Q&A with Shannon Hale, author of Middle Reader/Young Adult Fantasies
Shannon Hale is the author of five award-winning young adult novels, including the bestselling Newbery Honor book Princess Academy. She and her husband live with their two small children in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Shannon Hale started writing books at age ten and never stopped, eventually earning an MFA in Creative Writing. After nineteen years of writing and dozens of rejections, she published her first book, The Goose Girl.
—The Goose Girl, her critically acclaimed first book, is an ALA Teens’ Top Ten and Josette Frank Award winner.
—Enna Burning and River Secrets (2006) are companion books to Goose, continuing the Bayern books series.
—Princess Academy (2005) is a Newbery Honor Book and a New York Times best seller.
—Book of a Thousand Days, (2007) a new fairy tale retelling, just released
—Austenland, (2007) a romantic comedy, her first book for adults.
—Rapunzel’s Revenge (2008)
Shannon is now working on a series of graphic novels (i.e., illustrated stories like comic books) with Dean Hale (husband) and illustrated by Nathan Hale (no relation).
Q: Tell us a little bit about your most recent novel, Book of a Thousand Days.
A: This book has brought me so much joy! I’ve never felt so close to any of my main characters as I do to Dashti, even though she’s so different from me. It began when I read the Grimm Brothers’ tale of Maid Maleen for the first time, about a lady who is locked up in a tower for seven years for refusing to marry the man her father wants. Her maid is locked up with her. And I started wondering about that poor maid, what she thought of the whole thing, what her own story might be. The book is a diary that the maid, Dashti, keeps of their imprisonment and their adventure after.
Q: How did you narrow down the numerous fairy-tale choices available and choose Maid Maleen as the subject for Book of a Thousand Days?
A: I love fairy tales, but it’s not necessarily the ones I love to read the most that inspire me to retell, but the ones that irritate me. The Goose Girl, Maid Maleen, Rapunzel—they’re gorgeous and have mysterious and captivating elements, and they’re also so frustrating. They make me want to shake the Grimm brothers by the lapels and demand, “Why? Why? Why did Rapunzel just sit in that tower? Why didn’t the prince just bring a ladder, for pity’s sake? How did the goose girl do that stuff with the wind? What about the prince? Why did the maid go into the tower with Maid Maleen? How did she feel about the whole thing, and what happened to her later?”
Q: You were more interested in the maid’s story in Maid Maleen than the mistress. It required you to deviate from the original story more than you have in the past. How did that impact the novel and you as a writer?
A: I didn’t ask myself to retell Maid Maleen so much as take inspiration from it. I had no idea what I would discover as I searched for Dashti’s story. The ending was a delightful surprise for me—I had considered many others, and that was the one that just clicked right. I really tried to let the character lead me in this story than in most.
Q: Is writing your full-time job (besides being a wife and mother)?
A: Yeah, I have to claim mommyhood as my full-time job. Since having my glorious second baby, I get about four hours per week to write, so “full time” seems a bit of a stretch. But it has been my career since leaving my previous fulltime employment when my first child was six months old.
Q: How long does a book usually take you to write from idea to ‘turning’ it in to the publisher?
A: I first had the idea for Book of a Thousand Days in 2003, so that would be five years. Sometimes it’s shorter. But usually I have to let the idea ferment in my head for at least one year before I attempt to write it.
Q: Do you have an agent? How did you get your agent? Is it necessary to have an agent when writing in the Middle Reader/Young Adult market?
A: I do have an agent. I don’t think it’s necessary, but it made a huge difference in getting The Goose Girl, my first book, published. I like having someone else handle the business stuff, because I just want to write.
Q: Did you choose the title for your current novel? What about your previous novels?
A: My husband named it. The working title was “Diary of a Lady’s Maid,” and when my editor wanted to explore other names, my husband suggested Book of a Thousand Days. I loved the feel of it. Some names come easily— Princess Academy was Princess Academy from the beginning, though we considered changing it. So were Rapunzel’s Revenge (due out 2008) and The Goose Girl. Some I named late and really struggled with, like River Secrets. We’re still struggling to name the sequel to Rapunzel’s Revenge after a year of writing. We brainstorm dozens of ideas. I don’t like naming a book late because I like to have the title resonate with the text.
Q: Did you experience rejection before finding a home for your first novel, The Princess Academy? What were the biggest obstacles in finding an agent/publisher for that novel?
A: Goodness, yes! It was a horror story, and I’m still recovering. (Actually, Princess Academy was my third book, The Goose Girl was my first.) I laminated all the rejection letters I have into one long roll and like to unroll it at school visits. I’m very proud of them. Besides all the rejections I had for short stories, an earlier middle reader, and from agents, I received nine rejections for The Goose Girl. I was summarily turned away from the who’s-who of children’s publishing. Having an agent that believed in me and kept sending it out was a godsend.
Q: How did your book come to be published by Bloomsbury?
A: They were new in the US. My agent knew they were looking to acquire and sent The Goose Girl to Victoria Arms. I had never heard of Bloomsbury (the Harry Potter publisher in the UK), so having an agent was vital for that.
Q: Are you working on another book? Can you share a bit about it and when it will be published?
A: Always. Rapunzel’s Revenge, a graphic novel (i.e., comic book) for younger readers, will be out in 2008, and let me say, the illustrations kick some major hinny. I co-wrote it with my husband Dean, and Nathan Hale did the drop-dead fabulous art. I’m working on a new Bayern book and Rapunzel’s sequel.
Q: What advice would you give to someone who wants to write in the Middle Reader/Young Adult market?
A: Write to your internal reader. Write what you love to read, and let someone else tell you what market it fits in. If your internal reader happens to click with the middle reader/YA market, you’re in for a real treat, because you’re going to have the most fantastic fans in the world.
Q: What is your all-time favorite book?
A: Too many I can’t choose. I wish I could.
Q: What do you read for fun?
A: I read lots of YA fantasy because I LOVE it. But I like to read anything well written, whether fiction or non-fiction, for adults or kids, graphic novels, picture books, audio books, etc. I like to vary what I’m reading so the style of any particular author doesn’t disrupt my own writing too much.
Q: What is your writing schedule like?
A: I write whenever I have a moment. I need a part-time nanny, seriously. I just sit down at my laptop, open the book I’m working on, read the previous few pages, and try to reach my goal of 1,000 words/day.
*Read more about Shannon Hale at her Web site: http://www.ShannonHale.com