THE CAPTAIN'S DAUGHTERS- PART II: An Interview by Guest Blogger Elliott Kurta with Author Doreen Berger

If you missed Elliott's review of The Captain's Daughters click here.

INTERVIEW

ELLIOTT: What inspired you to write The Captain’s Daughters?

 

DOREEN: The Captain’s Daughters was inspired by my life-long friendship with my best friend Robin.  As kids, we were always getting into some kind of mischief. We met in the third grade and we both loved science-fiction and dreamed about living on a starship and how cool that would be. That became the basis for the book. 

 

         ELLIOTT: I didn’t know The Captain’s Daughters had such a fascinating origin story. This novel must have been in the brainstorming phase for quite some time!

 

ELLIOTT: Is William Marsh, Diane and Robin’s father, based on a person you know? For that matter, are any of the rest of the characters?

 

DOREEN: Since the book was inspired by my friendship with Robin, and a few of Diane and Robin’s escapades actually came from some of the trouble we got into, it only seemed natural to base some of the other characters in the book on people we know. Captain Marsh is based on my dad, who was my hero, with a lot of other influences thrown in! He was a fun character to write.

 

ELLIOTT: How long did it take you to write The Captain’s Daughters, and how has the book changed during the writing and publishing process?

 

DOREEN: The Captain’s Daughters took about six months to write.

 

ELLIOTT: What inspired you to name the Polaris—The ship that Robin and Diane’s father pilots—after the north star?

 

DOREEN: Polaris can be found almost directly above the North Pole and is nicknamed the North Star. It is the brightest star in the constellation Ursa Minor (the Little Bear). As the Earth turns, Polaris appears to remain stationary and all the stars appear to rotate around it. It is the only star in the sky to have this unique characteristic, and since its stationary position points due north, Polaris can be used for navigation in the Northern Hemisphere. As it says in the introduction to the book, “For centuries, explorers need only look to the heavens and to Polaris, to find their way safely home.” It seemed appropriate to name the starship Polaris, as Captain Marsh will always bring his crew, and his daughters, safely home.

 

ELLIOTT: How would you describe The Captain’s Daughters in one sentence?

DOREEN: A fun romp through the cosmos with two mischievous sisters!

 

ELLIOTT: What scenes were the most fun to write? Do you have a favorite scene out of the whole book?

DOREEN: Without a doubt, the scenes when the girls get themselves into trouble were so much fun to write! I especially like the one where the girls sneak into the secondary control room and send out emergency orders for pizza. It always makes me giggle.

ELLIOTT: What does your writing process look like, from start to end?

 

DOREEN: I am an undisciplined writer! I only write when the mood strikes, but when the story starts to fit into place, I can’t stop and will sometimes write from morning to bedtime. 

 

ELLIOTT: Robin and Diane don’t get to spend much time with their father because of his responsibilities as captain of the Polaris. What does a typical day look like for Marsh, and what are his responsibilities as captain?

 

DOREEN: The second book, Beyond the Stars, describes more of Captain Marsh’s routine. He is an early riser, spends at least an hour every morning in the gym and then meets his daughters and senior staff in his private dining room for breakfast. His day is spent navigating his ship and overseeing the 2000+ crew members on the Polaris. He is renowned for his negotiating skills and the planets he has brought into the LUP (League of Universal Planets). If all is calm on the Polaris, he has dinner with his daughters and senior staff. Before his last shift on the bridge, he stops in to say goodnight to his daughters and chat about their day. 

 

ELLIOTT: There are mentions of a third world war, the League of Universal Planets, and a war with a species called the Frazons who take over other planets. These events aren’t explained but seem to be important. Could you give us a brief history of the universe in which your book takes place?

 

DOREEN: In my imagination, there is a third World War sometime in the twenty-second century. Almost 900 million people die in that war and there is hardly a family on Earth that does not lose a loved one. Society finally realizes the need for global peace, and though it takes a while, the goal is realized and war on Earth ceases to exist. This peace brings global cooperation and through joint efforts, space exploration is finally realized. Other planets and alien races are contacted and the LUP (League of Universal Planets) is formed. But, there has to be an enemy to make life interesting (at least for a book!), and that is where the Frazons come in. 

 

ELLIOTT: Could you give us a summary of the sequel to The Captain’s Daughters?

DOREEN: The sequel is Beyond the Stars. Mischievous sisters Diane and Robin are already in trouble with their father for a stunt they just pulled. Their punishment (grounded…again!) is cut short with the arrival of Jannel, a soft-spoken, shy girl roughly their age, and the future ruler of the planet Lasusia. Jannel has been sent to the Polaris for safekeeping from a deadly virus running rampant on her home world. As Diane and Robin learn about their new friend and the problems she faces on her war-torn planet, they vow to help her, even though they understand it means getting deeper into trouble with their father. But they are soon in over their heads, stricken by the virus, and trapped by their father’s mortal enemy. They must use all their instincts and resources to escape before they perish from the virus, along with all hopes of planetary peace.

 

ELLIOTT: Who designed the cover for The Captain’s Daughters? How much of a role did you play in the design process?

 

DOREEN: The cover for The Captain’s Daughters was designed by a company in New Zealand called Damonza. In my mind I knew basically what I wanted (the Santa Fe landscape fading into a night sky, horses that resemble Pepper and Cloud, the different planets, and the space station). I gave them this info and they ran with it. I think they did a fabulous job…I love the cover! And the cover for Beyond the Stars is just as nice!

GIVEAWAY

Leave a comment by May 5 to enter this giveaway. (If you already entered the first part you'll have 2 chances). Please leave your name and email address if you are new to my blog. Continental US addresses only. 

REMEMBER! You'll find more great MG reviews on Greg Pattridge's ALWAYS IN THE MIDDLE blog. 

Double Interviews with Lisa Kline and Joyce Hostetter and Double Giveaways!

When Lisa Kline asked me if she and Joyce Hostetter could interview each other about their recent books, of course, I said yes! Both authors are North Carolina friends, terrific writers, and have been featured on my blog several times. Without further ado, here they are--interviewing one another!

LISA KLINE's INTERVIEW With JOYCE HOSTETTER

I read and loved Joyce Moyer Hostetter’s historical story Blue, which has become a classic, become required reading for many schools, and has even inspired a play. On her website, she says that she writes about tough topics because she is trying to understand the world’s sorrows. I so admire the way she addresses these tough topics in such an authentic and straightforward way. 

LISA: Jackie Honeycutt, your main character in Equal, is an appealing and earnest young man who wants to do the right thing. Tell me a little about how you developed his character. Was he in any of the previous Baker’s Mountain books? 

JOYCE: Jackie shows up at the end of Comfort but the reader doesn’t know much about him until they read Drive, the 4^th book in the series. As the youngest member of the Honeycutt family, he had to wait his turn to be the main character. Once the series was underway, Equal, the 5^th book was always going to be Jackie’s story.

LISA: You drop Jackie, your fictional hero, into a real protest march in Greensboro in 1960. That must have been a fun scene to write. Tell me a little about that decision.

 JOYCE: Ha! It was a necessary decision but my first draft didn’t include it. Since Jackie doesn’t live in Greensboro, I assumed he’d be reporting on the movement as seen through the eyes of his activist sister. But, of course, that doesn’t work! The protagonist has to get in on the action. So, I dug a little deeper and found a way to get him to Greensboro at a critical moment in history. In the end, it all worked well and yes, it was fun to write! Because, as you know, conflict creates the story.

LISA: You’ve said this is the final book in the Bakers Mountain series. Many readers will be sad to hear this. What project is next for you? 

JOYCE: I’m writing another North Carolina story set during WWI when several thousand German “enemy aliens” were interned in the small town of Hot Springs. In more ways than one it is a “friendship with the enemy” story. I am so psyched about this and am close to submitting my editor’s requested revisions.  Maybe I’ll blog about that soon at www.joycemoyerhostetter.blogspot.com

 .      

JOYCE HOSTETTER's INTERVIEW WITH LISA KLINE

Filled with dreams of publication, in the early 2000's I attended a writing session on historical fiction. The presenter, Lisa Williams Kline had recently won the NC Juvenile Literature Award for her historical novel, Eleanor Hill.  I soaked up her wisdom and made it my goal to write as well as she did so I could win that award myself one day. Clearly she set me on the right path because I actually did a few years later! I've been writing historical fiction ever since.  (Carol's note: I attended that session and still have my notes--somewhere. That's before Joyce and I knew each other--and before the three of us became friends.)

JOYCE: I loved reading One Week of the Heart and One Week of You! Both were poignant and funny and written with a lively, authentically teen voice. And they made me wonder, how'd she do that? Which of these stories did you conceive of and write first and where did your idea come from?

LISA I wrote One Week of You first. The idea came from two real-life situations. The first was that both of my daughters had to carry “flour babies” as part of their 8th grade health curriculum. Both boys and girls had to carry five pound bags of flour for a week, ostensibly to show them the meaning of having to be responsible for a baby 24/7. I found this curriculum kind of funny, and I thought it would make a funny story to have my main character forgetting her flour baby all the time, ironically because of a romantic relationship she was considering. 

The second real-life event was when there were three bomb threats in one week at my younger daughter’s high school. It was, needless to say, a chaotic and scary and emotional week, and I wanted to write about it. I wondered, could I combine a humorous story line with a serious one? I decided to try that challenge, and One Week of You was the result. 

After One Week of You came out, my publishers asked me if they could have more of Lizzy, the main character, which really made me feel good, of course! They wanted possibly a series, but said a novella would work also. And so I decided to write One Week of the Heart, a novella, which is actually a prequel to One Week of You. Getting back into Lizzy’s flaky character was a delight. 

JOYCE: Did you know, at the outset, that the whole story would take place in one week? What challenges are involved in fully plotting a story that takes place in a week? 

LISA: I did know that the story would take place in one week, because the students had to carry the flour babies for a week, and the bomb threats also took place in one week. And, of course, many teen-age romances last about a week, haha! I like using compressed time periods for my novels. It can keep the tension high, your reader doesn’t have to wait months or years for a resolution, and you still have freedom to explore the past through flashbacks. 

JOYCE: I always wanted to write funny and you do it so naturally. Got any tips for me and others who want to tickle the reader’s funny bone?

LISA: That’s a very nice compliment, thank you! I think the concept of the flour babies is inherently funny, so I had that going for me in this book. I found the irony of Lizzy repeatedly losing her flour baby because of her crush –the very thing the flour baby was supposed to be training her to guard against– to be funny. Also, Lizzy is a very flawed main character – she is forgetful, she is susceptible to flattery, she is overly competitive – and I think flawed characters can lend themselves well to comedy. Some things that I write just come out funny, and I have no idea how it works. I tried studying humor once – I read articles by really hilariously brilliant writers like Tobin Anderson – but found that being analytical about it didn’t work for me. When I try to make something funny it never seems to work. I’ve written several serious novels, but have seemed to have more luck with the ones that just turned out to be humorous. 

Learn some fun tidbits about Lisa at her Website's About Page.  

GIVEAWAY

Joyce, Lisa, and I are giving away a copy of Equal and a copy of One Week of You. In your comment, please let me know if you have a preference. U.S. address only; winner will be selected by 6 PM on November 10. If you share this on social media or join my blog, I'll put your name in twice. Make sure you leave your name and email address if you are new to my blog! I can't enter you in the giveaway without it.

Congratulations to Carrie Schmidt who won Code Breaker, Spy Hunter from last week's blog. 

Chasing Augustus: A Review and an Audio Book Giveaway

REVIEW

What 10 to 14-year-old doesn't enjoy a good dog book?  If your son, daughter, grandchild, or student fits into that category, then Chasing Augustus by Kimberly Newton Fusco, is a book that you want to win for them.  

Rosie's got it tough. Her mother left her as a child to make a better life for herself in California. Her father has a stroke and is hospitalized. That leaves her paternal grandfather, Harry, in charge of raising her--something he is ill-equipped to do. On top of that, when her mother comes home temporarily, she gives away "Gloaty Gus"-- Rosie's "lug of a dog." 

From the first chapter, the reader is rooting for this spunky protagonist who feels as if she is "half the girl she used to be" without her furry, stubborn friend. As the title intimates, the book is mostly about Rosie trying to find Augustus and the various obstacles she has to overcome in the process. Readers see the sandpits which cover the town with grit whenever the wind blows--and which makes riding a bicycle (when she goes looking for her dog) include wearing swim goggles. Readers feel her apathy in school and cringe when she makes bad choices. And of course, they resonate with her longing to be reunited with her dog. 

Although this is a book about determination and not losing hope, it is truly about making friends in unexpected places. Readers meet Rosie's next-door neighbor, Phillipe, a foster kid who won't shrug off his huge overcoat and who is obsessed with Monopoly; Cynthia, a girl who gets on Rosie's nerves because she asks too many questions; Swanson, a mute woman who the town kids mock and fear but who provides surprising answers to Rosie's questions; and even her grandfather Harry, who is an ornery sardine-and-cracker-eating guy who makes Rosie get tutoring over the summer for her poor English grade; and Mr. Peterson her tutor who she despises at first, but who she learns to appreciate. 

Readers will care about Rosie, but they will also see how her behavior is not above reproach. She puts her desire to find Augustus above everything else; not caring about how her Grandfather will worry when she leaves home in a storm or how Phillipe feels when she pushes him into helping her. I think if the book is read in the classroom, I would recommend pointing out her lack of empathy and why she is self-absorbed in her quest. It would also be good to discuss how she resolves her relationships in the end. 

Here's an audio snippet from the beginning of the book. The narrator, Karissa Vacker, created an authentic voice for the first-person protagonist. The secondary characters are also portrayed well through a variety of authentic voices. 

And finally, a line early in the book which summarizes the sand-pit setting as well as Rosie's life, “If you don’t do something with all the grit in your life, things seem to jam up something awful."


GIVEAWAY

A winner will receive a code from Tantor Audio and instructions on downloading the book. To enter, please leave me a comment with your email address if you are new to my blog by 6 PM on May 29. 

Boy Bites Bug: A Review and an E-Book Giveaway!

Congratulations to Rosi Hollinbeck who won BACKFIELD BOYS from last week's blog. Rosi is my California counterpoint since she reviews and gives away books too. You might want to follow her blog!

Many of my faithful blog followers have read about how Rebecca Petruck has mentored me while I've written Half-Truths. She's guided me through countless revisions with an amazing talent to see the forest and tell me which trees need to be felled.

Rebeca can do this, because she's a gifted author. (Here's my review of her first middle grade book,  Steering Toward Normal.)

Now I have the privilege of introducing her second book, BOY BITES BUG (Abrams, May, 2018). 

Although you might look at this amazing cover and fun title and think this is simply a humorous book for boys. But I can assure you that the story takes the reader on a much deeper journey than that.  And of course, girls will enjoy it too!

REVIEW

Seventh grader Will Nolan has a problem. In fact, he has more than one. Stinkbugs have invaded the school library "bobbling like weather-worn boats on a calm sea." (p. 5) His best friend, Darryl, decides to squash them using Will's copy of Wrestling for Dummies. 

Knowing the stench that would produce, the new kid, Eloy, intervenes with, 

"Are you crazy?!" 

"No one asked you, cholo," Darryl snapped back.

Will inhaled sharply. It felt like the world went into slo-mo. (p.6)

Will is caught off guard. There are other Hispanics in their Minnesota school, but Darryl's attitude makes Will uncomfortable. Things go from bad to worse when the boys start daring each other to eat a stinkbug. When Darryl responds with,  

"Me? No way. Dare the Mexican. I've seen stuff on TV--they eat bugs all the time." 

"Dude, I'm from Rochester," Eloy said. 

Will didn't say anything. His tongue was frozen in shock at hearing the friend he'd known since kindergarten talk like that. The Mexican?... He knew better than to talk trash about people because of where they came from. (pp. 9-10)

Will takes the heat in order not to look like a prejudiced redneck, tosses the stinkbug into his mouth, and "Bug Boy" is born.

But not without serious fall-out.

Rebecca skillfully portrays Will's journey of self-discovery and figuring out who his friends are in the events that follow like falling dominoes. This serious theme is against the backdrop of Will's development as a wrestler and the humorous interplay and drama of boy vs. boy. 

In this snippet, you'll glimpse how Rebecca accurately captures the boy's voices and Will's internalization. This scene takes place after Simon, one of Will's friends, anonymously sends him 1000 crickets.

Back at school Monday morning, Will unloaded books from his backpack. 

And freed half a dozen crickets.

He banged his forehead on a locker door, repeatedly.

"Bug Boy strikes again!" Simon said. He nudged a cricket that hadn't taken off yet and hooted when it arced through the air. He poked into Will's backpack. "What are you doing with the others?"

Will froze, head still pressed against the metal lockers, cold seeping into his brain. He turned slowly. "So it was you?"

 "A thousand crickets? Of course it was me! So what will you do with them?"

Will imagined "nudging" Simon and watching him arc through the air. "Why didn't you warn me?"

"Are you kidding? I wish I could have seen your face. A thousand crickets are funny!"

"Not when they escaped in my house and I had to kill them!" 

.........

"What did you do now, losers?" Darryl leaned against a locker, acting extra casual.

Will darted an instinctive glance toward Eloy's locker, but he wasn't around, which was strange but for the moment kind of OK.

Ever since Darryl had stomped off to the library last week, he and Will had been weird together but trying to act normal until they got back to normal. Calling one another losers was an ordinary thing, a razz just because.

But after killing all those crickets, Will felt like a loser for real. He tried to shrug it off. (p.116-118) 

As I mentioned, Rebecca has helped me dig deeper into Half-Truths. As I read BUG, I realized that Will's journey into discovering his own subtle prejudices was similar to what Rebecca encouraged me to probe about Kate Dinsmore, my protagonist.

With the risk of including a spoiler, towards the end of the book, Will has the following "Aha!" moment:

Eating grasshoppers wasn't exactly part of Eloy's day-to-day life, but it wasn't weird, either. It was even ordinary when he visited his family in Mexico. But Will had treated it like it was weird and worse than weird, a trick to get back at someone. 

Eloy had put up with Will a lot longer than Will would have if the situation was reversed. The only person who had done anyone a favor was Eloy. He'd given Will the benefit of the doubt, trying to make him see. (p.198-9)

As I teach my writing students, figurative language, or Muscle Words, are the engines that drive good writing. Here are three of my favorites. Can you guess what the first one describes?

Brown-and-beige banded antennae twitched at Will from a too-small head resting on extra-wide shoulders. It looked like a miniature football player in pads. Speckles like dimples on a golf ball dotted its brown body and thick outer wings. (p.9)

The day had started so normal. But it had gotten chased around the mat and pinned like a lightweight taken down by a heavyweight. (p. 30)  (Note: I love how Rebecca used the wrestling theme to highlight what Will was feeling.)

When Mr. Taylor took attendance, Will felt as if someone were pulling his belly button through his back. (p.136) 

There are tons more examples in the book--you'll just have to get a copy to discover them yourself!

For fans of STEERING TOWARD NORMAL, the ending of BUG ties neatly back into Rebecca's first book. And since a book on entomophagy would be incomplete without recipes, Rebecca has included three that are from The Eat-a-Bug Cookbook  by David George Gordon.

A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR

I asked Rebecca why she chose wrestling as the boys' sport. She responded: "I fell into wrestling simply because I wanted to do something I don't see as often as other sports in books, and then it ended up being perfect for the story. Wrestling is all about the mind, about committing to those six minutes. You can lose a match before ever stepping on the mat if you don't believe in your skills or yourself. It's a wonderful metaphor for Will's journey because he's made a commitment to not only Eloy but also to himself and the kind of person he wants to be, and he has to see it through. On one hand, it is him alone on the mat, but he also has the support of his coaches and teammates so he's never alone, and that's true for Will off the mat, too."

PRE-ORDER BOY BITES BUG

One way we support authors is by pre-ordering their books. You can find BOY BITES BUG on Amazon or on Bulk Book Store if you want to order it for your classroom. It would make a great classroom resource to open up conversations about prejudice as well as ways to feed the planet in the future!

GIVEAWAY

I can't give away my arc because the book is "on tour" and goes to the next reader. 

Rebecca encouraged all readers to write
comments in the arc. What a great idea!

But, Rebecca is giving away an e-copy. Leave a comment by March 9 and I'll enter your name. Share this on social media (and tell me what you did) and I'll enter your name twice. If you are new to my blog--welcome!--and please leave your email address.

You Heard it Here First: Halli Gomez Signs with Agent Kathy Green!

Congratulations to Gretchen Griffith who won my autographed copy of SURE SIGNS OF CRAZY off last week's blog. Thanks to all who entered the contest.

One of the things I love to do on my blog--besides reviewing great middle grade or young adult books--is announcing a friend's publishing news. Today I am excited to share wonderful news from Halli Gomez--my former Tai Kwon Do instructor and fellow Your Best Book participant. Take it away, Halli!

CAROL: I understand you just signed with Kathy Green of Kathryn Green Literary. How did you meet Kathy?

HALLI: I first heard about Kathy online, but actually met her on the phone when she called to offer to rep my middle grade manuscript.

CAROL: Why did you query her?

HALLI: She had all the things I looked for in an agent. Her agency is small, which is what I prefer, and she reps both kidlit and adult, all of which cover a wide range of genres. (Yes I do have an adult novel forming in my brain. Actually, the notes were put into their own folder which means the book will eventually be written.) I also read about her on QueryTracker and was really impressed with the comments, even from those who received rejections.  

CAROL: How many other agents did you try?

HALLI: I queried a lot. Okay, 60. And I did get partial and full requests, one even after I signed with Kathy.

CAROL: How long did it take to find an agent?

HALLI: I will focus on this manuscript since my first one is tucked away in a drawer where, hopefully, no one will find it. Ever! For this book, I started querying in September 2015, but I took my time. I queried a few agents, revised then took a break until I found the courage to query again. I repeated this process several times over the past year.

CAROL: Tell us about the book Kathy is subbing for you.

HALLI: Kathy signed me for ARLO ECKERT’S EMOTION MODIFIER, a middle grade science fiction novel. Sixth grade scientist Arlo Eckert has a hypothesis: if he can get his parents to stop fighting, they won’t mention the D word. Divorce. Arlo invents the Emotion Modification Device, a laser capable of zapping the brain and temporarily changing a person’s emotions to the exact opposite. His success at home propels him to bring it to school but it misfires and transforms his principal into a deranged bank robber. To make things worse, the government has discovered his device and wants to get their hands on it. Arlo must outsmart the government or his principal will go to prison and his family will be torn apart forever.

CAROL: That sounds terrific! Did Kathy give you any feedback on what drew her to your book?

HALLI: When she requested a partial she said it sounded fun.

CAROL: Do you expect Kathy to be editorial? Has she told you what changes she expects you to make? 

HALLI: Kathy is an editorial agent, which is another thing I love about her. She sent me her suggestions for revisions and after reading them a light went off in my brain. It was more like a slap in the face. Why didn’t I think about that and how did I miss that?

CAROL: And last, but certainly not least, I understand that the first paragraph of a query letter should state why you are querying this particular agent. Can you share that winning paragraph with us?

HALLI: Gladly! “I was excited to learn about your interest in middle-grade stories and books about home science experiments. I hope my middle-grade manuscript, ARLO ECKERT’S EMOTION MODIFIER, will appeal to you. Complete at 47,000 words, it is a novel about science, divorce, and greed.”

CAROL: That is great! How long did it take for her to respond?

HALLI: That was August 30th. She asked for the first 50 pages 30 minutes after receiving the query! She asked for the full on September 6. She offered representation on October 6. I had a couple full requests out there so I gave the other agents one week. Then I accepted Kathy's offer on October 14.

CAROL: That’s so exciting and encouraging to the rest of us who are working on our manuscripts. Anything else you want to share with your fellow writers?

HALLI: My interaction with Kathy happened fast in my opinion. I guess what they say is true - it is all very subjective and when you read something it either hits you or it doesn't.

Halli teaches martial arts to kids and adults who inspire her with stories and dedication. She writes for children and young adults because those voices flow through her brain; two of her manuscripts won third place in SCBWI Carolinas Writing Contests. She loves time with family, the outdoors, reading, and is addicted to superhero movies. You can find her on Twitter @hbgomez701 and at The Winged Pen. She was born in New York, but grew up in Florida until chased out by hurricanes. Now she lives equidistant between the mountains of North Carolina and the beach with her husband, two boys, and two dogs.

Stay tuned for more from Halli. I can't wait to share her publishing news next!