Rebecca is the April author in the Spotlight here on Booksnob. She agreed to answer some questions about her book and her busy life. Let me tell you what I like about Rebecca, she is kind and open-hearted and a teacher, like me! If you like to get out into nature and ride your bike, you will enjoy this fast paced mystery of a novel. Please read this great interview that provides great insight into her young adult book, Chasing Alliecat.
1. Tell
us a little bit about yourself?
I grew up on a farm in Iowa. I always wanted to write (see
#3). I loved riding ponies in the fields, and I missed that when I grew up and
moved away. I think that’s why I became a runner, and then a cyclist—because I
still needed the feeling of moving through the air outside. I have run
marathons and raced my bike. I still race a little bit. Right now, I live in
the country, and I have a Newfoundland dog named Freya who weighs 170 pounds.
She’s bigger than I am! I also teach English, Humanities, Creative Writing, and
Children’s Literature at South Central College in North Mankato. I write all
summer and every chance I get.
2. What
inspired you to write to Chasing Alliecat?
Well, my guest post goes into some of this. I wrote this
story by “prairie-dogging.” That means that I had a bunch of fun, unrelated
ideas that I thought would be good in a story. My job was to “dig the tunnel”
that connected all the ideas into one coherent story, just like a prairie dog tunnel
connects its holes.
I wanted to write a story about a competitive female
cyclist. The first part of the book I wrote is now on page 179—the scene where
Allie finishes the race. Then I wanted to include a cannon shot blowing up a
neighbor’s building because some friends of mine actually did that—but not
nearly as destructively as in the book. When I stumbled upon the real Junk
Woods, and thought that someone could hide a body there….I had a story.
When I saw the “chainsaw” sign in the Junk Woods, all I
changed was the name and number. That was too good not to use. I needed Allie
to be connected to the priest in the woods, and maybe to whoever wrote that
sign, and all those pieces fell in place. I wanted to have dogs play a major
role in the story because dogs are so important to me. The rest was making it
all fit together.
The thing that I struggled with at the beginning was that I
wanted Allie to be a really gifted cyclist. As I started writing, I realized I
couldn’t have Allie be the narrator because I wanted the narrator to admire
Allie. That’s when I knew this would be the story of two girls, not just
one. And of course Joe just showed up at
the truck stop and Sadie was attracted to him immediately. I wasn’t expecting
him, but there he was, and it was kind of funny to cram him into an
over-crowded house where he wouldn’t be Sadie’s cousin at all, and he had
enough of his own issues that he was there to stay. And Sadie couldn’t help
falling for him…
3. Can
you tell us why or when you decided to become a writer?
I have wanted to write since before I learned to read. My
mom read to me a lot, and I loved stories.
It never occurred to me not to want to write stories. I honestly thought
everyone in the world wanted to be a writer because wanting to write was so
natural to me. I guess I thought in words, too, and I liked narrating to
myself…probably sounded like I was having psychotic episodes if you listened to
me as a six-year-old talking to myself, but I was always narrating what I was
doing, as if I were putting it in a book at that moment. I actually remember
moments like this: “She scuffed along the driveway, kicking dirt up between her
bare toes.” I have no idea how old I was when I said that aloud to nobody.
4. Usually
an author puts some of her own life experiences in the book. Did you do
that?
Yes, indeedy. I always do, I
guess. I’ve explained a lot of that about Chasing AllieCat in #2.
Both “Mars at Night” (the short
story in Girl Meets Boy) and my first
novel, Jake Riley: Irreparably Damaged
take place on farms in Iowa like the one where I grew up. Neither one of those
stories of much of anything to do with what happened to me, but the place—the
place is real—and it’s so fun to write about the farm because it’s like
being back there again.
5. Do
you like to read? What authors or books
influence you?
Do I. I’m always, always in the middle of a book, and a book
on CD whenever I’m driving. I read whenever I have five minutes to wait or in
between things, and before I sleep.
Authors that influence me. Lots. Whoever I’m reading at the
moment influences me, because I try to pay attention to what that writer does
that I like—or that I don’t like.
Authors I have LOVED in my life are Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird, my all-time
favorite), Carol Ryrie Brink (Caddie
Woodlawn, my favorite as fifth and sixth grader; I think I read it twelve
times), Mary Calhoun (I loved all the Katie John books), Lois Lenski (I read
every single book of hers I could find; her stories let me travel and live all
over the U.S.), Marguerite Henry (Misty
of Chincoteague and many other horse stories, which I devoured. Also, she
was the first “real live” author I met, when I was about 28 years old). More
recently, my favorite is Barbara Kingsolver—I love all her novels. I also have
a growing list of writers for young people that I admire.
6. How
do carve out time in your day to write when you are busy teaching college? Are you writing another book? (see #9)
Sometimes I really don’t know how I make time. I don’t
always get time. When I’m busiest at school, writing gets shoved to the back
burner until the weekend, and then sometimes, I’m grading papers all weekend.
I write all summer. I refuse to teach summer school so I can
write, write, write. I start to feel panicky by the end of the first week of
summer that I’m not going to get enough written. Then I settle down and get
into a routine of writing, biking, and doing other summer stuff in between.
There are never enough hours in a day, but every now and
then, I get to the end of the week and think, wow, I really got a lot done. Other times, it’s I didn’t get anything done all week! But
you know what? It’s never enough! There’s so much more to do, and I have so
many more book ideas that I want to write.
7. Have
your students read your book? What is
their reaction to having a published author as a Humanities teacher?
Lots of my students have read my book, and lots haven’t. Usually,
they come tell me when they’ve read it and then we talk about the story. I
haven’t had anybody tell me (yet) that they didn’t like Chasing AllieCat, but it could happen! I tell them at the beginning of the semester,
when I’m telling them a little about myself, but they don’t pay attention
because they don’t know me yet. Then later, when they’ve actually started to
like me (hopefully) as a teacher, if they find it out, that’s when they get
excited to read it. I also teach
Composition and Children’s literature and creative writing…so it comes up in
some of those classes, too.
8. What
is the most important lesson/idea you want readers to take away from Chasing
Alliecat?
Wow. I don’t think anybody has asked me that before. To LIVE life to the fullest. Sometimes that
means being a great friend. Sometimes that means taking care of yourself, and
sometimes it means protecting a friend. Sometimes it just means being kind.
Sometimes it means being brave and doing stuff you don’t want to do. Sometimes
it means pursuing your dreams, no matter how hard you have to work and if other
people disapprove. It also means being honest—with yourself and with everybody
around you. It also means being physically active so that you can feel strong. I
think a balance of a physical life and an intellectual life is essential.
I would love it if this book inspired girls or guys—or
adults—to want to be strong and physically active.
9. Are
you working on another book? How did get
involved in the anthology Girl meets Boy?
I’ve finished another book. My agent has it right now. Slider’s Son is a murder mystery set in
North Dakota during the Depression. The main character wants to be a major
league pitcher and his dad is the sheriff. They’re the ones who find the body…
I’m working on another after that, but it’s too early to
talk about it. I have to use the energy to write it, not talk about it at this
point.
I had written the story, “Mars at Night,” and Terry Davis
had read it. When Kelly Milner Halls asked him to be in the anthology, he asked
me if he could write a companion story to “Mars at Night.” It was hard giving up “control” of Rafi—the
character I created but from whose point of view Terry wrote…but I had to let
Rafi be the way Terry conceived him, and then I had to edit my story somewhat
so that the two matched. Terry and I found a way to sort of compromise and meet
in the middle. (Terry, by the way, wrote Vision
Quest). He’s my ex-husband, but we are still very good friends.
10. In one
sentence tell readers why they should read Chasing Alliecat?
Chasing AllieCat is a biking adventure in southern Minnesota
that hopefully makes you want to get out and ride your bike, be a great friend,
and get rid of all the creeps in the world!
That sentence makes me laugh, but it’s true.
Thanks Rebecca!