Q & A with KATHRYN ERSKINE, Author of SEEING RED

My last blog post was an introduction to SEEING RED, an MG/YA historical novel in which Author Kathy Erskine addresses one of her greatest passions - racial justice. Today, I'm pleased to share a conversation with Kathy. I met her when we shared a ride to a Highlights Founders Workshop with Editor, Patti Gauch. Since then, she's published several books and even won The National Book Award. She's remained the unassuming person of integrity that I met when we were both looking for a publishing home. We've visited a few times since then - the most recent one, via SKYPE

Chatting with Kathy via SKYPE.

She indulged me with a screen shot and later an email Q & A.  Here's where we get a tiny glimpse into her process for writing SEEING RED.
 
1.  Kathy, I have an earlier version of SEEING RED in a big manila envelope.  You gave it to me for feedback way back before THE ABSOLUTE VALUE OF MIKE, MOCKINGBIRD, and QUAKING were published.  So just how long has SEEING RED been in process and do you have a sense that now is the time to bring it out?  Or did you simply just find time to finish it?

You're right -- this story started, literally, in the last century!  The short answer is that I finally matured enough as an author to be able to write the story I wanted to tell.  Sometimes stories need to "ripen."  Sometimes you have to keep going back to a story and rewriting it before you get it right.  Sometimes delays and disappointments can lead you to a wonderful place.

For the long version, I laid out the whole history in a blog post.

2.    Ooooooooh.  Thanks for sharing the whole history. "Sometimes it’s not about the end, it’s about the journey..." And what a journey! The title on the version I have is CORNERSTONE.  Want to mention a few of the titles the book has been through and how you settled on SEEING RED?

Oh, this is so funny -- I can't even remember all the titles this manuscript has had!  It started as DEER SEASON until my husband asked why I was writing a hunting novel.  I dropped that and moved to CORNERSTONE, which he said sounded kind of heavy and lump-ish.  When I tried FREEDOM'S PHOENIX and FREEMAN'S PHOENIX he just kind of stared at me, which made me think those were even worse.  FACING FREEDOM was my favorite but there was a concern with the publisher that it might sound like a text book so we brainstormed some more.  It was amazingly hard to come up with something that captured the story but I think SEEING RED does it.  We settled on that title because not only is the main character's name "Red," and he starts to really "see" his world for the first time, but also because the expression "seeing red" means to be angry, and he does get angry about what's happening in his world.

 3.   Speaking of anger and seeing his world reminds me of one gut-wrenching scene in particular that really cranks ups the tension of the story. It wasn't in the version I read first. Without giving away too much, can you talk about how and why you added that scene?

I think I know what scene you mean and I added it thanks to my fabulous editor, Andrea Pinkney, who correctly pointed out that Red needed to feel racism viscerally instead of just observing it and getting upset about it.  It needed to come fairly early in the book so we understand his motivations.  I had to put myself in that very uncomfortable place -- not that I've had that experience but I think we've all been part of a group dynamic where things get out of hand and we don't like what's going on but we don't quite know how to stop it.

4.   You mentioned maturing as a writer since we first met in 2003 or 04, (which was it?) What have you learned that has transformed or informed your writing the most?

It was late fall 2003 so we've known each other for 10 years -- wow!  This is where I should say something profound except all I can think of is practice, practice, practice.  You really do get better at something when you keep working at it.  You also gain confidence, which is what I needed for SEEING RED.  And I guess I could add that you should trust your own voice.  Voice is unique, obviously, but also very fragile.  Don't let your voice be critiqued out of your manuscript.  You can change the characters, plot and setting, but keep your own voice!

Thanks so much Kathy for the wisdom.  And thank you for being the kind of person that cares about justice for all!

And hey ya'll.  I'm giving away a copy of SEEING RED.  If you leave a comment AND share one of my SEEING RED posts on social media, I'll enter you!  DEADLINE IS MONDAY, DECEMBER 17!

CLAUDETTE COLVIN: TWICE TOWARD JUSTICE

Just in time for non-fiction Monday, Augusta Scattergood drops by with a review for a book that has thrilled the children's book world.

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
By Phillip Hoose (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2009)

I don't read as much non-fiction for kids as I used to. Or as I'd like to. As a school librarian, working with teachers and students who thrived on good books, I appreciated it when a writer published terrific informational books kids loved to read and students and their teachers were also able to use for research. And although I’m no longer a working librarian, it’s hard to give up the mindset: I’m always thinking about how a “true” book might be used in the classroom and whether the author’s research stands up to scrutiny.

Phillip Hoose's Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice passed all my tests, including the readability factor. I devoured it in one sitting.

I grew up in the South of the 60s. I knew a bit about the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott, but like many other events of the time, much was left out of the story I’d been told. Yes, Rosa Parks, sometimes known as the godmother of the Civil Rights movement, is the name most associated with starting the boycott. But what this new book shows readers is that more than one person had a hand in this history-changing event. Many people, both black and white, stood up to the injustices they witnessed. And a young girl, much less well-known than most of the names associated with the Montgomery boycott, also refused to give up her seat on the bus.

Phillip Hoose learned about Claudette Colvin while researching an earlier book, We Were There, Too!: Young People in U.S. History. He tracked her down and eventually convinced her to grant him fourteen interviews. Much of the book is told in her words, her own personal history of the time.

The sidebars alone might constitute an entire lesson plan for teachers. A facsimile of a handwritten list attributed to NAACP secretary Rosa Parks shows contributions made by churches to Colvin’s case. A photograph of the “Rex Theatre for Colored People,” accompanied by a ticket bought for a mere 15¢ in the mid 1950s, illustrates Claudette’s text about the Jim Crow laws that were so pervasive in downtown Montgomery when she was growing up. Newspapers, photographs, descriptions of the town and the players in the boycott— so much detail, so many fascinating facts to pour over. This book is a gem.

Deservedly, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice has been bestowed with awards and high praise. A Newbery Honor, a National Book Award, too many “best” lists to mention.

In 2005, Colvin returned to her high school in Montgomery to speak to students. She tells them

“I made a personal statement, too… Mine was the first cry for justice, and a loud one. I made it so that our own adult leaders couldn’t just be nice anymore. Back then, as a teenager, I kept thinking, Why don’t the adults around here just say something?... I knew then and I know now that, when it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it… You have to take a stand and say, ‘This is not right.’

And I did.”

Phillip Hoose’s book illuminates a troubled time in our country’s history by detailing the impact of one significant event, the Montgomery Bus protest of 1955 and 1956.With this book, through the eyes of its leaders and a few ordinary people, young readers have a fresh perspective, new insights and information to interpret the Civil Rights movement.

I'm so grateful to Augusta for reviewing this for us. BTW - there's a gripping excerpt at the MacMillan website.

BOOK TRAILER: Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice

On Monday Augusta Scattergood will be my guest here, sharing her review of the National Book Award and Newbery Honor winning,Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice (by Phillip Hoose).

Meanwhile you can meet both Phillip Hoose and Claudette Colvin herself in this engaging video.


And since (unless you live in Hawaii) there is snow in your state, you may as well enjoy another video while you are at it. This is Phillip Hoose accepting the National Book Award with Claudette Colvin at his side. I really love that this was not one of those fluttery OMG acceptances. I love the quiet dignity of their walk to the lectern. I love that this man sought out history and shared a little known history maker with us. I think I have a new literary hero. Not because of the award but because of the respect that oozes from Phillip Hoose's pores.

Phillip Hoose and Claudette Colvin, 2009 National Book Awards Dinner from National Book Foundation on Vimeo.

CHAINS (Just in Time for Independence Day!)

I wasn't intentional about reading CHAINS during the week of July 4th. I read it because it was right there within easy reach at the local library. Because it is historical fiction. And because I know how Laurie Halse Anderson writes!

Indeed.

What an astute move on Laurie's part to tell a slavery story that takes place in 1776 - right there in New York City where Loyalists and Patriots were duking it out over the colonies' desire to be free from England.

Isabel is supposed to be freed upon her owner's death but the owner's greedy relative snatches her and little sister Ruth up and sells them. However, Isabel's knowledge of her intended freedom and her own belief in the right of all people to be free, do not allow her to ever be fully enslaved.

She works for her viscious new Madam because she must. But when she meets another slave - a boy who works for the Patriot's cause, she finds herself in a position to work against her Madam and the Loyalists. The risks she takes lead her into deep trouble.

But it's possible that risk-taking ultimately leads to her independence.

Of course we do not know for sure what happens to Isabel. We will have to wait for January 2010 to read the rest of her story in FORGE, a sequel.

First line of Chains: The best time to talk to ghosts is just before the sun comes up.

Chains won the Scott O'Dell Award 2009 and was a 2008 National Book Award finalist. Laurie won the Margaret A. Edwards award for lifetime acheivement in young adult literature.

Huzzah! Huzzah!

Here's to the freedom of all people everywhere. And freedom from our own chains which we unwittingly cling to because we're afraid to take risks.