Visit with Anne Spollen

http://annespollen.blogspot.com/

Today we're visiting with Anne Spollen, author of THE SHAPE OF WATER and LIGHT BENEATH FERNS.



"I had come to know silence well during those months after my mother died. When you sit in silence long enough, you learn that silence has a motion. It glides over you without shape or form, but with weight, exactly like water."

Magda's mother always said the world was full of strange and beautiful secrets only the two of them could see. But now she's gone and Magda's world is flooded with anxiety and loneliness—and maybe, madness. As an imaginary family of bickering fish begins to torment her, Magda's only outlet is starting beautiful but destructive fires in the marshes near her house.

THE SHAPE OF WATER is a darkly lyrical and surprising tapestry of the mundane and the surreal, in which Magda begins to untangle her family's secrets and search for a stable place in the world.



I have this strange sense that my silence is preparing me for something I can't name . . .

Elizah Rayne is nothing like other fourteen-year-old girls. More interested in bird bones than people, she wraps herself in silence. Trying to escape the shadow of her gambler father, Elizah and her mother move into an old house that borders a cemetery. All her mother wants is for them to have "normal" lives. But that becomes impossible for Elizah when she finds a human jawbone by the river and meets Nathaniel, a strangely hypnotic boy who draws Elizah into his dreamlike and mysterious world.

Only by forgetting everything she knows can Elizah understand the truth about Nathaniel—and discover an unimaginable secret.

**I had the chance to ask Anne a few questions about her life and writing - enjoy!

If you could bring any character from one of your books to life, who would it be and why?

I’ve gotten so much correspondence from my teen readers who tell me how strongly they related to Magda in THE SHAPE OF WATER that I would have to pick her. When I was writing her character, I worried that she verged the tiniest drop on emo, and of course, there’s that other delicate matter of her insistence on setting fire to the woods. I wondered if readers would relate to her - or really dislike her. An awful lot of people (and I include some guys in this) wrote me and said they saw aspects of themselves in Magda.

I think that taught me that teens are a lot more sophisticated about reading than they are given credit for. They completely understood that her fire setting was anger, that it was symbolic, and they had compassion, not judgment, for her. So I would have to say Magda since she resonated with so many people.

What was your favorite book growing up as a teen?

Oh, I was such a weird teenager. I read JANE EYRE all the time because I had a crush on Edward Rochester. I would put mournful Neil Young songs on, lock my door, and go off to the English moor with Edward. I remember looking at the high school boys around me sitting there with their clarinet cases and their backpacks and thinking how none of them could compare to Edward. It is sort of impossible to live up to a dark, fictional hero like Edward, but I had no mercy.

Needless to say, I didn’t go out very much.

When you were young, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I never thought of being anything except a writer. I wanted to be a college professor since I was about 12 because everyone told me I would end up eating cat food and shivering in cold attics if I relied on my writing income to support myself. I thought it would be amazing to talk about literature all day, write at night and still eat regular food and have heat. I am now both a college professor and an author, and I must say, realizing your ambitions is pretty wonderful.

Your favorite subject in high school – and your least favorite.

I intensely disliked math. Every time the teacher would say, “If a train is going 25 miles an hour and Fractalville is 70 miles away…” I would drift off into the seventh dimension. I just couldn’t focus on math at all; it was as if they were speaking another language. And I had absolutely no interest in measuring things. In fact, I wanted to completely avoid any part of life that had to do with measuring.

I adored English, and that’s probably not a surprise. I took extra classes in English, things like creative writing and the Victorian novel, anything they would let me take. Sometimes there were maybe seven people in a really unpopular class, but I still liked it.

In literature classes, I just got everything the teacher said right away so I felt successful. Life would have been perfect if I could have taken English courses in lieu of math and gym… gym was another form of adolescent torture perfected.

You have the chance to spend the day with any character from one of your favorite books. Who would you choose and why?

I would have to choose Dracula, the original Bram Stoker Dracula. I’m not a big fan of werewolf or vampire novels, but Stoker definitely created an unforgettable character in this novel. Spending time with an immortal would be, I’m sure, very, very insightful. Of course, lunch might prove tricky with the blood drinking and all.

You have the chance to go back and change a scene from one of your previous releases. What book would you choose, what scene would you change, and how would you alter it?

This one is easy: I think only pretty perceptive readers, usually my older readers, understood the ending of LIGHT BENEATH FERNS. I got a lot of notes saying, “Wait. What happens to Elizah? What did the initials on the tree mean?”

Since this book was for younger YA readers, I would probably rewrite it so all the readers understood that she and Nathaniel had known each other previously and they would meet again. I thought it was clear, but it was only clear to older readers. Elizah was part of something much larger than herself and the idea was: we are all part of something much larger than ourselves. Only Elizah realized it, and that set her apart. She was quiet because she was being “prepared” for something, and her “something” is that we really don’t understand everything that is going on around us or why it happens. She was one of the few to be given that knowledge. And that needed to be made clearer. Once I wrote back and explained it, my readers said, “Ooooohhhh, NOW I get it.” So definitely I would make that less abstract.

Your own six-word memoir:

Happy kids, good books, dusty house.

You’re going off your diet for one day and only eating food from restaurants. What do you eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? (Include the restaurant each meal comes from.)

For breakfast, I’d go to IHOP and get one of those sickening stacks of pancakes with greasy sausage and whipped cream and syrup. Lots of coffee.

Lunch would have to be Taco Bell. I would order a bunch of chicken quesadillas and Fruistas to drink.

For dinner, a Chinese buffet. Definitely a favorite if I’m not on a diet since they have an actual table of desserts. And I can take food and figure out what it is later which is so so different from how I eat every day.

Of course all of these meals would be fun only if I had my kids and friends with me. When I eat alone, I tend to have soup or cereal just to get it over with.

If you weren’t an author, what job would you be doing?

I grew up on a beach, and I thought for a long time that I would become a marine biologist (who wrote on the side) I wanted to work to preserve the oceans, aquatic life, something along those lines. Except I am terrified of eels. When I went to Bermuda, I was snorkeling and I had to make a concentrated effort to stop.thinking.about.moray.eels.

I finally decided against it when I had to actually pick a career in my last year of high school. I knew I was too squeamish for any type of biology, plus marine biology would definitely include eels.

If I wasn’t able to be an author, I would want to do something with books: a librarian, a bookseller, a literary agent. If I couldn’t have something to do with books at all, or stories, I would sell real estate in Manhattan. I love walking into places where people live and imagining what their lives are like (or were like) I even do this when I look at people’s grocery cart items.

What is your ultimate vacation destination?

Hawaii! One day, I definitely want to go to the beaches and tour the volcanoes there.

The world has suffered from a one-day only loss of power. You have no cell phone, computer, lights, or anything else that requires a computer, cell battery, or electricity. What do you spend the day doing?

We used to live in upstate New York and we would sometimes lose power for a few days. I secretly LIKE losing power since it forces us to be more creative and it gives us a technology break.

After I was done reading for a couple of hours, I would go garden for a time, go for a walk to see if I could find someone to talk to, then figure out how to eat without electricity. If my kids were around, I would break out the board games, even if they refuse to play Scrabble with me . I used to have a hobby of collecting little known words; before the kids were born, there were long winters in upstate New York so I have a completely useless knowledge of words like brumal and fuliginous - well, they’re useful for Scrabble. (In case you’re wondering brumal means wintry and fuliginous means sooty or dusky)

You get the chance to star in an upcoming film release. What movie would you star in for your acting debut? (If you can’t choose an upcoming film, you can choose a past release.)

I would love to be part in any movie involving witches or sorcery. I just think it would be fun to play a good old-fashioned witch who lives in a smoky woods somewhere and spends her days casting spells and conjuring. So it would have to be a remake of something Hobbitish, but that would really be fun for me.

You’re invited to a White House function, and you have the chance to give a 10-minute speech to the President and everyone else attending. What do you speak about?

I would speak about the importance of education. We live pretty close to Philadelphia and Camden, and while they are both great, historic cities, there are some terribly distressed areas. When you drive through them, it’s difficult to accept that American children are living in such conditions.

I don’t think education needs more money; I think the system needs to be revamped. A lot of teachers don’t like what I’m saying, especially since I AM a teacher, but I also think the methods used in American schools need to be changed. Kids are given tons of busy work and not enough work that prepares them to think critically. The system is old and weak and broken. The methods we once used are no longer appropriate for a wired society. I don’t think I’d be a popular speaker, but I’d be an honest one.

Your publisher has instructed you to write a new series based on an endangered species. What animal do you choose?

I would love to write about gray wolves or wolves in general. They are my favorite land animal and I have pictures of wolves near my desk. They are really majestic beings and they have been so maligned and misunderstood by humans. Just the fact that they mate for life and live in packs is incredible to me.

The paranormal genre is big in teen/YA literature right now. Most bestsellers feature vampires, werewolves, faeries, angels, or the like as a main character. In your opinion, why are teens currently fascinated with all things paranormal?

With vampires, I think it reassures us all that mortality is just such a better deal than living forever. It gives us a sense of control over what we cannot control.

The fairies and angels and all the other beings offer possibility. We live in an age where we are exploring the prospect of life on other planets and we are understanding a lot more about the nature of energy. It’s arrogant for us to assume that we know all there is to know about life energy and all its forms. Fairies, angels, any kind of magical creature, symbolize knowledge of other existences. I think they are hopeful figures and teens seem attracted to what is hopeful.

Someone tells you that you’ll never publish another book that you write. Do you still keep writing?

Absolutely! Writing is therapy for me, or maybe it’s an addiction, or maybe those two ideas are more related than we realize. When I write, it’s how I order experience and make sense of it. If I don’t write for a few days, I feel crabby and my mind is fogged. After I write a few scenes, I can feel myself relaxing. So I need to write; I don’t necessarily need to be read (though that is wonderful..)

A group of teens ask you the best way to become a published writer. How do you answer the question?

Read in the genre you want to publish in, and read everything. Write every day, no matter what. Even if you’re heart is breaking or you have a ton and a half of homework, take ten minutes out of the busiest of days to write a scene or practice a quick dialogue sketch. Make writing a daily habit like eating, like breathing.

Also, keep a journal of your experiences. Write down everything: how you felt, what things looked like, smelled like, reminded you of. Most importantly, take risks in your journal. Since it’s a place to write where no one else will see, you can experiment.

Maybe the best advice of all to become a successful (published) writer is this: Give yourself permission to fail. It doesn’t mean you are a bad writer; it only means that particular angle didn’t work in that piece. Even the greatest of writers look at ideas they had that fall flat or sound awkward.

Writing is revision so if it all worked in that first draft, every one of us would be a published writer. It’s like polishing a stone into a jewel: you go over and over the same area until your arm aches and you can’t hold the stone anymore. You can’t put the stone down until it gleams.

**Thanks so much to Anne for visiting with us today! Be sure to visit her website, listed above, or you can find her at Facebook or email her directly at aspollen@comcast.net.

Anne has graciously offered two lucky winners a signed copy of THE SHAPE OF WATER or LIGHT BENEATH FERNS, so be sure to leave any comments or questions you have for her in the comments section!