Photo by Laura Carson Photography
Megan E. Freeman is the author of the new young adult novel in verse The Secret to Belonging. Her other books include Alone. Also an educator, she lives in Colorado and in Texas.
Q: What inspired you to write The Secret to Belonging, and how did you create your protagonist?
A: I was having breakfast with my friend, the author Olivia Chadha, and we were talking about places we lived growing up. I mentioned having lived in Norway as an exchange student in high school, and she said, “I want to read about that.” I went home and pulled out old photo albums and letters, and I began to write.
From even the earliest drafts, I played with placing the reader directly inside the protagonist’s experience. I went back and forth with using first-person voice and second-person voice, but I ultimately chose second-person because I liked the forced intimacy it created. I liked the sense that the reader was being cast as the main character.
Q: The School Library Journal called the book a “searing, character-driven exploration of family obligation and the pain of being left behind.” What do you think of that description?
A: I think that description gets to the heart of the story. The book is about a young person figuring out who she is in relation to her family and who she is when she’s removed from them.
It’s about understanding codependence and finding agency, and making decisions about managing the collateral damage that addiction causes to members of a family. It’s about being left behind, but it’s also about choosing to leave, and that’s a powerful—and empowering—choice to make.
Q: You’ve also written middle grade novels--do you have a preference between middle grade and YA?
A: When I’m writing, I don’t really think in terms of categories, so I can’t really say I have a preference. Stories come to me and I explore them, and I hope readers will find and connect to them.
Some of my books are considered “upper middle grade” or “young teen reads,” and my books often have characters whose ages span from 11-17. Ultimately, I trust my publishers to know how to categorize them so librarians and educators can help readers find them.
Q: How was the novel’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: That’s actually a funny story. Originally I had a one-word title that I really liked, and that was what we called it for a long time. (I think I’ve been writing poetry for so long that I’m always trying to use as few words as possible.)
But it became obvious that readers of Alone and Away would likely confuse it with that series, so we needed to come up with a phrase instead.
I was swimming laps one morning, and I was thinking about all the nuances inherent in the original one-word title. It came to me that the core idea was really about belonging: a young person trying to figure out how and where to belong, and how to create a sense of belonging for herself. Once I hit upon that idea, the rest of the title fell into place.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Currently I’m working on edits for Snakebit, a middle grade novel that is scheduled for next fall. It will be my first book written entirely in prose, and it’s very different from my other books. It’s set in South Texas in 1980, and it’s inspired by stories from my husband’s life and family growing up. I love spending time in that world with those characters.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I’m very excited for the third book in the Alone series, which comes out in February and is called Afar. It’s another companion novel, like Away, and all three books can be read in any order, or each can stand alone.
It’s available for preorder now, and one of my middle grade beta readers summed up the series this way: “Alone is an adventure, Away is a mystery, and Afar is a thriller.” I think that’s pretty accurate, and I hope readers will love the new book when it comes out.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Megan E. Freeman.
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