Author: Michael

This week our FIVE ON FRIDAY guest is illustrator Dan Burr. Dan is the wonderful artist of several picture books, including the recently released PIRATES, which features poetry by FIVE ON FRIDAY favorite David Harrison. Dan can be visited on the web at www.danburr.com.

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When did you know that you first wanted to be an illustrator?

When I was in college, our instructor introduced me to illustration as a profession and that’s when I knew I could do this. I immersed myself in the world of illustration and have never looked back.

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What book, writer or artist do you feel influenced you the most?

The one book that changed things for me was Treasure Island, imagine that!

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What book or books are you currently reading or have recently read you’d recommend to others?

Mostly I read manuscripts…but The Earth Is Enough by Harry Middleton… what a book!

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If you could offer one piece of advice to aspiring writers (or illustrators), what would it be?

If you want to do this for a living, don’t give up and don’t take no for an answer, and be naive enough to believe that you can do this.

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Can you share with us your next project or any information about the next book you’re working on?

I am working on several books but the one I am excited about is Cavemen a story about men and dogs.

This week our FIVE ON FRIDAY guest is Kirby Larson, author of the Newbery Honor Book, Hattie Big Sky. She is also the co-author of the recently released TWO BOBBIES: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship and Survival. You can visit Kirby at her website, www.kirbylarson.com.

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When did you know that you first wanted to be a writer?

I’ve been a bookworm since I could read and have always written for fun but didn’t take the leap to a writing career until I read a picture book written and illustrated by Arnold Lobel, called Ming Lo Moves the Mountain. That very day, I began the long process of learning to write for children. And I have a file cabinet full of wretched manuscripts to prove it!

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What book or writer do you feel influenced you the most?

In addition to Arnold Lobel (see above), I would have to say Betsy Byars, Patricia Reilly Giff, Jamie Gilson and Katherine Paterson were my inspirations early on. Now, of course, the list of writers who inspire me is longer than Lincoln’s left leg, but in the early days it was those women who kept my fires fed.

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What book or books are you currently reading or have recently read that you’d recommend to others?

Chains and Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Orwell’s Luck by Richard Jennings

The Farwalker’s Quest by Joni Sensel

Seven Times Nine Equals Trouble by Claudia Mills

The Drowned Maiden’s Hair by Amy Laura Schlitz

The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Philbrick Rodman

Inside Out by Terry Trueman. . . I could keep going or you could simply join GoodReads to read about the rest of my recommendations!

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If you could offer one piece of advice to aspiring writers (or illustrators), what would it be?

May I offer two? Read, read, read. Revise, revise, revise.

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Can you share with us your next project or any information about the next book you’re working on?

My second book co-authored with dear friend, Mary Nethery, will be out in the fall. Nubs: The True Story of a Mutt, a Marine and a Miracle is the story of an Iraqi dog befriended by a US Marine and we are very proud of it. Also, I am in the almost-final revision of another historical novel, based on an incident that occurred in 1927; title and pub date TBD. Thanks for asking, Michael!

This week our FIVE ON FRIDAY guest is celebrated and award winning author Mary Casanova. Having written more than twenty books including picture books, middle grade and young adult novels, Mary has traveled the world to bring her stories to life. Research trips to France, Norway and Belize among many others have proven the old adage that one must suffer for one’s art. You can visit Mary and try to keep up with her adventures at www.marycasanova.com.

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When did you know that you first wanted to be a writer?

Somewhere in high school, between writing an essay on Russian history to a paper in a College Prep writing class, I discovered the power and magic of words. I was stunned to realize how my words, if carefully crafted, could persuade, move, and maybe entertain a reader. If I loved working with words, then perhaps I could think about writing books someday…of being an author. I kept the dream carefully tucked close to my heart, however, as there wasn’t a single person encouraging me to follow this path until later in college, when an English professor said, “Mary, I think you could have a career in free-lance writing if you want to.”

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What book or writer do you feel influenced you the most?

I always assumed I would write for adults until I was 32 years old and read Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. I appreciate his compact language and forward-leaning tension combined with a story set in the deep woods. It’s not surprising, then, that my first novel for young readers was Moose Tracks, about a 12-year old boy in northern Minnesota struggling to save an orphaned moose calf from poachers. Twenty years-and to my amazement, 23 books later–I still appreciate the high quality of writing in books for kids and teens.

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What book or books are you currently reading or have recently read that you’d recommend to others?

I’m on an historical novel kick right now, and in the books for adults category, I just finished Red Azalea (a memoir by Anchee Min that covers her experience during the Cultural Revolution in China), The Widow of the South (historical novel by Robert Hicks based on a civil war battle in Franklin, TN, close to where I recently was doing author visits at schools and visited the historic sites) and To Catch The Lightening (by Alan Cheuse and exploring the life of photographer Edward Curtis who spent years photographing Native Americans at the turn-of-the-century).

I highly recommend Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson, a fine prairie novel that won the 2008 Newbery Honor. I’m just finishing Eliza Carbone’s Last Dance on Holladay Street, which deftly explores the limited options of girls and women on the western frontier. And after that, I’ll read Lea Wait’s book for young readers called Wintering Well, set in l820 in Maine.

So many great books! So little time.

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If you could offer one piece of advice to aspiring writers, what would it be?

Revise recklessly and endlessly. Don’t hang on with white knuckles to those early drafts you so painstakingly wrote. Get feedback. Then revise again and again to make the story stronger. Revise until your brain, even in the half-awake-half-asleep moments of the morning cannot dredge up one more single thing to fix. Then you might be getting close to sending it out.

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Can you share with us your next project or any information about the next book you’re working on?

Sorry, Mike, but I would rather talk about what’s brand new–like my two books, doll, and DVD from American Girl! The first book is Chrissa, and its sequel, Book Two, is titled Chrissa Stands Strong.

Chrissa is the “2009 Girl of the Year” from American Girl and she is a generous, creative 10-year old girl who moves from Iowa to Minnesota midway through 4th grade, only to be seated at a cluster of four desks with girls known as the “Queen Bees” or “Mean Bees.” Not only does Chrissa have to learn to stand up to bullying, but she has to risk speaking up for others when the bullying turns dangerous. This was a topic I was asked to write about and was eager to tell a story that would help show how damaging bullying can be to victims, and how difficult it can be for kids to know how to make it stop. To soften the story, Chrissa’s Nana raises mini-llamas, and for a little Hollywood sizzle, HBO and American Girl released a DVD based on both books. To see the trailer, which is very cooooool, go to www.marycasanova.com or www.americangirl.com.

This week our guest at FIVE ON FRIDAY is New York Times Best-Selling author James Rollins. This week, Jim has entered the world of Children’s Books with the publication of his new YA Novel Jake Ransom and The Skull King’s Shadow.

Visit James at his website www.jamesrollins.com.

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When did you know that you first wanted to be a writer?

I’ve always been the storyteller in the family (what my Mom called being the “Liar” of the family). I was always terrifying my siblings with stories of Martians loose in the neighboring cornfields and of a ventriloquist doll that would wake at night and wander the house looking for blood. I also read a lot growing up, but I’d say it was junior high when I truly began setting pen to paper and truly considered writing for a living.

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What book or writer/artist do you feel influenced you the most?

If I had to pick one, I’d say Michael Crichton. I have all of his books, including a signed first-edition of The Andromeda Strain. His mix of science, adventure, and suspense is the stuff I love. It’s the reason I write what I do today. He is an author I admire both for his versatility and his bottomless ingenuity. Though many have tried to follow in his footsteps, none have succeeded. He will be missed.

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What book or books are you currently reading or have recently read that you’d recommend to others?

One book really stood out this past year of me, and I’ve been telling lots of people about it: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. It’s a YA novel about a Survivor-like game show of the future, where children compete in a kill-or-be-killed competition. Loved the whole world she creates, and especially the main character.

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If you could offer one piece of advice to aspiring writers (or illustrators), what would it be?

It’s also only one word: READ. There’s the old adage that you should “write everyday” if you wish to get published, which is definitely true. You do need to practice and hone your craft. But I’d like to add a caveat to that old nugget: “Write everyday, but read every night.” There is no better teacher on the craft than a good book. Whatever problem you struggle with during your writing day (dialog, opening a scene, etc), you’ll discover a great example on how to address that in the book you read that night. If you write everyday and read every night, you’ll grow stronger and stronger as a writer. That, and don’t forget to floss.

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Can you share with us your next project or any information about the next book you’re working on?

I’m currently polishing up the sequel to by first Jake Ransom middle school book. It’s titled Jake Ransom and the Howling Sphinx, where Jake’s next adventure takes him deep into Egyptian mythologies and mysteries. But I also have another two books coming out this year. This summer is the next big Sigma series book, ominously titled The Doomsday Key. And this winter will be a stand-alone thriller called Altar of Eden.

This week’s FIVE ON FRIDAY guest is author Jocelynn Drake. Jocelynn’s debut novel Nightwalker, was published in July 2008 to critical acclaim. High octane action and suspense are the order of the day in this tale of the Vampire hunter Mira and her encounters with Danaus, a Vampire hunter with his own mysterious past. It’s the Underworld meets Alias. Look for her new book Dayhunter now on sale.

(A note to parents, teachers and librarians: while I write children’s books some of my guests on FIVE ON FRIDAY do not. Many of the authors featured here write both. The purpose of FIVE ON FRIDAY is to give all visitors an insight into the mind of writers and the writing process. So please make your own judgment regarding the age appropriateness of the books discussed here for your children, students or patrons. And as always thanks for visiting FIVE ON FRIDAY.)

You can visit Jocelyn’s website at www.jocelynndrake.com.

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When did you know that you first wanted to be a writer?

That’s a somewhat hard question to answer. I actually started writing when I was 12 years old. I spent the summer re-telling the tale of Robin Hood so that it included a strong female lead that could keep up with the other boys. (I still have that worn manuscript and no, no one is allowed to see it.) From there, I never gave writing a second thought. It was part of me, as essential as breathing. I daydreamed constantly of distant worlds, strange people, and wild plots. I wrote constantly, but growing up, I never considered doing it for a living. I knew how hard it was to get published and doubted that I would ever be good enough to be included with those amazing few that ranked among the gods.

It wasn’t until I was in my freshman year of college that I realized that maybe I had to take a chance on writing. I was an engineering major, but hated calculus. However, I was in heaven in my literature classes. At that time, I decided it was time to face facts and stop denying who I really was: I was a writer. My sophomore year, I changed my major to English and journalism. At that point, I finally embraced being a writer and I’ve never been happier.

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What book or writer/artist do you feel influenced you the most?

Wow! That’s a hard question, too. I feel like a sponge when I read, taking everything and leaving it to stew in my subconscious. I love Simon Green’s world-building in his Nightside series. I love the character development that Raymond Feist and Kim Harrison create with their respective series. But oddly enough, my moral compass, the dark core of my novels, the sense of duty, honor, and responsibility that fill my main characters is born out of my love for the Batman legacy. I think the stories of Batman from the ’90s and ’00s are pure genius, delving into the dark psychological aspects of Bruce Wayne and the inhabitants of Gotham.

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What book or books are you currently reading or have recently read that you’d recommend to others?

Due to my currently busy writing schedule, I have to admit that I haven’t done much reading lately. However, some authors that will always have a place on my nightstand include Kim Harrison, Vicki Pettersson, Rachel Vincent, Neil Gaiman, Raymond Feist, Simon Green, Jim Butcher, Charlaine Harris, and Christine Feehan. Of course, that doesn’t include my growing stack of Batman graphic novels, a copy of Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray, and Earnest Hemmingway’s The Sun Also Rises.

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If you could offer one piece of advice to aspiring writers (or illustrators), what would it be?

I think the one bit of advice that I can offer is actually the hardest thing to do: don’t ever give up. This is a very hard business to break into and it demands that you develop a very thick skin. However, if you truly love writing, that unwavering passion should be able to carry you through the lean times. Write because you love it. Write constantly, trying new techniques, new voices, and new plot devices. The experience will only strengthen your skills. Just keep writing.

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Can you share with us your next project or any information about the next book you’re working on?

2009 is going to be a busy year for me, actually. At the end of April, Dayhunter, the second novel in my Dark Days Series will be released. This novel sees my main characters Mira and Danaus dash off to Venice, where they uncover a dark plot being twisted by the Coven — the ruling vampire body. At the same time, our heroes must still find a way to stop the naturi from breaking the seal that has locked the race away from the earth.

In late August, I have a novella coming out in the anthology Unbound, which also features Kim Harrison, Jeaniene Frost, Melissa Marr, and Vicki Pettersson. This novella is titled “The Dead, The Damned, and The Forgotten” and is actually to be a prequel to my first novel, Nightwalker. In this story, we get a look at Mira’s “normal” life because Danaus arrives and mucks everything up.

And finally, Dawnbreaker, the third novel in the Dark Days Series, is slated for release in late September. This novel continues with Mira and Danaus’s struggle with the naturi, but this time, we see the damage wrought by the naturi hitting much closer to home for Mira.

At the moment, I’m up to my eyeballs in book 4 in the Dark Days Series. And this one, kids, is headed in a slightly different direction from the prior 3 books.

This week FIVE ON FRIDAY features author and playwright Sandy Asher. Having been drafted into a role in one of Sandy’s plays at a recent Lit Festival I can state with all alacrity that Sandy is a stern taskmaster as a director and insists on making her actors use the method approach to their roles. I made everyone call me Lance for weeks!

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Visit Sandy’s website

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When did you know that you first wanted to be a writer?

I can remember standing in the children’s reading room of the Philadelphia Public Library in Logan Square, surrounded by shelves of books, ALL of which were my favorites, and thinking, “There can’t be anything more wonderful than writing a book that someone will love as much as I love these.” I was in elementary school at the time, and I don’t know if I even understood that writing could be a career. I was always making up songs, stories, and plays. It was just something I did for the fun of it. I didn’t realize I could get paid for it until I read about Jo selling her first story in Little Women.

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What book or writer/artist do you feel influenced you the most?

The very first was Louisa May Alcott. But I didn’t grow up thinking I’d write for children. In college, a friend read a batch of poems I’d written and said, “Do you realize there’s a child or a reference to childhood in every one of these poems?” I’d never thought about that, and I still didn’t get it. Every adult novel I tried to write happened to have a teenaged main character, but the light never went on. It wasn’t until after college, when I enrolled in a course in Methods of Teaching Children’s Literature and read Judy Blume’s Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret and Jean Craighead George’s Julie of the Wolves that I understood my calling.

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What book or books are you currently reading or have recently read that you’d recommend to others?

I will probably never get over Marcus Zusak’s The Book Thief. I’ve just finished reading his earlier novel, I Am The Messenger, and it’s wonderful, but if you haven’t done so already, read The Book Thief first.

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If you could offer one piece of advice to aspiring writers (or illustrators), what would it be?

Read, read, read, write, write, write, and revise, revise, revise.

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Can you share with us your next project or any information about the next book you’re working on?

I’m finishing up an anthology on revision for the Institute of Children’s Literature, and I’m very excited about it. Twenty children’s authors offer their published work — picture book, short story, beginning reader, or novel excerpt — alongside early drafts of that work. I interview each author about his or her revision process, and I provide commentary to lead the reader through that process. Four editors and an agent also give their thoughts about revision. It’s a treasure trove of normally “invisible writing” — the missteps and backfires and take-overs we authors usually keep hidden from public view. Still debating about the title (talk about revision!), but the book is due out in either spring or summer of 2009.

This week’s FIVE ON FRIDAY guest is G. Xavier Robillard, author of the recently released CAPTAIN FREEDOM: A Super Heroes Quest for Truth, Justice and the Celebrity He So Richly Deserves. Packed with pop culture references, Robillard goes non-stop from page one, racing through the twisted story of Captain Freedom (aka Tzadik Freidman). The action starts with Freedom’s fall from grace on the world stage, a disastrous dinner party and his search for a sidekick to his flagging comic book sales, a stint in rehab, his disastrous children’s book, a run for political office and finally, his true calling. This wild ride of a satire sends up celebrity, politics, Hollywood, the fashion world, upper management, current events and much more, including the beloved world of comic books.

(A note to parents, teachers and librarians: while I write children’s books some of my guests on FIVE ON FRIDAY do not. Many of the authors featured here write both. The purpose of FIVE ON FRIDAY is to give all visitors an insight into the mind of writers and the writing process. So please make your own judgment regarding the age appropriateness of the books discussed here for your children, students or patrons. And as always thanks for visiting FIVE ON FRIDAY.)

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When did you know that you first wanted to be a writer?

I wrote my first poem when I was eight. It was published, by my sister, on the refrigerator. During Comic Phase I (1979-1987) I wanted to write for Marvel Comics. It was in high school, due to the amazing mentoring of my tenth grade English teacher, that I knew I wanted to write seriously.

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What book or writer do you feel influenced you the most?

Mark Twain. People often think that humor is ephemeral, and has no shelf life, but you can open almost any Twain essay or novel and start to crack up, and his caustic observations could easily out-snark all the bloggers in the pack.

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What book or books are you currently reading or have recently read that you’d recommend to others?

Neal Stephenson’s Anathem is the best and most demanding speculative fiction I’ve read in a while. Corey Doctorow’s Little Brother should be required reading for middle school. And I recently read Later, At the Bar, a wonderful novel in stories by Rebecca Barry. At ComicCon last week I picked up the final installment in Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men.

At this very moment I’m rereading Orhan Pamuk’s My Name Is Red. Set in 16th century Istanbul it’s both rumination on the tension between art and religion, and a fast paced murder mystery.

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If you could offer one piece of advice to aspiring writers, what would it be?

Don’t underestimate the power of networking. It’s not the first thing many artists think about,     since we tend to be introverts, but every bit helps. Almost every fun writing gig I’ve had has been a result of my other writer friends.

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Can you share with us your next project or any information about the next book you’re working on?

It’s a comic thriller that’s set at a poetry publication. Think Treasure of the Sierra Madre meets J. Alfred Prufrock.