Jen: This week we welcome children's author Ingrid Law to Book Talk. Ingrid, will you please share a short bio with us?
Ingrid: I was born in Plattsburgh, New York, and moved to Colorado with my family when I was six years old. I’ve never lived anywhere but Colorado since. I’ve worked a lot of different kinds of jobs and had a lot of different interests over the years, but I’ve always loved stories of all kinds, whether those stories are told as books, movies, plays, and even comics and animation. I am also a mom!
Jen: Tell us about Savvy and where it's available.
Ingrid: For generations, the Beaumont family has harbored a magical secret. They each possess a "savvy" — a special ability or power that strikes when they turn thirteen... and now it's the eve of Mibs Beaumont's big day. Savvy is a story about magical children that never uses the word ‘magic.’ The book should be available at a variety of bookstores.
Jen: At what age did you discover writing and when were you first published? Tell us your call story.
Ingrid: I’ve always enjoyed story in all forms. I’ve been known to say that I never grew out of ‘playing pretend.’ As I grew up, I simply turned that imaginative play into vivid stories inside my head—stories that did not begin to find their way onto paper regularly until my early twenties. I’ve been writing, off and on, ever since. But it was only in the last few years I decided seriously to try getting something published. Savvy is my debut novel.
Jen: How does your family feel about your career?
Ingrid: My family is very supportive and happy for me. They have always encouraged me in whatever creative endeavor I’ve approached. Now, they are excited that I have found a way to do something I love full-time. My daughter loves that I have a job that revolves around books! Probably because I always come home with more and more for her to read these days.
Jen: How do you approach your writing? Do you plot or go with the flow?
Ingrid: I’m very character driven. So, I go with the flow and listen to what my characters want to do. Sometimes, though, my characters like to ramble, then I have to find a way to rein them in and help them (really me) focus on moving the plot along.
Jen: How many hours a day do you write?
Ingrid: It depends. Right now, anywhere from 4-10, every day. I rarely have a day when I don’t write, and if I do, I’m still answering email messages or coordinating appearances. It’s a lot to juggle some days. When I was writing Savvy, I was still working another job as well, so I would grab my writing time whenever I could. I’d come home from work with my pockets filled with scraps of paper filled with little notes, then wait for the opportunity to sit down at my computer and add them to my story.
Jen: How do you pick the character’s names?
Ingrid: Some names just pop into my head and feel right—first names especially. Others take more time to find. The Beaumont kids all have unusual names that set them apart just as their abilities do, however, like their abilities, as you get familiar with them, they start to seem normal and just part of who they are—even their names get ‘scumbled.’ Mibs, on the other hand, has a nickname (her real name is Mississippi) that sets her apart even from her siblings. This is because, as the main character, I wanted her to be even more different.
Jen: What’s the most rewarding aspect of writing?
Ingrid: Feedback from readers—especially from the kids. I love seeing kids get excited about imagining what their own ‘savvy’ talents might be, whether those talents are totally imaginary, like flying or becoming invisible, or simply everyday, like being great at math or soccer.
Jen: Most people only dream of becoming a published writer. Now that you’ve accomplished that goal, is there anything else you dream of doing?
Ingrid: I’ve been traveling quite a bit for the book, which has been fun. But I never get to spend much time in any one place or see any of the sights. I’d like to do some traveling that is leisurely. Having grown up a huge Anne of Green Gables fan, I’ve wanted to go to Prince Edward Island since I was eleven. That’s high on my list.
Jen: Who are some of your favorite authors and books? What are you reading now?
Ingrid: A couple of my recent favorites have been A Crooked Kind of Perfect, by Linda Urban; and Red Glass, by Laura Resau. I also still read aloud to my daughter every night for an hour or more, and am happy that we haven’t lost this tradition yet, even though she’s almost fourteen. This past year we’ve read all of Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider books and are now working our way through The Ranger’s Apprentice series. T. A. Barron’s books of Merlin may be next. We’re still deciding.
Jen: What do you do in your free time?
Ingrid: I read, listen to music, and I love, love, love going to the movies. I’ll even see the same movie multiple times. We don’t watch regular television, but my daughter and I also enjoy getting shows on DVD to watch. Also, living in Colorado, there are all kinds of beautiful places to walk and explore.
Jen: What's next for you?
Ingrid: I am currently working on a follow up to Savvy. The new book explores what it’s like to grow up and experience a ‘savvy’ birthday from the perspective of a new character. The story takes place nine years after Savvy, but, while the main character is someone no one’s met before, there will be some familiar faces along the way.
Jen: Where can you be found on the web?
Ingrid: I have a website (www.ingridlaw.com) where you can also find a link to my blog. I’m also on Goodreads.
Jen: Is there anything you’d like to ask our readers?
Ingrid: What’s black and white and black and white and black and white? …it’s a joke. (Answer: A penguin rolling down a hill!)
Okay, trying to be more serious now…
Being a big fan of both books and movies, and looking at the potential of having my first book adapted as a feature film, I’d love to know what your readers think is the most important element in a good book-to-film adaptation. What makes them love or hate an adaptation?
Jen: Ingrid, thanks so much for being our guest this week. Readers, Ingrid will be stopping by the blog to answer any questions you have for her. And two lucky commenters will receive autographed copies of Savvy. So comment away and I'll pick the winners on Thursday, April 16 around 5 pm PST.
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My daughter loved your book. She sped through it. She's sitting on the side of the bed now, as I write this. She says, "I loved how the book was so unrealistic, but the feelings felt very real and realistic."
She's 11 7/8 years old, but who's counting.
I'm working on my first novel, intended for young adults, and I so enjoyed reading about your journey and how you came home with ideas on scraps of paper and then wove them into your work.
I'll start the commenting with a question...
Why children's books? And do you think you'll someday write something more geared toward adults?
As for book-to-film adaptations, I'm not sure if there's any one element that I think there needs to be. There's been times when I read a book and say to myself "that'd make a great movie", but I can't put my finger on what it is that makes me think so.
For me, for an adaptation to work, I think the movie makers need to stay pretty true to the original book and not change the story so much that it's not recognizable.
Jen
admin.bookblog@gmail.com
Hi,
I just saw that you can leave questions, too.
Ingrid, I would be very interested to hear about how the idea of Savvy first appeared to you and how it grew. Also could you share about your writing process. Do you write a quick first draft, revise often, revise your drafts in layers.
Thank you!
Sorry to be such a spaz and not putting this all into one comment (somewhat distracted listening to my husband read harry potter # 5 to our boys). Books to movies, I tend to really hate movies that aren't true to the tone and heart of the book. My family read the Tale of Desperaux during a long power outage in December, then we really disliked much of the movie. Loved the mouse, but the movie had gone way far afield in adding much not in the book, then turned the scene w/ the princess in the dungeon into a 1950s horror movie/mad max scene. May be exaggerating just a tad, but I was really hurt. We had really become quite attached to the book.
I liked Because of Winn Dixie's movie. Where the Red Fern Grows as a movie was true to the book, but couldn't capture its magic. I was happy w/ Bridge to Terabithia's movie even though it added a lot of fantastical elements only hinted at off-screen in the book because the movie got the heart of the book.
Sounds really great, and had me terribly interested in it.
A great read, congradulations.
ROBHAP
Thanks for the comments! I'll try to answer some of the questions...
Jen: Why children's books? And do you think you'll someday write something more geared toward adults?
Me: I love writing for middle-grade kids. They are on the path toward growing up, yet part of their heart is still on the playground. They can tap into their sense of wonder easily yet.
I love kids books so much, I don't read many books for adults these days. When I do, they are mysteries, science fiction, adventures, or fantasy. I love Dorothy Gilman, Elizabeth Peters, Anne McCaffrey, Robert Silverberg, and Janet Evanovich. The first novel-length work I ever wrote was a mystery for adults. But I don't have any real itch to write anything like that now... but who knows? Maybe someday.
Robyn: I would be very interested to hear about how the idea of Savvy first appeared to you and how it grew. Also could you share about your writing process. Do you write a quick first draft, revise often, revise your drafts in layers.
Me: Initially, when sitting down to start a new book, I simply told myself that I was going to write the craziest sentence I could think of without judgment or internal editing. I wrote the very first sentence of Savvy pretty much as it reads now. I liked it so well, I started building off from it. The sentence gave me all kinds of clues where to go. I wrote the first version of the book quickly (just under five months, revising a bit as I went. I did two revisions for my agent, then worked another 3-4 months on the book for my editor. The book grew longer through the editing process. The final ms was 20,000 words longer than the draft I first submitted.
I agree with both Jen and Robyn about a film adaptation needing to get the heart of the story right. I understand that a movie can't be exactly like a book and I'm okay with that. I'm even fine with certain liberties being taken, however, if those liberties are there only to increase a sensational kind of fear-factor, I don't like it... especially in kids' films.
I loved Bridge to Terebithia as well! I also loved Holes.
Thanks for the congrats, ROBHAP!
Ingrid, just wanted you to know that I loved your book. For my vote, it should have been the Newbery winner - as I have read the others. It is beautifully written and gives kids such a feeling of empowerment themselves and that is so what that age group needs! When I do author visits myself, I always, always, tell kids to read your books!
Thank you so much, Favorite Things (Kathleen, right?), for telling kids about Savvy--especially at your own author visits. That's very generous of you. I, too, love to share with kids the titles of books I feel excited about. I'm glad Savvy has become a book that can both entertain and inspire.
Thanks also for your enthusiasm about the Newbery Award. I was so thrilled to get the honor. Because Savvy is my first published book, the honor award was overwhelming enough. I was happy to let someone else go on television and be the star for the year! Neil Gaiman's so used to the limelight already... I'm still trying to figure out how to catch a cab in a city I don't know.
It's often difficult to go into the details in films one can in books and I think that often gets lost on a viewer. I like a film that is understandable without being drawn out. I also like a film that maintains the original ending of the book. For example, The Horse Whisperer went so far from the book's ending that it ruined the entire film for me. The ending of the book brought the whole story full circle and that was lost in the film.
I agree about endings, LuAnn. How can a movie really stay true to a book if the ending is vastly different?
Yet, if it presents the same ideas from a different perspective or even in a different setting it can be okay for me. But the ultimate outcome should ring true to the book... otherwise it simply becomes a different story and is shocking to the reader whether they read first or watch first.
I have, occasionally, seen a movie I liked better than the book it was adapted from. But usually that's because of pacing or perspective or the way a particular actor or scene brings something so vividly to life.
It's an interesting question. Usually, I think of a book and its adaptation as two very different things. I try to experience each as stand-alone works. It makes me happiest in the long run.
For a work like Harry Potter, I always have to see the film at least twice. The first time simply to watch how the adaptation was done and to get over my "what-the's?" and "what-about's?". The second time to enjoy the movie for what it is on its own.
Hi Ingrid,
That's incredibly fascinating how you wrote Savvy. It sounds like it was total free-form writing? Did what you write trigger some memory, some image that you wrote from? I've decided that I'm probably not the complete plunger kind of writer. Okay, probably not even moderately so. But it's so fascinating to see the different paths creativity can take.
Also, are you working on a new novel now? I'd love to hear anything you're willing to share on its subject.
Robyn :)
Hi Robyn,
People write in such different ways. I've enjoyed hearing how others work. It's all so personal.
I think Savvy just came like a gift. The farther I get from the process, the less I can remember about it. Plus, yes, I am working on a follow up to Savvy and the process has been so different. It makes me forget the process of Savvy a bit.
I'm getting toward the end of the next book, but I still have many months of work ahead of me as I work to create a book that can hold its own next to Savvy. We hope to have it come out Summer 2010.
The new book (as yet untitled) has a different narrator--a boy. It's told from the perspective of the Beaumont kids' cousin, Ledge (Aunt Dinah's son). It also takes place 8-9 years later. But there are some familiar faces along the way... Rocket, Gypsy, Samson...
I'd like each book to stand alone or be read in order. It's been fun and challenging telling a new savvy story from a new POV. Because it's a new character, the voice must change a bit, but not so much that it isn't reminiscent of the Savvy style.
I love exploring new characters and having the chance to build on old ones. Most of the book takes place in Wyoming, on and around Uncle Autry's ranch... remember? The place Rocket's headed at the end of Savvy?
The second book has taken me longer to write. But I've been juggling everything being a new author entails--travel, school visits, interviews, repeated looking for my jaw after it drops off and gets kicked under the sofa--as well as still trying to be the best mom I can be.
Needless to say, the house is a mess...
I'm glad your daughter enjoyed the book, by the way! Somehow I missed seeing that comment until now.
Ingrid, My daughter will be happy to hear of your new book. I admire how seriously you're taking crafting the characters and taking the time to really play with it.
I'm aiming to finish a pretty meaty first draft of my first novel by June 23 (the day elementary school ends), and have just gained an incredible oppty. In August, I'm heading up to Vermont College for a post-graduate writing conference and will study with either An Na or Kathi Appelt. I'm bowled over at this. I've been learning my process and it's so interesting. I've been working on my book for 4 1/2 years, and since taking a class on Writers.com with an amazing pair of teachers, Uma Krishnaswami and Sarah Aronson, my writing is really flying in a way it had not before.
Ingrid, a question for you. Could you come up with a list of maybe 5 or so children's lit books that you feel are just must reads. I read a ton, but mostly adult books which are like spa treatments for my addled mind after I put my kids to bed. I want to read more children's books b/f I drive to Vt.
Thank you!! Robyn :)
Congratulations on your own writing, Robyn! It sounds like you're ready to take off.
What a great opportunity in Vermont!
5 books... Really it depends on what kind of books you like. Fantasy? Science fiction? Historical?
And are you more interested in YA or middle grade? Savvy gets categorized both ways, but I really feel it's more middle-grade 3rd-6th grades. Though, it's appealed to older kids and adults as well. Still, it doesn't have any of the really intense teen issues often seen in true YA.
I'm not sure I qualify to give you a "top 5 must reads" list for children's book writers. But I can give you the names of some of the books that I've really enjoyed and found inspiring:
A Crooked Kind of Perfect, by Linda Urban (for modern realistic fiction with heart)
The Giver, by Lois Lowry (for science fiction)
Matilda, by Roald Dahl (For humor and outrageous Roald Dahl fun--take your pick with Dahl, Matilda's just one of my favorites.)
The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Volume 1: Charmed Life / The Lives of Christopher Chant, by Diana Wynne Jones (Two books really, but who's counting. For magical fantasy.)
For historical... anything by Elizabeth George Speare.
Right now, I'm listening to the audio book of Ellen Klages's The Green Glass Sea. I'm not very far yet, but it is beautifully told.
There are so many more! I know I'll post this, then bonk myself on the head for forgetting some. But, I suppose, you did only ask for five.
I ordered your book, and will give it to my (grand) niece, but she is only 10. She reads well. Do you think I could give it to her now or wait until she gets a little older.
Best regards,
Ron Wise
Hi Ron,
Thanks for buying the book for your grand niece! If she is a good reader, the book should be great for her.
Is she in 4th Grade? 4th, 5th, and 6th seem to have the kids who really get into it. I've had younger kids too, and older. But I've heard from many 10 year olds who loved it.
In fact, I just got the following email yesterday from a ten-year-old:
"My name is (omitted). I'm ten years old and I am the biggest fan of you and your novel Savvy, my new favorite book!
I've always liked writing and people like you inspire me more and more to become an author!...
Your book is the greatest one I've EVER read! It's funny, makes you happy, can turn your mind upside down, can make you nervous for the characters, and can make you go bug eyed with shock. But it also touches your strong yet fragile heart. Your Savvy is undoubtedly writing AMAZING BOOKS!!!
Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that your book is one that both me, and my family and friends could not put down- it was totally addicting. We all love you, your book, and everyone in it (except maybe Carlene). You ROCK!!!!!
Sincerely,
(name omitted)"
I love getting these! Kids inspire me just as much as they say Savvy inspires them.
After a message like that, how can I not try to write the very best I possibly can.
I hope your niece enjoys the book, Ron.
Thanks for commenting!
Ingrid
Thanks to everyone who stopped by this week.
And we have winners to announce. LuAnn and Robyn, congrats. Please email me at admin.bookblog@gmail.com with your mailing addresses. I need to hear from you by next Thursday, April 23 or new winners will be chosen.
Jen
Thanks for having me on the blog, Jen! It's been fun.
Ingrid :)