July
is in full swing! Huzzah! Americans are sunbaking, Australians are hibernating,
and because I have so many wonderful writer friends—many of whom have novels
coming out in the near future—I’ve decided to add a section to my blog which
will be aptly named …
*drum roll*
NOVEL SPOTLIGHT
*cue The Price is Right-like
music*
The first spotlight will be
cast on a YA novel by McCormick Templeman! *dances* I cannot tell you how long
I’ve been waiting to read her debut, THE LITTLE WOODS. What I can tell you is that McCormick is a
delight to know. I would sell my left kidney to meet her in person because she
is … honestly … that ... awesome.
You can check out her website here,
and follow her on Twitter here.
About McCormick (from her website)
McCormick
Templeman is descended from musicians and criminals. She holds a BA in English
Literature from Reed College and an MFA in Writing and Poetics from Naropa
University. She lives in California with some people and some stuff.
About the book:
Unexplained disappearances.
Suspicious deaths. There's something wrong with the woods behind St. Bede's
Academy.
When Cally Wood starts at St. Bede's halfway through her junior year, she's
suddenly thrust into a world of privilege and prestige, and in no time flat,
she learns to navigate the complex social world of the upper echelon. But amid
the illicit romances and weekend-long parties, Cally discovers that a brilliant
but troubled girl named Iris disappeared from St. Bede's just a few months ago.
Most people assume she ran away, but the police still haven't found her. And
Iris wouldn't be the first girl to go missing from the school. Ten years ago,
Cally's sister was visiting a friend from camp at St. Bede's when both girls
vanished from their beds.
As Cally tries to unravel the mystery surrounding Iris--one she can't help but
link to her own sister's disappearance--she discovers that beneath the surface
of this elite school and its perfect students lies a web of secrets where
rumors are indistinguishable from truths and it seems everyone has something to
hide.
Me: What
I love about this premise is the possibilities surrounding why these girls are disappearing.
Supernatural? Maybe. Serial killer? Could be. Alien abductions? I DON’T KNOW,
BUT I WANNA. What inspired you to write THE LITTLE WOODS?
McCormick: I can’t say much about
the specifics of the inspiration for the book without giving too much away, but
I was goofing around in the New York Public Library reading case studies by a
medical examiner from the early 1900s, when I stumbled across something that
completely freaked me out. Suddenly this story popped into my head and I had to
write it. THE LITTLE WOODS is very different from that initial conception
(originally it was a historical mystery with an adult narrator), but its roots
are the same, and that spark guided me through from start to finish.
Me: So it's NOT a memoir? ;)
McCormick: It
is absolutely not a memoir. I think there is a little bit of me in every
character I write, but I've never written anything that is really about me or
my life. I like to make up friends and invent lives for them because why not?
It's fun. But I did go to boarding school and I used the campus layout and
tried to recapture that feeling of being trapped that I felt a lot during
boarding school. But no, definitely not a memoir.
Me: Phew!
Glad to hear your boarding school experiences weren’t shrouded in murder
mysteries. ;) What led you to those case studies in the public library?
McCormick: I
had a day of classes that went from 8:30am to 10pm, and this one day a class
was cancelled in the middle of the day. I couldn't stomach studying or doing
something responsible, so I decided to walk up to the public library to goof
around for a few hours. I went to the reading room and got a big stack of weird
books just for fun, and that was one of them. When I finally went back to
class, I was so obsessed with the novel idea that seemed to have just fallen in
my lap, that I couldn't concentrate for the rest of the day. I started writing
the book that very night.
Me: Talk
about being in the right place at the right time! Who said goofing around never
did anyone any good?! With the inspiration coming from a century-old medical
examiner’s book, and the setting so eerily elite, if you could describe your
novel as [TV show/movie/novel] meets [TV show/movie/novel], what would it be?
McCormick: Jay
Kristoff, author of the insanely genius Stormdancer (out fall
2012) described The Little Woods thusly: “A slow
motion collision between Twin Peaks and Gossip Girl set to a Bikini Kill
soundtrack.” Since he's such a brilliant writer, I'll just let his words stand.
Me: I
agree—Jay is made of awesome (readers, his website can be found here, and you can follow him on Twitter here).
So, McCormick, some of my readers are un-agented writers, like myself. Was this
the novel that landed you your agent, Kate Garrick, of DeFiore and Company?
What was it like to get the call/email from her when she finished THE LITTLE
WOODS?
McCormick: THE
LITTLE WOODS actually wasn't the book that landed me my agent. The
infamous agent email was for an adult book I wrote as my MFA thesis. I still
love that book, and will probably re-work it someday. That email was totally
shocking because I was not expecting her to actually be interested, and had
only queried her on a lark. When I got the email, I didn't believe it.
Sometimes I still don't believe it. I just sat there staring at the screen
reading it over and over again, searching for the part where she revealed it
all to be a massive joke. Then I kind of floated around for days consumed with
blissful disbelief. For THE LITTLE WOODS, it was much less eventful. I just
emailed her and was like, you want to read this? And she was
like yeah. It was much less dramatic.
Me: *giggles*
I just imagined a Napoleon Dynamite-style conversation between you and Ms.
Garrick. I imagine the conversation was a little livelier when you were
told Schwartz & Wade Books / Random House had made an offer?
McCormick: Honestly,
no. Part of me really is a little bit like Napoleon Dynamite. I had a strong
feeling that I was going to get the call on the day that I did, and I was so
nervous about it that I just didn't answer. I hope Kate doesn't read this
because I think I drive her kind of crazy with my phone phobia. She only had my
home number, and when the phone rang, and I knew what it was, I just got in my
car and drove away. I know that was a crazy thing to do, but sometimes good
news and bad news feel the same inside my body. It's kind of like stage fright.
I was just too freaked out to hear the news. I finally called her back three
hours later, and when she told me, I was like, "Mm hmm. That's good."
She was like, "yeah... that's really good."
I am the worst client in terms of the excited phone call. I can't verbally
express that I'm excited. I have a suspicious "yeah, what's the
catch?" thing going on.
Me: Haha—me too! Thankfully in your case the ‘too good to
be true’ saying didn’t apply! So how will you be celebrating its release this
week?
McCormick: Cheap champagne and good sushi!
Me: Sounds good to me! Thank you so
much, McCormick, for allowing me to interview you. It’s been a true pleasure!
Readers, THE LITTLE WOODS is coming out
today, July 10, 2012 from Schwartz & Wade Books / Random House.
Happy
reading!
