Book Nerds Across America: Hansel and gretel

Tuesday, May 14, 2019

EXCLUSIVE: Interview with Christina June, author of No Place Like Here

Flo's Note

No Place Like Here publishes next Tuesday, May 21st and I hope you're able to pick up a copy when it does! I had the honor of reading an ARC and thoroughly enjoyed it. While you wait for Tuesday, read on to find a brief summary of the book, followed by an exclusive interview with the author Christina June.

Links to other Christina June reviews

It Started With Goodbye

Everywhere You Want to Be

Book Summary

Ashlyn Zanotti has big plans for the summer. She’s just spent a year at boarding school and can’t wait to get home. But when Ashlyn’s father is arrested for tax evasion and her mother enters a rehab facility for “exhaustion,” a.k.a. depression, her life is turned upside down.

The cherry on top? Ashlyn’s father sends her to work with a cousin she doesn’t even know at a rustic team-building retreat center in the middle of nowhere. A self-proclaimed “indoor girl,” not even Ash’s habit of leaving breadcrumb quotes—inspirational sayings she scribbles everywhere—can help her cope.

With a dangerously careless camp manager doling out grunt work, an overbearing father trying to control her even from prison, and more than a little boy drama to struggle with, the summer is full of challenges. And Ashlyn must make the toughest decision of her life: keep quiet and follow her dad’s marching orders, or find the courage to finally stand up to her father to have any hope of finding her way back home.

The author and the interviewer last year at Apollycon.

Interview with Christina June

1. How did you get the idea for No Place Like Here?

Ashlyn started as a character who appears in IT STARTED WITH GOODBYE. Readers who know her already will be familiar with her poor choices in boys and her unusually strict father. When my editor and I were brainstorming ideas for my next proposal, I knew I wanted to let Ashlyn tell her own story that would explore how much more than that she is. The fairy tale framework, Hansel & Gretl, is, at it's heart, an abandonment story between children and their father, which fit Ashlyn perfectly. Since my companions are all set in the summer, my mind went to summer camp as being the ideal fish out of water setting for Ashlyn. I tweaked it to a wilderness retreat center--summer camp for adults--and voila, her story began to take shape.

2. Who was your favorite character to write? Who was the hardest? Why?

Giving Ashlyn her voice and figuring out who she wanted to be was gratifying. I collect quotes just like she does, so it was exciting to pick out which ones were most meaningful to her. I love Baxter, her co-worker and master of the zipline, and how he helps Ashlyn see that it's okay to be vulnerable and let people in. The hardest character was probably Deb, the retreat center manager. She's the wicked witch from the original Hansel & Gretl transformed, but she's not outright evil. In my research, I learned the worst thing someone in charge of that type of business can be is careless, so that's was my goal for Deb. She may be a little wicked too, though. :)

3. Why do you think readers will like Ashlynn?

I've been afraid she wouldn't connect with readers because she's a little prickly, she's privileged when it comes to money and material things, and she initially has the worst romantic judgement. But, early reviews that have come in have have blown me away. Many readers have noted that they identify with her relationship with her father and the feelings of powerlessness to change things. I think if a reader has been in a similar situation, they'll enjoy seeing Ash navigate those murky waters. I hope they'll enjoy how she expresses herself through quotes and how she ultimately learns to take risks and stand up for herself. And, I also hope that readers who have not experienced difficult relationships might gain increased empathy for their friends who have.

4. A common rite of passage of young adults is realizing that their parents aren’t always right. You hit this in a major way in No Place Like Here. Can you talk a bit about this?

In my day job as a school counselor, I've had the same conversation over and over: I want this, but my parents want that, so I'm going to keep my mouth shut until I get out of the house and I can do what I want, suffering until the time comes. It breaks my heart every single time. They think they have no power or that their parents won't listen thoughtfully to their ideas and desires. This book is for those kids. I wanted to give them a hopeful ending and show them that their voices DO matter and they DO have power to make change.

5. Why do you think fairy tales — whether classics or retellings — remain timeless for readers?

These stories last because we identify with them. We see ourselves in them. And, in a lot of cases, the nostalgia is high. Versions of the same stories exist in so many cultures around the world, which proves we're all more similar than we think, and the emotions we experience at every age go on and on.

6. What can we expect from you next?

I don't have anything I can talk about quite yet, but I've been working hard on reclaiming the joy of writing. I've also been exploring new genres and age groups. So fingers crossed and watch this space!

Friday, January 18, 2019

EXCLUSIVE: Interview with Maureen Doyle McQuerry, author of Between Before & After

Book Summary
“The carnage began with the roses. She hacked at their ruffled blooms until they dropped into monstrous drifts of red on the parched yellow lawn … Only two things kept my mother grounded to us: my uncle Stephen and stories.”

Fourteen-year-old Molly worries about school, friends, and her parents’ failed marriage, but mostly about her mother’s growing depression. Molly knows her mother is nursing a carefully-kept secret. A writer with an obsession for other people’s life stories, Elaine Donnelly is the poster child of repressed emotions.

Molly spends her California summer alternately watching out for her little brother Angus and tip-toeing around her mother’s raw feelings. Molly needs her mother more than ever, but Elaine shuts herself off from real human connections and buries herself in the lives and deaths of the strangers she writes about. When Uncle Stephen is pressed into the limelight because of his miracle cure of a young man, Elaine can no longer hide behind other people’s stories. And as Molly digs into her mother’s past, she finds a secret hidden in her mother’s dresser that may be the key to unlocking a family mystery dating to 1918 New York—a secret that could destroy or save their future.

Interview with Maureen Doyle McQuerry

How did you come up with the idea for Between Before & After? How much did the story change from initial idea to final version?

The seeds of this story were planted by my father. He told stories about being an orphan in 1919 Brooklyn after his mother died from the Spanish flu and his family fell apart. But then, the story took on a life of its own. The basic storyline never changed, but I needed to dive much more deeply into the characters. One of the challenges was knowing when to shift from one storyline to the other. Molly’s story spans one summer, while Elaine’s spans many years. I had to balance the two. I also had to find a way to connect the Hansel and Gretel story with the main storyline. Hopefully the fairy tale adds depth to the story reminding us that we can survive and flourish despite the difficulties we encounter along the way.

What connection do you personally have to this story, if any?

In many ways it is my family’s story. The trajectory of my father’s family was changed by his mother’s death in the flu pandemic of 1918-19. He was ten and after her death, he lived on the streets, surviving the best he could into adulthood. A young child growing up the on the streets brings all that childhood trauma into all future relationships.

I grew up in San Jose, CA where Molly’s family lives. The landscape of the San Francisco Bay Area is close to my heart. Like Molly, I knew my family was full of secrets, and I was curious to know more. During the years I spent working on this book a very redemptive event occurred, I discovered I wasn’t an only child as I had always believed, but I have two living half-brothers and the book is dedicated to them.

Can you talk a bit about the process of weaving a fairy tale retelling into your narrative? Why Hansel and Gretel?

The story of Hansel and Gretel felt so closely tied to the narrative, that I couldn’t imagine writing the story without it. My challenge was helping readers see the connection. It’s a story of resiliency, two children abandoned in the darkest part of the forest, who despite all odds find their way home. There are still forests in our lives today. The streets of our cities can be as dangerous as the grimmest fairy tale. Fairy tales speak to us on the archetypal level. We need to be reminded that although the world is not a safe place, it’s possible to survive the woods and emerge changed, but with our humanity intact.

Read more with Maureen after the page break.