Author Interview: Rosanne Parry

Today we are proud to welcome Rosanne Parry, author of Heart of a Shepherd!

Ignatius (known as Brother) is the youngest in a family of strong men, most of whom plan careers in the military and/or herding the cows on their family's ranch. When Brother's father, a military officer, leaves to fight overseas, Brother has to step up to be the man of the house...and discover his plan for his own future...

(Read our original review at: http://thechildrensbookreporter.blogspot.com/2009/05/reporters-review-heart-of-shepherd-by.html)

CBR: Heart of a Shepherd takes place on a ranch--how did you discover what life on a ranch was like?

RP: I’ve never lived on a ranch, although I have lived in small towns. I have friends who live on ranches and I’ve traveled through Eastern Oregon several times. There are plenty of good books about ranch life. A current favorite is The Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss. Agricultural colleges are a great source of information and YouTube has an extensive collection of calf birth videos. Yeah, I was surprised too! It’s interesting to see but definitely not for the faint of heart.

CBR: Faith and family are such an integral part of your story...was your own family an inspiration for this?

RP: Not really. I used to be an altar boy so the scene where Brother was serving on the altar was lots of fun for me to write. On the other hand, the Alderman family Christmas traditions are nothing like my own. Some writers do base their characters on people they know, but that never works for me. The only character in the book that’s “real” is Brother’s Shetland pony Spud.

CBR: Do you have any advice or words of encouragement for children, like Brother, whose parents are away at war?

RP: So here’s the big secret about being in the military. Soldiers love each other. If you have a mom or dad serving the armed forces, you can be positive that they are surrounded by other soldiers who love them and would do ANYTHING to help them.
The soldiers your parent serves with care about you, too, and they love it when you send your parent pictures and drawings and great stories about your life at home. All the ordinary stuff you do is like treasure to people far away, so send them lots of letters and play piano over the phone and send videos of the school play and tell about your cool science project. Everybody will be glad you did!

CBR: Heart of a Shepherd was your first published novel; what was the hardest part about writing this book? What was the hardest part of getting it published?

RP: My husband is a veteran of Desert Storm and had been off active duty for a dozen years when I began working on Heart of a Shepherd six or seven years ago. By the time I was revising it, I had several family members on active duty and a few had deployments. That made the work far more emotionally intense than it might have been otherwise. The challenge for me was to give the story emotional strength without overwhelming a young reader. Fortunately, I have an editor I trust to help me find that balance.
The hard part about the publishing process is how long everything takes. Even with an agent, it takes time to sell a manuscript. Once you have a publisher it takes months and often more than a year to get on the schedule and through the revision process. Once that hurdle is cleared it may take many more months to design the cover, copy edit, print and ship the books. Once your book is in stores, it’s months before you know whether or not you are making sales. It’s not that I wish things would speed up exactly. I’m glad my editor is committed to making sure I have enough time to write the strongest book I can. The cover and book design took a while, but the result is gorgeous! It’s just hard to wait.

CBR: How do you balance your vocation of writing with your vocation of motherhood?

RP: Lucky for me house cleaning and yard work is not a vocation! Not a lot of that going on over here. Seriously. Ask around.
It helps greatly that the one vocation supports the other. I’m a better writer for having a house full of children. I have insight into childhood I would not have if I were just recalling my own experiences. My teaching and volunteer work puts me in regular contact with children beyond the immediate circle of my family. Children are also very motivating. I have to be purposeful about setting aside a time and place for writing, so it motivates me to get work accomplished when I have writing time.
I also find the writing helps the mothering. Because I’m immersed in children’s books I’ve read most of the books my children love, and we have an easy avenue to talk about what is important to them. Literature at its best is an invitation to a conversation, and I love it that books are a way for my children and me to connect.

CBR: Finally, are there any questions you've always wished to be asked that you'd like to answer here?

RP: Not so much a question but a moment of shameless self-promotion. I’m very proud to be a member of the Class of 2K9, a group of debut middle grade and young adult authors who have banded together to promote our books releasing in 2009. We are all so grateful for the work teachers and librarians do to make literacy happen that we wanted to do something to pay them back, particularly in our current budget crisis. Authors-To-Go was formed out of this idea. It’s a volunteer virtual author visit that the Class is offering to teachers and librarians and summer reading programs in 2009. Pick the book your kids and love and contact us at authorstogo@classof2K9.com. We will arrange an hour-long chat room or Skype visit with our author and your students. It’s easy and fun so give us a try!

CBR: Thank you so much, Rosanne! Your book was such a pleasure to read, and we're very grateful for the time you took for this interview. We'll be keeping our eyes out for Heart of a Shepherd when the award season comes around!

To learn more about Rosanne Parry and her books (and to see more cool pictures like the ones of the lamb and lovely easten Oregon mountainscape she provided), visit her website at http://www.rosanneparry.com/

Author Interview: Robin Brande!

Please welcome our very first author interviewee (that should be a word), Robin Brande, the author of FAT CAT!

Cat is a spunky, determined, science-buff, who takes on a very interesting research project to win the Science Fair--and get revenge on her former best friend... She decides to live, as closely as possible, the life of the earliest humans. In the process her body--and her life--changes in many unexpected ways...

(Read our original review at: http://thechildrensbookreporter.blogspot.com/2009/04/reporters-review-fat-cat-by-robin.html)

FAT CAT comes out in October 2009--be sure to check your bookstores!

CBR: I've promised never to ask the ever-annoying question: "How did you get the idea for this story?", but there is another I just have to ask even though you probably get it all the time... In your research for FAT CAT, did you personally submit yourself to Cat's diet and lifestyle to see what it would be like?

RB: Oh yes, oh yes. And sometimes that was great—giving up all the processed food felt SO good for my body—but sometimes it was awful—giving up all the processed food felt SO sad for my little tongue. Face it, in real life there are definitely times when you need some tortilla chips and salsa and a few (or a dozen) cookies--book deadlines come to mind. I don’t know how other writers write without the proper dosage of salt, fat, and sugar. But overall, writing FAT CAT—and really, doing all the research for it ahead of time and during it—ended up convincing me to make a huge, lifelong change to the basics of my diet. I ended up where Cat does in the book, which was a big surprise to me, because that’s not at all where I thought we were headed when I first started writing it. That’s what I love about writing books: I end up changing myself as often as I end up changing my characters.

CBR: On a related note, did you actually come up with any of the great recipes Cat develops (which, incidentally, made my own meals while I was reading look like plastic in comparison!)? Any you'd be willing to share with us?

RB: I did try a whole bunch of fancy combinations, all using basic, unprocessed foods like whole grains and beans and veggies and such. I cooked a lot as I worked on the book, because I wanted Cat to be able to experiment with foods, and it’s hard for me to write that if I haven’t lived it. But I’ve found that what I keep coming back to now, post-writing, are the simplest of meals: roasted potatoes with salt and pepper, big honking salads, fresh homemade bread, oatmeal and bananas for breakfast. Pretty exotic, huh?

CBR: One of my favorite things about your story is the element of relationships that you developed and the amazing job you did developing true-to-life, lovable characters. Did people you know inspire the characters of Cat's friends and family?

RB: I love that question! Because I’m sure a lot of writers can tell you that they love slipping in family members and friends—it’s so sweet to be able to spend the day with fictional characters based on people you already love. Cat’s best friend, Amanda, is named after my niece and has a lot of her qualities. But the friendship itself is based on my own friendship with the same best friend I’ve had since I was a sophomore in high school. I’ve always felt that amount of unconditional support from her that Amanda and Cat give to each other. I HATE snarky girlfriends, and it was such a pleasure to write a relationship that felt warm and accepting and true. As for some of the other characters, I’ve given a lot of them names of my friends and family members, and based a lot of them on people I know. It’s always fun to have those people read the book and see if they’re able to pick themselves out!

CBR: A question for those of us out here who pray to be writers someday... FAT CAT was your second book; was it more or less difficult to write than your first?

RB: I’m so glad you asked this. Because I’m one of those classic cases where I spent YEARS—so many years—writing and rewriting the same first book. I’d send it off, have it rejected, rewrite it, send it off again—so much time given to that one book, because I thought that’s all I could ever write. Then I went to a writing conference where the speakers talked about writing multiple books every year—and making a good living as a writer. Until then, I didn’t realize you could even write more than one book a year—that certainly hadn’t been my experience. So I came home all fired up to try it—to see how quickly I could write another book. I sat down and wrote one in 5 weeks. Then took a little break and wrote another one in 6 weeks. They weren’t great art—they never sold—but they did teach me that (1) I have more than one story to tell, and (2) I’m able to start and finish books. Maybe this sounds simple, but that was THE hugest breakthrough I’d ever had. It completely built my confidence that once I begin a book, I can actually finish it—and finish it within a reasonable time (rather than after years and years). This is all a long way of saying that every time you write a book, it gets easier in some ways because you’ve just built up your confidence again with the previous one. Each book has its own fresh challenges, of course, but it’s fun to try to grow your skills with each book, and to know that when you begin, you’ll be able to work through to the finish. You’ve proven to yourself that you can do that. And then when you are finished, you’ll have yet another novel to send out there into the world! It may or may not be the one that gets published, but that’s okay, because you’re going to go write the next one, and that may be the one that begins your career. You’re not hanging everything on just that one novel you keep writing and rewriting.

CBR: Are there any new projects you're working on that we can hope to see soon?

RB: FAT CAT comes out this October, then I just finished writing my new novel, which I’m hoping will be out in spring of 2011. It all seems too far away. Let’s not speak of it yet!

CBR: Lastly, are there any questions you always wish you'd be asked that you'd like to have a shot at here? :)

RB: Yes, as a matter of fact: “What would you like the aspiring writers out there to know?”

1. There is room for all of us, and if you have stories to tell, please tell them. Don’t give up!

2. Be kind to your fellow writers, both aspiring and established. Don’t give in to snark. Remember that there are actual human beings behind the books you’re reading, and if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. You may not understand that until you’re on the other end of a mean review or a comment, but trust me, there is such a thing as Writer’s Karma.

3. Read a lot. You’d be surprised by how much you can learn from reading how other people do it.

CBR: Thank you so much, Robin! We can't wait to see your book on the shelves.

RB: Thank you for this interview! What fun!