Shannon Hale
The following is an "e-mail" interview between Shannon Hale and Sheliah Egan, Children's Literature Specialist and Mid-Atlantic Representative for the CLCD, Company, LLC.
SE: Hello Shannon, It is a very real pleasure to get to visit with you and learn a bit about how you go about the writing process. Do you have a set pattern for writing? Do you need silence, or are you stimulated by music as you compose? Give us some idea how your day develops.
SH: I used to try to listen to music as I wrote, thinking it would inspire me--classical, movie soundtracks, things without words, but it was pointless. I tune out the tunes completely. When I was writing the first draft of Princess Academy, I had my newborn Max playing or sleeping on my lap. I had a folder of music on my computer that I played for his sake, and I discovered that the lyrics didn't bother me a whit. I can't write when people are talking around me, though. For the past year, I've written in silence.
SH: My day. I get up with Max (who is 16 months today!) and we play in the morning, run errands, go outside, visit family. At 11 am he goes down for a nap, I turn off the phone and write. After the nap, we play some more. Sometimes I can turn on the computer while he's playing at my feet and answer emails, update my website, and other business things, but I can't write. I have to have a big block of time and absolute concentration to do it. I have a daily writing goal of 1000 words. If I don't make that before Max wakes up, I have to write at night after he goes to bed when I'd rather be with my husband relaxing, reading, watching TV, etc. If I don't make my 5000 words by Saturday, I write on Saturday, too. I take Sundays off. I love, love, love getting to be home with Max and having this writing thing, but my routine is, I think you'd agree, fairly mundane. My husband and Max are my social life. It's very surreal when I go to conferences and signings and such and meet people who think I'm cool, because actually I'm quite boring. I wish I could say, "After an invigorating round of pilates on the green, Maggie Atwood, Jo Rowling and I have tea, then mount our steeds and chase down the white stag..." or something.
SE: I have been enchanted by your books and am especially intrigued by your fascination with language and communication. I adore the "quarry-speech" in your new book, Princess Academy, and was impressed by your having the goose girl (of the book with the same title) learn to "speak" to the animals and even the wind. Please, tell us a bit about your ideas of human communication and why you feel so strongly about making it a large part of your books. Of course, as an author, words are the essence of your being but you take it to another level in your novels and I want to know more about your motivations.
SH: I rarely have ulterior motives besides telling the story the best way I can. In fact, I might say, never. I'm not capable of such clever planning. The idea of nature speech came from writing The Goose Girl. In the original tale, there's a talking horse (a real problem for a writer who wants her book to be taken seriously) and a moment when the goose girl somehow controls the wind. I can't stand fantasy where the magic system is random, if I don't understand how it works, so it was a big deal for me to get inside these ideas and make them real and coherent. I seized on the horse and wind, added to it the presence of the geese and a lady-in-waiting who can convince people to do what she wants, and developed the idea of people, animal, and nature-speaking. Although Princess Academy is not a Bayern book, I wanted it to feel as though it could happen in the same world, so the quarry-speech is essentially stone-speaking (a type of nature-speak that I hadn't explore yet). If I really wanted to analyze my brain and why communication is so important to me, I might have a better answer for you. But I'm afraid to analyze myself too much. Who knows what dark demons lurk there...
SE: I am also struck by the subtle lessons on nature (and our relationship to the world around us) that play such a prominent part in your books. You seem to stress acute observation of and interaction with nature. I love the way you contrast the forest folk and the "city" folk while giving each group its own dignity.
SH: I'm so thrilled that you found ideas deep enough to be considered lessons, but again, I have to admit that I didn't intend to deliver any particular message. It's funny, because I put a great deal of thought into each word I chose, each simile, each description, to build the story that I want, but I rarely think, "This is what the reader will get out of it. This is what I want them to learn." The descriptions of nature come mostly because I want my characters' worlds to be palpable and because I love how the way we see nature can tell us about ourselves, our current mood, our secret wishes. The outside world is such a rich tool for a writer to use to express so much more than just where a character happens to be sitting.
SE: What sorts of things did you read while growing up and what are your favorites as an adult? I suspect that fairy tales have played an important part of your own background. I, too, loved The Goose Girl story and was most gratified that you kept the spirit of the story (and many of the exact details of the version I read) while giving the characters more depth and development as fully realized people.
SH: As I child I read E.B. White, Francis Hodges Burnett, Robin McKinley, C.S. Lewis, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Carolyn Keene, Lloyd Alexander, Patricia McKillip-lots of fantasy. My mom had a mammoth, two volume illustrated tome of fairy tales that I adored. That's where I first read "The Goose Girl" and fell in love with the story. It appealed to me, in part, because it was so strange and brief and kept me asking questions. I find it a tremendous honor to be able to carry on the tradition of retelling fairy tales.
SE: You may or may not want to reveal personal, biographic information: educational background, martial status, children, pets, geographical info, etc.
SH: I'm not a very private person with my personals (as you might be able to see from my blog). I'm 31 years old. I married one of my best friends from high school after 11 years of friendship and courtship. We've been married for five years now, and he's my dream man and my best friend. I have a BA in English from the University of Utah, MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Montana, spent 18 months in Paraguay as a volunteer representative for my church (very cool experience, and I was fluent in Spanish, though sadly my lack of practice has done great damage since). I worked for 3 years as an instructional designer and was able to quit when our first child, Max Stonebreaker, was 6 months old. We have a pet plastic pig. I was born in Salt Lake City and live here now, though there are many places I think I would love to live-New York City, Seattle, Arizona, England...
SE: If you feel at liberty to do so, we would love to have you tell us about projects that you are working on and what we can (eagerly) look forward to reading in the future.
SH: Princess Academy will be out in July. I'm in the 3rd draft of City of Rivers, another Bayern novel that features Razo as the main character and is somewhat of a murder mystery. I'll most likely do another 12 drafts before it's done, with an expect pub date of fall 2006. I have another fairy tale retelling outlined, 100 pages of an adult contemporary novel, several new Bayern book ideas, a possible sequel to Princess Academy, and my husband and I are working on a graphic novel proposal. Yikes, that's a lot. All I can really think about at this moment is City of Rivers.
SE: Thank you very much for spending time with us. We appreciate your "personalized " insights and look forward to many more books.
Contributor: Sheilah Egan
For more information about Shannon Hale visit her website.
Reviews
The Goose Girl
Shannon Hale
The Grimms' collection of folktales contains two stories of a Gñsemagd, or goose girl. Author Hale has expanded one of them to almost four hundred pages and filled the spaces with a multitude of characters, new locales, and numerous events to explain what is unexplained in the original. In folktales, girls are often forced to undergo humiliation and hard labor before they can come into their own, and this princess is no exception. Betrayed by her envious lady-in-waiting, she must escape from vicious guards, serve as goose girl, and live with the oppressed workers of the city while she gains confidence and allies to confront the king and reclaim her identity. More attention has been given to dialogue, detail, and character development than is the case in folktales. This princess has the opportunity to meet her intended prince (handsome and perceptive); the magical white horse Falada assumes less importance. After many adventures and a bloody climax, the impostor is exposed and the princess triumphs as the saviour of her people, a typical journey in heroic fantasy, into which the goose girl story has been transformed. Those who love this genre, and who don't object to the violent ending (the prince must kill to prove his manhood and the gruesome death allotted to the false bride is retained), may find this journey absorbing. Those who love folktales will prefer Wilhelm Grimm's short, pithy narrative--betrayal, humiliation, reinstatement, revenge--and the opportunity to imagine for themselves the motivations and the magic. 2004, Bloomsbury, $17.95. Ages 10 up. Reviewer: Barbara L. Talcroft (Children's Literature).
- Best Books:
- Best Children's Books of the Year, 2004; Bank Street College of Education; United States
- Middle and Junior High School Library Catalog, Supplement to the Eighth Edition, 2004, 2004; H.W. Wilson; United States
- School Library Journal Book Review Stars, July 2002; Cahners; United States
- Awards, Honors, Prizes:
- Josette Frank Award Winner 2003 United States
- Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature Finalist 2004 Children's Literature United States
- Teen' Top Ten List Winner 2004 United States
- State and Provincial Reading Lists:
- Beehive Award, 2004-2005; Nominee; Young Adult; Utah
- Great Lakes Great Books Award, 2005-2006; Nominee; Grades 6-8; Michigan
- Lone Star Reading List, 2004-2005; Grades 6-8; Texas
- Teens' Top Ten List, 2004; Nominee; United States
- Horn Book Guide:
- Volume XV Number 1 Spring 2004 Intermediate Fiction Rating 3, Recommended, satisfactory in style, content and/or illustration.
ISBN: 1-58234-843-X
Enna Burning
Shannon Hale
Enna was first introduced to the Young Adult audience in Shannon Hale's award winning prequel, Goose Girl, as the faithful friend to Isi, who is a renowned heroine in her own right. Two years later, Enna faces challenges, dangers, and adventures even greater than before. Living peacefully among the forest of her origin seems to be the path of Enna's future until her brother, Leifer, following the directions of a mysterious cloth, learns the art of fire-talking. Although Enna fears the powers demonstrated by Leifer, she is also fascinated by the possibilities for patriotism, especially when Bayern, home of her beloved Isi, is swept into war. Readers are impelled along as Leifer suffers the consequences of his hypnotic discovery, and Enna experiments with fire, just for the benefit of the country, she tells herself. Although she has warned Leifer that fire can only live by destroying, Enna becomes entangled in the web of fire-talking, destruction, and secret sorties into enemy country with her friends Razo and Finn. Capture, drugs, deception, escape, death, and final victory for good, all take readers on a fast-paced ride into metaphorical questions that are a contemporary as tomorrow's news. Enna's story is a compelling moral tale that teens, classroom teachers, and parents will find memorable and hopeful. Readers will eagerly anticipate the third book in the series. 2004, Bloomsbury Publishing, $17.95. Ages 12 to 16. Reviewer: Janice DeLong (Children's Literature).
ISBN: 1-58234889-8
Added 04/28/05
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