Gayle Rosengren On Finding Inspiration in the Present to Illuminate the Past

Inspiration is a funny thing. It can come to us like a lightning bolt, through the lyrics of a song, or in the fog of a dream. Ask any writer where their stories come from and you’ll get a myriad of answers, and in that vein I created the WHAT (What the Hell Are you Thinking?) interview. Always included in the WHAT is one random question to really dig down into the interviewee’s mind, and probably supply some illumination into my own as well.

Today's guest for the WHAT is Gayle Rosengren author of WHAT THE MOON SAID and COLD WAR ON MAPLE STREET. Gayle has worked in both the children's and young adult's section of public libraries, and as a copyeditor for The Pleasant Company, which produced the first American Girl books. In addition to her MG novels, Gayle has published short stories for children in Cricket, Ladybug, Jack and Jill and Children's Digest magazines.

Ideas for our books can come from just about anywhere, and sometimes even we can’t pinpoint exactly how or why. Did you have a specific origin point for your book?

Yes and no. I had wanted to write a story about the week of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 for quite a while and had made a start on it more than once, but I didn’t really get serious about it until I realized how many people had never heard of it. I couldn’t imagine that a week that had brought our country the closest it had ever been to nuclear war had been forgotten! It seemed the fact that “nothing happened” meant it wasn’t important, whereas that was precisely the reason I found it of great significance. Nothing happened. The Soviet Union and US didn’t let pride and ego be their guide. They talked. They negotiated. And war was avoided. Isn’t there an invaluable lesson to be learned from this? 

So I wrote my story and finished it a few weeks shy of September 11th. The first attack on our own soil. I thought how frightened kids had to be seeing the twin towers crumble over and over again on TV and the focus for my story shifted ever so slightly. How does a parent or a teacher address the very natural fear of another person, especially a child?

Thus, communication became the underlying theme for my story. It was already there, but it wasn’t as strong as it could be, so I developed it more. The underlying message became, “When you have a problem or a worry or a fear you can’t handle on your own, speak up to a trusted adult in your life. Just by saying the words out loud the burden is lightened substantially. Talking about it makes it seem more manageable. Sharing it is comforting. Let’s face it; no one likes to suffer alone.

Once the original concept existed, how did you build a plot around it?

In this instance I already had much of the plot. I had based the story on my own experience of that frightening week. Some images remained vivid in my mind: John Fitzgerald Kennedy's special news announcement the night of October 22nd; the clusters of frightened kids on the playground the next morning, the bold headlines in the newspaper that week. I had a brother who’d been in the navy a few years earlier, so I decided to give my main character a brother in the navy who was smack in the middle of the action around Cuba.  

This gave her one more reason to be afraid of what might happen—not just to her but to her beloved brother. And instead of a mom who was open to talking about the possibility of nuclear war, I made Joanna’s mother a Great Pretender, refusing to admit that she was frightened herself, especially for her son, and eager to act as if there wasn’t anything to worry about, redirecting the conversation whenever Joanna did try to talk about her concerns, insisting everything was going to be fine. And that works for a 5 year-old and maybe even a 9 year-old, but not so much for a 12 year-old.

Do you draw any inspiration from the world around you, or do you use writing as pure escapism?

What was happening around the world definitely impacts what I write. In this case the book was published in August of 2015, before everything went completely off the rails. The wars in the Middle East were raging on and terrorism created a constant level of fear that really shot up if you had to fly and go through airport security. But it’s what’s been happening more recently in 2017 with North Korea that brought back all the emotions of the Cuban Missile Crisis and therefore made me think about my book all over again.

6 Tips For Table Selling

Any writer today will tell you that the time of just being an author is over. We're now marketers, publicists, promotion machines, and even hawkers of our own wares. The last one is the element that most of us like the least, and yes, it can be both intimidating and awkward. The first time someone put me behind a card table with stacks of my books on top and said, "Okay, now sell these to strangers," I was like, Dear God, but how?

Five years later, I kind of get it.

1) Stand up - Seriously. Stand. Up. If you're sitting, you're passive, and people are less likely to make eye contact with you. Stand up and say hello to people. Most often, they'll say hi back. This makes them pause - in front of your table. Good job.

2) Give them something - People love free things. Candy always works, but think about who that's going to attract - mostly kids. Do you have a book about rape culture or lobotomies on your table? I do. Can you sell those books to these free sugar bandits? No. So what's the point? No matter where you are, your audience is always readers not eaters, and the people that are interested enough to come to an event where books are being sold probably like books. They might even like yours.

So give them something related to your book... like a bookmark. Even if they only stop long enough to lift free loot off your table, now they're carrying around something they're going to use that has your name, book cover, and title on it - not something they're going to eat and then throw away the wrapper. Anyone can give them candy. Why don't you give them something that actually markets your book?

3) Hand them the book - This one can be tricky, but a good way to judge interest is to watch their eyes. If someone makes eye contact with you, ask them the question in #4. If they're not into you but you see their eyes scanning your wares and pausing on one, attracted by the cover, give them the one sentence pitch - then hand them the book, flipped to the back cover or opened to the dust jacket flap that has the summary.

Not taking it is rude, and they don't want to be rude. So they'll take it from you, and you just kind of cornered someone into reading your book summary. Yes, this move is a touch pushy and not for everyone - but remember - these are book people that came here to buy books. It's not like you're standing on a street corner selling meat out of the back of your van to vegetarians.

Example: I spot someone's eyes lingering on NOT A DROP TO DRINK, so I take the top copy of the pile and say, "This is post-apocalyptic survival set in a world with very little water," and hand it to them with the back facing up.

The vast majority of the time if I can get someone to read the back or the flap, they end up buying the book, and I just turned a browser into a buyer.

4) Ask them what they like to read - If you're like me and write across genres, you want to make sure you're leading them the right direction. Eyeing what else they're buying can help, too. If they've got an armful they picked up at other tables, say, "You're a mystery / fantasy / sci-fi reader? You might like..." + hand them the book + one line pitch.

Example: I spot four fantasies tucked under a lady's arm. "You like fantasies? This is the first in my fantasy series, set on an island continent with rapidly rising sea levels." Then I hand her GIVEN TO THE SEA.

Pro-tip: Are their hands full from other books they already bought? Offer to hold them, or at the very least let them set their load on your table so their hands are free to flip through your book.

Super pro-tip: Do you get a ton of tote bags from all the conferences and book fairs you attend? Take them to events like this and offer them to particularly weighed down persons.

5) Know your audience - Be a total Sherlock and dissect their clothing, then pitch appropriately.

Educators and librarians tend to shop in pairs or groups, and most of the time at least one of them will be wearing something that announces their profession, or school affiliation. If I see librarians or educators shopping I am sure to point out that DRINK was a Choose To Read Ohio title with cross-curricular applications, and that both THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES and THIS DARKNESS MINE were JLG selections. That won't mean much to the average reader, but it's selling gold to educators.

Likewise, if I spot that mystery reader I'll add that A MADNESS SO DISCREET won an Edgar Award - something that doesn't carry weight with the Sci-Fi crowd, but will impress them.

What else? Look for geek t-shirts promoting movies, video games, fandoms, or anything else you might be able to tie one of your titles to. But don't be a pretender - if you don't have the street cred to participate in the conversation you just started, you're going to look like an idiot... unless you're a consummate bullshitter. (Ahem).

Lastly, for the adults - check their hats, coats, pullovers, and windbreakers. A lot of employers give apparel with their logo to their employees, and there's a chance - small, but it's there - that you can sell them a book that way. I've sold DRINK to people who work for the water company, SPECIES to police officers, and MADNESS to mental health workers.

6) Make that pitch honest - I use this one-liner for MADNESS - "It's a Gothic historical thriller set in an insane asylum." People either dive for it, or back away - and I mean they actually back away with their hands in the air. That pitch is either a 1 or a 10, much like the book. You're either way into what I'm selling, or you're terrified of me. I'm fine with either reaction (hey, lobotomies aren't for everyone), and I'm being up front with you about content.

Same for my other books, especially SPECIES and DARKNESS. When a younger teen is looking at either of them and a parent is present, I typically ask how free they are with them and reading material. If it's even a question, I suggest that the parent read it first - or I direct them to NOT A DROP TO DRINK and IN A HANDFUL OF DUST. Yes, I want the kid to read a book of mine - but I want to make sure it's something they're ready for... and that their mom agrees with that assessment.

I know I make it sound easy, but it's not. Even for me. Sometimes I'm just not in the right head space to put myself out there, and most of the time I can't keep it up for the full 6 to 8 hours of the festival. I'll retreat into myself for a little bit, ten or fifteen minutes. Check my phone, talk to the author beside me, trade texts with my friends who I know are at the event, just take a little down time and a minor recharge before standing up again and saying hello to people.

Another author who is really good at table selling is my guest for today's Writer, Writer, Pants on Fire podcast episode. Listen below!

Katie A. Nelson On Mixing Trial & Error With Inspiration

Inspiration is a funny thing. It can come to us like a lightning bolt, through the lyrics of a song, or in the fog of a dream. Ask any writer where their stories come from and you’ll get a myriad of answers, and in that vein I created the WHAT (What the Hell Are you Thinking?) interview. Always including in the WHAT is one random question to really dig down into the interviewees mind, and probably supply some illumination into my own as well.

Today's guest for the WHAT is Katie A. Nelson, author of THE DUKE OF BANNERMAN PREP, available from SkyPony. Formerly a high school English and Debate teacher, she now lives in Northern California with her husband, four children, and hyperactive dog.

Ideas for our books can come from just about anywhere, and sometimes even we can’t pinpoint exactly how or why. Did you have a specific origin point for your book?

In my former life, before I became a full-time writer, I was a high school English teacher. One of the challenges that high school teachers face is trying to find a way into classic literature for their students. I taught American Lit for years, and when I taught The Great Gatsby it was always a struggle to relate the story to my students’ personal lives. So I’d been thinking about the themes and characters in the book for years before the story really took shape. 

One of the things we always discussed when I taught Gatsby was the idea of the American dream and the concept we have accepted as a society that if you just work hard enough, you can achieve anything you want. At the same time, I was coaching Speech & Debate. Speech & Debate is similar, in that it doesn’t take physical prowess to be successful, just a lot of hard work. And yet, as I taught and coached, it became obvious that there were issues of privilege at work in that area, just as there are in modern life. If your school has a large budget for Speech, if the students don’t have to work part time jobs and can spend their free time researching, etc. then that team has an advantage over less privileged schools. I thought it would be interesting to mash up the two ideas, and the initial idea for The Duke of Bannerman Prep was born. 

Once the original concept existed, how did you build a plot around it?

Initially, I tried to stay pretty close to the plot of Gatsby, hitting the major plot events in the classic novel. I found out relatively early, though, that it wouldn’t work for my story. In Gatsby, the narrator, Nick, observes the story, but it isn’t his story. I didn’t want that for my book, partly because it was one of the things that always bugged me about the original. So I made my Nick character (Tanner, in my novel) more of a central player, and the plot changed as a result of it. 

Have you ever had the plot firmly in place, only to find it changing as the story moved from your mind to paper?

Definitely! My first draft of this novel was very different. It opened after the climax in the book, then flashed back to earlier scenes. While I like books that are written this way, it didn’t work for my story because it was hard for readers to care about these characters in crisis when they hadn’t met them yet. 

I also wound up changing the plot of the last third of the book, so that required a massive rewrite as well. My critique partners were so patient with me, especially because I kept saying that I’d finished the book, only to re-write it six or seven more times.

Do story ideas come to you often, or is fresh material hard to come by?

Seeds for stories come to me all the time. I think I have four in various notebooks right now. I usually need a lot of time to think about them, to develop characters and see if there is any kind of plot that can come out of those seeds. I’ve been known to bring several first chapters to my critique group, only to set them aside and work on something else. I don’t know why, but that’s just how my brain works.

How do you choose which story to write next, if you’ve got more than one percolating?

Usually through trial and error. I’ll start working on something, only to find that the story isn’t coming. Either I can’t quite hear the character’s voice yet, or I’m telling the story from the wrong point of view, or the story isn’t developed enough to be an actual story. When I find that I’m really struggling to write, usually that means that I need to set it aside and work on something else. 

2016 was not an easy year. Do you draw any inspiration from the world around you, or do you use writing as pure escapism?

Both? I usually find that my story ideas come out of the “what if” questions that I often ask. I see a story on the news and wonder what could have happened if a choice had been different. Or I read or hear about a person and wonder what it was that led them to a crucial point in their lives. All of my novels have been contemporary novels, so there are usually seeds of the world around me in all of them.

At the same time, when I’m watching too much news or spending too much time on social media, it can be really scary and overwhelming. So I like to write to create a way out of darkness for my characters, which is invariably really what I need in my life at that particular time. 2016 was a difficult year, but I’ve also seen that out of all of the noise, some really amazing things have happened. People are speaking out more, getting involved and trying to make a difference. We’re having difficult conversations that we need to have. I’ve learned so much from the conversations that are happening, and I hope that my writing will be more empathetic as a result of it.