Mel is Mel Boring, moderator of this interview with Mary Casanova, and Web Editor of the ICL Web Site.

Interviews are held every other Thursday evening for two hours, beginning at 9 CANADA/
Atlantic Time, 8 Eastern Time, 7 Central Time, 6 Mountain Time, and 5 Pacific Time.
 

Mel: Thank you, Mary Casanova, for coming to be our Chat Guest in the ICL Chat Room this evening! It has been a joy for me to get to know you, so I know the treat our chatsters have in store tonight. You are the author of so MANY award-winning books for children, and so many awards voted by the children themSELVES on state reading lists—book awards that come straight from the young readers’ hearts. Reading your books, it’s plain to see what attracts so many young readers—many of them reluctant readers—to your books. We are all eager to hear more about your career in writing for children, and how you conceive of, plan, and write such award-winning books for children. We’re so GLAD to have you in the ICL Chat Room!

Mary: I’m glad to be here. And thanks, Mel, for inviting me!

Mel: You come from a family with two sisters and seven brothers, Mary. How did growing up in a family of ten kids influence you to become a writer?

Mary: I couldn’t help being influenced by so many brothers, especially. And one result is that I became a very timid girl who couldn’t say no, with no voice of my own. But I found my voice in writing.

Mel: Tell us, please, about your parents. How did your father influence you as a writer?

Mary: This week my parents are especially on my mind, and the influence they had on me. My dad died two days ago. He was a superb storyteller, with impeccable timing. He was in such pain the past few weeks that I am relieved that he has been set free. Also, he was a man of strong Christian faith and I have no doubt he is in the hands of a loving God. That faith and optimism also shapes much of my outlook when I write fiction. And fiction is always a blend of light and dark, and most often an exploration of the shadowy gray areas that we have difficulty grasping. My own father was an inspiration to so many. His shoes are indeed big to stand in now. They feel cavernous, yet well worn and comfy. His funeral is this Friday at 11.

Mel: Mary, I express sorrow for all of us. You are SUCH a COURAGEOUS person to have gone on with this Guest Chat, and WE are much the benefactors for that, and the personal depth you bring to us. Your mother…what influence did she bring to your writing life?

Mary: My mother was a "stop and smell the roses" kind of person. Rather, IS that kind of person. She taught me to pay attention to details and the miracles in everyday moments.

Mel: I would say you received from your parents the BEST combination for a writer: Storytelling ability from your father, plus the importance of detail in description from your mother. You write about the outdoors with such clarity, how do you create such vivid settings?

Mary: Having spent so much time there growing up, and just about as much now, I guess the outdoors kind of "seeps" into you and description of it kind of flows out of that reservoir of memory.

Mel: You must have pets, I’m thinking.

Mary: I have always had pets. Right now we have a basset hound, named Gunnar, who according to my daughter, "drinks water with both his tongue and ears." We have two cats, Paris and Cali, and one rabbit named Frosty, short for Frosted Flakes.

Mel: What books did you read as a child?

Mary: Charlotte’s Web, Mr. Popper’s Penguins, Heidi, the Nancy Drew Series—I enjoyed these and many others.

Mel: What are your interests now, besides the outdoors?

Mary: Cooking, horseback riding, and I love to play the piano. I also love cross-country skiing, canoeing, hiking, gardening—anything active and outdoors.

Mary: Yes, kaye, that’s it exactly!

Mel: Do you like to write, Mary?

Mary: Yes, I like to write. And sometimes, it feels like having teeth pulled, which I'm glad I've never had to actually experience. But I can imagine!

Mel: How long does it take you to complete writing a book?

Mary: I often carry the germ of a story with me for years before I sit down to actually write it. Once I begin, most novels take a year or two to finish. The text for picture books may be shorter, but a picture book can still take me a year or two and many, many drafts to bring it to completion—dozens and dozens of drafts, as a matter of fact!

Mel: Where do you get your ideas for stories, Mary?

Mary: Often an incident, image, or piece of information will be the catalyst for a story. I draw on my own experiences and stay open to the world around me, always asking questions and trying to make sense of things. Stories often start with larger questions, such as "How could someone do that?" or "Why did that happen?" Always, however, I connect emotionally with the issue or topic I take on—I am moved in some way to explore a concept further.

Mel: In Moose Tracks, you seem to explore those gray areas between life and death. The poachers are breaking the laws, but Seth, too, goes out in the first chapter and shoots a wild rabbit for its foot, leaving the body behind. Why was this of interest to you?

Mary: I started thinking about the ways that kids might treat life too lightly, the way my brothers sometimes did with frogs and such. What if I put a kid between poachers and the law by having him struggle with his own actions with a rabbit? In Moose Tracks, Seth has to weigh out his wasteful action of taking just a foot from a rabbit against the more obviously wrong actions of the poachers. It's a subplot, but important to what Seth learns as he struggles to save the orphaned moose calf from the poachers. I do write some hard scenes at times, like when the poachers shoot the moose cow and Seth witnesses it. I think we can do that in writing for kids, but it's HOW we handle difficult scenes that matters. If we handle those scenes with the intention of gaining understanding and not just for dramatic affect, it makes all the difference.

Mel: I’ve read of your saying that certain authors have influenced you and your writing. One of them is the estimable Marion Dane Bauer. When and how, exactly, did Marion influence you as a writer?

Mary: I went to a workshop that Marion Dane Bauer was directing in 1989. There I determined that I would give myself ten years to see if I could get published. By 1995, with the publication of Moose Tracks, I accomplished that goal within six years.

Mel: You mentioned Avi—the man with the singular name who won the Newbery Medal for Crispin: Cross of Lead in 2003—as one of the writers who influenced you. How did Avi influence your writing, Mary, through personal contact, or at writers' conferences?

Mary: The first conference I attended was at Chautauqua, New York. The second was through SCBWI in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and that's where I worked with Avi. He read my first chapter of Moose Tracks, critiqued it, and asked pointed questions that helped move me ahead in the novel.

Mel: Was it hard for you to find a publisher for that first novel of yours?

Mel: Speaking of courage, have you ever dealt with censorship, and if so, in what form and with which books?

Mary: Yes to censorship. It comes in all forms. Just this week I received a letter from a grandmother who asked that my publisher and I take out one word from my picture book, One-Dog Canoe. The word was "darn." Other forms of censorship come because a community doesn't want me to talk about werewolves in Curse of a Winter Moon. Even though there are not werewolves in the story, there's a question of werewolves according to the superstitions of the times and it's really a book set during the Reformation in France. Other times it's the word "curse" in the title that will make a librarian say she doesn't want to "risk stirring up trouble" by having the book on her shelf. As writers we need to write without looking over our shoulder.

Mel: You mention on your Web Site, Mary, how people in your community threatened to boycott your husband's business if you published your book Riot. Can you tell us about that, please?

Mary: Riot is based on the labor dispute that turned violent in our nearby town, International Falls, Minnesota. I started to write the story several years after the actual event. People came up to me and said, "Mary, you should know there's talk around town. They're saying things like, ‘If she writes the book we're not going to her husband's business’ and ‘If she writes the book we're going to vote with our wallets’." This was very scary for me. But I knew that things had gotten out of hand in l989 when the riot actually took place. I needed to write the story, did, and when the book finally came out and was starting to win awards, people came up to me and said things like, "Wow, your book brings it all back. I remember exactly where I was that morning..." So, in short, nothing bad happened to my family. Oh, and the part I forgot. When I discussed writing the books with Charlie, my husband, he said, "Mary, go for freedom of speech," which I did. Again, another case of learning and growing through the writing of that story.

Mel: You and your husband Charlie are gutsy people, Mary!

Mary: Not really. I was very scared. Remember my talking about being that timid girl? Deep down, she's still there, but she's learned to speak up and act—even when she's terrified!

Mel: It sounds to me like your books changed YOU, Mary—and there couldn't be a finer thing to come out of writing our books, I believe.

Mary: Maybe this will encourage some writers out there. My report cards in school usually said, "Mary's a good student, but she doesn't live up to her full potential."

Mel: HA! JUST what MY report cards often said!

Mary: Yes, it's really true that our books change us. It's risky work, this writing. We lay our hearts and dreams out for everyone to see. We risk rejection, and get rejected over and over again…and we keep on. That builds character over time, it really does.

Mary: Boys read—they just need more active boy-oriented stories. When I step inside a boy character, my issues and concerns shift. Now it helped certainly that I had seven brothers growing up, but anyone who is around males can try to step inside that viewpoint. When I write about a girl character, the story is likely very active, but it tends to have deeper emotional tones. This happens more subconsciously than consciously. Also, if you can write a story that boys will read, you'll likely pull in the majority of girl readers at the same time. That's one reason that I wrote Moose Tracks. There was that teensy bit of strategy when I started out.

Mel: Your first three novels had male protagonists. Did having those seven brothers of yours have something to do with your writing from a boy's point of view?

Mary: It definitely helped me create those male protagonists, but it was actually more the content of those three novels (Moose Tracks, Riot, and Wolf Shadows) that dictated the gender of the main character. If the issue is about responsible hunting, then the issue was most likely a boy's issue. Same with taking revenge over the killing of livestock in Wolf Shadows. Riot dealt with a labor dispute, and I knew the outer and inner conflict would be intensified if I had a boy as the main character who played hockey. It complicated the issues of violence and roughness. A story exploring the bravery of a governess and nursemaids at Versailles is more likely going to require a female protagonist, as did Cécile: Gates of Gold.

Mel: Stealing Thunder—a story about Libby rescuing a horse she loves from mistreatment—was your first novel with a female protagonist. Was that an easier story for you to write?

Mary: I thought it would be a breeze to write, but then I ran smack-dab into my earlier 12-year-old self. That voiceless, couldn't-be-so-heroic self. Remember?

Mel: Yes, I do. I’ll bet you’ll write another horse story!

Mary: I hope to. I'm always on the lookout for a good story. Just last weekend my husband and I were riding under a blanket of fall leaves on some wonderful horse trails. Though I was in the saddle, my mind kept coming up with "What if..." possibilities for another horse novel. Wait and see.

Mary: You’re very welcome, clarinetgurl!

Mel: What do you mean by "Not without a Flashlight" when it comes to exploring the shadows in children's literature? Can you give us an example from The Hunter?

Mary: The Hunter is a story I first heard from our first foreign exchange student, Hui, from China. It's an ancient, beautiful story about a hunter who has a terrible choice to make, whether to sacrifice his own life when his village is threatened or to flee and save himself. Ultimately, he makes the supreme sacrifice, giving his life to save his village. The story is sad, yet it's hopeful, because the villagers learn something important out of the loss. They learn to listen to every person, "including the youngest child." They change, they grow. So though The Hunter could be considered a tragedy, it's not completely tragic. It has too much to say about love and real leadership. And that's where, for me, the idea of a flashlight comes in. We can explore hard life-and-death issues in children's literature, but we must bring young readers to a conclusion that offers hope. Love. That said, I do not believe in getting up on a soap box. The message of a story really must be shown through the character's actions. The reader must be able to come away with a new awareness, a desire to ponder something further, but definitely not come away feeling that their hands have been slapped or that the author has simple wagged their finger at them. That's not real fiction.

Mel: Along the same lines, how could One-Dog Canoe, your laugh-out-loud rollicking picture book, deal with shadowy issues? The story in which a girl and her dog set off for a canoe trip, "Just me and you." And soon Beaver asks to join the trip, then Loon, Wolf, Bear, Moose, and finally Frog, until they all end up in the water—By the by, I LOVE that book!

Mary: Thank you. One-Dog Canoe is light indeed. But underneath the silliness is an important issue, one, not surprisingly that I've dealt with. This girl doesn't know how to say "no." She says, "I doubt you'll fit," "Maybe next time!" or "We're pretty darn full!" but she never says "no," which would have spared her a whole lot of misery. So that book, too, is really about listening to one another, even if it's "no."

Mel: Ard Hoyt's illustrations in One-Dog Canoe are wonderful. Will you have other books illustrated by him?

Mary: I'm thrilled to answer YES. We have two books coming. Some Dog! in 2007 and Utterly Otterly Day eventually.

Mel: How were you so lucky to have Ed Young—a Caldecott Medal Winner—illustrate The Hunter?

Mary: The Hunter received seven rejections before Simon and Schuster expressed interest. "We want the story," I was told, "but only IF Ed Young will illustrate it." And I was told that they might not be able to afford him and that he might be booked up for years. I thought, "Oh well, another rejection." But that day or the next, Ed Young stopped by the New York office, read the manuscript, and pretty much dropped everything because he had the book illustrated within the year. And it went on to become an ALA Notable, and to earn many other awards. See? Never give up.

Mel: What a GREAT and ENCOURAGING anecdote from the real writing life, Mary--THANK YOU!

Mary: Yes, there are rhyming dictionaries. I have two! And they do help when you're looking for the right word.

Mary: The trend is toward books with less or no rhyming. I suggest going to your library and having a children's librarian show you her favorite picture books. You'll find both rhyming and non-rhyming. When you find a story form you like, take it home, and type it out. Really. When you can see the text on paper you'll have a better idea how to create that form and word play.

Mel: Mary, do you happen to remember how many words in your rhyming picture book, One-Dog Canoe?

Mary: Off the top of my head, I think One-Dog Canoe is somewhere around 300 words at most.

Mel: So at least that ONE book rhymes and has few words. Change of book pace, Mary, you wrote a novel for American Girl called Cécile: Gates of Gold, set in France during the time of Louis XIV. Can you tell us about how you came to write for American Girl?

Mary: Well, they asked me to write a book from that era, and I knew nothing about Louis XIV. I traveled to France and began looking for the story.

Mary: I found lots of people from around that era, particularly men. Then I found a lot of information about the palace servants, some of whom were women.

Mel: How did you find a girl main character to use in that novel?

Mary: I love animals, and so I found a girl who was the palace dog attendant, and I knew I had my main character!

Mel: What novel (or novels) are your working on now?

Mary: First, I should mention I'll have another novel out in January with American Girl. Not long ago I went to Norway for research and am fine-tuning a novel set there.

Mel: Will there be a doll with this American Girl book, Mary?

Mary: Hmmm. I can't say. Just have to wait!

Mel: Ultimately, why do you write?

Mary: To express what's within, and to explore both the world within and the world without. To write is truly to live more fully.

Mel: And why do you find it so rewarding to write for CHILDREN, Mary?

Mary: If it's true that writers should "write to express, not to impress," then nowhere is this more important than in writing for children. They are the toughest critics, demanding first and foremost a good story. It's the writer's responsibility to write honestly, from the heart, and to give something of lasting value to the reader. Every writer offers a unique perspective, a unique gift; if expressed clearly enough, true enough, it is a gift of story that a young reader will remember for a long time.

Mel: What final words of writing advice would you have for us children’s writers?

Mary: Write about things that delight you, that you love, and that trouble you or cause you to question things. Write from the heart. Don't worry about being perfect when you write. Explore. See what you can discover about yourself as you write. Have fun!

Mel: You and your husband, Charlie, travel around the country in a motor home now that your children are away at college? How does that work?

Mary: Very well. He's my tour manager, making sure I get places on time! One class of 7th graders thought he was my bodyguard!

Mel: THANK YOU, Mary Casanova, for ALL you have so openly shared with us tonight about yourself and about writing for children! It was Toni Buzzeo who first so highly recommended you as a Chat Guest; and I am SO GLAD she did. For you not only have the ability to explain the hows and whats and whys of writing for children, but a heartful willingness to reach so deeply into your writing self to share with us, and to be so honest in your responses to our questions. There is no question that people here—including me—would LOVE to have you return someday to chat with us again. There is so much more we would like to hear from you about, and to ask you. Would you be willing to come back at a time convenient in your schedule?

Mary: Yes. I enjoyed this time with all of you. Thank you, Mel!

Mel: Our next Chat Guest, on Thursday, October 13, will be Pegi Deitz Shea, chatting with us about the topic of writing and publishing historical picture books. Pegi has a fresh new book out this month of September, Liberty Rising, about the construction of the Statue of Liberty. In 2006, Pegi Deitz Shea will have another biography, Patience Wright: Wax Sculptor & Revolutionary Spy. Pegi tells me she is also close to an offer on her picture book biography of Noah Webster of dictionary fame. And she is shopping a picture book biography on Mercy Otis Warren, and a history of sugar. She knows what editors want and don't want in historical picture books. So come and chat with Pegi about them on October 13!

Mel: Again, MANY THANKS, Mary Casanova, for being our Chat Guest this evening! Our hearts go out to you in the recent loss of your father. We will be thinking healing thoughts to you tomorrow and in days to come, Mary. And we wish you THE BEST in your children's writing and publishing career!

Mary: Thank you, thank you.

Mary: That's too sweet.

Mel: Goodnight, everyCHILDREN'Swriter!

lilyphenix: Goodnight!