Debut Author Interviews

Sarah Beth Durst is the author of Into The Wild, a middle-grade fantasy adventure (Razorbill/Penguin, Summer 2007)

• Sarah Beth Durst on...Other Careers
• Sarah Beth Durst on...After-Sale Revisions
• Sarah Beth Durst on...Agents
• Sarah Beth Durst on...Prior Research
• Sarah Beth Durst on...Promotion
• Sarah Beth Durst on...Ideas
• Sarah Beth Durst on...Training
• Sarah Beth Durst on...Why Kids?
• Sarah Beth Durst on...Setting
• Sarah Beth Durst on...Celebrations
• Sarah Beth Durst on...Influential Books
• Sarah Beth Durst on...Ideal Reader
• Sarah Beth Durst on...Character and Self
• Sarah Beth Durst on...Outlines
• Sarah Beth Durst on...Impact on Readers
• Sarah Beth Durst on...Why Write?
• Sarah Beth Durst on...Favorite Teacher
• Sarah Beth Durst on...Book Memory
• Sarah Beth Durst on...Self-Help Books
• Sarah Beth Durst on...Website
• Sarah Beth Durst on...Favorite Library
• Sarah Beth Durst on...Cover Art
• Sarah Beth Durst on...Character's Conflict
• Sarah Beth Durst on...Taste in Books
• Sarah Beth Durst on...Actor for Character
• Sarah Beth Durst on...Completion
• Sarah Beth Durst on...Favorite Bookstore

What career would you pursue if you weren’t a writer?

If I wasn’t a writer, I would want to be a cat.

Specifically, I would pursue the career of housecat. No alley cat life for me, thank you very much. Think about it: you sit in the sun all day. Nice people pet you. Meals are served to you. Once in a while, if you choose, you can chase a stray moth, an errant paperclip, or your own tail.

I would probably still write, though. Maybe etch stories with my claws in the furniture.

How much revision did you do AFTER you sold your book to your publisher?

I did not nearly as much as I thought I’d have to do. After the book had been sold, my editors sent me a very insightful editorial letter, full of lots of comments that really improved the book. But for the most part, the requested changes were much less extensive than I’d imagined they would be. They said the text was already quite tight and clean, which may have had something to do with the 37,842 revisions that I had already done by that point! Nevertheless, it was a very pleasant surprise. We went back and forth for three rounds of relatively minor edits before the book moved on to the copyeditor.

Is an agent useful or necessary for a first-time author?

Yes. An agent is necessary/useful for a first time author.

Or at least that’s been my experience. My agent, Andrea Somberg, is my hero. Within six weeks of signing with her, we had multiple offers for my book. She’s smart, friendly, and has been an absolute pleasure to work with. And let’s face it, she made my dream come true. Enough said.

How much research and/or meditation about your subject did you do before you began your first draft?

I read a lot of fairy tales before I even began the outline for INTO THE WILD. And I mean a LOT. From the well known tales, like Cinderella and Snow White, to the really obscure tales, like the one with the donkey that spews gold out of its butt! (Yes, there really is a fairy tale like that.) Hundreds of kids went to bed without fairy tales because I had them all checked out of the library. I hope someday they’ll read my book and find it in their hearts to forgive me…

What is your plan to get the word out to the public about your book?

How will I publicize myself? Like this! Check out my website:

http://www.sarahbethdurst.com

and my blog:

http://sarahbethdurst.blogspot.com

and look out for INTO THE WILD by Sarah Beth Durst coming to a bookstore near you on June 21, 2007!!!

Where did you get the idea for your book?

The idea for INTO THE WILD grew from two separate ideas that I’d been playing with for a while:

1) What if a girl had a monster under her bed, and her mother knew about it?
2) If Rapunzel lived in the here and now, she would own a hair salon.

From there, I had the idea that the girl was Rapunzel’s daughter (whom I named Julie), and the monster was the essence of fairy tales (the Wild) … and the rest simply evolved over the course of 6,523 drafts to become:

500 years ago, Rapunzel escaped the fairy tale with her fellow storybook characters to live incognito in our world. But now Julie’s world, our world, is about to change — the fairy tale wants its characters back.

What writing training have you had?

I keep picturing someone benchpressing laptops and pole-vaulting over library stacks…

Anyway, I have wanted to be a writer since I was ten years old. So I suppose you could say I’ve been training for this since elementary school. :)

Seriously, though, I’ve read a LOT of how-to-write books over the years (my favorite is BIRD BY BIRD by Anne Lamott), and I had a lot of really encouraging and wonderful teachers. As far as more formal training… In high school, I went to Duke Young Writers’ Camp for a couple weeks. Later on, I was an English major at Princeton, where I took some fabulous classes (including one with Athol Fugard and another with Mac Wellman).

But I think writing is primarily an on-the-job training sort of thing. I’ve learned the most about writing through the act of writing. And re-writing. And re-writing again…

Why write for children and teens?

You know that Cartoon Network show “The Adventures of Juniper Lee”? Best show on TV. If you don’t know it, it’s basically “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” but in cartoon form and without the whining. Anyway, June has this little brother Ray-Ray Lee who thinks it’s AWESOME that his sister is a secret super-hero who kicks monster butt.

If I were a cartoon character, I’d be Ray-Ray Lee. And that, in a nutshell, is why I write for kids/teens. I want to capture the “this is AWESOME!” feeling I get when I read so many kids books.

So I guess that means I fall in the “I don’t write for kids; I write for me” camp. I happen to think kids books are AWESOME so that’s what I write.

Where is your novel set, and why there?

INTO THE WILD is set in central Massachusetts (specifically, my hometown of Northboro and the nearby city of Worcester). In 1986, Northboro was transformed into a fairy-tale kingdom for a period of three days. This novel is my attempt to cope with my memories from those days. It is my hope that through this novel, I will finally conquer my paralyzing fear of glass slippers and pumpkins.

Seriously, though, I love my hometown, and I thought it would be really fun to turn it upside down.

How did you celebrate your book sale?

Like Armstrong on the moon, I commemorated the Call (i.e. the moment when my agent called to tell me about the first offer on INTO THE WILD) by saying something very articulate and profound: “Great! Really? Wow. Oh, wow, really? That’s so great! Really? Wow.”

Then I instantly called my husband. And then I had the terrible thought that maybe I had dreamed this moment one time too often and now had actually hallucinated it. (Not that I have a history of hallucinations, but hey, there’s always a first time, right?)

All I can say is: caller-ID is one of the best inventions ever. My agent really did call — the caller-ID proved it — and a few days later, she called again with the news that we had multiple offers on the book. The second time around, I had had several days to hone an even more articulate and profound reaction: “Really? Oh, wow, wow, wow! Really? WOW!”

Oh, yeah, I’m quick on my feet.

Anyway, after I pinched myself about a zillion times, I went to the nearest bookstore and bought myself a book that I’d been eyeing. Just seemed appropriate to celebrate a book sale with a book purchase.

What books had an impact on you when you were growing up?

I loved (and still love) books about smart girls who kick butt against all odds, books where something wonderful and fun and magical happens, books that make you daydream… I have the same favorites now as I did growing up: Tamora Pierce’s ALANNA books, Robin McKinley’s THE BLUE SWORD, Patricia Wrede’s THE ENCHANTED FOREST CHRONICLES, Diane Duane’s DEEP WIZARDRY… These books shaped how I see the world: full of wonder and magic and possibilities. And they inspired me to be a writer — they made me want to create that feeling of wonder and magic myself. After all, being a writer is the real-world equivalent of being a wizard.

If you had an ideal reader, who would that be and why?

You!!! That’s right, you there, staring at the computer screen. You are my ideal reader. I’m so glad we got to meet like this!

Seriously, though, I didn’t think about an ideal reader when I wrote INTO THE WILD. I just tried to write the book that I would want to read if I were to see it on a shelf. So I guess the answer is…

Me!!! And you! And all your friends! Ooh, and people in bookstores! And that guy who you always see at the mall, but you’re not sure if you met him at that party, or if he just looks like the guy you met at that party…

Is your main character like yourself?

Probably. Julie came from inside me so I’m sure there are similarities. For one thing, we’re from the same hometown (in central Massachusetts). But I’m not Rapunzel’s daughter, and my brother (so far as I know) is not a talking cat. So clearly there are ways in which we differ.

Do you outline before writing?

Yes, I always outline.

I like to be able to break the story into bite-sized chunks. That way, when I sit down to write, I can say to myself, “Now I’m going to write this scene,” rather than the way more intimidating, “Now I’m going to write a novel.”

Granted, my early outlines tend to have chunks like, “And then something cool happens,” but they still count as outlines.

What should readers get from your book?

Eternal happiness.

Seriously, though, I hope people read INTO THE WILD and think, “WOW, THAT WAS SO COOL!” And I hope they think it in capital letters too because thinking in capital letters is EXTRA COOL.

Why do you write?

1) I write because it makes me happy. Ask my husband — if I haven’t written lately, I get cranky. Also, writing is the one thing that when I’m doing it, I don’t feel like I should be doing anything else.

2) I write because I want my writing to make other people happy. Books have given me so much joy throughout my life. I love the idea of being able to give someone else that kind of joy, to transport someone out of their own worries for a few hours, to make them laugh or even just smile.

3) I write because it’s the closest thing to magic that I know of in the world.

Describe your favorite teacher when you were your protagonist’s age.

I have warm, fuzzy feelings for all my teachers. Each of them helped shape who I am. My favorites were the ones who liked my writing. And the ones who gave me nice grades. And the ones who brought Dunkin’ Donuts munchkins into class… But mostly the ones who liked my writing. :)

After I got the Call from my agent saying that we had offers for INTO THE WILD, I emailed my high school English teacher to tell her the news and to thank her for believing in me. Being able to send that email was tremendously cool.

What is your earliest book memory?

Um, I don’t remember.

Seriously, I can’t think of a time when I didn’t love books so I don’t have a memory of starting to love books. I’m sure I loved PAT THE BUNNY and other classics. I also had this great book called MY ADVENTURES IN MOTHER GOOSE LAND — it was one of those books that you send away for and they personalize it to make you the protagonist. And I remember my mom reading me books like THE STORY OF FERDINAND and BLUEBERRIES FOR SAL and CORDUROY and BABAR THE KING… I could list dozens. I have lots of wonderful book memories but no idea which was earliest.

What are some of your current favorite writing or author-help books?

This is extremely geeky of me, but at age ten, when I decided to be a writer, one of the first things that I did was trot over to the library and take out every how-to-write book that I could find. I also subscribed to Writer’s Digest magazine and began writing my first story, an epic that was basically Wizard of Oz meets G.I. Joe. Anyway, I have read about a gazillion how-to-write books over the years. Here are a few of my favorites:

BIRD BY BIRD by Anne Lamott (best writing book ever — it’s hilarious and encouraging)
ON WRITING by Stephen King (fascinating “behind the scenes” glimpse into how Stephen King became Stephen King, plus useful writing tips)
THE TOUGH GUIDE TO FANTASYLAND by Diana Wynne Jones (this book skewers every fantasy cliche out there — essential reading for fantasy writers)
TELLING LIES FOR FUN AND PROFIT by Lawrence Block (a compilation of many of his Writer’s Digest columns — funny and useful)
CHARACTERS & VIEWPOINT by Orson Scott Card (one of the few books out there that focus on a specific aspect of the writing craft)
THE CAREER NOVELIST by Donald Maass (a practical look at the business of becoming a working writer)

Do you have a website for your book? How did you handle setting it up?

Yes — http://www.sarahbethdurst.com

It’s been really fun to have a website. I’ve also started a blog (http://sarahbethdurst.blogspot.com) and a MySpace page (http://www.myspace.com/sarahbethdurst). I’ve met a whole bunch of really cool people through my sites, and I’m hoping to meet lots more. (Hint, hint — if I haven’t met you yet, come say hi!)

Describe your favorite library.

I have loved nearly every library that I’ve ever been to because they all have free books. For some reason, that always makes me giddy, and I come home with about twenty per visit. I have zero self-restraint in libraries.

I do need to give a shout-out to my hometown library, the Northboro Public Library, because it kindled my love of libraries and because it appears in my book (INTO THE WILD). Also my current local library, the Emma Clark Library, because it’s children’s room is gorgeous and because they have a drool-worthy collection of MG/YA books.

Did the art director read your entire book to get inspiration for the cover?

I don’t know, but I’m totally in love with my cover. I especially love the little creatures that are hanging out in the swirls. (You can see a picture of it on my website if you’re curious: www.sarahbethdurst.com.) Best part about those little critters: they appear inside the book! At the start of each chapter, there’s a silhouette of a creature. When I first saw the design pages, I called my husband at work and shrieked in his ear, “My book has bunnies!” I love it.

It was designed by Jose Nieto at square zero (http://www.squarezerostudio.com).

What drew you to the conflict you created for your main character?

In 1986, my hometown of Northboro, Massachusetts, was temporarily transformed into a fairy-tale kingdom. It recovered after a few days, but I was left with a lingering fear of glass slippers. My novel INTO THE WILD is my attempt to come to grips with…

OK, so that didn’t really happen. But wouldn’t that have been cool? This thought is what drew me to my main character’s conflict.

Do you have different taste in kids’ books as an adult writer than as a kid?

Nope. Some may say that I have preserved my childlike sense of wonder. Some may say I have the mental and emotional maturity of a four-year-old. I still love my childhood favorites (books like ALANNA, DEEP WIZARDRY, THE DARK IS RISING), and I still pick up books that I would have loved as a kid (KIKI STRIKE, A FISTFUL OF SKY, THE BLUE GIRL). Guess that explains why I write kids’ books.

Who would play your book character in a movie?

My main character Julie (Rapunzel’s daughter) is twelve. So I would hope she’d be played by an actual kid, which cuts out pretty much all the actors that I’ve heard of. If it were someone who is already famous, I think the movie would end up looking like GREASE with a bunch of 35-year-olds bouncing around pretending to be young. No disrespect meant toward GREASE.

How did you know you were “done” with your book and ready to submit it?

I knew I was done once I started obsessing over semicolons.

Do you have a favorite bookstore?

Do I have to pick just one? I love Pandemonium Books in Cambridge, MA. I love the Boulder Book Store in Boulder, CO. I love Books of Wonder in New York City. I’ve never been to Powell’s Books in Oregon, but I’ve had it described to me so many times that I love it from afar…