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Sara Lewis Holmes is the author of the award-winning Middle Grade novel Letters
from Rapunzel. She's also a great blogger, blogging away at Read Write Believe,
and an all-around awesome person. (I should know. I had dinner with her at the SCBWI Los Angeles conference this August.)
Welcome, Sara!
The Edge of the Forest: I know Letters from Rapunzel had a great publication story. Will you tell us about
it?
Sara Lewis Holmes: It all started with Dear Genius: The Collected Letters of Ursula Nordstrom. I LOVE that
book, and not long after I'd read it, I saw the HarperCollins announcement about the Ursula Nordstrom Fiction Prize.
HarperCollins is normally closed to unagented writers, but for one month, they were taking submissions for the contest. I
wrote in my journal: "It [my manuscript] doesn't have much of a chance, but I'm entering it anyway. Got to keep hope alive."
When I got the phone call three months later saying that I had won a publishing contract, I was astounded. I had a surreal
moment where I was convinced I'd had a waking dream and made everything up. I couldn't even write about my win in my journal
until after I'd read the press release online—that's how crazy I thought I was! But from then on, it was great all the
way. I loved my editor, and working with HarperCollins has been lovely.
The Edge of the Forest: Letters from Rapunzel is your first published novel. How long did it take you to
write—from the spark in your eye to the finished product out just this year?
Sara: The quick (and frightening) answer is almost ten years. (I scribbled the title in my journal in June 1997.)
The longer answer is that it took awhile for me to recognize what I needed to write about—keeping a journal is handy
for this reason, because if a book title keeps popping up, plus you draw a sketch,
and you start writing letters from the
viewpoint of the main character, it's probably a sign that you should stop messing around and get to work.
The Edge of the Forest: Your hero—Cadence (or Rapunzel)—loves and is close to her father who is a poet and
who has been hospitalized for depression. How have young readers responded to Cadence's father's situation?
Sara: Well, I know that Letters From Rapunzel was chosen for a middle school reading program in large part because a
teen who wanted mental health issues to be talked about was passionate about including it. But other readers have identified
more with Rapunzel's giftedness and her troubles in school. And others like the funny parts, or the twisted fairy tales.
All these responses make me happy, because I didn't want the book to be about depression; I wanted it to be about a girl
who sees the world in a unique way and although she feels trapped and helpless, uses her words to change her life.
The Edge of the Forest: Cadence also finds herself rewriting fairy tales in her letters to an unknown recipient.
Why do fairy tales become important to Cadence and how are they relevant to readers today?
Sara: I loved fairy tales as a kid; they were full of real blood and danger and love and courage and most of all,
magic, which I totally believed in. Everything that mattered was there. For Cadence, not only are fairy tales something
she shared with her dad, but they're also her way of making sense of what's happening. I think she's right to look for
other explanations, to search for her own words, to make her own magic and find her own happy ending. Don't we all want
that?
The Edge of the Forest: Tell us a little bit more (pretty please) about your forthcoming novel, Everyone You
Know.
Sara: It's another middle-grade/younger YA book, and another one in which I'm mashing up two seemingly unrelated
things: military kids and improvisational theater. Writing and theater were the two things that saved me as a teenager,
and I've always wanted to write something about contemporary military kids. I just didn't know they'd be in the same book!
The initial idea was inspired by a quote: "Be kind, for everyone you know is fighting a great battle" and every time I read
that line, I get chills. If only we could see the battles being fought every day by not just military kids, but all kids,
and teachers, and parents, and everyone who struggles to build a life with those they love.
The Edge of the Forest: Recently you began a blog (Read Write Believe)
in addition to your website. Why did you feel the need to have both as a
writer working today? What inspired you to begin blogging?
Sara: Inspiration? It was more like a blind leap off a cliff. (Egged on by Robin
and Jules, I have to say!) When
I posted that first blog entry on a Poetry Friday, I had no idea how I was going to keep it up. But I really wanted to be a
legitimate member of the great conversation that was happening, and to do that, I thought I needed a place of my own.
The Edge of the Forest: You're an active participant in Poetry Friday, often sharing your own poems. When do you
write prose and when do you write poetry? How do you separate (or do you?) the two?
Sara: I usually write poetry when I'm supposed to be doing something else. It's the rebellious side of me. It's also
something that I completely retain ownership of as an artist. There's no one to please but me. Writing poetry makes me so
happy that I'm shaking when I finish a rough draft, just so alive that I have to bounce in my chair and squeal a bit. I
even started another blog to host my poetry
madness, and I agreed to write one of a crown of sonnets with six other
blogging writers! Prose is different; it comes much more slowly, and I sometimes despair of myself as a novel writer. I've
even tried thinking of my novels as one long poem. But the more I write prose, the more I like it. I like having a large
canvas, and I like falling in love with characters, and I like the beauty of the repeating notes of a great theme.
The Edge of the Forest: Do you have any rules for yourself as a blogging writer?
Sara: No meanness. Be useful. Show your passion. Be not afraid. (Just made all those up, but I like them. Maybe
I'll post 'em at the blog.)
The Edge of the Forest: What about blogging has been surprising to you as a writer? Do you find that blogging adds
to or subtracts from your work as a writer?
Sara: It's surprising to me that people read my blog and comment all the time. I'm grateful for that. And I do think
blogging adds to my work as a writer, or I wouldn't do it. I like the practice of writing nearly every day, and I like what
I learn from other bloggers. And the most important thing is that I feel like I have friends, and not just any old friends,
but kind, witty, intelligent, book-loving, brave, and funny-enough-to-make-me-spit-out-my-coffee friends.
The Edge of the Forest: Do you have any advice for writers thinking about taking up blogging?
Sara: I wouldn't take it up as a marketing device. It's just too much work if all you're in it for is to sell a few
books. I would also tell a writer to read, read, read lots of blogs and see the great things already out there. Then, dive
right in!
Speed Round:
Coffee, tea, or a triple skinny latte?
Coffee, with generous amounts of chocolate milk stirred in.
Who is your favorite writer? What is your all-time favorite book?
(And, yes, you must choose one. It's the rules.)
The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander. (But that's sort of a cheat,
because once you read it, you'll have to read all the rest of The
Prydain Chronicles.)
Beach, city, or forest?
Aaargh! I'm such a "AND" person, so these "OR" questions are impossibly
hard! Tossup between city and forest. How can one person totally love a
madhouse like Hong Kong (I've been there three times and the smell of
truck exhaust will transport me back in a heartbeat) and yet, also love
to be deep in the woods by a rocky stream with no one around for miles
and miles? And the beach? Love that too, as long as it's early morning
and I have a hand to hold.
Why did you decide to write Young Adult fiction and not, say, mystery,
chick lit, or "literary fiction"?
That's what I read. I think YA and middle grade fiction is at the cutting
edge of literature today Not only are writers willing to take incredible
creative risks, but they back up those literary dares with knock-you-flat
writing.
Movie, Theater, or a Concert?
Theater. My parents took me all the time when I was young, and I acted in
high school. I love the intimacy of a live performance.
If you had an entire week and unlimited resources to do whatever you'd
like, what would you do and why?
Hike in New Zealand with my family. Followed by a visit to Sydney, since
I'm already halfway around the world, and perhaps a little stop in Rome
and London on the way home. Which is way too much to do in one week,
but I already admitted (above) that I have trouble choosing.
Halloween, New Year's, or Valentine's Day?
Halloween or New Year's—any excuse to dress up!
The Edge of the Forest:Thanks for joining us, Sara! We'll see you on the blogs.
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