Interrogation Room #40: Elle Cosimano, author of NEARLY GONE

Today marks the release of a book that I've been dying to read since I first met Elle at a conference in the summer of 2011.  A YA thriller with page-turning tension, a mind-bending mystery and a melty romance?  I'll take two!

Kirkus Reviews calls NEARLY GONE "Tense and engaging."  Publishers Weekly says that "Cosimano weaves together math riddles, science-based clues, an edgy romance, and psychological terror to create an unpredictable page-turner."  And, in a starred review, School Library Journal said, "Eloquently written and packed full of suspense, debut author Cosimano strikes gold with this page-turning thriller that will have teens chomping at the bit to get to the end."

Bones meets Fringe in a big, dark, scary, brilliantly-plotted urban thriller that will leave you guessing until the very end

Nearly Boswell knows how to keep secrets. Living in a DC trailer park, she knows better than to share anything that would make her a target with her classmates. Like her mother's job as an exotic dancer, her obsession with the personal ads, and especially the emotions she can taste when she brushes against someone's skin. But when a serial killer goes on a killing spree and starts attacking students, leaving cryptic ads in the newspaper that only Nearly can decipher, she confides in the one person she shouldn't trust: the new guy at school--a reformed bad boy working undercover for the police, doing surveillance. . . on her.

Nearly might be the one person who can put all the clues together, and if she doesn't figure it all out soon--she'll be next.


Elle agreed to sit in the interrogation room to allow us to help celebrate the launch of her debut novel, and to learn more about the book that has readers staying up into the wee hours of the morning.

1)  I know you are an alumni of the Writer's Police Academy.  How did your experiences there influence NEARLY GONE?

Every class I take at WPA is an opportunity. The experiences and lessons ad authenticity and a richness to my settings, plots, and characters. But a few in particular stand out as being exceptionally helpful with this book. First were the classes I took about serial killers -- the various kinds, what defines them as such, and perhaps most importantly for me, what motivates them. My killer needed a motive. There had to be a compelling reason for the murders. And these classes helped take me inside my killer's head.

The other was a ride-along with a deputy sheriff. During our ride, he took me through a trailer park very much like the one my character lives in. We talked at length about the challenges residents face there, and the types of crimes they often see, and how the teens in this neighborhood adapt to the challenges of poverty, drugs, and unsafe living conditions. It was an eye-opening first-hand look into Nearly's life, and I felt the experience brought me much closer to her story. During the same ride-along, I learned that the deputy had a lot of previous experience working with confidential informants. I had the opportunity to ask a lot of questions about CI's (what motivates them and how they work) that helped me to better understand Reece's character.

2) I love that your main character, Nearly Boswell, is obsessed with the personal ads, and that the killer uses the personal ads to leave clues to the upcoming murders.  Where did this aspect of the story come from?  Did you read a lot of personal ads to prepare?

The inspiration for Nearly's character came from watching one of my co-workers read the Missed Connections during her lunch break at work. She read them obsessively, making fun of the people who wrote them, but when she thought she was alone, she looked so lonely reading them. As if maybe she secretly hoped one of the ads had been written for her. I did read a lot of Missed Connection ads when preparing to write certain scenes of the story. Some of them did make me laugh. But a lot of them were heartbreaking too. It was a fascinating look into Nearly's world, and it really got me thinking about what she might be looking for in those ads.

3) I find that writing a mystery presents its own set of challenges.  What was your process for constructing the mystery?  Did you plot it out in advance?  Were their suprises along the way?

I created a loose plot and an outline, but tried to give myself the freedom to recognize opportunities along the way. This left the door open for some really fun surprises. Of course, it also leaves openings in the floor for some big, fat plot holes. Once the guts of the mystery and plot were in place, it took me several passes to tie up all the loose ends. 

4) What was the most challenging aspect of writing a thriller for a young adult audience?

The things I love about YA lit are also the elements that make it so challenging to write. Within the scope of YA, genres can be bent and blended any which way. It's not unusual to see books that fall into three or four different categories, as is the case with NEARLY GONE. It's a thriller, and a mystery. It has a pinch of paranormal, but could be described as contemporary, and it has a strong romantic thread. It's definitely YA, but it has a lot of cross-over appeal for adult readers. And the trick with a book that crosses so many boundaries is that it has to commit to do all of these things well. NEARLY GONE couldn't be just a great thriller. It had to have a solid mystery that's difficult to solve. It had to have a compelling romance. And the paranormal elements had to be woven in very carefully. 

5) Rumor has it that NEARLY GONE has an amazing romantic element.  How did you balance the romantic aspects of the story with the thriller aspect?  Were you influenced by any particular authors or genres?

The romance between Nearly and Reece was the spoke in my wheel while I was building the story. It's the part of the story that remained the same from draft to shelf, the part I held tight to when the rest all fell away through three major revisions. In Nearly and Reece's case, the balance has always come from the tension between them -- tension that helped keep the plot tight and magnify the other conflicts in the story. For the romance to stand out, the tension had to be strong enough to stand up to the tension of a rising body count. If the romance wasn't as tense as the mystery or the thriller elements, then it would fall even flatter by comparison to the rest of the story. Nearly and Reece had to be strong. There had to be fire between them. And their romance had to be tested at every turn.

6) NEARLY GONE is your debut novel.  What has been the most satisfying part of the publication journey for you so far?

It's a strange and lonely thing, to have all these characters living inside your head, and then on the page. They almost don't seem real until I share them with someone else -- a crit partner, my agent, my editor. And suddenly, lots of people are getting to meet Nearly. Her story is out in the world, and so is the piece of my heart where she lived for the three years it took to bring her into the world. It's a beautiful and terrifying thing, to finally be able to share her with so many people. 

7) Now that NEARLY GONE is out in the world, what's next for Nearly?  For Elle?

A sequel, NEARLY LOST, is planned for release in 2015, in which Nearly takes an internship at a local forensics lab, and the crimes start hitting a little too close to home. As for me, I'm looking forward to attending RT Convention in New Orleans in May, and another round at the Writers Police Academy in September.

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Elle Cosimano is the daughter of a prison warden and an elementary school teacher who rides a Harley. As a teen, she spent summers working on a fishing boat, baiting hooks and lugging buckets of bait. She majored in Psychology at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and set aside a successful real-estate career to pursue writing. She lives with her husband and two young sons, and divides her time between her home near Washington, DC and a jungle tree house in the Mayan Riviera.

Interrogation Room #39: Elisa Ludwig, author of PRETTY SLY

Today marks the release of our very own Elisa Ludwig's PRETTY SLY, the sequel to her heart-pounding debut, PRETTY CROOKED, about teenage thief Willa Fox.

PRETTY SLY, called a "crackling-good adventure" by Kirkus, asks the question, "What would you do if your mom disappeared and forbade you to come after her?"

In between celebrations for her launch, Elisa bravely agreed to an interrogation about her writing process.

1) Something I'm dying to know: How did you research the terrific scene where Tre teaches Willa how to pick-pocket in PRETTY CROOKED?

Heh heh. I used a combination of my own real life experience as a pickpocket victim, some shady websites and some very cool YouTube videos—there's a great BBC series called The Real Hustle, which gave me some interesting ideas for mixing up the thieving scenes. The reality is there's a lot of criminal how-to out there for the reading, but that could be a good thing, if people use it to avoid being victimized.

2) Can readers expect to see some familiar faces in PRETTY SLY (besides Willa and Aidan)? Did you pluck any smaller roles from the first book and give them a larger presence in the second book?

Yes, the principle characters are all there, though the Glitterati only have a bit part, which turns the catty quotient in this sequel way down from the first book! I don't know that anyone has a larger presence but even the main characters in the first book are pretty mysterious and secretive, so the second book deepens our understanding of them—but also raises many new questions ...

3) How much downtime did you have between books? Was it easy or difficult to return to characters from the first book? 

I think I finished PRETTY CROOKED in February and started PRETTY SLY in May or June. Not too much time had elapsed, and I was working on copyedits and things while drafting the sequel so that helped keep everything fresh. I loved coming back to the same characters. It was so much easier to start a book in a place where I already understood my characters and their motivations. Sometimes that process alone will take a few drafts. It allowed me to focus on the increasingly more complicated plot!

4) Was your high school experience anything like the experiences of your characters? Was there a clear-cut line between the haves and have-nots?

My high school experience was only similar in that I went to a private school and, as a middle class student, was very aware of class distinctions and how students communicated their status through clothing, cars, etc. While the mean girl behavior in my high school was much more subtle, there was certainly a sense that some (but not all) of the most privileged kids "ruled the school" socially. But I was definitely more of a fringe-y character than Willa. Like the Say Anything dudes say, "by choice, man." Or so I told myself!

5) What challenges did you face in writing SLY that were different from writing CROOKED? Was anything easier the second time around?

I think the challenge with SLY was to make Willa's experience more difficult and keep turning those screws. This book has much higher stakes: she's in greater danger and she's also facing some really difficult emotional truths. The tone here shifts as a result, and keeping that in balance with Willa's bubbly personality and the lighter feel of the first book was at times tricky. On the other hand, I felt really lucky that SLY sends things in such a different direction that it truly felt like a whole new adventure to write. As I said, the characters were much easier the second time around, and I think I had a much better handle on the structure of the story from the very beginning. Also, it certainly didn't hurt that I was working with the same brilliant editors, so I always had their voice in my head when I was drafting, keeping me on course.

6) When you wrote PRETTY CROOKED, did you always know it would have a sequel, or did you envision it as a stand-alone? If you did map out the sequel early on, how much did the finished product of PRETTY SLY compare to your original plan?

I always knew it would be a trilogy. Parts of PRETTY SLY were imagined originally as part of PRETTY CROOKED (through the first leg of their road trip, basically), but as time went on it became clear that Willa's time at Valley Prep really deserved its own book. That being said, all of the key clues except maybe a couple we added in copy edits were already in the first book when it came time to write the second. The third book was much more vaguely conceived going into it, and it probably changed the most dramatically in revisions—down to the actual answer to the mystery!

7) Besides Willa's vicariously satisfying Robin Hood-esque scheme of "spreading the wealth around" at her school, there is a second, overarching mystery about Willa's mother. When you have two (or three!) separate mysteries going on, how do you keep track of each person's head space at different points of their respective time lines? 

Oh, man. That's only the tip of the iceberg with this series! It can be tough, that's for sure. I wish I was one of those people who used Post-Its or a big magic marker or something, but truthfully, I just used a lot of Kanye West all-caps-esque notes to myself in the text as I wrote. Stuff like "REMEMBER: SHE ONLY KNOWS X,Y and Z, HERE!!!" and "HOW THE HECK IS SHE GOING TO COME TO THIS CONCLUSION?!!"

9) PRETTY CROOKED resolves certain plot elements perfectly, while still serving as a cliffhanger. Did you get any angry letters about the ending? Was it difficult to write a conclusion that leads directly into a new adventure?

Yes! Maybe not super-angry, but a lot of teasing and frustrating ones. My editors and I went back and forth about where to leave things, and ultimately decided on the cliffhanger, which has its old-fashioned charms. I wouldn't say it was difficult to write that ending but I maybe felt a bit guilty to do that to readers. I hope PRETTY SLY will satisfy them!

10) I love Aidan and Willa's banter, as well as Willa's friendship-chemistry with Cherise and Tre. Do you have particular techniques you draw on to keep your dialogue so sharp? 

Thank you so much! I like to read dialogue out loud (if no one else is in the house!) to get a feel for how someone might really say something. And it's definitely something I fine-tune in revision, stripping it back more and more, because most people speak much more efficiently than I actually write.

11) When is book #3 coming out?

March 2015!

Check out the trailer for PRETTY SLY, below, and then enter to win a free copy of BOTH BOOKS!




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Interrogation Room #33: Julie Berry, Author of ALL THE TRUTH THAT'S IN ME

We're taking a step back in time with this mystery; so set those Interrogation Room torches ablaze! Julie Berry is in for questioning concerning her newest book, ALL THE TRUTH THAT'S IN ME, which is releasing today! 

ALL THE TRUTH THAT'S IN ME has already received several starred reviews and is completely addictive: beware, you may wind up reading so late into the night that you won't wake up in time to milk the cow and chop the firewood! Here's a little more about this unique, distinctly poetic read:

Four years ago, Judith and her best friend disappeared from their small town of Roswell Station. Two years ago, only Judith returned, permanently mutilated, reviled and ignored by those who were once her friends and family. Unable to speak, Judith lives like a ghost in her own home, silently pouring out her thoughts to the boy who’s owned her heart as long as she can remember—even if he doesn’t know it—her childhood friend, Lucas. But when Roswell Station is attacked, long-buried secrets come to light, and Judith is forced to choose: continue to live in silence, or recover her voice, even if it means changing her world, and the lives around her, forever. This startlingly original novel will shock and disturb you; it will fill you with Judith’s passion and longing; and its mysteries will keep you feverishly turning the pages until the very last.

A bit about the author: 

Julie Berry holds an M.F.A. in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College of the Fine Arts. The second novel she wrote in school was published as THE AMARANTH ENCHANTMENT, which was later followed by SECONDHAND CHARM, ALL THE TRUTH THAT'S IN ME, and the SPLURCH ACADEMY FOR DISRUPTIVE BOYS series, which was illustrated by her older sister, Sally Faye Gardner. She lives with her husband, four sons, and two cats in Massachusetts, where she is home full-time, writing.

All right, Julie – we've got questions, and we want answers! Don't even think about pulling a Judith here; we know you can talk. You seem very nice, so as long as you cooperate, we won't lock you in the stocks while we interrogate you. 

1) One thing that immediately pops out at me is your unique narration choice. Judith addresses much of the narration to Lucas, so that what we have is something almost like second person. What prompted this stylistic decision, and was it challenging to execute?

The story began as a little writing challenge I gave myself after reading an essay about point of view I found in a craft book. I wondered if I could write a novel or part of one in second person. As it turns out, that isn’t what I ultimately created, but the “you” voice stayed with me. It wasn’t difficult to work with at all, but I think that’s in part because Judith had so much to tell someone. Her sustained focus on Lucas helped this to work.

2) Between the second person narration and the short, segmented pacing, the story reads almost like verse. Have you ever dabbled in poetry?

You’ve caught me out. Good sleuthing. Throughout my life I’ve written poems off and on. They always had a great deal of meaning for me, but I’m not sure any other discerning readers of poetry would concur, alas. I would love to study poetry more formally.

3) Narrators are sometimes sidelined spectators of the true protagonists of a tale, but it was very interesting that Judith was actually unable to speak. Did this present challenges in developing the plot, or was it convenient in some ways?

I can see how, in theory, it ought to have been a limitation to make silent Judith the focal character. Dialogue isn’t really possible for her, for most of the story. And any time the focus adheres closely to one character, writers wrangle with how to show others’ important actions. Nevertheless, Judith’s story wasn’t hard to write, at least not from these mechanical considerations. She was so real to me that her story unfolded before her organically. Both her voice and her silence both left me no alternative but to make this her story, her interior drama. Her limitations saved this story from a more conventional structure, and I’m glad of that.

4) ALL THE TRUTH THAT'S IN ME seems to take place in a specific historical era. What kind of research was involved in writing the book, and why did you choose this time period?

Even though my place setting was ambiguous, I tried to keep my time-indicating details solidly consistent to a specific window of time in 17^th Century Euro-American history, so that word choices, cultural artifacts, and social/cultural ideas would all cohere believably. I made up a place with its own history, but I wanted it to feel convincing, so its time clues needed a ring of authenticity.

5) You address some fairly dark topics in the novel – essentially, every mother's worst nightmare. As a writer for younger audiences, how do you decide where to draw the line?

I don’t think about it much during initial writing because it impedes creativity. I trust my agent and editor will advise me if they feel I’ve crossed lines. When the writing is done, and it’s editing time, that’s when I think more about the suitability of my subject matter. I don’t want to make readers unduly afraid, but I realize I can’t control how every reader may respond. I have no interest in being shocking or edgy for its own sake. I try to write what the story needs, and I try to write from a position of respect and care, both for my readers, and for real people whose lives might mirror my characters’. So in that sense I haven’t drawn any lines in advance, but I try to let those ideals guide me.

6) Do you have any interesting writing quirks to share?

My writing quirks aren’t very quirky. I can’t write with music on. I need silence to create. Neither my habits nor my personality favor tidy schedules, homes, or rituals. I careen through chaos. So I have learned to write almost anywhere. I keep companion notebooks for each project I’m working on. I often pray before writing, but not always, so I’m not sure I can call it a quirk. This is a good reminder to do better. The main point of those prayers is to give thanks for a life that allows and encourages me to write.

7) What are the most rewarding and most challenging aspects of writing mysteries for a young audience?

Young readers who find that they love mysteries have an enormous body of work to grow into and fall in love with. I felt a responsibility to play by the mystery rules so as to be a stone in the path mystery readers take toward loving the genre. This was both a pleasure and a challenge. It was the first mystery I’d written, and I felt anxious to ensure that if Professor Plum did it in the billiard room with the candlestick, I’d made sure to place the candlestick within reach, allowed time for Plum to nip in and out, given him a reason to do so, planted red herrings in the right spots, and given the reader enough clues to solve the crime without so many as to make it obvious. It’s a lot of fancy footwork. I owed it both to my readers, and to Dame Agatha, mystery’s patron saint, to get it right.

8) What is something that no one knows about you?

I’m a talker. Given the way I gab and blab, I don’t think there’s anything about me that I haven’t told two dozen people already. Mysterious and enigmatic are not my gig. In this respect, I’m sort of an anti-Judith. Maybe that’s why I like her so much. Opposites attract.

9) What writing secret will you reveal only under the harsh lights of this interrogation room?

Love your enemies. It’s easy to love your heroes and protagonists, and your colorful supporting cast, but story enemies need love, too. Know them as fully as you know your heroes. Understand their backstories, their complexities. Be present in the moment when their potential turned south. This doesn’t have to mean you go all soft on them and pardon their atrocities. But care about them; your stories will be richer and truer for it. Also, pay attention to what everyone in your story is doing at all times, onstage and off. What are they doing, and what are they thinking? This will give your supporting characters more meaningful roles and invest your story with believable surprises, which keep things interesting.

Thanks, Julie! You've been most obliging. I'm glad you didn't give the spectators any reason to throw their rotten fruits and vegetables at you; you've probably dressed up nicely for release day. Congratulations and best wishes!

WAIT! Want to win a free SIGNED HARDCOVER of ALL THE TRUTH THAT'S IN ME? Click the Rafflecopter link below for details! (note: this giveaway has been upgraded from an ARC to a SIGNED HARDCOVER, which Julie can personalize to you!)
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Dying to get your hands on a copy? Order ALL THE TRUTH THAT'S IN ME from your local independent bookstore, chain bookstore, or online bookseller.

Want to learn more about Julie Berry? 

Follow her on Twitter @julieberrybooks 

Visit her website

Find her on Facebook

Read her blog

Check out her YouTube channel

PS . . . have you entered SLEUTHAPALOOZA, our biggest giveaway yet? Help us celebrate our two-year anniversary and enter to win, or help spread the word! This giveaway ends October 10!

PPS: This interview was conducted by Dani Forshay, one of our fabulous interns! Thank you, Dani!

Interrogation Room #21: F.T. Bradley, author of DOUBLE VISION

DOUBLE VISION from fellow sleuth F.T. Bradley is out in stores today! Internal Affairs has hauled her in for a few questions, but we're finding it hard to pin her down. We do know that DOUBLE VISION is getting rave reviews. Jack D. Ferraiolo, Edgar Award nominated author of THE BIG SPLASH, says, “Lincoln Baker is an awesome main character: savvy, funny, and like a young James Bond, he can’t resist the chance to start some trouble. Give him a mystery to solve, stick him in Paris, arm him with gadgets, and watch stuff go boom.” And Horn Book Magazine calls it, “A great voice, with a good heart, some self-awareness, and a funny style.” We double agree.

Enter to WIN A SIGNED COPY OF Double Vision below this Interrogation Room session!

A bit about F.T. Bradley:

F. T. Bradley is originally from the Netherlands and still likes to travel, like Linc, whenever she gets a chance. Her husband's Air Force career has F. T. and their two daughters moving all around the world, but for the moment the family lives on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. This is the first book in her new series about Lincoln Baker and Ben Green. 

A bit about DOUBLE VISION:

One's a Secret Agent, One's Not.

Twelve-year-old Linc is a trouble-maker with a dilemma. His antics on a recent school field trip went way overboard, landing his already poor family with a serious lawsuit. So when two secret agents show up at his house, Linc is eager to take them up on their offer to make the lawsuit disappear. They just need one tiny favor.

Turns out Linc looks exactly like one of their top kid agents—an agent who's vanished during a vitally important mission. But no debriefing can prepare Linc for how dangerous the mission really is. It's too bad he isn't a black belt, a math genius, or a distance runner like his agent double. He'll need all those skills and more if he hopes to make it out of this mission alive. . . .

Confess please. You sold this book before it was fully written, didn’t you? How did this story idea come about and what was your path to publication?

I had written several YA novels that everyone seemed to like, but no one wanted to publish… After I sent my now-agent a query, he suggested I write middle-grade. So we sort of came up with it all together. Long story short, we worked on the proposal for what is now the Double Vision series, and my nice editor at Harper Children’s liked it enough to buy it.

Then we still revised a lot of the concept and the pages, and I wrote the rest. Throughout the process, Linc (my main character) stayed the same, though. It’s a strange path to publication for a fiction writer, but there you have it.

Congratulations! So, most of DOUBLE VISION is set in Paris. Our sources have told us you have moved a lot. Have you ever lived in Paris? Or did you send spies to do your research? …or perhaps you gleaned information through OTHER means? 

I wish I’d lived in Paris, that would’ve been sweet… And no spies, alas, unless you count Google. I had to do a lot of research on the city, and all the places Linc visits. Don’t tell anyone, but I used the library a lot…

Montmartre, Paris, France

Speaking of Paris, I loved learning that Leonardo Da Vinci would go to Montmartre to buy birds to set them free. What is your favorite Leonardo Da Vinci tidbit of information? 

That was one bit of info I loved too. Apparently Leonardo da Vinci was a vegetarian. And he painted two versions of the Virgin on the Rocks painting—one hangs at the Louvre in Paris, and one is in London.

For my kid readers, I thought it was important that da Vinci wasn’t always seen as the genius we view him as today. The man didn’t finish a lot of projects he started. I think we can all relate to that a little bit…

I love that--makes me feel a little better about some of my works-in-progress! One character that doesn't seem to leave things unfinished is Linc’s friend Henry. Henry is Linc’s “gadget guy,” an inventor of sorts who designs tools and technology to help Linc out. How did you come up with all the ideas for the gadgets? What’s one gadget you wish Henry could invent for you? 

I tried to think of something that would be helpful to get you out of a jam, and then I’d have Henry work his magic to create a gadget to suit the scenario. Henry is one of my favorite characters, so that part of the story practically writes itself.

I wish I could have a device that stops time—it seems I never have enough of it…

So...our investigations have turned up that you are a self-proclaimed reluctant reader and that you wrote DOUBLE VISION with reluctant readers particularly in mind. How are reluctant readers different than regular readers? And, as a writer, what did you pay attention to in order to address this?

I think we’re all a little bit reluctant in our reading: we skip lengthy narrative passages, and avoid books that don’t strike our fancy… I’m very guilty of this. As a writer, I use a lot of dialogue and action. It’s what I would like to read—and you can still have meaningful moments and depth.

To get on my soapbox for a second… There are kids that wouldn’t pick up a book at all unless you made them—part of the problem is that assigned reading is just not their speed. We need more fast-paced mysteries and thrillers, adventure stories that keep you turning the pages. I worry that the middle-grade department doesn’t reflect what we like to read when we grow up (like mysteries/thrillers), and I hope that Double Vision is a book that connects with kid readers.

If we lose readers, it’s at the middle-grade level.

Ouch! Someone just kicked me off my soapbox…

DOUBLE VISION is the first book in a series. How much did you have to plan out what happens in subsequent books as you wrote the first book?

Because of the way the book sold (as a partial), we made most of it up as we went. I think the double artifact element was established early on, and the characters were already in place—that’s the hard part. The series now can go anywhere I want to drop Linc… It’s fun.

More importantly, I have young readers in my house who need to know: when is the next book is coming out—and will it involve more farmyard mishaps?

No farmyard mishaps—I think Linc is happy to leave the chickens behind this time around.

For book two, I’ll reveal that we go deep into the spy world of Washington D.C. Oh, and Linc is still getting himself into plenty of trouble. It’s out sometime in 2013…

And finally, DOUBLE VISION is packed full of codes and ciphers. First, this investigator has been dying to know: what IS the difference, exactly, between a code and a cipher? And, second, do you have any parting code/cipher messages for your readers?

I had to look that one up, I’ll admit, but I think a cipher is a coded message, where a code can just be numbers and letters. If that makes sense *scratches head*.

On a related note: I have a bunch of links on the Double Vision books website (www.doublevisionbooks.com) to the NSA, CIA and International Spy Museum with code-breaking games, and lots of kid-friendly secret agent fun. You know, for the kids (or adults, if you’re like me).

A parting code… Here’s a book code I came up with. You’ll have to use Double Vision to decode it:

24-2-1

31-4-8

57-2-4

70-4-4

150-27-5

187-8-1

Uh-oh. Readers, we need your help. Please check out the links below for more on F.T. Bradley and to find out where you can get a copy of  DOUBLE VISION to help us crack this code!

Website: www.doublevisionbooks.com

Twitter: @FTBradleyAuthor

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Interrogation Room #20: KATHRYN BURAK, author of Emily's Dress and Other Missing Things

Today we're interrogating debut author Kathryn Burak!

Kathryn teaches at Boston University. She has also published stories, poems, and textbooks. EMILY'S DRESS AND OTHER MISSING THINGS  is her first novel.

Since her novel is hot off the press -- just released by Roaring Brook/Macmillan yesterday -- we thought we'd haul her in and find out all about EMILY'S DRESS AND OTHER MISSING THINGS, and find out, well, about other things too. Like her writing process, and her "Replenishing the Shelves" project.

And we hope we'll learn a thing or two about her partner in crime -- a poet who may be guilty of overusing certain punctuation marks -- and who remains a bit . . . elusive . . .  

Recognize this mug shot?

About EMILY'S DRESS:
Claire has been through so much that she’s pared her life down to one goal–to get out of high school (finally)–until the night she wanders into Emily Dickinson’s house and finds everything suddenly changing. Claire, new to Amherst and desperate to get out of high school, vows she’ll try to be invisible. She retreats deep into thee poetry of Emily Dickinson to help her understand her mother’s suicide and best friend’s disappearance, until one night, when she finds herself running through the woods in the poet’s dress. The next morning she starts a different life, one with totally new complications.

Here's Diana Renn's interview with Kathryn Burak!

DR: I love how this novel revolves around not one but TWO mysteries (or crimes): a stolen dress and an unresolved missing person case from the past. It’s not a classically plotted “whodunit” or “where is it.” Yet I wouldn’t hesitate to call it a mystery. When did you realize you had a mystery on your hands, albeit an unconventional one? 

KB: I love mysteries—especially real-life mysteries--and I’m so flattered that someone would think of me as a writer of mysteries.  I’m a sucker for those TV shows like 48 Hours, that run through the clues to a crime.  And like a lot of people, I have always been intrigued Emily Dickinson. There was only one photo taken of her before she became a recluse;  she avoided people.  What was that all about?  Why did she shy away from society?  She’s become almost a cult figure.  And one day I heard a story on NPR about a Welsh, alt rock musician who disappeared without a trace from London in 1995.  There’s something irresistible about missing person stories, especially this one, about a guy who carved things into his own flesh.  In fact, the boy who is missing in my book is named Richy after this missing musician, Richey Edwards. Like Dickinson, Edwards has a kind of cult following, too.  So, I knew I wanted to have a disappearance in the story, but I wasn’t sure how it would feature into the story until I was asked to cut a 20,000-word subplot from the first draft.  Then the crime elements rose to the surface of the plot to carry the book.

DR: In addition to the mystery plot, there are so many fascinating components to this novel, including poetry and creative writing, Emily Dickinson, a father/daughter relationship, romance, friendship, and healing from a dual loss. Can you identify the earliest idea(s) you had for this novel, or a starting point for you?

KB: I knew the story I wanted to write was about survival and hope.  And, I knew I wanted a female character who could be loved because of her strength, talent, and humor, but who had also lost someone very important to her.  And then, one day I took my son to a poetry reading by Robert Pinsky.  He was reading his translation of Dante’s Inferno to an audience of high-school teachers.  There were some young teachers in the audience, and one was a nice-looking guy who made me wonder how female students could possibly concentrate if he read them poetry. One of the lines Pinsky read was something like ‘then my hunger had power over my grief.’  And that was it—the idea that the main character in my book would feel her urge to live life--her hunger to write and love and live--was more powerful than her grief. And how could I resist that the story involve a handsome student teacher who loves poetry?

Emily's sleeve

DR: Claire feels a special connection with Emily Dickinson, and she sees the world through a poet’s eyes. I love that we see some of her own poetry, as well as Emily’s, interspersed in the narrative. Her language is beautiful. What is your background with Emily Dickinson and with poetry? Are you also a poet? 

KB: When I was in college I fell in love with poetry.  But this was influenced by my mom, who used to say, “I’m nobody.  Are you nobody too?” when I was little.  I think she gave me my first taste of the power of poetry, how it can really speak directly to a person with just a few, beautiful words. So I went to graduate school to get an MFA in poetry.  But after I graduated, I found myself gravitating to stories.  Still, I read lots of poetry because I admire the form so much. 

DR: Having lived in Amherst myself, and experienced the eerie enchantment of Emily Dickinson in that town, I loved the setting of this story. Did you live there or travel there for research?  

KB: I went to graduate school in Amherst, and I would end my morning runs at Emily Dickinson’s grave—just, you know, stop by to say good morning.  When I was getting ready to graduate and move to North Carolina for my first job, someone wrote a mystery called something like “Emily Dickinson is Dead.”  And I was so jealous.  I thought, ‘someday I’m going to write a mysterious story set in Emily’s town.” Now I get to visit because my daughter is in college in the area. The atmosphere is so charged with excitement from all the students, it’s hard not to imagine lots of great stories happening there.

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DR: Tell us about the Replenishing the Shelves Project and how people can help.

KB: When I visited the Dickinson museum in Amherst, Emily Dickinson’s house, I found out that all of the books owned by the family had been gifted to Harvard and Brown Universities, so the shelves of the libraries are bare.  The museum started a project to buy the original editions to fill the shelves back up.  Since a lot of my book takes place at the museum, I found myself wanting to give something back.  I said to the director, Jane Wald, “Will you allow me to use my book to help buy Emily’s books?”  She thought it was a great idea, and we are teaming up.  I have a couple of projects over at my website kathrynburak.com (Emily’s Missing Books) and you can find out more about how you might contribute directly at http://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/books.

DR: The concept of time in this novel is complex, and you handle it so well. Past tragedies and mysteries encroach on the present. Claire’s memories are easily triggered by a line of verse, or an image with symbolic weight. Yet we don’t get bogged down in the past; it’s deftly woven into the narrative. You also move us forward in time very effectively, writing a page-turning mystery that unfolds over the course of an entire school year – an unusual breadth of time in a mystery, and even in a YA novel, I might argue. How did you handle these various time frames when you wrote? Did you outline events or did the writing happen more organically? 

KB: When I knew I was going to have a student teacher involved with a student—although she is only 2 years younger than he is, I also knew I would have to deal with how the relationship is  still a little unexpected, just a tad taboo. A relationship like this was going to take time to develop, time to work out and make convincing, especially since I wanted the reader to root for them, to understand they are good together.  I decided it would take at least 9 months to earn that kind of connection, so I had to pace the story.  I didn’t outline, but I knew it would take a whole school year for the story to happen.  The tension of their pairing—will they meet again?—was what I wanted to focus on.

Emily's Swag Pack #2 (Giveaway details below...)

DR: I see you’ve been previously published in literary magazines, and your writing feels quite literary for me. It’s wonderful to see literary fiction for young adults. Did you always plan to write a novel for teens? How conscious were you of audience as you wrote this book? 

KB: I have published in literary magazines, but my stories always involved children, teens, or young adults.  I love reading literary fiction for young adults because it feels so hopeful and full of possibility.  I published a story years ago about a 10-year-old Japanese girl whose mother dies of breast cancer and she has to figure out how to get to know her very distant father.  After that story came out, a publisher approached me and asked me if I’d like to write a novel for young adults.  This was a little before Harry Potter came around and made YA and Middle Grade novels so high-profile. I said, what is a YA novel?  Honestly, I get confused when people make fun of adults reading YA novels.  I think good writing is good writing and it doesn’t need any label.  At the same time, I consciously wanted to speak to teens about hope and self-worth.

DR: What writing secret will you reveal only under the harsh light of this interrogation room?
KB: Sometimes you have to let your characters do what they feel like doing—you have to listen to them.  They’ll really surprise you when you do that—let them tell you what they want to do rather than you always planning what they are going to do.  Put them in a scene and let them run the show.  I can’t tell you how surprised I was the day my main character, Claire, ended up in a cemetery wearing Emily Dickinson’s dress.  I was like, what just happened?  But you know what had just happened?  I found my story’s fulcrum--because I let Claire have a say.

Thanks, Kathryn!

I can't find Emily Dickinson's dress, but here's where to find Kathryn Burak online:
Her website
The Class of 2K12
Facebook
Twitter: @DressWriter

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