Interview with Priscilla Cummings

www.priscillacummings.com

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 have loved reading and writing stories since I was four and five years old. I grew up on a dairy farm and my first stories were about the cats who lived in the barn.

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

After graduating from the University of New Hampshire with a degree in English literature, I took a job as a newspaper reporter for the Holyoke Transcript in Holyoke, Massachusetts. I then worked for four different newspapers in four different states over the next ten years. I continued a journalism career as a magazine editor and writer for three years before my first picture book was published in 1986, the same year my son was born. At that point, I quit my job to stay home and be a Mom to my son and later, my daughter, and have been at home writing fiction ever since.

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?

What if you were a typical teenager, fourteen years old, enjoying life with your friends, excelling at school and looking forward to the future, when all of a sudden one day you found out you would lose your sight within a few short months? How would you feel? How would you handle that? This is what confronts Natalie in BLINDSIDED.

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

I live near the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and the bay has inspired many of my picture books as well as portions of my novel, RED KAYAK. But I have written many books that aren’t about the bay as well. I would say that everyday life is full of inspirational story ideas. If you pay attention to what’s going on and what moves you emotionally, you won’t find it difficult to come up with a good story idea.

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

I am from New England and most of my extended family lives back there in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine. I’m the one who left to take a job in Virginia and basically never went home. I live today in Annapolis, Maryland with my husband, who is Director of the EPA’s Office of Sustainable Communities. My son, who is my tech guru, just graduated from Lehigh University and is working for a bank in New York City. My daughter, an English major, an artist and a beautiful harpist, is a student at The College of William and Mary.

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

No question: ice cream.

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

Pour a cup of coffee, let my daughter’s cat, Romeo, out the door so he’ll stop meowing at me, and sit down with the morning newspapers for half an hour. I was a journalist for 13 years, remember, and old habits die hard.

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

The incredible mess. It’s because I spend most of my time trying to write great novels!

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?

Silly question, but blue, I guess. It’s the color of a beautiful day, and clear water.

Who is your favorite cartoon character?

Bart Simpson.

Which cartoon character is most like you?

Hmmmm . . .. I was stumped on this one so I asked my daughter who is away at school and here is what she emailed back: “I would say you are kind of like Velma from Scooby Doo....You are very bookish and cute and you're always ready to solve a mystery!”

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

I like listening to a wide range of music: classical, rock, opera, and harp, to name some. I do not listen to music when I’m writing. My house has to be absolutely silent.

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 don’t watch much TV except for the news and shows on PBS. I love movies though. Some of my favorites are An American President, Dr. Zhivago, A Beautiful Mind, The Painted Veil, Lawrence of Arabia, and Juno . . . The last movie I saw at the theater was Inception. I love Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Paige, but I didn’t much care for the movie. Too complicated, too much gratuitous violence and I didn’t believe in the characters.

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

Keep reading! It will expand your vocabulary, help you understand the world, foster empathy and tolerance – and it’s fun!

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

I am working on a “companion book” to a novel I wrote a few years ago called RED KAYAK. The new story follows up on one of the three main characters, which is why I call it a “companion book” and not a sequel.

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