OH MG YA Canada Interview & Giveaway: Joelle Anthony

Joining me for Oh (MG & YA) Canada today is Joelle Anthony.  I've been looking forward to hosting her ever since I read her book. It captivated me from page one and I loved following Molly's story, watching her make her way into the States, with nothing but determination (and her fiddle) to bring her Grandparents back. And the setting! Oh my--I can still see and feel it.

More about her book from Goodreads:

The year is 2041, and sixteen-year-old Molly McClure has lived a relatively quiet life on an isolated farming island in Canada, but when her family fears the worst may have happened to her grandparents in the US, Molly must brave the dangerous, chaotic world left after global economic collapse—one of massive oil shortages, rampant crime, and abandoned cities.

Molly is relieved to find her grandparents alive in their Portland suburb, but they're financially ruined and practically starving. What should've been a quick trip turns into a full-fledged rescue mission. And when Molly witnesses something the local crime bosses wishes she hadn't, Molly's only way home may be to beat them at their own game. Luckily, there's a handsome stranger who's willing to help.

Restoring Harmony is a riveting, fast-paced dystopian tale complete with adventure and romance that readers will devour.

And more:

Joelle Anthony's young adult novel, Restoring Harmony, is a riveting tale of how a resourceful teen survives, and even finds romance, in a future world where no one is as they seem. Putnam Books for Young Readers, May 2010

Armed with only a fiddle and a keen sense of the land, Molly is the best kind of heroine–smart, feisty and courageous. Anthony writes with tenderness and imbues her story with hope. - Suzanne Selfors, author of SAVING JULIET and COFFEHOUSE ANGEL

Watch for her second novel, The Right & the Real - forthcoming, also from Putnam.  Joelle's website : http://www.joelleanthony.com

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Joelle, thanks for taking the time to do this! The book we’re giving away is RESTORING HARMONY, it was a debut novel for 2010. You’re currently working on your next book. Can you tell us a little bit about it?

I’ve actually finished my second book already and it’s in production. My third one is still bouncing around in my head right now, so I’ll talk about the second one. It’s called The Right & the Real and it comes out in April of 2012. It’s about a girl whose father gets mixed up in a cult and when she won’t join him, he kicks her out on the street. She doesn’t have anywhere to go, and so she’s essentially on her own. She is only a few months away from graduating, and also turning eighteen when she can legally live on her own, so she just wants to hang in there. The book is about how she does that, and also how she reconciles with her father when everything gets out of hand and he needs her help.

Do you have any advice for a first time author going in to do a school or library visit or do you have a great 2010 debut moment you would like to share with us? (or--both?)

I haven’t done many school visits as an author, but I am currently the writer in residence at my local school (we got two grants – thanks to Arts Council and BC ArtStarts!) so I’m in the classroom every week. I would suggest to authors if it’s at all possible to get the students writing during your visit. Even a little bit. One of my favourite things to do is talk about description and sensory details. Kids know the five senses so well and applying them to writing comes naturally. Then I give them each an index card and pencil and ask them to take ten minutes to describe a place that is familiar to their fellow students using all five senses without saying where it is. I let them read them aloud and the other kids guess the place they’re describing. The other thing, which I think is actually the most important thing, I learned from author Tim Wynne Jones…ask your audience questions. It’s the best way to start. And then end with letting them ask you questions. Everyone is engaged then.

In my book club I have some keen readers (of course!), but also some keen writers. They range in age from 8 to 13. When did you start writing and do you have any advice for my book clubbers?

I wrote a lot in Grade 5, but after that I was much more into theatre. I guess I was in my early twenties when I decided to start writing for kids and thinking of it as a possible career. It took me about sixteen years from when I started to publication, but part of that was just life getting in the way and also growing up. And I worked as a professional actor for a while too.

My best advice to writers is always the same. Read. Read some more. And then keep reading. You will learn to write from the books you read. At some point, you actually have to write too, but seriously, reading is your first tool.

I write in a journal every morning for half an hour. It’s really just a lot of boring stuff about my life, and how I slept, and what I ate yesterday, etc., but it primes the pump for the writing day. Also, you can get rid of all your grumblies and then you’re a more pleasant person to be around. Occasionally, a plot point will work itself out, or I’ll have an epiphany while journaling, but mostly it’s just blah, blah, blah! I highly recommend it.

Speaking of my book club kids. Anything you’d like to recommend they read or we get for our library? Something that is a recent read, or a book you loved when you were a kid?

Well…everyone who knows me say it together…, “You can’t go wrong with the Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace.” Actually, if you have a bunch of teen boys in your group, they probably wouldn’t get that excited over Betsy, but I still have to mention these books every chance I get.

Let’s see…for a book club…recent reads…I really love Megan Whalen Turner’s series that starts with THE THIEF. I do not really read books that fall into that fantasy/kings & queens/days-of-yore category, but my friend, the wonderful writer, Kim Thacker got me started on these and I devoured them. They’re good for everyone – boys, girls, adults. I also loved C. J. Omololu’s DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS, Jandy Nelson’s THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE, and Nova Ren Suma’s DANI NOIR.


What is your favourite part of living where you do? Do you have another part of Canada that you love to visit or that you’ve always wanted to but haven’t yet?

We moved to Canada from the U.S. almost four years ago, and we live on one of the small Gulf Islands in B.C. I can honestly say that I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. I mean, if we had the dough, we’d definitely buy a little more property and live at the quieter end of the island, but I don’t see us ever actually leaving this island. We have a great little house in the woods and we love it, but we’d like a little sunshine for growing food too. This is just a wonderful place to live with fantastic people and we’ve made great friends.

We definitely want to visit Cape Breton and the Maritimes. We love the music and it looks so beautiful. And as an Ann of Green Gables fan, I have to go to PEI someday!

Anything I didn’t ask that you hoped I would?

No one ever asks about the language. Just kidding. I’m currently reading Stephen King’s book ON WRITING and in the forward he says he asked Amy Tan what no one ever asks in interviews that she wishes they would, and that’s what she said, so he wrote the book because he thought he had something to say about the language!

How about if I share something that I told my students the other day? They were asking me questions about getting ideas and how to grow them big enough to write a story or a book, and I told them something that I just recently learned. It took me fifteen years to learn it, but I was willing to save them the effort! Here it is: It’s okay, no, it’s more than okay, to ask for help from your writer pals, your friends, your spouse, teacher, parents, whoever when you’re brainstorming an idea. You don’t have to figure it all out yourself. If you’re stuck, take it to your team and say, “I’ve gotten this far, but I don’t know what happens next.” You don’t have to use any of their ideas, but sometimes you’ll want to. And even if you don’t, their ideas will get you thinking of more of your own.

I’d heard that saying that a writer should never write in a vacuum, but I didn’t really get it until I had a great book idea, but couldn’t come up with the ending so I asked the writer Eileen Cook and she came up with a brilliant finish! That book’s on a back burner right now, but because I asked, and she is so great, it’s all figured out. It’s okay to ask for help. Thanks for having me.

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In order to win a copy of RESTORING HARMONY all you need to do is comment with your email address so I can contact you if you win. You have until next Sunday, April 24, midnight (MST). Open Internationally! BUT---it doesn't end here, head over to Joelle's blog and wish her...HAPPY BIRTHDAY and enter to win a RESTORING HARMONY tote!