Q&A with Claudia Mills

 

 

 

Claudia Mills is the author of the middle grade novel The Last Apple Tree. Her many other books include The Lost Language. She teaches at Hollins University, and she lives in Boulder, Colorado. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Last Apple Tree, and how did you create your characters Sonnet and Zeke?

 

A: Years ago, I read an article in a University of Colorado newsletter about the Boulder Apple Tree Project, created to locate and preserve heirloom apple trees in Boulder County, as well as the stories that go with them. That was the seed that planted this book.

 

At first, I just dimly knew I wanted to write about my own fictional heirloom apple tree, lone survivor of a vanished orchard, and the stories hidden in its bark and branches.

 

There would be an old man who loved the tree, and there would be two kids, a girl and a boy, who would interview the girl’s grandfather for a school oral-history project, the characters who became Sonnet and Zeke.

 

I wanted the two characters to have contrasting personalities which would bring them into conflict – all stories need conflict! The contrasts and conflicts would emerge as they conducted the interviews, so these would need to have something to do with their respective interviewing styles.

 

So, I decided that Sonnet would be protective of her recently widowed grandfather, unwilling to elicit any painful memories connected with the recent death of his beloved wife.

 

Zeke would be the braver of the two, asking the deeper questions that would upset Sonnet, but lead to the revelation of long-hidden family secrets.

 

But why would he be that way? What would be the backstory that led him to be the more fearless questioner? I began pondering. Ahh, he could be the son of a journalist father, an environmental activist, himself a fearless questioner, who has previously homeschooled Zeke.

 

And (as I wanted both kids to be dealing with difficult issues within their families), Zeke would be all too aware that his father is disappointed in him for not sharing his environmental zeal.

 

Now each character had a contrasting interview style that would reveal something important both about themselves and about their families.

 

Q: How would you describe the dynamic between them? 

 

A: As the story began to unfold, the contrasts I just described perfectly set up the two kids for conflict.

 

This conflict became aggravated by the fact that Zeke has his own secret he wants to hide from his new classmates: that his father has notoriety as the “local tree hugger” who once chained himself to an ancient oak tree to prevent it from being bulldozed for a construction project (another threatened tree, which help me carry out the “save the trees” theme in the story).

 

Just as Zeke is the one responsible for the revelation, against Sonnet’s will, of long-hidden secrets in her family, Sonnet ends up being (unintentionally) responsible for revealing this secret of Zeke’s. I would have plenty of conflict – and then, ultimately, plenty of common ground for new understanding. Whew!

 

Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

A: When I started writing, I knew that the two kids in the story would learn a lot about Sonnet’s grandfather, and about themselves, in the course of the oral history project. But I didn’t yet know what they would learn. I knew they would uncover some family secret hidden in the tree, but I didn’t yet know what the secret would be.

 

Some of those things I figured out as the story progressed, by making dozens of pages of notes to myself in my tiny, almost unreadable handwriting.

 

But sometimes – and I think all authors experience this – the characters themselves do something that surprises me.

 

I knew the two kids would be paired together to conduct the interviews. But I had envisioned that the teacher would assign them to be partners. I was stunned when Zeke himself signed up to interview Sonnet’s grandfather (who is also his neighbor)!

 

And while I had already decided that, to Zeke’s horror, the middle school would invite his father to speak at an Arbor Day assembly, I had no idea that Sonnet, looking to find a way to fit in at her school, would impulsively join the school’s Green Club – and would then be the one to issue the invitation – never guessing that  the “local tree hugger” would turn out to be Zeke’s dad. I love it when my characters surprise me!

 

Q: The Publishers Weekly review of the book says, “Mills...centers characters navigating personal changes against a potent backdrop of tree conservation in this emotionally authentic novel.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: Of course, I’m always thrilled if Publishers Weekly gives me a glowing review! But I do especially appreciate this particular comment.

 

While the apple tree is in some sense the star of the story, and I wanted to shine a spotlight on the importance of saving heirloom apple trees and their one-of-a-kind genetic material, it’s always the emotional growth of my characters and their interrelationships that are most important to me as I write.

 

Both when I’m writing my own books and when I’m reading books written by others, I’m less interested in what happens in a story than why it matters: how do the events of the story change the characters so that they are different on the last page of the book from who they were at the beginning?

 

In The Last Apple Tree, Sonnet comes to realize that it’s okay for her grandfather to be sad, rather than suppressing his grief, and Zeke and his father come to recognize that they have more in common than either one previously realized.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: My book that will be published in March of 2026, Calliope Callisto Clark and the Search for Wisdom, also involves an intergenerational relationship; my main character, Callie (who gives herself a fancier, ancient-Greek-inspired name), is being raised by her elderly grandparents after her parents’ death in a car accident when she was very young.

 

An emotionally intense, “difficult” child, she joins a philosophy club seeking the wisdom she needs to keep her beloved but equally difficult dog.

 

This book is especially dear to my heart, as I fell in love with philosophy when I was not much older than Callie and ended up becoming a philosophy professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder. So, this book brings together my philosophy self and my children’s book self.

 

The book I’m writing this very minute – I just received the critiques from my writing group on the full first draft yesterday! – is for younger kids: a third-grade-level chapter book focused on a Little Free Library and the child who creates it and proudly serves as its “librarian.” I am now obsessed with Little Free Libraries. They are all I can think about!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Lately I’m finding that all my recent books are in some way celebrations of stories themselves, stories about the importance of stories.

 

In The Last Apple Tree, the stories Gramps shares with Sonnet and Zeke, revealing a hidden family tragedy, are crucial for the healing of long-buried pain for Sonnet’s mother and grandfather – and for Sonnet, too, who has been working so long and hard at the doomed project of making sure nobody in her family is ever sad.

 

In Calliope Callisto Clark and the Search for Wisdom, Callie finds her own badly needed bit of wisdom in the stories told by Socrates, Plato, and the great Stoic philosopher Epictetus (my most favorite philosopher of all).

 

As for my as-yet-untitled book about a Little Free Library, a library is first and foremost a storehouse of stories, shared with all who come to receive them.

 

Hooray for stories!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Claudia Mills. This Q&A was conducted in partnership with Claudia Mills. Enter this giveaway for a chance to win one ten signed paperback copies of The Last Apple Tree by Claudia Mills. But wait, there’s more! One lucky grand prize winner will get a special one-hour Zoom author visit with Claudia herself, plus signed copies of The Lost Language and a book from her wonderful chapter book series.