|
|
|
This month The Edge of the Forest talks with children's author
Laura Ruby about her writer's life.
The Edge of the Forest: Hi Laura! Thanks for finding time from your busy schedule to chat with me for
our Day in the Life series.
Laura: Thanks so much for asking me!
The Edge of the Forest: First of all, let's talk about your newest book, I'm not Julia Roberts. I
understand it has won fabulous reviews, most recently from People magazine. Congratulations.
Laura: The attention has been quite unexpected, but wonderful. The book is a collection of interconnected short
stories about divorce and remarriage, sort of dispatches from the divorce wars. The title comes from a section in the
book in which a stepmother is thrown off an online group called secondwivesspeakeasy.com for saying that the movie
"Stepmom"—starring Julia Roberts—was goofy and unrealistic. The Boston Globe said recently,
"Chick lit this may be, but it's not for sissies." That cracked me up.
The Edge of the Forest: I'm not Julia Roberts is your third book since March 2006, and your first for adults. Was
your decision to write for adults intentional, or did your muse lead you there?
Laura: Actually, I've been writing and publishing short fiction for adults for the past ten years and working on
this particular book for the last eight. The children's books are the books that I never expected to write. I never
realized how much fun they could be until I tried one. Once I did, I was completely hooked.
The Edge of the Forest: Your first two books, Lily's Ghosts and The Wall and the Wing are for
middle grade readers, and Good Girls, released last fall, is aimed at teens. With I'm not Julia Roberts
under your belt, you've proven your ability to write across genres and age groups. Makes you a Renaissance writer of sorts.
Laura: Either that, or I just enjoy confusing people. :)
Seriously, I've always read across the board—children's books, teen books, adult books—so it makes sense that I
would write across the board as well. I think that many other writers would do the same if they had the opportunity.
It's just that it's so easy to get pigeon-holed in this business.
The Edge of the Forest: What's next for your readers?
Laura: : I have an essay in the adult anthology Everything I Needed To Know About Being A Girl I Learned From
Judy Blume coming out from Simon & Schuster in May and the sequel to The Wall and the Wing, called
The Chaos King, coming out in the summer. I'm also working on another YA and a novel for adults.
The Edge of the Forest: Let's talk about your writing life. Tell us about a typical writing day. When and
where do you write?
Laura: Well, the one constant in my day is coffee, coffee and more coffee. So, the first thing I do upon waking
is put up a pot. Then I check in with the cats; I have two. Then I head upstairs to my office where I answer emails, but
try not to get too lost in them. After that, I either work on the book at hand, or I do other stuff—write letters or
essays, blog, research or read. At about noon, I try to get some exercise—running or a little weight training.
Then it's back to work.
Okay, now that I've said that, I realize I sound very disciplined. I'm not. There are days when I can't bring myself to
do much more than watch reruns of Law & Order.
The Edge of the Forest: Some writers work in long hand. Others write on a laptop. How do you work? How does
this technique inform your creative process?
Laura: I'm a laptop writer myself. I only write longhand for notes, never for actual writing. Firstly, my
handwriting is atrocious and even I can barely read it, secondly, I've found that I can type as fast as I think. If I
try to write longhand, I get impatient and frustrated.
As far as how writing on a computer informs my creative process, I think it helps me get that first draft down FAST.
That's good, because I'm a far much better reviser than I am first-draft-writer; writing that first draft for me is almost
always painful. But, after that first draft is down, I'm happy to revise and revise and revise. It's where I find my
best work.
The Edge of the Forest: Some writers use their art to help make sense of the world. Others write to share the joy of language with young
readers. Still others write to tell themselves a story. Why do you write?
Laura: I have a quote by Faulkner on my website that I love: "I never know what I think about something until I read
what I've written upon it." I do write to entertain myself first, but I also write to figure out what I think.
The Edge of the Forest: Writers find inspiration in many places. Who or what inspires you?
Laura: Conversation inspires me. I love to talk, I love it when people tell me stories. I love to eavesdrop when
people are chatting on the bus or the train or the street. There's so much happening in conversation, so much not being
said as much as being said. Even my favorite movies are the ones in which people spend a lot of time chatting—Pride
& Prejudice, for example, or The Barbarian Invasions.
The Edge of the Forest: Writing can be a lonely and isolating avocation. Where do you find
the support you need to survive the process?
Laura: I'm lucky to have some very close writer friends who I talk to constantly. Two in particular,
Anne Ursu (The Shadow Thieves, Atheneum, 2006) and Gretchen Moran Laskas (The Miner's Daughter, S&S, 2007)
send dozens of emails back and forth with me each day. Others—Esme Raji Codell, Esther Hershenhorn, Franny
Billingsley, Carolyn Crimi, Myra Sanderman—I meet with for dinner every few weeks or so just to talk, laugh, or
blow off steam. I think it's vital to surround yourself with people who understand the work you're trying to do.
The of the Forest: How do you care for your muse?
Laura: My muse is a cat: she sleeps when I'd like her to be awake, she ignores me when I want her to pay attention,
she bites my toes through my sheets when I'm trying to sleep. The thing is, if I don't force her to be anything other
than herself, I know she'll come to me.
The Edge of the Forest: How do you tame the monster?
Laura: I'm still trying to figure that out. I can tell you what doesn't tame the monster: pizza, vodka,
screaming fits, crying jags or obsessively checking Amazon rankings
The Edge of the Forest: Since March 2006, you've managed to publish three novels while raising a family.
From one writer mom to another, what's your secret?
Laura: Caffeine?
My stepkids are now 16 and 22, and have probably been the single biggest inspiration for my writing over the last decade;
they're my secret. By reading to them when they were little, I rediscovered old favorites and found new ones. By
listening to them, hearing how they experience their world, I was able to remember how I saw mine when I was young.
Every day in my house is a constant flashback.
So, while living in a stepfamily—like living in any family—is challenging and sometimes exhausting, it's also
exhilarating, inspiring, and energizing, at least for me. I've never been so productive.
The Edge of the Forest: In addition to your publishing success, you blog, maintain a website, present at
conferences, and teach writing like the HarperTeen Fanlit Romance Writing Event for Teens sponsored by HarperCollins.
How do you balance the hard work of writing with the business of writing?
Laura: Uh, not very well! I just finished a draft of a novel and now I'm scrambling to do all the business stuff
I've neglected for the past four weeks. I tend to work that way, when I'm deep into a book I ignore everything else,
much to the consternation of my agent and publicist.
The Edge of the Forest: On the Good Girls website, you list
Judy Blume as one of the YA authors you worship. Knowing this you must have been thrilled after Michael Cart, author and
former YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) president, referred to your book as "Judy Blume's Forever
for savvy and sophisticated 21st century readers..."
Laura: It was a huge thrill! I heard that blurb during a little party that my publisher threw for me last spring;
they read it out loud to me. I wrote Good Girls as a modern retelling of Forever, an homage to it. It
was unbelievably gratifying to hear that someone of Michael Cart's stature not only recognized what I was trying to do,
but also thought I had pulled it off.
The Edge of the Forest: I imagine that reviews like Michael's, and the one written in People Magazine
recently for I'm not Julia Roberts help make the hard work of writing worth enduring.
Laura: Oh, yes. And I try to remind myself of this all the time. The problem is that I often have the tendency of
focusing on negative comments/reviews/etc. more than the positive stuff, and sometimes can get depressed when faced with
bad news. I come from a long line of lugubrious Lutheran ministers—not the most positive of people. I blame them.
The Edge of the Forest: Any advice for aspiring writers?
Laura: The standard stuff: read, read, read. Write, write, write. Also, do not be afraid of rejection.
I've been rejected 250 times over the last decade. I'm proud of it. It means I tried a lot of different things, means
I worked hard to get where I am.
The Edge of the Forest: Anything else you want to add?
Laura: I think I need another cup of coffee!
About Laura Ruby
Raised in the wilds of suburban New Jersey, Laura Ruby now lives in Chicago with her family. Her short fiction for
adults has appeared in numerous literary magazines, including Other Voices, The Florida Review, Literal
Latté, Sycamore Review and Nimrod, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. A collection of
these stories, I'm Not Julia Roberts (Jan, 2007) was called "both hilarious and genuinely sad, a cracked but
revealing mirror of torment" by The Miami Herald and "a hilarious story of blended family tumult that will make
you see your own brood in an entirely new light" by Redbook magazine.
Ruby is also the author of the Edgar-nominated children's novel Lily's Ghosts, the children's fantasy
The Wall and the Wing, and the young adult novel Good Girls, which was a fall 2006 Book Sense Pick as
well as an American Library Association Quick Pick for 2007. Currently, she is working on several thousand projects,
drinking way too much coffee, and searching for new tunes for her iPod. You can visit her at her website.
|
| |
|
|