Author Visits
Author Visit with Liza Wiemer
Liza Weimer, Author of The Assignment
Lindsay Currie, Google Meet
March 30, 2022
Thanks to her publisher, Source Books, BRiMS got a chance to visit with Lindsay Currie for an hour. Her writing specialty is paranormal/spooky stories for middle grade readers. What we learned, though, is that her intention is not just to make readers scared, and she likes calling her style, horror with a heart. She writes her stories with a focus on friendships and family, and her characters will show bravery and empathy all through the lens of mysterious paranormal events. BRiMS members read her book What Lives in the Woods (WLITW). This book was born when Lindsay went on a writing retreat to Saugatuck, MI from her home in Chicago. She was there to write another book but was intrigued to learn about the Felt Mansion, which many consider to be haunted. She also heard stories there about the monsters known as melon heads who creep around the woods intentionally scaring people. She didn't begin WLITW until she left the retreat, but set the story in Saugatuck, featured an eerie mansion which she called Woodmoor, and included scary hitchhikers in place of the melon heads. Without her visit to the town on her retreat, she may never have written WLITW. She likes to infuse her fiction with the roots of real places. The students also learned that Lindsay does not like trying to conceive clever titles and leaves this up to her publisher. In this case, the title What Lives in the Woods is a red herring because the ghost who causes all the ruckus doesn't ever leave the house or enter the woods. She read the beginning of her newest book for us, The Girl in White, that won't be out until September. The cover of this new book is her favorite of all her books. It was exciting to get a sneak peek into what will be coming next for Lindsay. Thank you Lindsay for taking so much time with us and sharing so much about your writing.
February 9, 2022
BRiMS had the privilege of meeting with Jen Calonita via Google Meet on February 9th. This was our first author visit of the school year. Her latest book, Go the Distance, was the book that the group discussed. This book is the 11th in the Twisted Tale series from Disney, and Jen has written two others in the series. For each of the books in that series, the author takes one of the Disney movies and writes a "twisted" story based on the movie's characters. There is even a Disney expert who reads all the books to make sure the canon of the movie is not disrupted. In Go the Distance, the book begins at the end of the 1997 Hercules movie. The twist concerns the fact that Hercules wants to be a god on Olympus with Meg. As a mortal, she cannot stay with him. Hera sends her on a quest, and if she succeeds, then she can join Hercules as a god. Jen explained that she enjoys writing both her own books and the books for Disney. Since she is required to follow the canon of the movie, there were some restrictions to her characters, but with Meg's quest, she was able to include many characters and places that are famliar to those who have read Greek myths. She even used one of the For Dummies types of books to research and get the background she needed for her book. Jen found that there are so many versions of Greek myths that her twist that Persephone wanted to be with Hades in the Underworld was not totally out of character. Writing series of her own or in this case one that is already established is something she loves because getting the opportunity to explore worlds in multiple books keeps her writing. Jen Calonita visited Taylor in March 2017. We also had a virtual visit with her in 2015. We want to thank Jen so much for taking the time to talk to BRiMS.
February 22, 2022
Bookmarked sat down to talk with Rachel Griffin and learned a lot about the road to becoming an author. She always loved writing but early on had never thought about it as a career. She went to school to become a medical sonographer and worked for years in the medical field. For about 10 years she did no writing at all, but her job gave her little satisfaction. Eventually, she began writing again during her time off. It wasn't until her third completed book that she knew that she wrote something that was worthy of being published. She found joy through writing and explained that she is a huge reader also. In her mind, the way to become a good writer is to read. She has had no formal training as a writer and has been able to tap others to give her critical feedback on her work. Her love of the outdoors was a big inspiration for this novel. Though she lives in the Pacific Northwest, the book is set on the East Coast because she needed a location that had four true seasons to mirror the seasons that the witches controlled. This area is very familiar to her because her husband is from Pennsylvania. Everyone is anxious for the release of her second book because her first one was such a hit. Thank you Rachel Griffin and Sourcebooks for making this visit possible.
