
I've been trying for a few months to catch up with Ellen Jensen Abbott, author of
Watersmeet, her debut fantasy novel for young adults. I wanted to know more about how she wrote and sold her story of Abisina, an outcast on a quest to find her father and the home she's never known. It's a rich tale that explores the dangers of discrimination and the power of family. Plus, we also share the same publisher –
Marshall Cavendish pubbed
Watersmeet back in April, and will pub my and Carol Baicker-McKee's picture book
An Apple Pie For Dinner in August.
Ellen's had a ton on her plate since
Watersmeet's release, in addition to her real-life job as an English teacher. She's finally been able to come up for air!
"The amount of marketing I needed to do when
Watersmeet launched completely caught me off guard," Abbott e-mailed this morning. "It did pay off: it's in reprints and it was just nominated for the YALSA Best YA list, but whew! What a spring!"
YALSA – Young Adult Library Services Association, part of
ALA, the American Library Association, a very important honor. What a spring, indeed!
So congrats, Ellen! And many thanks for getting back to me for this interview... now enjoy your summer!
ME: Talk about your writing process for
Watersmeet. How did the idea come about? How did you act on your initial inspiration, specifically? How long did it take to complete the manuscript? How much revising did you do before submitting?
ABBOTT: I don't recommend the process I used for
Watersmeet to other writers! It is the first book in a planned series of four. I began, unwittingly, by writing the fourth book first! I shopped that around, got great feedback, but no contract. Margery Cuyler at Marshall Cavendish talked to me at length about it and mentioned that it felt like a sequel. By then I had already started the book that became
Watersmeet and I decided to put my energies there. I began that first book about ten years ago, and though that is not the book I sold, lots of the energy of creating this world paid off in
Watersmeet.
In terms of revision, I have no idea how much revision I did! At times I get hung up on revising as I go. Then I'll go for a space and just write feverishly without the internal editor getting a word in edge-wise. Then it's back to the beginning again for revision and revision and revision. I do know that the sale of a book is only the beginning of the revision process! I submitted Watersmeet after three years of writing, but I was also teaching during that time and raising two small kids.
ME: How did you make the sale to Marshall Cavendish?
ABBOTT: I met Margery Cuyler at the One-on-One conference hosted by the Rutgers University Council on Children's Literature. I was really impressed with what Margery said in a small group I was in with her so at the end of the group, I introduced myself and we exchanged cards. I stayed in touch as I worked on my first manuscript and submitted it to her when it was finished. As I said above, she didn't buy it, but she gave me lots of encouragement. When I had my next one, it went straight to her and I made the sale!
ME: For some writers (like me!), the thought of penning fantasy – creating a whole new world plus inhabitants – is totally intimidating. How do you do it? Is there a step by step?
ABBOTT: When I first thought about this question, I wanted to say, "I wish there were a step by step!" It is challenging, but in fact, that's the fun of it. What I enjoy the most about creating worlds is the process of digging down into the nitty-gritty of a place. For example, in my novel centaurs can talk to hoofed animals. Once I made this choice, I decided they couldn't eat hoofed animals—too barbaric! But when I needed a group of depraved centaurs, this became a way I could describe their depravity. Another example comes from the dwarves. I started thinking about agriculture for creatures that live so completely underground. How would they farm? I created underground root fields where the dwarves harvest off the ceiling! I had them raise burrowing animals for food, pelts and even milk. My dwarf Hoysta makes badger cheese! Readers have asked me if you can actually milk a badger, and I confess, I've never tried. But my theory is that you can milk any animal that nurses young, and badgers do. When you create a world, each choice brings more choices, more consequences. I love the process of discovery
ME: Why did you choose to load your story with familiar mythical creatures – dwarves, centaurs, fairies, fauns, etc.? Did you worry at all about
Watersmeet being compared to other tales that use such creatures?
ABBOTT: I really enjoy reading folklore, mythology, and legends. I am always struck by how these stories juggle the same elements into such a variety of tales. The Cinderella story, for example, shows up in cultures around the world in all kinds of manifestations. Some even have male protagonists! So when I started writing about my world, the creatures that I felt most interested in and also most comfortable with appeared. They were comfortable, I suppose, because of the kinds of stories I read as a kid. I didn't really worry about comparison to other tales. In fact, I was consciously tapping into the richness of those ancient tales.
ME: How did you go about crafting your main character, Abisina? Is she based on anyone you know? Did aspects of her character grow from your own interests, like perhaps her archery skill or her knowledge of medicinal herbs?
ABBOTT: I found the research on herbs so interesting! I am quite a skeptic about non-traditional medicine, but I loved learning about cures that cultures have been practicing for generations. I've always been drawn to the image of the village witch as a woman who is knowledgeable in healing, birth, and life's cycles. As to archery—I signed up for it in gym during high school, but only because I didn't have to put on my gym uniform during that unit!
Abisina is not based on any specific person. In the first drafts, I'm sure she was based on some elements of my personality at that age, but she changed so many times—went through some many incarnations—in the course of writing, that most of that is gone and she has grown into her own person. I, of course, tried to make her psychologically consistent, but did this by imagining how a person with her history would react to a given set of circumstances.
ME: There are many important themes woven throughout your story – issues of prejudice and tolerance, faith and loyalty, home and community. Did these grow organically as you wrote
Watersmeet, or did you intend to include them from the start? How did you keep things from getting "preachy"?
ABBOTT: Mostly these themes grew organically. When Abisina came to me, it was clear to me that she was an outsider, so I created a society she would be outside of. I didn't want a blonde, blue-eyed heroine either. I teach high school at a school with lots of diversity and I wanted to write a story that would reflect some of the kids I spend my days with. One girl in particular became the physical model of Abisina and she is a Latina. Once I was committed to that picture, the society that rejects her grew from there.
I worried a lot about "preachiness." Nothing kills a story sooner! I held onto that old saw, "Show, don't tell." If I showed the prejudice and tolerance, I didn't have to talk about it! Abisina is a victim of prejudice and it's dramatic enough that it would only take away from the story if I pointed out what was already so clear.
ME: I imagine you read a lot of fantasy. Who are some of your favorite fantasy authors and why?
ABBOTT: I am sure that I am a fantasy writer today because of the
Chronicles of Narnia. I discovered that series when I was in fifth and sixth grade and read it time after time after time. I was completely clueless that it was Christian allegory! To me it was just a great story! But I think the Christian themes, like the mythological themes in other stories, give it a depth and a power that kids respond to. These stories we tell again and again, stories of sacrifice, regeneration, battles of good and evil, a sense of a mysterious universe—they are basic to human experience. Fantasy addresses these themes and I find this very compelling.
ME: What are you working on now? Will there be a sequel to
Watersmeet?
ABBOTT: I am working on a sequel! As
Watersmeet concludes, Abisina's personal quest is at an end, but her new home, and the land as a whole, is really in a more difficult situation than ever. She may have found what she was looking for, but there is still plenty of work to be done!
You can learn more about Ellen and her books at her
website and
blog.