Q&A with Maureen Johnson

 

 

 

Maureen Johnson is the author of the new young adult novel Nine Liars, the fifth in her Stevie Bell mystery series. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including The New York Times and The Guardian. She lives in New York City.

 

Q: You say in Nine Liars’ acknowledgments that you’ve always wanted to write an English country house mystery--and now you have! What initially fascinated you about those stories, and how did you create your own version?

 

A: The country house seemed impossible to me. Impossibly huge and complicated. Impossible for one family to live in. Manors are full of unearned wealth and people always looking over their shoulder for the person who wants them out of the will.

 

Because many of them were built or refurbished over hundreds of years, they have secrets: hidden rooms, passages, things buried or concealed in walls, little nooks and holes. Even the people who live in them might not know all their secrets. So in many ways the buildings themselves can be mysteries.

 

Q: Your character Stevie Bell is back in this novel, along with her friends--did it feel different for you to write a story about them set outside the US?

A: Have detective, will travel! Fictional detectives are usually on the move. I’ve written several books set in England. There is always an element of tourism in the book, but there is something helpful in this—Stevie comes at the mystery as an outsider, and she’s seeing everything with fresh eyes.

 

Q: The Kirkus Review of the book says, in part, “The exploration of the importance of friendship (with parallels between the Nine and Stevie’s group) adds emotional vulnerability to this book, which has a well-developed sense of place and features the series’ signature humor and layered mystery elements.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: Well, it’s a very nice one. I wanted the experience to be complete—I invested a lot of time in building Merryweather, and even more assembling my cast. There is a big cast in this book! And this is a book about friendship, how it works, how it changes, and how it remains.

 

There is the present-day group—Stevie and her friends. And then there are the Nine—a theater group of nine students from Cambridge around which the original 1995 crime is based. It’s a murder mystery—but with a lot of friendship. Murdery friendship?

 

Q: How was the novel’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: The book is about a theater group of nine people who called themselves The Nine. It also signifies the closed cast, the suspects. And they’re all faking, putting on a front in some way—they’re acting, they’re covering up secrets. They’re all lying. But why? And what about? That’s for you to find out!

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Right now, I am working on a separate mystery called Death at Morning House. But I am also working on Stevie Bell mysteries six and seven!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Maureen Johnson.

Dec. 27

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Dec. 27, 1943: Cokie Roberts born.

Top 10 Posts of 2022: #6

 

Counting down the top 10 most-viewed posts of 2022: Here's #6, a Q&A with Lian Dolan first posted on April 5!

Q&A with Lian Dolan

 

 

 

Lian Dolan is the author of the new novel Lost and Found in Paris. Her other books include The Sweeney Sisters. She is the creator and host of the talk show and podcast Satellite Sisters, and she lives in Pasadena, California.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Lost and Found in Paris, and how did you create your character Joan?

 

A: With Lost and Found in Paris, I wanted to explore a few different ideas: fame, grief, and recovering after loss. The story has been in my head a long time. I tend to file away inspiration for years before acting on it and a headline from the days just after 9/11 was one of those pieces of inspiration. I incorporated that into the book.

 

In addition, like a lot of people in LA, I’ve had brushes with fame--the director’s kid in class, the sports star’s kid on the soccer team, that guy in yoga who just got nominated for an Oscar.

 

It’s got me thinking about how being famous or raised by famous parents influences your life and the expectations others have for you. And I started this book right after losing both my parents in a short time period, so grief and loss were on my mind.

 

But I like writing book with plots that move, with gorgeous settings and a bit of romance, so the more serious storylines are woven into an art history treasure hunt in Paris.

 

Joan is very much the product of her two famous parents, a genius artist and a ‘70s supermodel, and the out-of-whack sense of reality that might give a child. Vacationing with Mick and Jerry. Being feted by royalty. Being pulled out of school for to go on tour with David Bowie.

 

But Joan doesn’t want to follow in her parents’ creative footsteps and live a public life. In one scene, she describes herself as the average child of above average parents. She craves a normal life, but then tragedy strikes when her father is killed on 9/11 and she is at the center of attention whether she wants to be or not.

 

To me, Joan is a woman who was launched into adulthood too soon, responded with uber-responsibility and lost herself in the process. In the book, she’s set up to recapture what made her “above average” through this fantasy treasure hunt in Paris.

Q: The Kirkus Review of the novel calls it “A quirky novel that deals with weighty topics and emotions without taking itself too seriously.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I couldn’t have written a better description myself! I was delighted when I read those lines because I felt like the reviewer really understood my intention, which was to create a story that engaged, moved along, went unexpected places, and had some real laugh lines.

 

I think of Lost and Found in Paris as a book that has some serious intentions coupled with surprising joy. Thank you, Kirkus!

 

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

 

A: I knew where I wanted Joan would end up as a character in terms of her personal growth, but I didn’t know exactly how she was going to get there in terms of plot points. Once I nailed the action, I still needed to work on the emotion.

 

The final third of the book did change a lot during the editing process with Rachel Kahan at William Morrow. Rachel did what a great editor is supposed to do: turn my point of view around so I could see the growth through Joan’s eyes, not my own. That perspective really made the book better.    

 

Q: Do you have any other favorite books set in Paris?

 

A: Do the Madeline books count? Because those were definitely the first books that imprinted Paris on my brain! I loved reading them as a child and I went to a public school in Connecticut that started French in kindergarten, so we read them over and over again in French.

 

I’d also have to tip my hat to Diane Johnson’s books: Le Divorce, Le Mariage, and L’Affaire. She is one of my favorite writers, a real inspiration for me. I love her sophisticated but flawed characters, how her French and expat casts interact, and her keen observations about love and life in Paris. Read the books even if you’ve seen the movies!

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m excited to be working on a book about the highs, lows, and challenges of a long-term marriage. Think a contemporary Gen X version of The Bridges of Madison County set in the post-pandemic era. It’s called The Marriage Sabbatical and it’s due out in 2023 from William Morrow.

 

Q: Anything else we should know? 

 

A: I’m looking forward to meeting readers again in person on this book tour. My last book, The Sweeney Sisters, came out in April 2020 and of course, all events were cancelled or rescheduled as virtual events.

 

The virtual book tour allowed me to reach a lot of readers who might not be able to come to my events, but I missed the energy of interacting with readers, booksellers and other book lovers. Thank you, readers and bookstores for continued support.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Lian Dolan.

Dec. 26

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Dec. 26, 1894: Jean Toomer born.

Top 10 Posts of 2022: #7

 

Counting down the top 10 most-viewed posts of 2022: Here's #7, a Q&A with Mara Rockliff first posted on Nov. 1, 2020.

 

Mara Rockliff is the author of the new children's picture book Jefferson Measures a Moose. It focuses on Thomas Jefferson's interest in science. Her many other books include Mesmerized and Doctor Esperanto and the Language of Hope. She lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

 

Q: How did you learn about Thomas Jefferson's interactions with French writer Buffon?

 

A: I first came across the moose incident in an article by Cara Giaimo on the Atlas Obscura website. Buffon was a French count who claimed America was a miserable continent of puny people, undersized animals, and birds that couldn’t sing.

 

Buffon had never visited America, but he had strong opinions—and, as the most famous naturalist in Europe, he was giving the New World a bad name. Naturally, Thomas Jefferson set out to prove him wrong.

 

I’d recently published a book called Mesmerized: How Ben Franklin Solved a Mystery that Baffled All of France, about how Franklin used the scientific method to investigate the enigmatic Dr. Mesmer, who claimed to have discovered a powerful invisible force.

What this funny story about Franklin did for science, I thought, Jefferson’s absurd adventure with the moose could do for math. Jefferson loved numbers; he made a hobby of measuring, weighing, and noting down information everywhere he went. Kids who love facts and figures would relate to him, I knew, while others would enjoy seeing a Founding Father doing something so silly and gross.     

 

Q: What kind of research did you do to write the book, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?

 

A: Well, of course, there are tons of books about Thomas Jefferson, including some focused specifically on his interest in science and math. From there, I moved on to the really good stuff: original documents, especially Jefferson’s correspondence. Thomas Jefferson wrote LOTS of letters. He got up before sunrise every morning, stuck his feet in icy water, then sat down and wrote letters until 1 or 2 p.m.

 

Reading the letters he wrote and received made these long-ago events feel very human—and often surprisingly hilarious.

 

One friend wrote to Jefferson about a dinner party in Paris where Benjamin Franklin and a number of other Americans were present. When a French guest asked Franklin whether he agreed that animals and people were smaller and weaker in America, Franklin invited him to look around the room.

 

“In fact,” Jefferson’s friend noted with delight, “there was no one American present who could not have tost out of the Windows any one or perhaps two of the rest of the Company.”

 

Q: What do you think S.D. Schindler's illustrations add to the book?

 

A: Everything! They’re a wonderful combination of careful historical research and gentle humor. (Did you spot the hidden mouse?)

 

And they make the story colorful. It’s so easy for kids to get the sense that the past was gray, like an old photograph. One of the greatest things a picture book can do is help them realize that people in the “old days” lived their lives in color, just like us—whether they were eating peas or reading with their feet propped up or measuring a mole.

 

Q: James Madison also appears in the book--how would you describe the friendship between Jefferson and Madison?

 

A: Batman and Robin. Madison was Jefferson’s small, skinny, younger sidekick, at least at first. They had a lot in common. Both were brainy and loved science. It’s easy to imagine Madison enthusiastically weighing a weasel for his friend. (He also counted its teeth, measured its tongue, and reported how it smelled: “a sort of rankish musk, but not so strong as to be very offensive.”)

 

Both were also passionate about religious freedom and the separation between church and state. They worked together on a groundbreaking law to protect the rights of “the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, and Infidel of every denomination,” as Jefferson put it in his autobiography.

 

Unfortunately, while both also spoke out against slavery, neither of these wealthy Virginia plantation owners freed the hundreds of people they personally kept enslaved.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: My next book with Candlewick will be The Girl Who Could Fix Anything: Beatrice Shilling, World War II Engineer, illustrated by the clever and amusing British artist Daniel Duncan. It’s the story of a girl who wasn’t quite like everybody else, and whose outside-the-box problem solving helped England’s fighter pilots stay up in the air.

 

I’m also excited about Try It! How Frieda Caplan Changed the Way We Eat, coming from Beach Lane Books/Simon & Schuster this January and delightfully illustrated by Giselle Potter. Frieda was the produce pioneer who filled our supermarket shelves with colorful, delicious fruits and vegetables that few Americans had ever seen before.

 

Ever tasted a kiwifruit or a sugar snap pea, a yellow tomato or a purple potato? Do you like donut peaches, baby corn, or Asian pears? Then Frieda Caplan is the one to thank.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: It’s easy to get up close and personal with Thomas Jefferson, You can read 20,457 of his letters at https://founders.archives.gov, along with 27,015 letters other people wrote to him.

 

The Library of Congress also has a vast number of Jefferson’s original writings—including an early draft of the Declaration of Independence, with handwritten revisions—digitized at https://www.loc.gov/collections/thomas-jefferson-papers/.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Dec. 24

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Dec. 24, 1895: Noel Streatfeild born.

Top 10 Posts of 2022: #8

 

Counting down the top 10 most-viewed posts of 2022...here's #8, a Q&A with Ido Kedar first posted July 16, 2020.

 

Ido Kedar is the author of the novel In Two Worlds. He also has written the memoir Ido in Autismland, which describes his experiences with nonspeaking autism. 

Q: Why did you decide to write this novel, and how did you come up with the idea for your character Anthony?

A: I have a nonfiction book, Ido in Autismland, that I wrote when I was a teenager. It has had a significant impact on the lives of autistic nonspeakers and their families. I have continued to write nonfiction in my blog, idoinautismland.com, basically continuing where my memoir left off.

I have made inroads reaching out to families and professionals in the autism community through my nonfiction writing, but I realized the general public knew very little about autism.

In addition I craved a challenge and a new creative experience. Writing a fictional story about an autistic boy gave me the opportunity to do so much more than nonfiction allows.

Instead of me describing and explaining what autism is like, fiction lets the readers experience autism for themselves. They go into Anthony’s (the protagonist) head to swirl with his senses, hear his thoughts, and face his outer challenges.

Fiction let me create a true-to-life family and show how autism impacts them, for good and bad. It also gave me the chance to lay out current controversies through a variety of characters that have a huge impact on Anthony’s life.

In essence, fiction takes the reader on a journey into Autismland and exposes the reader to a new world that I hope will prompt social change and greater understanding and tolerance of nonspeakers.

Anthony is based on many of my own experiences and many observed incidents. In my case, as a boy who couldn’t communicate until I was 7, observation was incredibly important in my life. I noticed everything. Then, because I could not speak or share my ideas using other methods, I thought constantly about what I saw.

My own life is different than Anthony’s in key aspects. I have a different and more perceptive family. I learned to communicate at 7, not 16, as he did, but I observed many of my autistic peers waiting to learn to communicate until they were 16 or older. Some are waiting indefinitely.

To me, Anthony represents a kind of autistic everyman and his journey moves the reader from hopelessness to hope. 

Q: How was the book's title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

A: The title, In Two Worlds, reflects the multiple dualities of Anthony’s life. He is torn between his inside and outside.

In other words, his inner autism and his outer therapies, his smart brain and his outer presentation of ineptitude and confusion, his at times hallucinatory sensory system and his outer life of mundane drills and behavior modification, his rich, intelligent, inner world and how he is erroneously perceived as low-functioning cognitively by experts, his life in silence without a means to communicate for 16 years with his entire destiny controlled by others and his ultimate liberation to communication and some measure of autonomy.

Anthony’s two worlds reflect a boy living in a trapped body while his mind and soul can soar freely.

Q: Can you say more about how the experiences of writing fiction and nonfiction compare for you?

A: Writing fiction is a lot more fun, to be honest. I have been writing nonfiction since I was 12, educating and advocating, and getting asked the same questions over and over. There are many misconceptions about autism that have truly harmed people and I have felt a need to help fix things, to the best of my ability.

My memoir, Ido in Autismland, was written between the ages of 12 and 15. I felt passionate about writing it and poured my soul into it. Nine years later I still get asked the same questions, and I assume I will forever.

That’s fine, by the way, but I needed to stretch myself in a new way. Inventing characters, villains and heroes, and the world of a family was incredibly enjoyable. I knew their world. I heard their conversations in my mind. The characters were vivid to me and became real to me and they became real to readers too.

It is worth mentioning that one widely believed theory about my disability is that we lack creativity, imagination, insight, and empathy. I hope my book turns that nonsense on its head. 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from In Two Worlds?

A: My hope is that by going into the head and heart of Anthony that readers will be moved and gain insight into the experience of what it is like to live bombarded by sensory stimulation but to be unable to communicate your thoughts and show people who you really are due to an unreliable motor system.

The reader is the only one, besides Anthony, who knows he is smart and understands everything he hears. Consequently they share his experiences and frustrations of living in a world that endlessly patronizes, underestimates, and misinterprets him. The reader experiences Anthony’s highly sensory, at times almost psychedelic, inner world with him.

His eventual liberation to communication follows what I would call a truly heroic struggle to be heard despite powerful forces that on the surface seem benevolent, but which actually keep him stuck in isolation. The reader is with Anthony as he finally breaks free from them.

In Two Worlds examines the toll nonspeaking autism takes on family life and it looks at the popular autism treatments and theories that dominate his every moment. Ultimately, In Two Worlds tells the story of autism from the inside out.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I am working on another book as well as collaborating with my mother to develop an online class to help other autistic people gain the skills needed to communicate and end their isolation. Many people have no access to a qualified instructor so online is the ideal venue for them. My goal is to keep educating and advocating, but to keep my challenges varied and fresh.

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: It is important to understand that many people believe nonspeaking autism is a language processing and cognitive disability, when for me, and for  thousands of others, it is actually primarily a motor disability. 

Severe autism itself is a huge challenge and very frustrating. It prevents people from moving and behaving as they like and means they must always have some kind of supervision in life.

But the misunderstanding of the disability just makes the situation exponentially worse. After all, if you had a disability that trapped you in dumb-looking motor patterns, you might be annoyed at the trap, but then trapped further by the professional response that believed that the motor patterns reflected lack of intelligence or thought. Try to imagine being paralyzed. You tell your body to move and it refuses.

Your brain is ok. It’s the disconnect that causes the problem.

Now imagine that your body is moving but doesn’t obey your brain. That creates impulses, patterns, and erratic movements. That’s autism. Kind of a moving paralysis, not a lack of thinking or understanding. Simply put, not talking is not the same as not thinking.

In Two Worlds has been well reviewed by readers and is recommended by Kirkus Reviews and BookLife , where it was a quarterfinalist in fiction. You can find my books on Amazon, Kindle, Smashwords (eBook), and Ido in Autismland is also available on Nook. You can reach me through my blog, www.idoinautismland.com, or Facebook. 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb