Classical Jazz 2005: Home

Follow-up Interview Update with
Vivian Vande Velde (2006)

In WITCH DREAMS, a girl risks using her witch powers to try and discover the identity of her parents' murderer. You do such a fantastic job of making fantasy accessible and enjoyable for all readers. How do you come up with your characters? How do you figure out what story is theirs to tell?

First: Thank you.

Second: Beats me.

I don't have a method I habitually use or specific steps I generally take. Mostly (I think) I start with a situation, and with only a vague sort of idea about those characters that I feel would be most interesting in that situation. In WITCH DREAMS, the situation I started with was that there would be a girl who could magically spy, or eavesdrop, on other people's dreams; and she was going to be using this power to try to solve the murder of her family several years earlier. As I wrote the scene at the beginning where Nyssa is remembering the day of the murders and I needed to come up with details and dialogue, the father started accusing her of being witless, as well as a witch. As I choose specific words for a character's first appearance, the character comes into much better focus than when I'm thinking (pre-writing) about the character in theoretical terms. The infinite number of possibilities of what the character MIGHT say and do starts to narrow. Certain possibilities are revealed and other possibilities are cut off—or at least cut off unless I do major revisions. So, once the father called Nyssa witless, that told me a lot about his character, but it also gave me insight into how she—the daughter of a verbally abusive father—would see herself.

You are a prolific and talented writer. I am a huge fan! What's new? What books of yours have recently come out, or will be coming out soon?

2005 was an incredible year for me, with four books being published: three for teens—NOW YOU SEE IT... (Harcourt), THE BOOK OF MORDRED (Houghton Mifflin), and WITCH DREAMS (Marshall Cavendish)--and one for mid-grade readers, THREE GOOD DEEDS (Harcourt). No, I'm not prolific enough to write four books in one year. I had no books come out in 2004, and THE BOOK OF MORDRED was a long-evolving project that I originally wrote 20 years ago.

I will have only one book this year: a collection of stories for teens, all taking place on Halloween. ALL HALLOW'S EVE 13 will be released (of course) just in time for Halloween.

Do you have a critique group and/or critique partners? How did you find them? What is your process for getting feedback on your work?

I have two fantastic critique groups. Tedd Arnold, MJ Auch, Patience Brewster, Bruce Coville, Katherine Coville, Cynthia DeFelice, Robin Pulver, and Ellen Stoll Walsh are the members of one group. The other has MJ Auch (yes, she's in two groups, too!), Alice De La Croix, Marsha Hayles, and Jennifer Meagher.

I am very fortunate that the Rochester, NY area has an incredible book-writing community, many of them writers and illustrators of children's books.

Different kinds of groups work for different people. With both of these groups, we read our books as we write them—figuring that we're not looking so much for line editing from each other, but more global questions: Do you like the characters? Do you believe she would react that way? When did you suspect that he was going to do that? Do you have any idea what's going on? Because we're writing and revising and writing some more, this means either that we're hearing a story a couple chapters at a time over a prolonged period, or the author might skip sections if he or she feels OK about them but is worried about something that happens later on. Therefore, after we think we have the story more or less in shape we often will share the manuscript with one or two (depending on who has time vs. who is on a deadline of his or her own) to get feedback on the project as a whole.

What are you working on now?

Well, for this project, forget everything I just said about usually starting with a situation. I'm working on a novel that started with looking at old photographs (from antique stores, flea markets, sites such as timetales.com). Some very interesting faces looked up at me with expressions saying, "I've got an interesting story..." No title yet, but the story starts with a girl realizing she has no memory--of who she is or where she is or what has happened to her. Could her situation have anything to do with the old witch of the forest, who has a reputation for casting spells on children and stealing them away? Of course it does.

What are you reading now?

I just finished THE WITCH'S BOY, by Michael Gruber, about a kind-hearted witch, an ungrateful foster son, and the truth about a lot of the fairy tales you think you know. The story is exciting and moving, with language that is captivatingly simple but absolutely beautiful.

What's the best advice you were ever given, and by whom?

I once heard Nancy Kress—award-winning science fiction writer, Fiction columnist for Writer's Digest Magazine, and, yes, Rochester resident—say that there were more good-writers-who-gave-up-too-soon-so-that-they-never-got-published than anybody would ever know, so she urged her audience NOT to lose heart.

Interview © March, 2006 by Debbi Michiko Florence. See also my Earlier interviews with VVV in 2004 and 2005.
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what's new?

You can read more about VVV and her books at her web site.

See also my earlier interviews with VVV in 2004 and 2005.