Thanks to everyone who stopped by to read Emily’s interview. Amy is our lucky winner of The Way He Lived.
Another contest I think you will like happens on Thursday. Head over to giveawaytoday.blogspot.com and win shoes from my friend Sara. Good luck!
Today I’m honored to have Emily Wing Smith on my blog. Welcome to the show, Em.
I’ve mentioned her book, The Way He Lived, a million times on this blog, but it’s time Emily got a full spotlight from me because a.) her book recently made the “challenged” list in some county in Florida, and b.) last week she competed with Sara Zarr’s Sweethearts for the Utah Book Award in the young adult category. Both true signs of greatness!
For those who don’t know, “The Utah Book Award was established to honor outstanding achievements by Utah writers and to recognize books written with a Utah theme or setting.” The awards ceremony took place last Thursday, but I sent these questions to Emily beforehand, so they sound a little old news. Sorry about that, readers.
Emily, what’s so “Utah” about your book that you’re up for this prestigious award?
Well, contrary to popular belief, although this is called the Utah Book Award, it doesn’t mean the book has to be about Utah—only that the author needs to live here. Many times the books are set in Utah—as with my book—but this isn’t always the case.
What will you do with the money if you win?
Sara and I were planning to pool the money and split it 50/50, but when I won she generously rescinded her offer. Which is her loss, really, because with my winnings I plan to go see Barry Manilow in concert. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that magic?
Let’s talk about your book first and then your writing life.
What other recognitions has your book received thus far?
I was very pleased to receive a starred review in Publishers Weekly—a big deal for me, especially because I think so highly of PW. It also received a starred review from the Teens Know Best Galley Review at School Library Journal. The upcoming edition of ALAN, a journal for secondary school English teachers, will feature an interview with me as well as a spotlight on my book. And I’ve been honored to receive a lot of glowing reviews here locally.
Your book is composed of six stories from six perspectives. Which of the six was your favorite to write and why?
No one story was my favorite. While in the process of writing this book, I told my critique group (including the lovely and talented Kim Webb Reid), “Each one of these narrators is completely different, yet they each sound exactly like me. How is that possible?” I think the reason I’m not most attached to any certain character is because a part of me is in each one of them. Some were easier to write than others, though. Likewise, I’m equally pleased with how each one turned out. Some flowed very naturally, some didn’t, but eventually they all got to the right place.
Why was your book challenged? Is it racy?
Recently, my book was challenged in Lake County, FL. I don’t know the details, as no one ever notified me about it (except my agent, who, after reading an article about the challenge, told me: “Way to go!”). Is the book “racy?” I guess that depends on your definition. There are definitely some serious topics touched on in the narrative—mental illness, gay marriage, and suicide, just to name a few. But for me, that doesn’t make a book racy—it makes it an honest look at the complicated world we live it.
Now let’s talk about your writing and publishing.
You’ve talked before about hearing voices; it’s not hard for you to write from multiple perspectives because the characters for this book popped fully formed into your head. Is that similar to the writing process for your other manuscripts? Do the characters always come first?
For me, the characters always come first. This isn’t to say they don’t change in the process of writing. Sometimes I’ll get to a scene, thinking I know the direction it will take, and then realize, “That isn’t what she would do!”
What are some of your current and future projects?
Currently, I’m working on revisions for my next book, another young adult novel called Back When You Were Easier to Love. It will be released from Dutton/Penguin in early 2011. I’ve also started another YA novel I’m quite excited about.
Every author seems to have a different path to publication, and sometimes the amount of luck that is seemingly involved can be frustrating to writers who are working hard. Of all the factors that led to your publication, what are three strokes of luck or genius that you think played the most key parts in your becoming a published author?
For me, writing is a business inherent with frustration. My personal belief is that you have to be a writer simply because you can’t be happy doing anything else. If you find another profession equally or more fulfilling, do that instead!
People often ask me how I got published, and the story is short. What they never ask me is how I didn’t get published, and that story is long. I’ve wanted to be a writer ever since I was a child, and I’ve constantly worked toward that goal. I completed my first novel in 2001. My first novel was accepted for publication in 2007. The fourth book I wrote was the first one to be published. For six years I dealt with everything involved in being an aspiring writer: the near misses at publication, the weird looks I got when people found out about my “career plans,” the helplessness I felt about finding the right match for my work.
While you need strokes of luck in this business, you also need strokes of genius, and they’re not the same thing! So I’m including two strokes of each!
MY “GENIUS” :
- I continued writing and submitting. This is key. It’s not what anyone wants to hear. You want to hear that your talent, or your killer story idea, or whatever it is, shines through. But this happens rarely. Most often it takes continuing in the face of rejection galore, and it takes a mad genius to keep at it. And I mean mad as in crazy, not mad as in cool.
- I went to writing conferences and got my MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College. While getting an MFA is certainly not necessary, it does help you learn the discipline you need as a writer—and helps you hone your craft. For me, it helped to spend time with other writers, talking about issues and bouncing ideas off them in ways you really can’t with non-writers. Conferences are important for the same reasons. You need to spend time with like-minded individuals so you know what you’re getting into! But mainly you need to go to prove you’re serious about writing and are treating it like a professional. Plus, you learn a lot and often can make contacts in the publishing world.
MY LUCK:
- One of my best friends at Vermont College, Carrie Jones, had recently sold her first book to Flux, a then brand-new house publishing exclusively young adult titles. She read my manuscript and thought her editor would like it. I sent it to him, he did indeed like it, and it was published just over a year later.
- After my book was accepted, I joined an online community and met Sara Zarr, Anne Bowen, and James Dashner. Not only have they all been great friends, Sara recommended me to her agent, Michael Bourret, who I then signed with. He’s great, and he negotiated my sale to Dutton within weeks.
Now let’s talk about, “Who is this Emily Wing Smith?”
You just had your 29 birthday. What are 5 things you’ll do before 30?
- Meet M.E Kerr
- See Barry Manilow
- Finish writing another book
- Sell another book
- Gain a working knowledge of very basic technology
Who are your favorite YA authors?
M.E Kerr as well as our local YA authors.
How do you go about stalking a favorite YA author without getting arrested?
I am not the person to ask about this! Number of YA authors I’ve successfully stalked: Zero. Would I like to change this? Yes. Am I working to change it? Yes. Is it likely? No. I’ve unsuccessfully stalked quite a few YA authors, but I’ve never been arrested for it.
I know that writing is life, but what about when you’re not writing? What are two other prominent interests and hobbies in your life? (Or three? Or five?)
It’s boring, but I like to hang out with my family. My husband and I have Game Night with my sister, bro-in-law, and their one-year-old every weekend. I also love to organize! My label maker is my best friend.
One of my favorite sayings is, “Everyone loves Emily.” I like it because a.) I made it up, and b.) it’s true. But in order to be loved by everyone, you have to be known by everyone. How did you meet every writer in the world by the ripe age of 29? Do you ever feel shy around famous people or do you feel like most writers are your peeps because you’re all involved in the same thing?
Kim, does anyone except you actually use this phrase? I’m not sure that everything you say qualifies as a “saying,” but whatever. Meeting every writer in the world by age 29 is easy if you simply find out how many writers there are in the world, divide it by the number of days in your life, and then meet that many writers per day. You can do it, too. And, as a start, you already know me.
Pretend you’ve just been presented with the Utah Book Award. What is your speech as you accept the trophy/medal/money/candy bar/gift basket?
Last year nobody at the Utah Book Awards gave acceptance speeches, so I wasn’t planning one for this year. I did end up thanking the Utah Center for the Book, who presented the award, and Sara Zarr, my friend and fellow finalist who was rooting for me the whole time. Had I actually written a speech, I would have also thanked my writing group, my husband, and my family, especially my dad.
Congrats, again Emily.
Readers, if you would like to win an autographed copy of The Way He Lived, leave a comment, congratulations, or question for Emily and you’ll be entered in a drawing. Deadline is Halloween at midnight.
*Update* – I’m pushing the deadline to Nov. 1 at midnight. I forgot you are all probably making elaborate Halloween costumes this weekend instead of blog-reading. 
While you’re at it, make me one too. I’ve always wanted to be Snow White.
Okay, I know I said I’d interview Emily and have a contest last Friday. But I happened to be in Disneyland all weekend, and Emily happened to be busy anyway, and the Magical Kingdom and its vicinity appear to be relics of a time before free wireless.
Now that I’m back online, watch for the contest and interview coming soon. I hesitate to impose upon Emily and say when, but maybe you can help us both by commenting if you have any questions for her that are less silly than the ones I sent her.
Ask away!
1. They are tidy by nature. They even organize their garbage and wood piles.
2. They are in competition with their neighbors to have the best flower boxes hanging from their balconies. If I were European, I’d know which direction to plant a bulb. (Is it the round side up or the pointy side? This is why tulip bulbs are still sitting on my kitchen counter.)
3. They listen to church bells ringing in the city and cowbells ringing in the country.
4. They eat fried things and stay skinny, probably because they all ride
5. Bicycles. Some have baskets on them.
6. They drive itsy bitsy cars on itsy bitsy streets, and fast.
7. They get like two months’ paid vacation and go on holiday to places like Italy the way we go to Bear Lake.
8. They conserve everything from grocery sacks (bring your own!) to open space (no such thing as sprawl!) to 800-year-old city gates with drawbridges.
9. They don’t give half their paycheck to medical insurance companies.
10. Even if insurance companies wouldn’t take said check because of “pre-exisiting conditions,” like hangnails or heartburn, I’d get to see the doctor.
That’s because Europeans give half their paycheck to the government instead, you say? At least the government isn’t building a 10 million dollar house off my premiums, like a certain CEO who shall not be named.
Sometimes I think capitalism breeds more greed than ingenuity. But I digress.
I understand not every solution to the healthcare puzzle is good. But to say there is no problem at all seems a bit self-absorbed to me.
(If you’re still reading, indulge me with my soapbox ranting for a few more paragraphs, and I promise on Friday I’ll get back to the real issue—writing. You can look forward to a drawing and an interview with author Emily Wing Smith!)
If you feel the health care situation in the United States is working well, I admit I assume something about you automatically: a.) You’re perfectly healthy, or b.) You’ve never been without insurance. I cringe to think that those who have never been faced with rejection after rejection from insurance companies are making decisions for those facing this kind of frustration. It’s not a matter of willingness to work or pay for insurance. It’s a matter of opportunity, and insurance companies are narrowing the field of who’s eligible to play.
If you feel a public health care option may indicate the government is getting too controlling, consider who is already in control when a talented entrepreneur hesitates to start his own business because he needs medication and can’t qualify for an individual health insurance policy; when I can’t visit the hospital five minutes from my house because my insurance company says I can only go to the one thirty minutes away; when small businesses close or can’t compete because only the largest ones can afford to offer their employees health insurance.
If you live in Utah and agree we need health care reform, remember to call your Congressman and Senators to voice your support for change at 866-279-5474.
Not that I’ve done it yet. *blush*
Politics have never been my thing. It would be a lot easier to just move to Germany and ignore the whole problem if it weren’t for that darn German keyboard—the Z is in the wrong place. That is a serious setback for a writer like me.
What do you think about healthcare in America?
Please note that I’m only joking about immigration—what I’d really like is a United States where I can afford to live and die in good health. So comments like, “If you don’t like it here, leave!” will not be published by the moderator. Not that anyone like that reads this blog, but still. I am weary of the ksl.com message boards.
I’ve already alluded this in another post, but there have been a few points in my life where I have spent so much time writing, I started wondering, “What good is this accomplishing? What if I should be doing something else instead, like volunteering at a soup kitchen?”
I’m a spiritual person. I believe I’m happiest when I’m not dwelling on myself, and writing can be isolating. I believe I’ll still be alive after I die, and I hope to look back and see I had at least a few moments of triumph and clarity on this earth. With these as my deepest motivations, I sometimes start wondering if writing things that no one else will ever read is a purely selfish use of time and therefore a waste of the time I’ve been given.
Being a creative person so often leads to this kind of internal battle. I wonder if people who are good at and enjoy creating widgets for a predictable income that then allows them to feed their family or the poor (who are sometimes the same people, by the way) don’t have to constantly weigh the value of their time. Do they? Widget-producing friends, comment!
For me, the most recent encouragement to keep writing was getting an agent. She gives me hope that my writing will indeed be transformed into a widget that can be transmitted to consumers everywhere. Mwa ha ha.
The most constant reason I keep writing is because I get grouchy when I don’t. And how can I volunteer at soup kitchens when I feel like biting heads off? Write first, volunteer later. This is the way I function.
A year ago, a big encouragement I got to keep writing came from Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Mormon Apostle. Here is a small taste of what he said:
Love that guy. He glows. He has a German accent. He knows how to fly big, bad, scary airplanes. And he gave me a spiritual reason to keep writing and feel good about it.
Buried in revisions!
No time for blogging!
Only time for favorite Sarah McLachlan quote, cut and pasted from her website:
I never have set goals, in the sense that I expected to be successful or get to a certain place. My idea of success has always been, does it feel right? Does it feel good to me? Do I enjoy doing it? And somehow miraculously, I’ve been able to follow that path and have a great success at it.
Since this seems to be how I live my life most of the time, I’m inspired by the possibility of success for people who care about other things more.
Or maybe I’m just lazy.
Wish me luck! Thanks again for the many congratulations on my last post. It feels good to have fans already, whether I ever publish again or not.
1. Kim walks on rope scary high in the air.
(Crazy girls-camp off-season family reunion.)
2. Kim queries Mary Kole, Andrea Brown literary agent and Ben Folds afficionado. (Or is it afficionada?)
3. Mary loves Kim’s manuscript!
4. Kim loves doughnuts.
5. Kim eats poisoned doughnut and is out of commission for the next 24 hours, thus delaying working on those awesome revisions Mary requested. (Seriously—they are awesome. Working with Mary will be my free MFA. Before my next post, she might even teach me to not write about myself in the third person)
6. Kim manages to affix a stamp to the envelope and drop a SIGNED contract in the mail.
7. KIM HAS AN AGENT!!
Enter and win the Genre Wars short story contest over at Literary Lab.
It’s easy! Send in that old college fiction class assignment (or any other short story you wrote) and get paid for it. You’ll get a $50 gift card to the bookstore of your choice.
Try it. It’s fun. And it’s more creative than knocking on doors, pretending you’re a Habitat for Humanity volunteer.
I think that’s how my grandpa would’ve started a list of memories since he went to Wasatch High School Part I. I attended WHS-II, so I too can say “them days” with reckless abandon. To the students of WHS-III: I’m expecting more from you.
Congrats to my alma mater on progressing from this:
to this:
Fall always makes me feel like I’m starting school again, but maybe that’s because I work on the same college campus I used to attend. I participate in all the back-to-school sales. I fight the crazy parking situation with the best of them.
But deep down I know I’m too old to be a student anymore, even if SBOs try to get me to vote, because I think at least five times a day, “Look at what the kids are wearing these days!”
When I realized today that half my own college memories are totally foreign to me now, I felt even older. Here are a few:
1.) Spending much time in the library looking at actual books because Google had not scanned them yet, and teachers would not allow more than one online resource to be cited in a paper. That capricious Internet could not be trusted.
2.) Standing in line at kiosks to send quick e-mails. I was still enamored with the fact that sending e-mail was FREE now. Back home, the closest dial-up number was long-distance.
3.) Walking around campus silently, not looking anyone in the eye or smiling or talking, because BYU was like mini New York City, only clean. Now everyone smiles and talks and laughs nonstop—to their cell phones.
4.) Staring at my roommate’s iMac (year 2000 variety) and having a complete breakdown because I could not write the last paper of my college career because I could not access the two books I needed because BYU didn’t have them and Orem Library wouldn’t let me use them since I was a student and not an Orem resident and I was so screwed and it was too late to sign up for a new topic and if I flunked the final paper I would not graduate.
Does anyone remember a time when you literally could NOT get the book you needed? There was no such thing as Amazon or eBay back in them days.
(And do not tell me Amazon has been around since 1995. The Internet wasn’t even invented until, like, 2004.)
Now that we’ve come so far, what I want to know is when are they going to invent something where I can load all my music onto a miniature device and listen to 24-hour playlists through teeny tiny headphones?
Book trailers are a fascinating trend, in my opinion. For me, the experience of reading a book and watching a movie are SO different that it seems a bit weird to blend the mediums.
What do you think?
Some book trailers may do more harm than good. Since most of us writers are not into film, we may make our literary, impressive books look cheesy and half-rate with a cheesy, half-rate trailer.
Still, I couldn’t resist making one. Maybe when I’m published my editor will make me destroy it. Maybe when I win the Printz my editor will arrange for a professional to make a new trailer, with live action and animation, like this:
Or this:
But I guess after you win the Printz or Newbery, there’s no need for more marketing. We’ll have to do the best we can with a pre-award budget and the trailer-making resources we have now.
Like iMovie:
And Animoto:
And our brothers, relatives, or friends who graduated from prestigious film schools:
Way to go, Valynne. You win the “homemade” book trailer category award. Even though you sort of cheated.
