I’m thrilled to have award-winning YA writer Mindy
McGinnis On the Verge this week. Mindy, if you haven’t read her yet, (and if
you haven’t, I’m not sure why!) is the prolific genre-bending author of the
dystopian Not a Drop to Drink, the gothic
historical A Madness So Discreet (which
won the Edgar Award), and the dark contemporary
The Female of the Species, (hands down, one of the best books I read last
year).
And now she’s got a new book out, the fantasy Given to the Sea. Last weekend Mindy and I caught up at the Ohioana Book Festival and I had the chance to ask her all
of my burning questions.
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Jody: On a recent panel you talked about where your
ideas come from. Not a Drop to Drink
you had an image of a girl holding a gun and A Madness So Discreet started with your interest in the old insane
asylum in Athens, Ohio. I’m curious about your new book—which is the first fantasy
you’ve written—about the inhabitants of a dying island world.
Mindy: In a lot of ways Given to the Sea is a montage of many
different thoughts that have come to me over a period of fifteen or twenty
years.
The first scene that ever occurred to me was a
star-crossed lovers type of situation, with an Ivanhoe-esque turn with the
female refusing to cave to her own desires to be with the male, to the point
that she's willing to pitch herself from a window to save her pride. That scene
doesn't actually exist in the book now, but it planted the seed that told me I
wanted to write a fantasy.
A combination of many things came together for
everything else: an interest in Huntington's disease (also called the
"dancing sickness"), the idea of genetic memory, and rising sea
levels.
Jody: It just occurred to me that the rising sea level
idea is the flip side of your first book. Not A
Drop to Drink was a world with no water, and here, with this new book, you’ve
got a world with too much water… Was the process for writing these books the same?
Mindy: My process is always the same. I sit down and
write the book.
Jody: You make it sound easy.
Mindy. Not easy, but you just do it. With this book I
thought I had all kinds of freedom because I was building a fantasy world.
Jody: So, you're thinking anything goes...
Mindy: Except it doesn’t. You have to keep track of
your own rules that you're making, because you made them in the first place.
Jody: And sometimes you write yourself into a
corner. What do you do when that happens? Any tricks you can share?
Mindy: I think a lot while I'm driving. I live in the
middle of nowhere so if I'm on my way to an event I've usually got at least an
hour each way, and the drive might give me some room to sort things out.
Jody: You've recently started writing full time. Has
that changed how you write?
Mindy: It's harder to make myself write. Before I was
on a very tight timetable. If I had twenty free minutes, then I needed to crack
out some words. Now, I've got all day... and I know it. I'm learning how to
budget my time better, which is weirdly harder when you have more of it.
Jody: What kinds of scenes or stories do love writing
most and least?
Mindy: I love writing biting dialogue, insults, stuff
like that. Least, action scenes. Writing a battle scene and
trying to keep it as "realistic" as possible while still making it
thrilling and fun is challenging.
Jody: You write in different genres... from dystopian
to gothic historical fiction to contemp, and now fantasy-- what makes a Mindy
McGinnis book a Mindy McGinnis book—besides the fact that at least one of the
characters is probably going to die?
Mindy: That, and a definite layer of grit and realism overlying
everything. That's my approach with any genre. If this WERE going to happen,
how would it unfold? No drama. No fuss. Just, give this thing some room and see
what happens. Usually nothing good, because it's a McGinnis. :)
Jody: This is on a totally different note, but I know you've
launched a podcast recently. What got you interested in that?
Mindy: I started listening to podcasts while I was
running, and I started on the high end of production value - Serial, This American Life, Cracked,
etc. I burned through those and started listening to others that were suggested
to me and, most of the time, was not impressed. I thought to myself, "I
could do better than that." Then I thought I should put my money where my
mouth was.
So I did, literally. It's a time investment for me,
since one of my biggest complaints about other podcasts was that they needed
heavy editing (lots of filler, dead space, inside jokes, side rants).
Jody: And your podcast doesn’t--
Mindy: I don't make my listeners listen to
anything I wouldn't want to hear.
Jody: I'm guessing there's some money involved.
Mindy: For
hosting and distribution. I'm hoping to at least break even with it, if not
make it financially productive, by the end of one year (I paid for one year of
hosting up front). If it's not lifting its own weight by then, I'll have
to pull the plug. At the moment I spend more time on the podcast than I do on
my writing, which economically makes zero sense.
Jody: True. But hey, what does make sense in this business?
*(Check out one of Mindy's podcasts Here)
Okay, time for the lightning round. What kinds
of things do you do for fun?
Mindy: Oh, God. I'm such a geek. Genealogy. Seriously.
I found an ancestor (female) that I'd been looking for for ten years a few
weeks ago and I almost cried. I also love old cemeteries and will just stop the
car and go visit one if I see one that looks interesting to me.
Jody: Last good book you've read?
Mindy: Defy
the Stars by Claudia Gray
Jody: TV show you've binged?
Mindy: Brooklyn Nine-Nine. I'm catching up!
Jody: What's up next for you?
Mindy: Given to
the Sea will have a sequel (it's a duology) in the Spring of 2018, titled Given to the Earth. I have another
contemporary, This Darkness Mine coming
October 10th of 2017 from Katherine Tegen Books.
Right now I'm working on a story I'm mentally
referring to as "Drunk Hatchet With A Girl," about a teen lost in the
Appalachian region.
I'm sure marketing will retitle that.
Jody: Probably. But wouldn't it be awesome if they didn't? Hey Mindy, thanks so much for chatting with me today! And dear readers, if you'd like to know more about the dark and brilliant mind of Mindy McGinnis, see below:
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Mindy McGinnis is an Edgar Award-winning author and assistant teen librarian who lives in Ohio. She graduated from Otterbein University with a degree in English Literature and Religion, and sees nothing wrong with owning nine cats. Two dogs balance things out nicely.
Where to find her:
Website: mindymcginnis.com
Twitter: @MindyMcGinnis
Where to find her books:
Sounds like great stuff coming up from Mindy, cool. Thanks for moderating the dystopian panel at Ohioana. I'm glad it gave you a chance to catch up with Mindy for the interview.
ReplyDeleteShari! Did I miss talking to you at Ohioana? Or did I talk to you and not know I talked to you???
Delete--This is sadly, a real possiblity. The day was a blur :)
We chatted just a tiny bit as the authors set up. You might not remember my name/face from the Upper Arlington Library day last fall, where you presented workshops--I think I took 2 from you, the second being Writing Down the Bones (or something like that). No worries if you don't remember me by sight yet. I still have Thin Space in the "to read" section of my bookshelf, next to Mindy's one about the asylum. Thanks for being a local author who goes out and gives talks. Everything helps us new writers, and takes away from YOUR writing time!
Delete