Connect with Shannon:
How could this be the best birthday celebration without THE BEST author?! (Okay, so I'm a bit bias) I'm so excited to be able to feature Shannon both for my birthday, and UBM. She is all kinds of awesome. Read her interview, enter to win her book, and party!
When writing the songs in the Princess Academy books, did you have tunes in mind? What did you think of the tunes given to them in the audiobook version of PA?
Some I thought of more as chants and so had more of a rhythm than a tune. Some tunes I borrowed from other songs and some I made up, and I would sing them to myself as I wrote. Definitely not something anyone would want to hear. I thought the songs in the audio book were beautiful and I was so touched they went to the work to set them to music. They weren't what I'd imagined as most of the songs are work songs and so would have more of an urgent beat.
I noticed that! The songs in the book seemed kind of slow, but they were still lovely. Did you ever feel nervous writing the sequel to a Newbery honor book? Did that even come into your mind while you were writing?
Well, it never occurred to me before, but now that you mention it…yikes! Actually I think those nerves were part of what kept me writing a sequel for so many years. I couldn't do the project until being nervous was no longer a factor. I had to be so excited and engaged by the story that I could turn that all off. Never entered my mind while I was actually writing, but once I sent off the final draft, those nerves returned like a gut punch.
Do you work with the same people at Bloomsbury when working on YA and adult books? If so, are there ever challenges by switching genres like that? And if not, is it hard to adapt to a new editor?
Victoria Wells-Arms has been my editor from GOOSE GIRL to PALACE OF STONE. She was also the editor of my last 2 adult books. It's wonderful to work with someone who knows me so well and who I know so well. It feels like a partnership. From a career standpoint, all my prancing about between genres and age groups probably isn't the best tactic. My books are in four (soon to be five) different places in any bookstore. The market often wants to view an author as a brand and feel confident that everything from that brand will be similar, like buying an identical Big Mac anywhere in the world. But I get bored too easily. I have to try new things.
Your FAQ says that you like to have an idea rolling around for a year before you actually start writing it. Why such a long incubation process? Why not just incubate as you write?
In part it's just practical that way. I get ideas for new books daily maybe (e.g., I just got one about an author who does a blog interview and the blogger turns into a brain-hungry demon who hunts down the author, ending in a climatic confrontation on the top of a ferris wheel). But I'm always working on a book, and I finish a project before jumping to another (or I'd never finish anything), so I jot down my ideas in a file for later. The story ideas that keep pestering me with more and more details are the ones that I choose to write by the time I'm free to start a new book. There are exceptions. I was supposed to start on a different book when I thought of MIDNIGHT IN AUSTENLAND, but that idea was so fun to me I put off the other book and just dove into MIA.
Um... I promise not to eat your brain. That might be a little dramatic. Speaking of: (SEGUE!) so many authors also have an acting background. Now it seems to me that writing itself is actually an introverted process, so how can acting help your writing? Or is that all just a coincidence?
Ah, the tortured extroverted author! There should be a club of us, meeting in seedy basements, hungry for live human companionship. I think my first love is storytelling. For many years it was easier for me to be a bad actor than a bad writer. And the acting was excellent experience in character creation.
You’ve got quite the writing qualifications (referring to your MFA in creative writing). Do you think you could have become an author without your degree?
Absolutely. I don't think a degree is at all necessary. For me, who had been in the writer's closet for so many years, it was profound to claim that desire and devote two years of my life to it. I do think writing classes are very helpful in developing that internal editor and learning how to read something critically.
Mad lib time! Credit for this idea, as always, goes to the reviewers at Everead.
Miri tongued with Peder for the rest of the tongue, mostly not producing at all. Next to Peder, in that tongue-like courtyard of stone, she felt so close to produce she could almost gander the gander behind the breeze.
Wow. I had no idea that would turn out so... *ahem*. Just so y'all know, these are the words Shannon provided:
- 3 Nouns: tongue, produce, gander
- 3 Verbs: tongue, produce, gander
- 3 Adjectives: tongue-like, productive, gander-worthy
Anything else you'd like to add?
I'm so honored every time I see a quote by me up at the top of your blog! Can I ask you a question? is there a reason that particular quote means something to you?
Woah! A question for me?! Well, here's the answer I sent to Shannon:
I love audiobooks. When I was a teen they were my way of getting around my parents telling me to go to sleep and stop reading. You can still "read" audiobooks in the dark and no one is the wiser. I have a very clear memory of listening to The Goose Girl audiobook while in bed in the dark, and after it ended there was that interview with you. When you said that line about the "squeaky hours of the night" ...it just hit me. Not for the first time, it felt like you had managed to take the scrambled ideas in my head and put them into the perfect words. That was exactly how I felt about my favorite books. And the use of the word "squeaky" was just so... awesome. Squeaky is such a great word. And I just figured that a book that kept you up into the "squeaky hours" would clearly be called a Squeaky Book.
!!Giveaway Time!!
You can win a copy of
Palace of Stone! Today's giveaway is hosted by
The Secret Adventures of WriterGirl. Head on over to win. This giveaway is open INTERNATIONAL!
All review content © Enna Isilee, Squeaky Books 2007-2012
I haven't read anything from this series, but I've heard awesome things about it:) This interview? Totally rocks, Shannon seems so very fun, I'm sure her books are awesome:)
ReplyDeleteThank you:)
That mad-lib cracked me up!! ha ha ha!! I guess I'll have to get the audiobook to hear the songs. Your questions were so technical! I liked it.
ReplyDeleteLet this be a lesson to all to avoid the use of the word tongue in your mad-lib! Shannon is amazing! Such a fun interview (=
ReplyDeleteI love her zombie-blogger idea! She's pretty funny!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun interview! I love Shannon's books as well -- someday I'd love to meet/hear/see her in person. :)
ReplyDeleteThat mad lib was hilarious. Great interview. I'm very excited to read Palace of Stone.
ReplyDeleteYay! So glad you did an interview with Shannon Hale. So want to win Palace of Stone.
ReplyDeleteI have three or four of her books. Shannon Hale was what I read years ago. I simply ate all her books up. I haven't read her in a while, but thanks for interviewing her! It was a cool interview! :D
ReplyDeleteI love Shannon Hale! Tonegue as a verb - very naughty. :D She's so hilarious!
ReplyDeleteOh wow...that is a very interesting mad lib...
ReplyDeleteI love you shannon!
Awesome interview! And please oh please do not eat Shannon Hale's brain. I would be ever so sad...
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to read this - Princess Academy is my favorite Shannon Hale book and I'm so excited to see what happens next!
ReplyDeleteI'm a big Shannon Hale fan. Love her Book of A Thousand Days and the first Princess Academy book.
ReplyDeleteGreat interview, Enna! (And it was lovely to see you last night.)
ReplyDeleteLovely interview!! It's just RIGHT for the two of you to appear together on this blog. :)
ReplyDeleteLove the interview! I haven´t read her books yet! But i'm really looking forward to! Thanks for the chance!
ReplyDeleteI'm new to your blog, I heard about it over at Heather Zundel's blog, Secret Adventures of Writer Girl. But, I love Shannon Hale. I have from the almost the first moment I picked up her books. Not the very first moment, because I picked up the third book in a series first, and I was a little confused. But after I got over that LOVE! Thanks for posting such an amazing interview!
ReplyDeleteShannon is a nut! She is not just clever in writing but is simply hysterical in person. I'm betting she has hundreds of crazy book ideas swimming around in her head! Thanks for a fun interview. (and the story behind your squeaky!)
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you asked that first question about the songs in the book -- because I wondered the same thing when I listened to "Princess Academy" on audio! I'm anxiously awaiting for "Palace of Stone" to be released on audio in November. :)
ReplyDeleteI <3 Shannon Hale.... :) I didn't know she was an actor before she started writing! Cool.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading The Princess Academy back in 6th grade middle school which our librarian, who became my frequent guide to book recommendations, recommended. :) Now after 4 years I find out that there's a sequel! Thank you for your amazing books, Shannon!
ReplyDeleteoh. my. shannon! Tongue??! So Saucy :-) Love Shannon Hale, thanks for the interview.
ReplyDeleteI love Shannon Hale's books! She's amazing!
ReplyDelete+JMJ+
ReplyDeleteI would totally buy a book about a blogger who turns out to be a brain eating demon. Totally. =)
LOOL about the mad lip!! Shannon seems so fun!! Ill def have to give her book a try! Thanks for sharing with us love!
ReplyDelete- Farah @MajiBookshelf
I am soooo excited to read this! Also excited that Shannon Hale is coming to Baltimore this month! I will finally get to see her in person!
ReplyDeleteShannon is amazing! I love all her books! Thank you for the interview!
ReplyDeleteOh, how I adore Shannon Hale's books! Thank you for this terrific interview, Enna Isilee! And thanks to Shannon, too!
ReplyDeleteI haven't read any of Shannon Hale's books but from all the comments they are all seem good. I will definitely add them in my TBR list. I love the interview! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI loved Princess Academy and this sounds even better, if that is possible. Can't wait to read page 317. ;)
ReplyDeleteInteresting Mad Lib, can't wait to read Palace of Stone!
ReplyDeleteOh, our dear Shannon never fails to bring a smile. =)
ReplyDeleteGreat interview. My daughter loves these books.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the giveaway! I loved the first one and can't wait to read the second one!!
ReplyDeleteI imagine that writers have so many story ideas running around. It's interesting to know which ones don't let go.
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