Interview with Author Lauren Tarshis

My father was a freelance writer growing up. He worked at home, and when I was young the sound of his typewriter echoed through our house from early in the morning until late at night. But as much as I might have wanted to follow in his footsteps, I truly “knew” I would never be a writer. I had reading problems when I was young, and didn’t actually start reading books until I was in high school. When I first thought about trying to write a novel for kids, I was almost 30 years old. And it still seemed like a ridiculous fantasy. But by then I was the editor of Storyworks, a language arts magazine for kids, and I had discovered all the literature I never read when I was little – Charlotte’s Web and a Secret Garden and Little House on the Prairie – I really immersed myself in children’s literature over a period of years. I fell in love with these stories, these voices, these characters, these authors. And I became inspired to try to write a simple story  myself. It took a good ten years of work, and two terrible books before I came up with the Emma-Jean story. My breakthrough was the realization that I loved the process of writing these stories, and I would keep doing it even if I never came up with something publishable. I was determined to learn how to write a novel for kids, no matter how long it took.

I worked on this book on and off for about three years. I have a full-time job, and at the time I had three children (we now have four). So I was never able to focus exclusively on writing. I stole hours in the early morning and late at night.

The entire process was a challenge. Making the characters believable, really getting to know them is the most important part, I think. Because once you really know the characters, they lead you through the plot. My real stumbling block in the first book was the character of Eugene Lazarus, Emma-Jean’s father. In the first drafts (and there were many), he was alive, he was divorcing Emma-Jean’s mother,  and he sold real estate. He loved Emma-Jean but didn’t understand her at all. His character threw the book off balance; whenever I wrote a scene with Eugene Lazarus, he made a mess of everything. The book also lacked an emotional center. But one day I realized that my entire conception of Emma-Jean’s father was wrong. I decided he had died a couple of years ago, and that Emma-Jean and her mother were bonded in their shared grief. He was a well-respected mathematician and a beloved with many of Emma-Jean’s qualities, and his memory continues to guide Emma-Jean. Once this new Eugene Lazarus appeared in the pages, the book came together almost instantly.

It did come together more easily, but it was still a very challenging process. I wanted Emma-Jean to evolve, but I wanted the evolution to be realistic. The second book is more plot driven; it’s almost a detective story, with one big mystery that Emma-Jean is working on. Wrestling with a more complicated plot was difficult – the pacing issues especially — and a great learning experience for me.

She is like certain people I have known in my life, people who are filled with love and spirit but don’t necessarily know how to readily connect with people, who have to learn.

And here’s my favorite new story: The name Emma-Jean came from a piece of student artwork that I saw at back to school night at my oldest son’s middle school. I loved the name Emma-Jean, and it was around that time I started working on the book. The strangest coincidence happened just a few weeks ago. I got an email from a woman who asked if I could sign some books for her daughter’s 18^th birthday. Of course I said I’d be delighted, and when she sent me her address I saw she loved ½ mile away from me. Then she told me her daughter’s name was Emma-Jean. It turns out that this is the same Emma-Jean who made that piece of art that inspired me to get started. She’s giving the real Emma-Jean the books for her birthday, and she made a little video of me telling this story. I get to meet the real Emma-Jean when she comes home from college in Thanksgiving.

I was very much like Colleen—though not as purely kindhearted — and much of her inner dialogue is taken straight from my memories of seventh grade. I had a small group of close friends and we loved and supported each other, even though there were misunderstandings and accidental disasters. I live in the town in which I grew up, and the middle school is the school where I went to seventh grade. The school is much the same, and being in there with my older kids triggered a flow of memories – the slamming lockers, the tears in the girls room, the lunch periods that were filled with drama and intrigue. Like Colleen, I admired people like Emma-Jean, those who were able to stand apart and not be caught in the vortex of emotion.

One of my goals in both books was to show how both Emma-Jean and Colleen learned from one another, how Colleen learned to be more rational, to see herself objectively, and Emma-Jean begins to become more comfortable with emotions. I think that being reflective and emotionally aware like Colleen is tough when you are young. You feel every bump and it can be very bruising. But ultimately these qualities are key to a satisfying life, to connecting with people and forming happy and long-lasting relationships. Developing these qualities is at the heart of Emma-Jean’s journey.

I love the covers. I’m excited that Dial has unveiled two brand new covers that will debut when the paperback of Emma-Jean Fell In Love comes out in the spring. They retain the beauty and grace of the first designs (and the gorgeous colors). But they show illustrations of the characters on the cover, which I think will make them more appealing to kids.

I would love to do a third, and I’ve got a plot in mind. I do get many letters from readers asking if there will be a follow up. Right now I am busy with a new series I’m writing. I promised my sons I would write something for boys, and I’m keeping the promise with a series of historical fiction focused on disasters. The series is called I Survived, and the first comes out next summer, with the second coming that fall with four more after that. I’m enjoying the series, but look forward to getting back to the world of middle grade fiction and hopefully Emma-Jean and Colleen.

I once had the chance to meet J.K. Rowling, along with a few of my colleagues at Scholastic. This was before the first Harry Potter came out in this country. I loved the book, and I told her how impressed I was that she wrote something so remarkable her first time out. She replied, “Oh that’s not my first! I wrote two other books.”

When I asked where I could get copies, she said, “Oh no, those books are locked in a drawer. They’re terrible books.”

And here’s the pearl of wisdom she shared: “I believe a person has to write at least one or two bad book before they can write a good book.”

That statement was so liberating for me, because I understood that the only way to ever really learn to write a book is to write a book. And if the first one or two or three or four don’t work, you write the fifth, and maybe that will be the one. I always used to get so discouraged when authors came to my school and said they always knew they would be writers, that they were winning awards in fourth grade and published their first books at 20. A few writers have this early success. But most learn by doing. So the best advice is to starting writing those books. And don’t worry if they’re bad. As J.K. Rowling so wisely pointed out, you have to get those bad books out of the way to get to the book that really works.

Books For Sale would like to thank author Lauren Tarshis for taking the time to do this interview.  If you would like to learn more about her please visit Lauren’s official website.