Interview with Heather Swain

www.heatherswainbooks.com

First off, thanks so much for joining us for an up-close and personal interview for TeensReadToo.com! My name is Jen, and I’ll be your server toda…oh, wait, wrong job! Anyway, thanks so much for taking time out of your writing schedule—which I’m sure is busy!—and answering a few questions for your readers and fans.

Let’s get some of the typical interview questions out of the way first. When did you first know that you wanted to be a writer?


I suppose if I think about it, I always wanted to be a writer but I spent most of my time reading. I wrote my first “short” story in fourth grade about a caveman named Og who invented math. I read it in front of the class then asked for extra credit. (Notice, I didn’t end up a mathematician.) But, I didn’t really start writing until I was 26. (Let’s hear it for late bloomers—whoohoo!) Even then, it was happenstance that got me started rather than a burning desire. I had just gotten married and we moved to Japan where I taught English in a public middle school. In the first three weeks, I read every book I’d brought so I had to resort to writing my own stories to keep myself entertained, because God forbid I do something productive like learn to read Japanese. Once I started writing, I couldn’t stop. My husband and I stayed an extra year in Japan so I could write. I like to refer to those two years as my Japanese Government Sponsored Writing Fellowship.

Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?

My first published short story, “Sushi”, was one of twenty winners in a contest for new young writers and was part of an anthology series called Virgin Fiction 2. When that was published, I thought to myself, “That was easy, now I’m a writer!” Insert image of calendar pages flying by…until FIVE YEARS later…I finally sold something else. In between publishing “Sushi” and selling my first book, I racked up hundreds of rejections from literary journals and agents. But it didn’t deter me. I’m tenacious if nothing else. Since then I’ve published two adult novels (Eliot’s Banana and Luscious Lemon), numerous short stories, personal essays, and non-fiction articles, plus I edited a collection of short fiction with one of my dearest friends (and fellow YA writer Emily Franklin). Me, My Elf, and I is my first YA book, but I’m love with this genre!

Tell us a little bit about either your latest or upcoming release. If you could only tell your readers one thing about the story that had to convince us to buy the book, what would it be?

Zephyr Addler is an elf (not a vampire)!

I wrote this book because I thought it would be interesting to write about someone who is genetically good, almost incapable of being mean or who had a physiological reaction to being bad. That’s how I came up with the idea for an elf.

The premise for Zephyr’s story is that elves are just like humans, only a) they live about twice as long, b) they’re magic c) if they use their magic for ill will they become physically ill and d) if they’re bad for too long, they’ll be shunned from the elfin community and become Dark Elves which will shorten their long life span. Zephyr’s in an interesting situation because her family has moved from Alverland (an elfin community in the UP of Michigan) to Brooklyn where she attends a prestigious performing arts high school. She has to learn how to negotiate teen life without betraying her elfin identity. Of course, being a teen, she slips up. That’s when things get fun!

What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?

Each book I’ve written has been inspired by something different, but the common ground is that I always dig into a specific emotion that I, or someone close to me, has experienced. I usually start a story based on an emotional truth, then create a character, then put that character into a situation that will force the emotion out. For Zephyr I was playing with the notion of personal authenticity, or in other words, how hard it is when you’re fifteen years old to figure out who you are with so many pressures around you.

Let’s hear about your family, who I’m sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!

I have a ridiculously supportive family. It’s almost goofy how great they are. My mom and dad are the kind of parents who would hang my books on the fridge if there were a magnet big enough. And my two brothers (and their wives) have always believed in and supported my choice to write.

I’m also very lucky to be married to a musician and I’ve learned so much about being a working artist from him. He taught me that you have to sit down and practice your craft everyday and he continually reminds me that any art is about process not product. If you only attach success to selling books, then most of us writers will end up deeply disappointed. Writing for me has to be about enjoyment and fulfillment first and foremost (my own and my readers’). If I sell some books on top of that, all the better.

Now for some fun facts. What’s your greatest comfort food?

That’s a tough one. I’m definitely a foodie—always planning my day around meals and thinking about what I’m going to eat next (and consequently when I can get in a run or a yoga class.) I bake bread every week, which is one of the most comforting sensory experiences next to snuggling my kids. From seeing and smelling the yeast wake up to kneading the dough to watching the bread rise all day to taking it warm from the oven for that first piece soaking up the butter…ah! Comfort defined. Beyond that, give me a piece of homemade black raspberry pie a la mode (which is what I had at my wedding instead of cake) and I’ll be a very happy woman.

What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?

First, you have to understand that I’m almost always the last one up in my house, so…
1. Kiss my family (hubby Dan, five-year-old daughter Clementine, and three-year-old-son Graham)
2. Take the dog (15-pound Shetland sheepdog) out for a pee
3. Make tea which is mostly about the ritual of starting the day slowly by boiling water, patiently waiting for the tea bag to steep, stirring in sugar and milk, and taking that first satisfying sip.

If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what’s the one thing that would surprise me the most?

I’m a super crafty Mommy McGuyver who likes to turn everyday objects into fun fun fun! So my closets are full of yarn, fabric, paper, cardboard, all kinds of glue, tape, string, nails, different kinds of fasteners, scissors, staplers, hole punches…need I go on? Right now I’m working on a book about making toys at home with kids because if I’m not writing, I’m usually turning a cardboard box into a rocket or making mini-marshmallow shooters out of paper cups, balloons, and rubber bands. Come over and play with us sometime!

Everyone asks the question about “if you could be a tree, which tree would you be?” so I want to know: If you could be a color, which color would it be, and why?

Green. I love all the things green can be from plants and trees to mint ice cream and envy. It’s the color of my children’s eyes. Half blue half yellow. Lovely green.

Who is your favorite cartoon character?

I’m a big fan of Stewie, the baby on Family Guy. I love how obsessed he is with killing his oblivious mother, Lois. Cracks me up every time. If anyone knows where I can get a Stewie t-shirt let me know.

Which cartoon character is most like you?

Probably Velma Dinkley from Scoobie Doo. You know, the slightly nerdy girl who’s pretty cute when she takes her glasses off and usually knows the answer but sticks with her friends even though they almost always get her into trouble. (And I’m really strong so I could probably carry the whole Mystery Inc crew while running away from the bad guy like she does.) But really, I just dig her groovy cowl neck sweater, mini skirt, and knee socks. Super hot in a nerdy sort of way.

If you could beam yourself to anywhere in the world (“Beam me up, Scotty!”), during any time in history, where and when would it be—and why?

I’d like to have a week or so in a time when women wore hats and gloves and everyone knew how to dance and they sat around and played Whist in a drawing room for fun. Only I’d be that feisty gal who insisted that I could everything the boys could do. Basically, drop me down in any Jane Austen novel, and I’d be happy.

So what’s your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while you’re writing?

Although I love music and consider it a big part of my life, here’s the sad part about being married to a musician: I ceded all musical control when I took my wedding vows. Now between my husband’s eclectic collection (everything from old jazz to new punk to some freaky 70s disco) and the kids’ music on the iPod my Beck, Ben Folds, and Amy Mann are all but lost. But, I control the bookshelves and the Netflix account, so it all evens out in the end! As for writing, I crave silence when I work.

Do you have any favorite T.V. shows? Movies you watch over and over again? What was the last movie you saw at the theater?

I’m pretty dorky when it comes to TV. First off, we don’t have cable (Luddites, unite!) so my choices are, shall we say, limited. I’m happy rocking PBS at night, but I have a sad addiction to America’s Next Top Model. Could someone please explain how that can be? I’ll sometimes make it a point to watch Family Guy (see above for my love of Stewie) and I’m a fan of 30 Rock.

I don’t know when this happened, but somewhere along the line my taste in movies went 100% low-brow. I’ll take a stupid Judd Appatow-type flick over about anything else these days. The one exception being a good documentary (see above for “dorky” + PBS.)

You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?

Keep it all in perspective, honey! Much of what seems so awful in your life now will seem almost laughable later.

One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?

Zephyr will return in winter 2010 with Selfish Elf Wish so stay tuned to www.heatherswainbooks.com for details or drop me a line at heather.a.swain@gmail.com.

Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!

And thank you for keeping us all up-to-speed on the great teen books in the world!