Fable Comic Blog Tour, starring James Kochalka and ‘The Fox and the Grapes’

Welcome the  Fable Comics blog tour!  This book is the third in a series, following in the footsteps of Nursery Rhyme Comics and Fairy Tale Comics, Fable Comics is an anthology in which brilliant cartoonists were each assigned one of Aesop's Fables to reimagine in their own particular style.  The result is a smorgasbord of 28 little edifying (?) tidbits of story with bright (or dark, as the case may be) illustrations that is tons of fun!  Because each story is in a different style, it keeps things fresh and interesting.  Parents who care deeply about raising culturally (for a given value of culture) literate children might well want to seek this out for its friendly rendition of the fables; comic-loving readers of all ages will appreciate the stories as entertaining comics (they are both suitable for the young, and appealing to the old).

Chris Duffy, the editor, kicked off the blog tour yesterday at School Library Journal; that interview is a great place to learn more about the book as a whole.  Each subsequent day of the tour will feature a different artist and their fable.  It's my pleasure to welcome here today James Kochalka, whose fable assignment was "The Fox and the Grapes."  That's the one where the fox wants grapes that are out of reach, can't get them, and goes off in a huff of "they probably weren't any good anyway/I didn't really want them."  James Kochalka has a number of books under his belt, some for grown ups and some for kids, his most recent work for kids being the Glorkian Warrior series (the first book of which is The Glorkian Warrior Delivers a Pizza).  He did a really bang up job with his fable, and I enjoyed it lots!

Here are my questions for James, in purple (to go with the grape theme), with his answers in black (not deliberately meant to echo the frustration and negative energy of the fox).

Did you get to pick the story yourself, or were you assigned it? Were you familiar with it enough to start your own version of the top of your head, or did you read up on all the various incarnations of it?  (I just was reading up on it myself, and was interested to find that it is, according to one academic, a model of "adaptive preference formation..."

Chris Duffy, the editor, assigned the story to me.  I didn’t do any research at all, I just went entirely on my own memory of the classic Fox and the Grapes story.  I know I must’ve read a few versions when I was a kid, but I didn’t try to look them up.  I just went from memory.

Also, I find the Fox and the Grapes story-equivalents popping up in real life all the time, in my own reactions to things and others' reactions to things.  That’s why it’s a great story… it’s “true” in a human sense.

I did have to do a little research on grape vines, so that I could draw them right.

Was this your first fox?  (not because it looks like a "first fox" but because maybe it was your first fox, and you were glad to finally have the opportunity to draw a fox.....)

I’ve tried a couple times in my life to draw foxes, but this is the first fox that I ever drew that I was happy with.  I’m definitely looking forward to drawing more foxes.  I have an idea for a character called Banana Fox… I even wrote a theme song for him.

Did you find it hard to work with a pre-set text?  How did you go about making it your own story? (I appreciate that you did your best to help the fox get the grapes by giving him a jet pack.  Was the jet pack in your mind from the beginning, or was did the idea come to you en route?) Was it more "work" than creating something all your own from scratch?

It was easy, really easy, and a joy to write and draw.  I just used my vague memories of the story, and started drawing.  Really, all I ever start with when I begin writing a story are these sorts of vague feelings, so it felt exactly like writing one of my own stories.

 I didn’t feel at all like I was adapting an existing story. I knew that Chris Duffy wanted me to go full Kochalka-style on it.  If I had to do a straight retelling of the story, it would’ve felt more like a “job.”  But being free to do what I wanted, I felt energized.

I threw the jetpack in there because I knew it would be exciting… I’m pretty sure it was an impulsive decision.

I am impressed that you are the First Cartoonist Laureate of Vermont.  How did this come about?  Do you get to keep the title for life, or are there other cartoonists in Vermont trying desperately to push you aside?

I am no longer the current Cartoonist Laureate of Vermont, but I will always be the FIRST Cartoonist Laureate of Vermont.  Ed Koren, the great New York cartoonist famous for drawing fuzzy monsters at cocktail parties, is the current Laureate.  I’ve loved his stuff since I was a kid.  We have many other cartoonists in Vermont worthy of the title, so I expect we’ll see more in the future.  It’s a 3 year appointment.

I have a photographer friend who wanted to be named the Photographer Laureate… there currently is no such thing… and he was asking me like, how do you make it happen?  But the truth is, you don’t go out campaigning to be honored, it just doesn’t work like that.  It just falls into your lap.

How did it happen for me?  Well, I guess the Center For Cartoon Studies nominated me and then the state legislature made it official.  It wasn’t a huge deal at the time, but it’s become more important since that first day.  It’s the best part of my “bio.”

Vermont is a cool state!

Do foxes actually like grapes?

Probably?  But I hear that grapes are poison to some dogs, so maybe they’re poison to foxes too.  But I have no idea for real… I haven’t researched it at all.  I’ve seen dogs eat grapes and they didn’t even get sick or anything.  I bet foxes LOVE them.  And jetpacks too.

Thank you so much, James Kochalka! 

Here's a list of all the stops on the blog tour, which also serves as a list of all the contributors and their fables.

And thank you, First Second, for the review copy of Fable Comics!

Serafina and the Black Cloak blog tour--review, interview, and great giveaway!

Serafina and the Black Cloak (middle grade, Disney-Hyperion, July 14, 2015) is the story of a rather unusual girl who lives at the end of the 19th century in secret with her father in the basement of Biltmore House, built by the Vanderbilt family in Asheville, North Carolina.  Serafina's father is in charge of maintaining the physical plant of the estate, so he's not a secret, but Serafina spends her days tucked away in the basement, only venturing out at night.   She has taken on herself the job of catching the estate's rats, something that she's preternaturally good at, and she's unusual in other ways as well....and more or less content with her life, because she's never known anything different, other than glimpses of the Vanderbilt family and their guests, but she's naturally rather lonely.

Then children start disappearing.  And Serafina sees the horrible spectre of a man in a black cloak, who is taking them away.  Though she finds him frightening, being a reasonable person, she is determined to track him down before more children vanish.  Her hunt leads her to a spooky old cemetery, where there are supposedly fewer bodies than there should be, and it also leads her to answers about just who she herself is.  And it's that story of her own heritage will allow her, with help from the Vanderbilt's orphaned nephew who's become her first friend (and who seems to be the next target),  to defeat the man in the black cloak and strip him of the cloak's powers....

So basically this is a mystery/horror story, where the mystery is solved not by sleuthing but by confrontations with evil, and everything is very tidily resolved.  The horror elements are creepy, but not overpoweringly the stuff of nightmares, partly because each confrontation has a beginning and an end--there's not an all pervasive sense of horror, though the menace is real and constant. Serafina, so very unusual, but so relatable with her loneliness and her questions about just who she is, is a charming heroine.  And the Biltmore estate and the spooky woods around it make a great setting!  (Indecently, though this story is set in a huge old house, the house itself is simply the setting, not a key part of the story in its own right.  So if you are a fan of stories exploring big old houses, you'll get some of that, but not tons and tons).

Try this one on kids who loved the Goosebumps series, who may be ready for a change of pace.  And it's also an obvious one for introspective introverted girls (especially those who like cats!)  wondering what their own lives will turn out to be and hoping to find a good friend like Serafina does.

And now it's my pleasure to welcome Robert Beatty! My questions are in purple.

Did you get to do lots of wandering through the secret places of the Biltmore estate in preparation for the book?

Yes. I studied Biltmore Estate extensively, in person, as I was writing Serafina and the Black Cloak. I went through all the different areas of Biltmore House, including all the various rooms and secret places Serafina sneaks through in the book. I studied all the public areas, but I also delved into the deepest reaches of the basement and sub-basement. It’s very cool down there. I’ve also explored the organ loft and other non-public areas she prowls through. The technical and architectural details I describe in the house actually exist, including the secret doors in the Billiard Room, the pipes of the organ loft, the various furniture items and art works, the drying rack machines where Serafina hides, and the electric dynamo generator that her pa is struggling to fix.

Is the mysterious cemetery based on a real place?

Yes. It’s actually based on two real places. First, it’s based on Riverside Cemetery here in Asheville, which is a beautiful old Southern cemetery that’s said to be haunted. Sometimes they give haunted nighttime tours there. It’s the burial place of the great writers O. Henry and Thomas Wolfe. The winged stone angel depicted in the story is a homage to Thomas Wolfe’s angel statue in “Look Homeward Angel” (which is actually in a different nearby cemetery). Thomas Wolfe is one of Asheville's wonderful literary heroes. The haunted cemetery in the book is also based on a small private cemetery on the grounds of Biltmore Estate. At the end of the video book trailer  we depicted Serafina’s cemetery using a combination of these locations.

Is the story of the black cloak based on a real legend?
 

The black cloak itself is from my imagination. But there are other elements of the story that are indeed based on the folklore in this area, especially the element related to Serafina’s ancestry (trying to avoid spoilers here). Around here, the state government insists those creatures do not exist here. But many people here believe they do and sometimes see them. There are many older folk who say these mountains were once filled with them. Part of the inspiration for Serafina and the Black Cloak was this idea that even to this day, officials will say one thing, but the people of the mountains will believe another. I think that’s cool. I’ve always been drawn to the lost creatures of our past.

And finally, will we get to read more about Serafina?
 

Yes, I hope so. There is much more to Serafina’s story. 

I hope so too!

If you are intrigued by Serafina's story, please leave a comment (by midnight next Wednesday, the 22nd) to be entered to win this great prize pack including the book, and notebook, and a pen!

The Dungeoneers, by John David Anderson, with Interview and Giveaway!

It's  my pleasure today to be a stop on the blog tour for The Dungeoneers, by John David Anderson (Walden Pond Press, MG, June 23, 2015).  This fun and exciting story is one to add to the summer reading pile of any kid who dreams of treasure seeking and goblin bashing!

Colm's family is struggling; his father can't make and sell enough shoes to keep him and his eight sisters comfortably feed.  So Colm decides to take things into his own hands; literally--it turns out that he has a natural gift for pickpocketing.  When things go wrong, he's in danger of having one hand cut off by the law, but he's saved by a mysterious stranger, Finn, a smooth talking master rouge who takes Colm on as his protégée.  Finn is a member of the most famous league of Dungeoneers in the land--adventurers who routinely go into danger below ground in search of treasure. 

Colm becomes a student at the league's headquarters, partnered with three other kids who have their own roles to play in their future dungeon diving adventures.  There's Serene, a druid in training, who can commune with nature (as long as it's not nature in the form of giant spiders), Quinn, whose magical abilities are hampered by a nervous stutter when he's trying to use them, and Lena, determined to be the best barbarian warrior ever.

So basically it's the story of a school that trains Dungeon and Dragons-esque parties of adventurers....but as Colm's abilities as a rogue and a thief grow, he has to learn the hard way who he can really trust.  And when he and his cohort find themselves in an a real dungeon adventure far above their pay-grade, they have to learn the hard way how to stay alive.....

Give this one to any kid who enjoys stories about kids at magical schools, and definitely give it to any young fantasy game players you might happen to have on hand!  I myself enjoyed it lots--the adventure part is combined with pleasing character interaction parts, and the action is gracefully introduced into the story, without overwhelming the less frenetic school and friendship side of things.

And now it's my pleasure to welcome John David Anderson here today!  My questions for him are in blue.

1. I'm going to pitch The Dungeoneers to my own boys as a perfect read for Dungeons and Dragons characters, and I'm wondering if you yourself were/are a D. and D. person?  If so, were you by any chance a rogue or a thief yourself?  If not, have you played similar games?

I’ve never actually played hard-core, full-on, roll-for-crit D&D, but I’ve played plenty of less-involved versions (dungeon-diving board games, Pathfinders Adventure Card Game and the like). I’ve also played plenty of computer role-playing games, so I’ve had the chance to vicariously goblin bash using a variety of personas. Usually I go for the kick-butt Amazon warrior princess or the dark sorcerer type who summons undead things to do his bidding. I’m usually not a rogue or thief because, frankly, I can’t imagine myself ever being that crafty (though I can imagine myself as an Amazon princess—go figure).

2.  There's a certain moral ambiguity (not that ambiguous) about several of the character in this book, and in your earlier books as well....is this something that just happens, or that is part of your grand plan from the get go?   Have you gotten any pushback from gatekeepers about this?

Moral ambiguity is at the heart of what makes fiction interesting. If I knew from the very start how my characters were going to behave at every possible moral crossroads I’m afraid I would get bored with them myself. I enjoy writing characters who struggle with right and wrong, who are questioning the ideologies around them and trying to find one that they can work with and stand behind, because that’s what adolescents are just starting to do (and what some adults continue to struggle with). I think both readers and gatekeepers appreciate a little moral complexity. Yes—we want our protagonists to do the right thing in the end, but if we can play with the definition of “right” along the way, it not only provides a more intriguing journey, but also gives us more to talk about when it’s over.

3.  lt interesting to me also that your books place kids in the difficult position of having grown-ups trying to make their moral decisions for them, and then having to trust, or not, their own feelings.  It this something that draws you to writing for middle grade kids, as opposed to YA, where the protagonists strike out on their own more blatantly from the get go?

Dang, that’s astute. Yes, that’s both a boon and a bane of middle grade fiction, that your characters are granted limited agency due to their age (it would be so much easier if they could just drive places!), but are often thrown into a world where their decisions suddenly matter. They still need guidance, but they are just starting to recognize the power they have to change their environment, impact other people, even rebel against their parents’ teachings. Maybe that’s why I like to write about twelve-year-olds who cast spells, pick locks, or have super senses, because it empowers them to trust in their own autonomy. That moment when you realize that your actions matter—and just as importantly—that your parents/guardians/Obi Wan Kenobis won’t be able to swoop in and clean up the mess you’ve made—it’s frightening, but it also makes for a compelling story and some much-needed evolution.

3.  Will there be more books continuing Colm and co.'s adventures?  Will the quality of the food improve?  Will we get to meet any of his sisters in any great depth?

I have yet to write a book where the food is good. I realize that. It’s a running theme. One day, I hope to, though it might require me learning how to cook first.

As for sequels to The Dungeoneers, I certainly hope so. I am quite fond of all of the characters and would love to discover what they do next. I never write a book with a sequel in mind, but as soon as I finished this one I began dreaming up further adventures. Hopefully The Dungeoneers will find its audience and leave them hungry for more. If not, I suppose I can at least write a little pamphlet called “The Candolry Sisters’ Guide to Tormenting Your Brother.”   

4.  My kids' school offers a lock picking class (although they call it "introduction to lock mechanics" to avoid Legal Issues).  Did you learn any lock picking yourself in preparation for this story?  Or practice in any other way (I, for instance, could practice walking through the lego minefield of my kids' playroom as "trap-avoidance.")

Your kids’ school is awesome! Do they offer classes in safe cracking and computer hacking? What about trap making? Fireball flinging? I have jimmied a few locks before (all my own, due to an inability to remember where I’ve put keys). I did book-research, but I refrained from buying an actual lock-pick set and breaking into my neighbor’s house (“I’m researching for my next novel, officer, really!”). I think my entire childhood was spent practicing to be a dungeoneer though. My favorite activity was covering the floor with throw pillows and pretending the carpet was lava, jumping from safe spot to safe spot to get at the treasure buried under the couch cushions (usually about thirteen cents, a gum wrapper, and a stale potato chip). Ah, those were the days.

Thanks for interviewing me, Charlotte. Hope you enjoyed the book!

Dave
John David Anderson is the author of Sidekicked and Minion (both very good!  The links go to my reviews). A dedicated root beer connoisseur in his spare time, he lives with his wife, two kids, and perpetually whiny cat in Indianapolis. You can visit him online at www.johndavidanderson.org,
or you can find him on twitter-- @anderson_author and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JohnDavidAndersonAuthor?ref=hl

Thanks very much, Dave! 

And now the giveaway--thanks to Walden Pond Press, I can offer a signed finished hardcover of The Dungeoneers!  Just leave a comment between now and midnight next Wednesday June 17, making sure there's some way to contact you!  (US and Canada only).

Here are the other stops on the Dungeoneers Blog Tour:

6/2/2015 Maria's Melange                                    ​                             
6/5/2015 Unleashing Readers                                              
6/6/2015 The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia            

6/7/2015 Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers         
6/8/2015 This Kid Reviews Books                                   
6/8/2015 Ms Yingling Reads                             ​         
6/9/2015 Read Now Sleep Later                         
6/11/2015   Nerdy Book Club                     

6/12/2015 The Hiding Spot                         

A chat with Sage Blackwood, author of the Jinx series

I am a big fan of Sage Blackwood's Jinx series, which I wrote about in my first ever blog post for the Barnes and Noble blog.  The third and final book, Jinx's Magic, came out in January, 2015, so there's no reason to put off reading the series if you haven't already!

It's my pleasure to welcome Sage here today, to talk about the books!

(I'm in bold)

In the first Jinx book, I felt a strong Diana Wynne Jones vibe.  In this third one, I was feeling Terry Pratchett--the use of fantasy to address larger issue of relevance (in this case, Nation building and the rights of indigenous people to their environments).  Are you in fact a Pratchett fan, and was this something that occurred to you as you were writing Jinx's Fire?

Aw, thanks! I’m a huge Terry Pratchett fan, and of course a huge DWJ fan. I’ve reread both of their bodies of work dozens of times.

I actually always thought I was Pratchetting a bit, but nobody mentioned it until Jinx’s Fire. I’m not sure what’s different about Jinx’s Fire.  (for me it's the a strong element of getting along with non-human folk and recognizing them as fellow Urwalders ....)

But from the beginning, I thought of the Jinx trilogy as an American fantasy, loosely based on our own origin myths. 

I’m sure you know that the 13 colonies didn’t like or identify with each other very much to start out with, pretty much like the clearings in the Urwald. We only united because we had to. Join or die, as Ben Franklin said.

And what are we if not an amalgam of different people who are constantly having to learn not to see each other as monsters?

And now I am wondering if there is some other author reverberating in Jinx's Magic....

Not that I’m aware of! I’m trying to think who I’ve reread as many times as those two. J.K. Rowling, I guess, and on the American side, Anya Seton (historical fiction) and of course Walt Kelly’s Pogo books. I read the Oz books a lot before I was nine, but not since; still, I think there are echoes of them here and there in the Jinx series.

And Tintin. The Tintin opus was the entire universe of graphic novels when I was a kid. It’s quite possible I can recite it.  (me--I don't see any obvious Tintin influences in Jinx...Captain Haddock as Simon is too much of a stretch, even though they are both grumpy from time to time....)

I was very struck by your contemplation of gender identity with regard to witches and wizards, and I wish there'd been a bit more room to play with this more.   I guess I don't really have a question qua question about this, but was just wondering if you had more thoughts on the matter of gender identity and magical power to share.

Well, I decided that in the Urwald, the collective term for wizards and witches would be the gender-neutral “magicians”.

And it then naturally followed that not everyone who practiced magic was going to find their calling within prescribed gender roles.

Witches’ magic focuses on survival, while wizards’ magic is all about power. Still, certain outcomes are the same: magicians are the only residents of the Urwald who routinely achieve old age, they don’t starve, and for the most part nobody messes with them.

Jinx’s first power, his ability to see other people’s feelings, actually came from my wondering whether intuition evolved out of the need to protect ourselves from violence. Jinx has the intuition most humans have… and then just a little bit more.

I worried people would pick up on this and think Jinx wasn’t a “real” boy, but he seems to have passed muster. I mostly hear from boys about the books, and by and large they want to be Jinx.

Which makes me happy because, for all his faults, Jinx is no sexist.

And he’s neither a witch nor a wizard but something else that he’s created out of himself.

How on earth did you manage to sneak "quondam" past your editor?  or is your editor an erudite person, who feels kindly to Latin?

All editors are erudite people! I’ve had three wonderfully brilliant editors for the Jinx series: the legendary Anne Hoppe, who acquired Jinx and edited it (and who was also Terry Pratchett’s MG/YA editor); Sarah Shumway Liu, who took over early in the editing process of Jinx’s Magic, and Katie Bignell, who edited Jinx’s Fire. They are all erudite to beat the band.

Thanks for giving me a chance to mention their names. Of all the people that are credited in the production of a book, editors are conspicuous by their absence. And yet they do tons of work and are huge influences in shaping a novel.

There was never any question raised about “quondam”, actually… and this was only slightly to my surprise. I’ve only once had a word flagged as too difficult by an editor (not one of the editors above) and that word was “firkin”.

Which of the three books was the most fun to write?  which gave you the most grief?

Well, I suppose Jinx was in a way the most fun, because I was just writing to please myself. My previous attempt at a MG fantasy hadn’t sold, so I thought Jinx wouldn’t either, and therefore I just put into it what I loved most— forests, cranky wizards, cackling witches, plucky orphans, trolls.

Jinx’s Magic was the hardest. Around the point where Jinx and company leave Witch Seymour’s house, my life fell apart the way lives do. So unlike the 1st and 3rd books, which I could bury myself in for weeks at a time, Jinx’s Magic was written an hour here, a day there.

That it got written at all amazes me when I look back.

Jinx’s Fire was fun, because I got to tie off all the characters’ story lines, and to deliver on some things I’d been preparing since the first book. And it was satisfying discovering how Jinx had grown into himself. Also, there are some jokes in there that made me laugh. I laughed my head off over Jinx and the ogre. I may be the only one who did.

Is there any chance that you will give us any more peeks at the Urwald?  I know I am not alone in thinking that a story about Simon and Sophie meeting for the first time would be lovely...

Someday…. I would like to write Simon and Sophie’s backstory. I did put a little of it into Jinx’s Magic but it was too grim and had to be deleted. (I thought it would be interesting to explain where Calvin (me--a skull that Simon just "happens" to have on hand) came from. But you know, no one’s ever asked?)

If I did write their story, there’d be the difficulty of point of view. Would Simon still be funny if seen from his own POV? Probably not. So, would the story be better told from his POV or from Sophie’s?  

Either way, neither of them is going to be quite the same person they are when seen through Jinx’s eyes. I’m just pondering these things.

Diana Wynne Jones handled this very well in The Lives of Christopher Chant. Since we’re in Christopher’s POV in that book, we never see, as we do in other novels and short stories that include this character, that other people find him insufferable.

What will your next book be about, and when can we expect to see it? 

Miss Ellicott’s School for the Magically Minded (working title).  It’s about a girl and her dragon, trapped within a patriarchal society which is in turn trapped within itself. At present the plan is that it will be coming from Katherine Tegen Books (HarperCollins) in early 2017. The manuscript is with the editor, Katie Bignell, and I await her thoughts on it.  (me--sounds right up my alley!  I'll be looking forward to it).

Thanks for coming up with these great questions, Charlotte. I had such a lot of fun thinking about the answers. It’s a pleasure to be interviewed by you.

 

Thank you, very much, Sage!  And now of course I am awfully curious about Calvin's back-story...

In the Time of Dagon Moon Blog Tour--Interview with Janet Lee Carey

It's my pleasure today to welcome Janet Lee Carey, who's latest book, In the Time of Dragon Moon (Kathy Dawson Books, March 2015, YA), is the sort of book that will please those who enjoy generous helpings of dragons, romance, fantasy that's an integral part of the world building, and engaging characters!  It is the third of her books set in a sort of alternate Britain (the first being Dragon's Keep, the second Dragonswood), in which dragons and elves are very real, and in which marriage has occurred between those two races and the ruling human family. 

In this installment of the series, Uma, a young girl from the indigenous people of this kingdom tries to save her people's future by serving as the physician to the mad queen, who is desperate to have another child.  The queen has killed or imprisoned all her previous doctors, but Uma has the additional fear for her people, who are being held hostage contingent on her success.... Uma, who has had to push her way into being her father's apprentice in medicine (it was traditionally a male role), is scared and uncertain, but determined to do her best, which means that she must befriend the temperamental red dragon that was her father's friend to find the pharmacological herbs she needs.  And then to complicate matters, she and the king's nephew, Jackrun, who is part dragon and part fey, fall into loving each other while trying to unravel the mystery of the death of the Queen's firstborn son, which has further unhinged her mind...

Thank, Janet, for your lovely answers to my questions (which are in bold!)
 

-Your three dragon books are a series...but each can also stand alone.  I'm wondering if you knew there would be more books to come when you wrote Dragon's Keep, and planned accordingly, or if the second and third books were something of a surprise.  If the later is true, did you run into any problems in which your vision/world building/characterization in In the Time of Dragon Moon clashed with things in the earlier books?

When I first wrote Dragon’s Keep, I hoped there might be more books set in that world, but I did not plan on it. I wrote it before I was a published author and in those days I was still dreaming about and hoping I’d find a publisher who liked my books! That said, I did a lot of world building for Dragon’s Keep. The Kirkus review for In the time of Dragon Moon begins with the line: “Humans, dragons and fey coexist on Wilde Island, but this uneasy peace masks a simmering, mutual distrust.” I created a world rife with simmering tension and that gave me a lot of plot possibilities. I also landed on the idea to move from generation to generation so the reader sees familiar characters from the earlier books. So they meet the witch hunter, Tess and Bion in Dragonswood. And careful readers will recognize Jackrun from the epilogue. He’s just two years old then, and seventeen in this new book.

(me, Charlotte, just saying that here is the lovely cover of Dragonswood, and here's my review of it)

-Now that it’s established as a series, do you think there will be more books continuing the story of the Pendragons?

That’s partly up to the reading community. What I mean by that is authors can sell more books in a series as long as the series has enough of a following. So in that sense, readers have a say in what’s published. Of course I’d love to write more Wilde Island books. I have some ideas brewing.

-Many of your characters are different from those around them, either by virtue of mixed heritage or by physical differences.   Was this something you set out deliberately to include, or is it something that just keeps happening?  (With both your books and with Seraphina, by Rachel Hartman, I have been trying to decide when having dragon scales, or other elements of dragon anatomy, constitutes a disability....my answer being, it depends--both on physical ramifications and on people's response to the scales or claws or fire....Is this something you have thought about at all?)

Very insightful question! My main characters are set apart, and do feel different from those around them. That’s partly because it makes good fiction. Someone who sees things differently makes a good protagonist as well as a good antagonist don’t you think? It’s also because I have a heart for outsiders. I felt different from my peers, so I know what it’s like. Your thoughts on dragon scales are wonderful. Yes whether dragon scales or other dragon powers such as Jackrun has, are seen as a disability has to do with the person’s response to them as well as other people’s response to them. In Jackrun’s case, his nuclear family fully accepts dragon scales and sees them as a mark of honor. Uma feels the same, but Jackrun’s other power is more frightening, both Jackrun and his family have a hard time accepting it. Other members of the Pendragon family don’t even accept the dragon scales. The king and his son Prince Desmond hide theirs, and they ostracize Princess Augusta because she has dragon scales on her forehead and golden dragon eyes. 

-Uma, the central protagonist of Dragon Moon, is in an awfully frustrating position for the course of this story.   She has virtually no opportunities to say what she really thinks, because her people are being held hostage, and on top of that, she is struggling for the opportunity to be the person that her culture says she can't be--a woman who is a healer.  And I commend her for carrying on as calmly as she does!  Did this part of Uma's story make it frustrating for you, as its author, to write?  Or did knowing the ending help? 

 

I was certainly frustrated for Uma. And since an author needs to live inside a character’s skin while writing each scene, I felt what Uma felt. She’s in an awful situation. Yet terrible situations are the stuff of good stories. As a captive of the queen, Uma is forced to struggle toward freedom and independence. She carves her own path. I ended up loving that about her.

 

 -I love that your books have a Giving Back component.  Could you share a bit about how this came about, and how you chose the Giving Back direction for Dragon Moon?

 

I first started giving to a charity in conjunction with a book launch when my book The Double Life of Zoe Flynn came out – the story of a homeless girl who lives with her family in a van. At that time I worked with Hopelink, raising awareness of homelessness and we did some wonderful food drives on my school visits. After that I was hooked. As I worked on each new book, I considered which charity I would donate to, trying to match it to the book’s theme in some way. Offering readers a chance to donate, too, seemed right. I was also a founding diva of readergirlz. Outreach was a foundational part of that literacy and social media project and it still is. I chose Nature Conservancy’s Savethe Rainforest  project for In the Time of Dragon Moon after studying indigenous healers like Uma and her father, the Adan. In the course of writing the book, I learned about the ongoing destruction of the rainforests in the Amazon Basin, the place where vital medicinal plants grow. As it says on the Nature Conservancy site; “Probably no other place is more critical for human survival than the Amazon.”

I knew it would be the right charity outreach for the book.

-And finally, what other YA fantasy books, with or without dragons, would you recommend to readers who like this series, and vice versa? 

I love Ursula K. LeGuin’s Earthsea series, and her Annals of the Western Shore series including, Gifts, Voices, and Powers. I also love Juliet Marillier’s Shadowfell books, Shadowfell, Raven Flight, and The Caller. And I’m a fan of Maggie Stiefvater’s The Scorpio Races.
 

About the Author
(photo credit Heidi Pettit)

Janet Lee Carey grew up in the bay area under towering redwoods that whispered secrets in the wind. When she was a child she dreamed of becoming a mermaid (this never happened).She also dreamed of becoming a published writer (this did happen after many years of rejection). She is now an award-winning author of nine novels for children and teens. Her Wilde Island Chronicles are ALA Best Books for Young Adults. She won the 2005 Mark Twain Award and was finalist for the Washington State Book Award. Janet links each new book with a charitable organization empowering youth to read and reach out. She tours the U.S. and abroad presenting at schools, book festivals and conferences for writers, teachers, and librarians. Janet and her family live near Seattle by a lake where rising morning mist forms into the shape of dragons. She writes daily with her imperious cat, Uke, seated on her lap. Uke is jealous of the keyboard. If Janet truly understood her place in the world, she would reserve her fingers for the sole purpose of scratching behind Uke’s ear, but humans are very hard to train.

Visit her website here

Thanks again to Janet Lee Carey for appearing, and thanks to the publisher for the review copy of the book!  For other stops on the Dragon Moon blog tour please click here.