whether they were young or older or my age. I think relationships are so, so tricky and they’re so not black and white, there are blurry moments. The same could be said about Georgie and Sam. A lot of people have said to be there’s no way that Georgie should have ever forgiven Sam. I think well there are a lot of blurry moments in that relationship and I had to kind of give it the conclusion that I felt really worked for the story.

What authors influenced you growing up and in your writing?

MM: When I was growing up I really loved the Anne of Green Gables novels. The one thing that I, I’ve said it so many times, but I feel as if– have you read Anne of Green Gables?

No, I haven’t.

MM: There’s a moment in it where Anne Shirley, great character, where she hits, she’s in the same classroom as Gilbert Blythe and she hit’s him over the head with a slate, which is their kind of writing tool, and I always say, that moment for me, was just, I was just absolutely mesmerised. I thought it was so romantic thought she hated his guts. I would always say that in every one of my novels there is a moment where my character’s metaphorically hit their potential love interests over the head with a slate. It could be that winning an argument or getting the upper hand, an example in say The Piper’s Son could be here’s Tom thinking it will be easy, text messaging Tara saying ‘How’s it going, babe’ and her response, that for me is the hitting someone over the head with a slate. It happens in Saving Francesca when she kind of meets Will and Will’s such a bastard to her. So they’re moments I kind of adopted and I loved that particular one, so I would say she was a major influence.

Any quirky writing rituals or habits?

MM: They’re just not quirky, they’re just rituals. I always, what do I always do? I mean I do write in bed. I love laptops. The best thing about a laptop is writing in bed and I actually think I do my best writing late at night in bed. I always do like a coffee, but I have to have, if I have a coffee while I’m writing I always, always, always have to have a biscuit with it. There’s no such thing as having coffee on its own. Its comfort stuff. To me writing, I have to stop making it feel like work, and it is work at the end of the day. I quite like the cosy-ness of it. And I have to say that in summer that I love a glass of wine while I’m writing.

The Piper’s Son was released in Australia on March 1, 2010.