Interviews

Q: Your essay in Through the Wardrobe is about (as you titled the piece) "Missing the Point"-- how not understanding the religious symbolism doesn't mean you can't appreciate the books. When and how did you find out about the whole religious symbolism thing?

A: Last week. Okay, maybe it was a bit longer ago than that, but I know I didn't figure it out on my own. Someone told me. And then I denied it for a while. I'm pretty good at the whole denial thing. Once (and this really was a long time ago-- honest!), I wrote a letter to the Tooth Fairy asking what she looked like. I left it with my tooth. In the morning, I discovered a quarter plus a letter signed by the Tooth Fairy that said she looked a little like me but she had brown curly hair and wings. Now, my mom looks a little like me and has brown curly hair . . . but she doesn't have wings. It didn't occur to me for literally years that perhaps my mom wrote the letter.

Q: Which king or queen of Narnia do you think you're most like?

A: Lucy. If faced with a magical wardrobe, I would absolutely be the first one through it, and I'd love to have tea with Faun Tumnus. I wish I could say that I'd be more kick-butt than Lucy (Susan gets the sweet bow and arrow, and Lucy gets what? The magical version of a hotel room shampoo bottle?). But if I'm going to be honest, I wouldn't be much use in a magical battle. If you gave me a sword, I'd probably just get it stuck in the ground. I'm about as coordinated as a beached manatee.

Q: Your essay in Demigods and Monsters was about how the gods in the series (among others) measure up as parents. If one of your parents was a Greek god or goddess, who do you think it would be?

A: Oh, my, it's so hard to choose! My mom has the wisdom of Athena and the beauty of Aphrodite, and my dad has the work ethic of Hephaestus, the brilliance of Hermes, and the beneficence of Apollo. They also both have Internet access and know how to Google me.

Q: Do you have a favorite character from the Percy Jackson series?

A: Sally Jackson, Percy's mom. Unlike most parents in fantasy novels, she isn't clueless, and she doesn't disapprove of her son's unusual extracurricular activities. Since her pint-sized hero doesn't have his driver's license yet, she chauffeurs him to his battles, much like my mom drove me endlessly to theatre practice, piano lessons, and ballet lessons (see above note about beached manatee, if you want to know how good I was).

Q: Which is easier for you, writing an essay like the ones you did for the Teen Libris series, or writing a novel?

A: Honestly, I don't find them all that different in terms of difficulty. In both cases, you have to tell a coherent narrative/argument, present a consistent voice, and not get distracted by too many shiny things along the way. A novel is only harder because it's so much longer (which means lots more alluring shiny things along the way, such as a new episode of American Idol).

Q: What gave you the inspiration for your Wild novels (Into the Wild, Out of the Wild)?

A: Into the Wild and Out of the Wild grew from two separate ideas that I'd been playing with in the back of my mind since high school:

1) What if a girl had a monster under her bed, and her mom knew about it?

2) If Rapunzel lived in the here and now, she would own a hair salon.

I loved the idea of fairy-tale characters running amuck in my hometown, and I thought the idea of the mother knowing about the monster was an unusual twist on the whole secret-monster thing. But it wasn't until I combined the two ideas that I had a story. I decided that the girl was Rapunzel's twelve-year-old daughter Julie, and the monster under her bed was the essence of fairy tales. Long ago, the fairy-tale characters escaped the fairy tale to live in secret in our world. But now, the fairy tale wants its characters back, and it's up to Julie to save them.

Q: Who is your favorite fairy tale character?

A: Ooh, tough one. I love so many of them! My favorite fairy tale is Beauty and the Beast because it's the only one that really involves true love. (Marrying someone based on shoe size? Is that really the best basis for a long-term relationship? At least Beauty and the Beast spend time together first.) But my favorite fairy-tale character would have to be the witch. Yes, she's evil and all that, but without the witch, Hansel and Gretel would be just two kids on a camping trip. Without the witch, Rapunzel would be an ordinary baby with a mom on a health-food kick. Without the witch, Snow White would be . . . well, she'd still be a ditzy princess who frolics with animals, so no change there. Point is that the witch is often the heart of the story, and there would be no story and (one could even argue) no happy ending without her.

Q: How do you think your main character Julie from the Wild novels would fare if she went "through the wardrobe" into Narnia?

A: Julie's the daughter of Rapunzel. She knows the rules of fairy tales, so she'd know how to function in Narnia: be nice to the talking animals, don't mess with the witch, and expect to be crowned royalty by the end.

Q: What are you working on right now?

A: This interview. (Sorry-- couldn't resist.) I am working on a brand-new, top sekrit project. It's a novel. YA. Fantasy. I think it's safe to say that I will always write fantasy. It is my deep-seated belief that all novels can be improved by the addition of a talking cat. But that's pretty much all I can say without going against that whole top sekrit thing . . . .

Q: If you could tell us to read one book this year, what would it be?

A: One book? Only one book? That's like eating one potato chip. Can't be done. How about I tell you a list of books I love, and if you haven't read one of them, you can consider that the to-read book? Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce, Deep Wizardry by Diane Duane, Homeward Bounders by Diana Wynne Jones, Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede, The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip, Changeling by Delia Sherman, A Fistful of Sky by Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Faeries of Dreamdark by Laini Taylor, Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett, and of course The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis.

Thanks so much for all the great questions!