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Gail Gauthier was one of the very first blogging writers interviewed at The Edge of the Forest and it's easy to
understand why. She writes one of the funniest, most interesting blogs around and she's been blogging since—wait for it—March of 2002.
If you're not a regular reader of Original Content, then add it to your blog reader
now. Gail blogs about writing, life in the trenches as an author (school visits, publicity), trends in the industry, and even reviews
books once in awhile. Gail Gauthier's books for young readers are as fun and as funny as Original Content is. Gail has written for teens (Happy Kid),
Middle Grade readers (The Hero of Ticonderoga; Saving the Planet & Stuff), and now for newly emergent readers with her Hannah
and Brandon Stories. The second volume of The Hannah and Brandon Stories—A Girl, a Boy, and Three Robbers—comes out July 3.
Don't miss it! It's a great story for the five-to nine-year-old reader.
Congratulations, Gail, on the upcoming release of A Girl, a Boy, and Three Robbers!
The Edge of the Forest: The Hannah and Brandon Stories are so much fun. What inspired you to write for the "newly emergent reader"?
[A Girl, a Boy, and Three Robbers; A Girl, a Boy, and a Monster Cat]
Gail Gauthier: I had been speaking to middle grade students in elementary schools for many years. A number of times I'd run into teachers who
taught younger students, and they'd say that they wished I could speak to their kids, too. Since my author talks were developed around my books, I felt
I needed a book directed to a younger audience in order to be able to speak to a younger audience. That's how this whole thing got started.
The Edge of the Forest: Now I know absolutely nothing about this, but it seems to me that writing for the five-to eight-year-old reader might be the most
difficult writing task of all. You've written for teens, for middle grade readers, and, now, for this audience. What do you think?
Gail Gauthier: Writing picture books might be more difficult. I haven't had much luck with that. But, yes, I think the younger the audience for a
book, the more difficult it is to write. I think writers are most comfortable writing about their own kind and their own interests. Teenagers are getting
close to the adult experience, and I think the influx of adult writers into YA is very understandable. It's not that huge a leap to move from writing about
people in their twenties to people in their mid to late teens. With middle grade books you find a lot of twelve-year-old characters with very, very mature
behavior. Since kids like to read up, adult writers can get away with writing some adult-type behavior into those middle-grade characters.
But with first- through third-graders, which is where I place my imaginary Hannah and Brandon reader, we're talking about people who are quite a bit
different from ourselves. Most of these children aren't going to read as fluently as adults, so we need to keep that in mind. Many of them aren't going to
have attention spans as long as ours, so we have to be careful about writing long chapters or even long scenes. Many of their cultural references—their
books, their television shows, their clothing labels—are going to be different from ours. Many of them aren't going to be very independent outside of
school, so stories involving characters their age should probably deal with the presence of adult caretakers in order to be realistic. (This makes for
difficulties because it's hard for kid characters to have adventures with adult characters looking over their shoulders all the time, which explains the
presence of so many orphans in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century kids' books.). Kids this age are so different from us that there's a limit to
how much we can draw on our own experience in writing for them. Our childhood experiences are sometimes decades removed from those of the kids we're
writing for. It's just lovely if we can get our childhood era just right, but it's not the era our readers are living in.
The Edge of the Forest: In A Girl, a Boy, and Three Robbers and A Girl, a Boy, and a Monster Cat, your protagonist Brandon has to
spend three afternoons at Hannah's house after school. Hannah has a lot of big ideas for games Brandon has to participate in. Brandon would rather relax
and watch TV afterschool, but instead finds himself playing a vampire, chasing a cat (who plays a variety of roles), or taking part in a tea party. Are
you a Brandon or a Hannah?
Gail Gauthier: I'm sure many readers think of Brandon as the protagonist in The Hannah and Brandon Stories because first-person protagonists are so
common in children's literature. However, I consider Hannah the main character. My model was Sherlock Holmes and Watson. Holmes, like Hannah, is the
colorful, dynamic character. Without Holmes and Hannah, there would be no stories. Their adventures are related by more mundane sidekicks, Watson and
Brandon. Watson and Brandon can't carry the action on their own. Brandon may be what's called a peripheral narrator, a term I just learned last week and am
anxious to find a chance to use.
Wait. What was the question? Am I a Brandon or a Hannah? I'm a combo. I'm an idea-person like Hannah, but I'm all too likely to do nothing about the ideas
because I'm kicking back in front of the television like Brandon.
The Edge of the Forest: Will there be more books in The Hannah and Brandon Stories?
Gail Gauthier: My contract was for two books. Whether or not there will be anymore is up to the publisher, and it's probably too early
for a decision about going forward.
The Edge of the Forest: Okay, so I have another difficult question for you. I've read a few of your books now and what I love about them is that
they're funny. How difficult is it to get the funny in your writing? Or do you find it terribly easy to do so?
Gail Gauthier: My world view just happens to involve finding humor all around me. I've sometimes had to keep from laughing in church. (Perhaps if
I went more frequently I'd get over that.) One of my sisters once had all the cousins laughing at a wake, and she did it with just the expression on her
face. So finding the humor in situations isn't a big problem for me. The problem is to make sure the humor rises out of the situations I'm writing about
and isn't forced. Anything that sounds unnatural is no longer funny. It's also important to not be funny just for the sake of being funny. I don't want
being funny to ever be the point of what I'm doing. Humor should support story.
The Edge of the Forest: Now on to the blogging questions. You were one of our very first blogging writer interview participants way back in
March 2006. Recently I put a call out for blogging writer suggestions to a group of bloggers and number of them said, "Bring back Gail!" You're a favorite
amongst the bloggers because of your own smart blog Original Content. Do you still enjoy blogging as much as you did, say, three years ago?
Gail Gauthier: The thing you have to remember about my blog is that it's not just a labor of love. It's a marketing tool. Since I'm not keen on
world travel and can't get around to bookstores and schools all over the country, I consider it my major marketing tool. It's how I keep my name out in
front of the public between new books. I consider my blog part of my work. It's just good fortune that it's a part of my work that allows me to talk about
what I'm reading and to ramble on about what's happening in the kidlit world. It's a part of my work that I enjoy because it's so much faster to write a
post than it is to write a novel.
The Edge of the Forest: How has the children's book blogging world changed since you began your blog?
Gail Gauthier: There have been two changes. First, there were very, very few children's literature blogs when I started over six years ago. Maybe
six or seven. That all changed...what? About three years ago? Four? At some point there were far more blogs devoted specifically to kidlit, and the
bloggers were all interacting, and a community was forming. That was very exciting. I had someone to talk to! The second change involves the growth of that
community. According to JacketFlap, there are now over 700 children's literature-related blogs that are part of its network. There are probably more that
haven't hooked up with JacketFlap. That's an enormous amount of content. Many of these blogs carry really good material. But there's way more material
now that I'm interested in reading than I can read. My impression is that I'm not the only person in that boat. I think we've created far more blogs than
the blog-reading public has time to consume.
The Edge of the Forest: How does blogging fit with your writing? Do you find it adds to or detracts from your creative life and writing?
Gail Gauthier: I try to blog in the evening so it doesn't cut into my work time. However, I waste so much time during the day that if I do blog
then, it's actually a good thing. At least I'm doing something work related. If you include reading blogs in "blogging," then it definitely adds to my
creative life. I'm so much more aware of what's going on in kidlit publishing than I would be if I didn't take part in the blogging community. I'm exposed
to so many more authors and titles because I've heard about them through other blogs.
The Edge of the Forest: What about blogging has been surprising for you as a writer?
Gail Gauthier: Getting to know people, to the extent that you can know people you have never seen in the flesh.
The Edge of the Forest: Do you have any advice for writers thinking about beginning a blog?
Gail Gauthier: No matter what you've read in an Internet marketing how-to article, a blog is not the same thing as a website. Nor is it a replacement
for a website. A website contains formal, clearly laid out material, which doesn't change frequently, regarding your books, you, your availability as a
speaker (assuming you are), teacher or reader guides (assuming you have them), and so on and so forth. Readers of your books and potential readers of your
books need to be able to find this stuff quickly or they, quite understandably, are going to move on to an author they can easily find information about.
There are a lot of books and writers out there.
You'll probably mention some of your website info off and on in your blog because your blog is all about you. But it won't be easily accessible because the
post in which you wrote about it becomes old news once you've moved on to a new post. It's buried back there in your archived material. A website is about
cold, hard fact at the touch of your fingers, and a blog is about personality presented in an ever-changing manner. I think of a writer's blog as a
combination of an old-fashioned print column and a literary salon. Readers give your blog a shot, and if they enjoy your world view, maybe feel they share
it, they'll come back. They'll remember your name. They might notice it on a book when they're in the library or at a bookstore. That's the point of a blog
for writers.
The Edge of the Forest: What are you reading these days?
Gail Gauthier: You've caught me in a very adult-oriented reading mode. I'm still working on Writing Fiction by Janet Burroway and
Elizabeth Stucky-French and What If? by Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter. I should have finished them long ago, but I had to stop so I could work
on two new school presentations. I've also started How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read by Pierre Bayard, a book I hadn't read but talked
about at my blog a great deal.
The Edge of the Forest: Before we go, tell us a little bit about what you're working on now. (Pretty please?)
Gail Gauthier: Well, after I've finished reading Writing Fiction and What If?, I expect to be a far, far better writer than I was
before, which should put me in a good position to do still another draft of the book I worked on all last year. I also want to revise some of my adult
short stories—again because what with all the studying I've been doing, I should be able to do wonders with them, right? I also have this idea for
writing another book for younger readers. It would have 365 one-page stories. Flash fiction for kids. But that's going to take me a long, long time.
The Edge of the Forest: Thanks, Gail, for talking to us once again!
Gail Gauthier: Hey, the pleasure was all mine.
Don't miss Gail Gauthier at her website and at Original Content.
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