This month’s Twitterview victim is none other than Blythe Woolston, the Morris Award winning author of The Freak Observer. She’s here to talk about her recent release, Catch & Release (reviewed here), as well as what inspires her stories, what she listens to while writing, and her favorite kind of ice cream.
We’re also giving away a copy of Catch & Release and I also have an audiobook of The Freak Observer to share.
Pitch Catch & Release in 140 characters.
It’s a buddy movie——except 1 of the guys is a Vagina American. “A flesh-eating bacteria road novel with a pink cover.” #whyIdontpitchbooks
What inspired Catch & Release?
+Book IX of The Odyssey, bad TV, and a trip to the emergency room.
Why MRSA?
Leaving aside grue and danger, MRSA is an intrepid little life form. It is proof life goes on despite adversity. #environmentalscreedbonus
Catch & Release weaves science into the plot and grounds it firmly. Want to talk about science and fiction?
We are all born scientists, testing the edges of the world, figuring things out——fiction makes a play for the brain #Iwillrecruityoursynapses
Define Polly and Odd.
Then I got to know them. Polly makes the female hero’s journey…
Odd is both Odysseus and Odin.
Fishing — something not usually seen in YA, either as sport or as pastime — plays an integral role in the plot. Why choose fishing?
Fishing is actually pretty normal behavior, both in fact and in fiction. It’s time to think, biology happening, and the great journey.
Setting works as a character in both Catch & Release and The Freak Observer. Talk about your use of rural and (if I may) depressed locations.
Those places made me. There are more stories than people in rural places, probably. More stories than money, for sure.
The Freak Observer won last year’s Morris Award. How did that feel?
Shocking. I was a stunned bunny. It happened when I wasn’t sure I should be writing at all. The Morris tipped the scale. #librarianpower
Who or what do you write for?
1st I write for myself, to watch the story unfold. 2nd I hope for other readers to give it a home in their brain. 3rd to change the world.
What was your most influential read as a teenager?
Very difficult question. It depended upon the day and hour, but Sutcliff, Bradbury, LeGuin, Vonnegut——and Thorstein Veblen.
Who are your top three writing influences?
My editors: Liz Bicknell, Andrew Karre, Leah Wilson. BTW Influence=to stream ethereal power from the stars acting upon character or destiny
Who do you believe is breaking ground in YA right now?
I’m going to dodge the bullet on this one and say only this: YA is the Cambrian Explosion literature-wise.
What’s the best writing advice you ever received?
“This is the most depressing sh!t I’ve ever read. Don’’t ask me to read any more of it.” (Moral: Not everyone is my audience.)
What’s your best writing advice to give?
Don’t try to bend the story to your will.
What is your writing routine?
My life is chaotic. When I really need to write, it often happens in the middle of the night. I never sleep for 7 hours straight anyway.
What gets you jazzed to write?
I don’’t know if it’s endorphins or what, but writing gives me a serious buzz. The same is true of reading…
Do you have a writing soundtrack? Care to share a bit?
I’m too stupid to listen to lyrics while I think, so I listen to things I don’t understand like Scandinavian roots
and Deadmau5
What’s next for you?
Black Helicopters, the story of a suicide bomber born in Montana, comes out early in 2013.
Favorite ice cream?
I am for equal justice. I love all ice cream. (NOTE: I haven’t eaten raw horse ice cream, so that might be…awful.)
The author sounds like a hoot, LOL. I am interested to see how the book(s?) are.. 🙂
Blythe,
I used to think I was too stupid to listen to music while I worked, and then my friend Carol Saller made me realize that I may just be an aural writer:
"When I hang out with writers or editors, conversation inevitably touches on working with music in the background. There are always listeners and nonlisteners, but the most passionate are those who never work while listening. I think I understand—they read and write 'by ear,' so their 'music' is on the page; additional music clashes and distracts. Those who work more visually, on the other hand, can afford to add a music track. They might listen or not; it’s optional."
Also, I love your handwriting.
Beth