It’s my pleasure to have Maggie L. Wood on the blog today. Another talented writer for teens whose series, The Divided Realms is on my favourite reads list. An advance thanks for stopping by to those of you reading and a thanks to Maggie for taking part in Oh (MG & YA) Canada! Giveaway details are at the interview’s end (open internationally). And now...let’s begin!
A little about Maggie from her website :
Maggie L. Wood was born and grew up on Prince Edward Island, Canada’s smallest province. She goes by the name Maggie (short for Margaret) now, but Margaret is actually her middle name, and the L. part of her name (the super secret part) is actually her real first name. So, of course, her initials are not M.L. but L.M., just like another very famous L.M. writer from Prince Edward Island. Maggie also has red hair (well, sort of red-ish now with gray highlights) and spent many summers camping and swimming at Cavendish, just like one of her very favourite red-headed book heroines
(*hint* fave red-headed book heroine’s initials start with A.)
Oh my---I love, love her. Even added an "e" to my middle name, lol.
The giveaway book is CAPTURED fom Maggie’s website :
"Willow nodded, then her mouth fell open as she realized who Brand was. The white knight story.
Nana had always said, The princess looked to the white knight for protection. Brand was a
White knight in the game. Was he the white knight Nana had meant? The white knight Willow
had built her dreams around?"
Book Description
Fifteen-year-old Willow Kingswell has been listening to her Nana's tales of faeries and enchanted
kingdoms for as long as she can remember. But when she is magically transported to the realm
of Mistolear, she is stunned to learn that the stories were true, and that she is actually a
princess. Suddenly, Willow has to fit into a royal family she didn't know she had, deal with
customs she doesn't understand, and sort out her feelings for Brand, the handsome knight
who has sworn to protect her.
On top of everything, she may also be the key to saving Mistolear from a terrifying spell. The
nefarious faerie prince Nezeral has pitted two kingdoms against each other in a life-or-death
chess match, in which people are the game pieces. As a pawn, Willow now glows with the light
of the game, and must find the courage and cleverness to battle Nezeral before her loved ones
fall. Could a meager pawn really be the most powerful piece on the board?
Captured is the first book in the thrilling "Divided Realms" series.
The book trailer :
The Divided Realms Series from maggie l. wood on Vimeo.
This book will most definitely appeal to teens 12 and up (plus some ten and ups I know, too). Especially for the relationship between Willow and Brand (love their first meeting where he is sounding all “lord of the ring-ish” to her and she is trying to figure out how to get him to rise up after he has declared he will protect her no matter what, his oath of fealty). Plus, the characters, fast paced plot and world building weave together wonderfully. Loved. it.
The...interview :
The world building in your book is wonderful. What was your process for doing it in general and how did you come up with place names in particular? I have to say I just like saying Mistolear! Was there a certain mythology or culture that you used for your inspiration?
First of all, Deb, I would like to thank you for having me on your blog and for all your wonderful enthusiasm pertaining to Canadian YA literature! Always makes me want to wear an I *HEART* LIBRARIANS (or TEACHERS or BOOKSELLERS) button, when I meet someone with your caliber of passion, as kids always respond so well to it (as I’m sure your lucky book club kids do).
To answer your question about world building, though, right from when I was very young and playing medieval Barbies, I always had an interest (or “crazy obsession” as my mother called it) in all things concerning the Middle Ages. I loved pouring over gigantic history books from the library and watching historical movies and documentaries on TV. My first book loves were fairy tales, and I can remember playing knights of the round table with my brother and our friends. So really the world building in The Divided Realms is very much based on my love (and years and years of researching) medieval history, as Mistolear is certainly a medieval-style world. Writers are often told “to write what you know” and I think that is exactly what I did!
I love that you love the word Mistolear! I made it up from words connecting to some of my favourite things. At the time, I was playing a computer game called “Myst,” and my two favourite authors were “Tolkien” and “Shakespeare.” One day, I was just fooling around with the letters of those three words and came up with Mis-tol-ear. Pretty much all the place names were made this way from playing around with words.
Concerning culture and mythology, as I said up above, the Mistolearians are based on a medieval-type society, but the faeries in The Divided Realms are based more on myths concerning the Seelie and Unseelie Courts of the Celtic fey (another passion I love to read about!).
Way cool on how you came up with the name. And what a great piece of information to share with kids. (plus, you're welcome on having you on the blog!)
I loved how chess plays a role in this story and am impressed that a reader like me does not have to know everything about the game in order to follow along and appreciate the tale. Do you play much chess? Are you good?
My brother and I are only a year and half apart in age, so we grew up with the same friends. I remember the summer when we were eleven and twelve was also the summer we and our friends learned to play chess. We all loved the game and played it almost every day until school started. I got a chess set for my birthday that year, and then my brother and I played the game constantly (or “obsessively” as Mom would say). My brother was the younger sibling, but he was always a much more strategic player than I was, so I’m afraid my answers to your questions are, yes, I like to play chess, and, no, I am not a very good player. Heh, heh.
As I read your book I knew I didn’t want it to end. So! Very Glad that there was a sequel to jump right into. Had you planned on this being a series and if so did you outline or develop both stories at the same time? Is there a book three or another project you are working on?
Now *that* is a good question! Writers often debate whether it’s better to be an “outliner” type of writer or a “pantser.” I am definitely a pantser (by the seat-of-your-pants) type of writer, which of course means that I regularly sit down to write without any idea of what’s going to happen next in my story. So, no, I did not set out specifically to write a series. In the beginning, my goal was mostly just to be published, as publishers do not usually accept series ideas from writers with no proven track record. I did, however, always like the idea of a series, so when I wrote my first novel
Captured, I made it have a satisfying conclusion in case a publisher only wanted the one book, but I also left a couple of plot-strings dangling just in case the publisher wanted more books in a series. And, as it turned out, the publisher *did* want more books, and so now I am working on revisions for Book 3 (which will be out spring 2012!) and Book 4 and will be writing a Book 5 and Book 6 as well!
YAY on Book 3 and all the rest. Congratulations on that and happy writing and revising.Speaking of not wanting a book to end. What are some of your favourite reads this year? As you know, I have a book club that has kids in it from ages 8-13 with reading interests from Geronimo Stilton to Lesley Livingston’s Wondrous Strange (another great OH MY YA Canada read btw!). I’d love you to share some of your favourites with them.
Well, for many years now I’ve been keeping lists of what I’ve read, so I would be happy to share my favourite-YA-books-so-far-this-year list with you and your book club! My very favourite YA book so far this year is by another Canadian writer, Erin Bow. I absolutely loved her wonderful book
Plain Kate about a woodcarver girl in a Russian-style fantasy world. Other favourites so far this year have been
Eilis O’Neal’s debut novel The False Princess, Saundra Mitchell’s The Vespertine, Melissa Marr’s Darkest Mercy,
Karen Mahoney’s The Iron Witch, and
Lauren Oliver’s Delirium. I think, though, the YA book that has most enthralled me this year (so far) is Suzanne Collins’
The Hunger Games. I have never been a big fan of dystopian fiction (always thought it was too depressing), which is why it has taken me so long to read
The Hunger Games, but, boy, am I ever glad I did! Right from the very first page, this book just absolutely gripped me, and now I can hardly wait to see the movie!
A great recommended reads list for teens! And, I am reading Plain Kate right now. (okay, not right, right now...:) I have _not_ read False Princess...will get me to a bookstore and add it to the pile. Speaking of Plain Kate. I have that on my Kindle, but it is a book I am loving so much I know I need to have it in hardcover, on my book shelf. And yes on The Hunger Games. It has crossed all reading genres, boy, girls, women, men-people who don't read fantasy, don't read dystopian, they read The Hunger Games. But, I digress (believe me it happens a lot).Many of my book club kids are writers, as well. When did you start writing and do you have some advice you could share with them?
I always liked reading and writing as a kid, but I didn’t start writing with the goal of being published until I was 28 years old. At the time, my 10-year-old stepson brought home a type of book called a
Fighting Fantasy game book, which was part book and part game. We played/read them together and after about the fortieth one, it just hit me that *I* could write one of these. So when I first started to write, I started out writing game books, which, 12 years later, metamorphosed into writing regular fantasy books about games.
One of the things I enjoy most about being a YA writer is meeting the readers of my work, especially the young readers who are also writers. My advice to them is always to BE passionate! Find things that you love (all kinds of things, not just writing) and become experts in them! Writers need to be able to weave worlds out of nothing, so the more you know about your own world, the more you’ll be able to create a fantastic written one. The next most important words of advice I could give to any writer is to READ as much and as varied as you can, and to WRITE daily. If a writer wants someday to be a published author, then reading is like the instruction from experts and daily writing is the practice it takes to become an expert yourself. So read, write and be passionate! (That’s what I found worked best for me, anyway.) :D
Maggie! I so agree...read, write and be passionate. So thank you for creating a book for kids to read and keep that passion burning.
Now for the giveaway. All you need to do is comment with contact information.
Hmmm, and if you do want an extra entry? Include a recent middle grade or young adult read that you would recommend for kids (or adults reading for kids and themselves) Doesn't have to be Canadian, just a book you want to hand someone and say READ THIS! Include fiction or non-fiction, classics. Whatever if your favourite. One of mine you ask? Anne of Green Gables!
This is open internationally until next Sunday, midnight MST. Good luck and Maggie and I appreciate you taking the time to stop by. Also, if you got a bit more time you can read last weeks interview with Joelle Anthony. There is still time to comment and enter that giveaway as I've extended it to next Sunday, as well.
