Q&A with Meg Welch Dendler

 

 

 

Meg Welch Dendler is the author of the new middle grade novel Poppy and Marigold.  Her other books include the Princess Bianca series. She lives in Arkansas.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Poppy and Marigold, and how did you create your protagonists?

 

A: Their book began as a short story about two adult women in the 1950s from different backgrounds. When I shared it in my critique group, they hated it. I mean, HATED it.

 

I stuck it in a drawer, where it remains to this day, but the idea of two people kept apart by their cultural differences stuck with me. When I started fussing around with the difference being skin color, this story began to evolve.

 

I routinely write for children, and in the sci-fi/fantasy realm, so it evolved from there. I wanted the colors to be separate from anything on Earth, so there were no comparisons. Setting these girls in a total fantasy world allowed for so much freedom. 

Q: What was the inspiration for the world in which your characters live?

 

A: It developed around them. Poppy's world in Blue needed to be uber-structured, so everything fell into place from that. Their homes. The way they interact with others. It's all based on conformity and obedience. No individuality is respected.

 

Marigold's Orange life is the opposite. She's a bit wild and runs barefoot and gets to say fun phrases like dilly-dally and away with the fairies. Their worlds came from the nature of the characters. 

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

 

A: I definitely did NOT. This story went through several rounds of shifts and adjustments. It ended up a bit darker than I'd intended. Not that it's scary or anything, but the ideas of war and so much hatred of anyone from a different territory wasn't in the original idea.

 

I work mostly as a "plantser," so I have a rough idea of the story but no outline. It's much more interesting to see how the story develops as I go and then restructure and edit later. Repeatedly.

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?

 

A: There are discussion questions in the back (and a workbook for classroom use), but I hope it makes them be more discerning about believing everything they are told about others, be it a skin color, a religion, or a country.

 

Especially these days with AI capabilities for deep fakes and rampant disinformation on social media, it is vital to question and research and draw your own conclusions based on facts, not rumor or prejudice.

 

It's hard! But to understand that something isn't necessarily true just because thousands of people scream about it is an important part of being a mature individual in a civilized world.

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I'm in the last gasps of writing the sequel to The Tigran Chronicles and three novellas about that world coming out at the same time in a collection. This is speculative science fiction for at least older teen readers. PG-13, for sure.

 

But it does actually feature the same ideas as Poppy and Marigold about inclusion and acceptance of those different from us. Even if they are animals, or genetically spliced with animals. All life deserves respect.

 

The cover of book 1 is getting a refresh, and all of that should be coming out by April next year. Intense editing is ahead! 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Poppy and Marigold won Best Children's Book at WriterCon, a conference I attended recently, and the early reviews are wonderful. Whew! I've heard it said that writing is like telling a joke and not knowing if anyone found it funny for two years. That feels true. I'm so excited to share this new book with the world, finally. 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb