Brenna Yovanoff, author of The Replacement and the upcoming The Space Between, took a moment out of her busy schedule to answer our questions!

Brenna Yovanoff

Quick facts about Brenna from her website:

“I’m good at soccer, violent video games, and making very flaky pie pastry. I’m bad at dancing, making decisions, and inspiring confidence as an authority figure. I suspect this is because I am short, and also terrible at sounding as though I have any idea what I’m talking about. I was homeschooled until I was fifteen, which has probably affected my world view in ways I can’t fathom. Also, I really, really like parentheses. (Really.)”

1) If you had walk-on music (a song that plays when you enter a room), what would it be? Why?

I think I’d pick “The Horrible People” by Marilyn Manson, partly because I enjoy the weirdness and the messiness of it, but mostly because I’m very short and harmless-looking, and it would just be funny.

2) Your first novel, the New York Times Bestseller The Replacement, was published in 2010. What were some of the challenges and joys

The Replacement

of writing from a boy perspective?

This was an interesting issue for me, because at first I really worried about capturing Mackie’s voice—if I’d even be able to pull off an authentic boy’s voice.

After awhile though, I realized that I was kind of asking the wrong questions, and that I had to stop worrying so much about sounding like a boy, and just start paying attention to what Mackie sounded like as an individual.

3) Your second novel, The Space Between, touches down this November 14th. The premise is intriguing and the cover is gorgeous. What inspired the story?

The idea behind The Space Between was one that took several years to really evolve. I’d had a World Religions course in college that had really gotten me thinking about various conceptions of the underworld and how we view the dichotomy of good and evil. I knew that I wanted to write something that played around with those ideas, without necessarily trying to reach one overarching answer. Basically, I wanted Daphne’s struggle with good and evil to be a big story that just happened to have a very personal outcome.

The Space Between

4) What draws you to the Fantasy genre?

One of my favorite things about writing YA fantasy is that it gives you the space to talk about the triumphs and pitfalls of adolescence in a really universal way. Fantasy elements make such effective metaphors for the things we deal with every day, but they can also elevate the everyday and make it seem remarkable and gripping. I love that fantasy is just an essentially true story with the volume turned way up and where the people can do magical things.

5) Can you tell us anything about what you’re working on now?

I’m currently working on a new book, tentatively titled Paper Valentine. It’s a serial killer story, but it’s also very much about friendship. I can’t say a whole lot yet, since I’m still writing it, but I can tell you that it has a ghost, a summer of hundred-degree days, and kissing.

6) Many know about The Merry Sisters of Fate, which consists of you and your critique partners (Maggie Stiefvater and Tessa Gratton). How do both the blog and your partners contribute to your writing?

Merry Fates has been really instrumental for me, both in terms of having a regular assignment to complete, which keeps me moving, and of developing my voice and my storytelling skills. It’s just really great to work with people who know your style, as well as your strengths and weaknesses, and who will always hold you accountable and expect your best work.

7) Are there a couple books you’ve read recently that you would recommend?

Imaginary Girls

Oh, I love this question! I would definitely recommend Imaginary Girls, by Nova Ren Suma, and Arlaina Tibensky’s And Then Things Fall Apart. Also, I just started Every You, Every Me by David Levithan and so I don’t know if I’m allowed to count that one because I haven’t finished it, but so far, I’m absolutely crazy about it.

8 ) Lets pretend Stephen Hawking invented a way to make a day twice as long. Now everyone has time for a second career. What would yours be? Pastry chef?

While I am a huge fan of baking, I think if I had my choice of a second career, I‘d want to be a fashion designer! I really enjoy couture sewing and would have a lot of fun inventing styles and coming up with new outfits.

9) You earned an MFA from Colorado State University. For any writers considering an MFA, what would you list as advantages or disadvantages you’ve experienced?

I’d say that for me, one of the best things about the MFA program was that it taught me a whole lot about working to deadline, and working until a story is finished. Not to mention, how to be a really cutthroat reviser.

10) What drives you to write for teens? Would you consider writing for adults in the future?

Hypothetically speaking, I’d absolutely be open to writing for adults. Someday. If I ever got an idea that seemed to fit best with an adult audience. Realistically speaking, I just love YA so much, and I have a really hard time thinking up premises for stories that don’t involve YA characters.

I think one of my favorite things about writing YA is that it gives me the opportunity to look at how much change a person goes through in a relatively short period as a teenager. I’m just really interested in people who are in the process of figuring themselves out.

11) Thank you for your time! Do you have any upcoming tours planned or general news you would like to share?

While I don’t have any official dates yet, I can say that I get to attend AASL over Halloween weekend this year, and I’ll be at the Colorado Teen Literature Conference this coming March so if you’re around, you should definitely come see me! Also, I try to be good about keeping things current on my website and my blog, so be sure to check back.

Where to find Brenna:

Website

Blog

Twitter

REMEMBER! The Space Between comes out November 14th!

It’s been a crazy week, but a productive one! Go us! Goal progress and teasers below the fold.

(Continue reading: all the cool stuff we accomplished)

Katherine Longshore

Recently, I had the pleasure of talking with Katherine Longshore, author of GILT, to be published by Viking/Penguin May 15, 2012. GILT is the story of Catherine Howard, the teenage queen of Henry VIII.

From her YA Muse Profile: Katherine Longshore grew up on the northern California coast. At university, she created her own major in Cross-Cultural Studies and Communications, planning to travel and write. Forever. Four years, six continents and countless pairs of shoes later, she went to England for two weeks, stayed five years and discovered history. She now lives in California with her husband, two children and a sun-worshiping dog.

1. If you had walk-on music (a song that plays when you enter a room), what would it be? Why?

This is a very difficult question to answer because the music would have to change depending on my mood and what I would be walking into. I don’t want to sound egotistical, but I’d love to have Firework by Katy Perry play, because I get nervous and self-conscious, and the song would remind me that I can do this. Or Closer to Fine by the Indigo Girls to help me remember not to take it all so seriously. Or possibly Pastime with Good Company by Henry VIII, for the whole Tudor experience.

2. You’ve mentioned a theater background. How does that experience contribute to your writing?

I hope it helps to give me insight into my characters’ emotions and actions. I was a wannabe Method Actor – walking around wholeheartedly in my character’s shoes. Feeling and living the experiences as they happened. I try to tap into that while I’m writing in hopes that my characters exhibit genuine internalization and reaction.

3. Your debut novel, Gilt, went through a title crisis. Why does “Gilt” fit it so perfectly?

The crisis was really only in my own head. I am completely hopeless at coming up with a title. I can write 80,000 words no problem, but limit me to one to five and I just about have a breakdown. But the title did change twice – from GILT to GIRL IN A DIAMOND COLLAR and back to GILT again. I think eventually all of us agreed that the perceived double-meaning of the word – both the gold veneer added to make something appear more valuable and the concept of guilt – not only describes the façade of the court created in the novel, but also Cat Howard herself and the situations she herself creates.

4. I had the fortune to visit England at the height of my Tudor obsession. You spent several years there. What places did you visit to inspire you?

Lucky you! I left England just before I began my Tudor obsession. (Timing is not my forte). But I do visit as often as I can. One of my favorite destinations is

Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey – there are so many famous and not-so-famous characters from English history buried there. Henry VIII is not there, but his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves is. The bones that could possibly have been those of the Princes of the Tower are interred there and Queen Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots – who never met in life – lie only feet from each other. It’s also the site of the coronation of every English reigning monarch since William the Conqueror (Edward V – one of the ill-fated Princes in the Tower – and Edward VIII – who abdicated – were never crowned at all). Now that is a place that could tell a few stories.

5. What draws you to write about the Tudor era in English history?

I suppose you could say this of just about any historical period, but the Tudor era was a time of great upheaval and change. The Reformation of the church threw everyone in Europe into a tailspin. The Renaissance and humanist philosophy made people aspire to be better – scientifically, creatively, morally – better than they already were. Henry’s daughters were the first reigning Queens of England, thus proving that women were not weak and feeble. Plus, the fashions were gorgeous, the parties raucous and continuous and there was a huge capacity for courtly romance.

6. Of all of Henry the VIII’s wives (divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived), what lured you to Catherine Howard? What led to the decision to have a narrator in Cat’s shadow?

Catherine Howard, 5th Wife to Henry VIII

My answer to this may seem simple and somewhat random, but I chose Catherine Howard because she was the only one of Henry’s wives who was a teenager when he married her. And I knew I wanted to write for teens. But also I wanted to provide a different interpretation of a girl who wore a different gown every day, couldn’t read or write well, and attended a multitude of parties. She’s often described as stupid, vacuous and promiscuous. I wanted to portray her differently – as strong-willed, manipulative and clever, though somewhat over-confident and misguided. I decided to make her a Queen Bee whose downfall could only be told by her second-in-command – her shadow, as you say. And so Kitty Tylney came to me and took over the telling.

7. How has being a YA Muse affected your writing?

Being a YA Muse has made my writing better. By huge degrees. These writers set the bar very high, which makes me strive to write as I never would have imagined. Their input and support have also increased my knowledge of the craft, helped me to refine structure and character motivation and made me more confident – and therefore more capable. They also remind me every day of why I love what I do, just by being who they are and writing such amazing stories.

8. You’re a self titled “conference junkie.” What do you feel makes them so valuable?

As a newbie writer, my first conference was invaluable. I had no idea what I was doing or how the business worked. Kirby Larson was the keynote speaker, and listening to her made me cry because I knew then I was on the right path. The editor who followed her doused us with a cold bucket of reality – “I’m not here to be a cheerleader,” she said and proceeded to tell us what a difficult business we were getting ourselves into. But the seed was already sown and all she did was water it. Conferences are valuable for both of those reasons – to inspire and to ground us. And more often than not, we learn a lot about craft along the way.

9. How is your current work in progress going?

Thank you for asking! I turned in the first draft of Book 2 in the series to my editor a couple of weeks ago, so I’m biting my nails and hitting refresh obsessively to find out what she and my agent think. In the meantime, I’m doing preliminary research and plotting for Book 3. And realizing I made a few errors in Book 2. Thank goodness for revision.

10. Are there a couple books you’ve read recently that you would recommend?

I thought STUPID FAST by Geoff Herbach was a brilliant example of a boy voice (and unreliable narrator) that has great appeal to girls as well. LEVERAGE by Joshua C. Cohen brings terror to a new level while grounding it firmly in reality. And MAY B. is a beautiful, gripping middle grade novel in verse by Caroline Starr Rose that will be published in January. You won’t want to miss it.

11. Since you’re a world traveler, could you recommend three places that I should put on my bucket list?

The A-Bomb Dome in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is the structure closest to the hypocenter of the bomb blast left standing. It is a humbling experience as an American to stand before it and one that I wish more of us could encounter. The entire park should be a must-see for anyone who thinks such destruction could be justified.

Victoria Falls on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe is one of the seven natural wonders of the world and rightly so. Approaching it, all you hear is the noise and see the spray driven high up over the trees – the falls were originally called The Smoke that Thunders. Then the trees thin and you see a wide, flat river tumbling directly over the edge of a cliff. Another humbling experience, but for a very different reason. But I wouldn’t recommend going there until after travel restrictions are lifted on the Zimbabwe side – and there’s no indication of when that might be.

And I have to add the coastal redwoods of California (Redwood National Park and Prairie Creek State Park specifically). I grew up amongst them and am still awestruck by their beauty. They epitomize mystery when the fog drifts between them and wonder when the rays of the sun filter through them. Being there feeds my creativity and nourishes my spirit. I’d hope it does the same for anyone who visits.

Thanks for sharing with us!

Here’s where you can find Katherine:

BLOG: http://yamuses.blogspot.com/

TWITTER: http://twitter.com/#!/KALongshore

FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/katy.longshore?ref=ts

So we think it’s time to kick into gear, but writing 50k during Thanksgiving month is frankly insane. 

Stolen from Inspired by Nanowrimo & Grapemo, the Ink Rally is a six week write-a-thon running from Oct. 19th to Nov. 30th. Everyone sets a PWG (personal writing goal) and each week submits a progress update toward that goal—along with a short teaser/observation/general-philosophical-discovery from the week’s work should they feel so inclined. 

If you’d like to join too, drop us an email at site at inkandangst.com with your PWG. Updates must be sent by Friday night, for Saturday posting.

(Continue reading: Rally participants and goals!)

My odyssey with writing reads more like a tumultuous relationship. I flirted with it in junior high, winning a couple writing contests in my school. We were hot and heavy in high school, to the point that I was writing notebooks full of stories, poetry and journaling regularly. There was a falling out during Junior year, and we didn’t see each other unless we were forced to by a teacher. At graduation we came to terms that we’d still run into each other in college so we made peace.

I started college as an Elementary Education major at a small university in New Hampshire. As an elective I took a creative writing course. My professor seemed determined to wreck the delicate relationship I had with writing. Instead of encouragement, he meted out criticism that bordered on abuse. He convinced me that writing and I didn’t belong together. I had no talent. Being eighteen and more impressionable than Play-Doh, I believed him.

I changed my major to Computer Science and transferred to Ohio University for my sophomore year. It took one semester of classes for me to realize my mistake. I reconciled with writing and officially declared my major as English. Unfortunately there was still a part of me that thought my professor back in New Hampshire might be right. Maybe I wasn’t good enough.

Two and a half years later I became so disillusioned with the direction of my life that I had to admit I wasn’t happy. One semester shy of graduation, I dropped out of college. I stayed in Ohio for a year, partly to work and partly because I thought my parents had a hit man waiting for me to cross the border into Illinois.

My mom encouraged me to come home and work in her school district. You only need sixty-five college credits to apply for a paraprofessional certificate, which allows you to become an aide. I had over ninety credits. I got the first job I interviewed for, in a middle school in my hometown. I knew that this wasn’t my career, and as I turned twenty-three I came to grips with the fact that I needed a college degree. I owed it to myself to graduate.

I looked into colleges in the area that would allow me to keep my job. I also got the harebrained idea that I would make a great graphic designer. I look back now and wonder if I had incurred brain damage at some point without realizing it. How could I embark on a brand new career in art when my heart belonged to ink pens and lined paper?

One year into my graphic design major my best friend challenged me to write a book. All the sudden it was like we were sixteen again, and I was being dared to talk to my crush. We spent hours that night brainstorming. Nothing from that first night made it into anything I wrote but it sparked something deep inside that had been dormant for years. The love affair was back on and this time I was ready for the relationship.

Over the next three years I wrote every minute that I wasn’t working or in some graphic design class. I wasn’t convinced that I had a career in writing, and graphic design came off as a more stable choice. It was as if I was hanging onto my apartment but sleeping over every night at Writing’s house.

All of my time and money went to conferences. I met the lovely ladies you see here on I&A and we started this blog. I was querying agents and attending pitch slams.

Yet, I was still a graphic design major.

It wasn’t until a month ago that I officially stopped kidding myself. As is often the case, there was a catalyst. My mom had been experiencing symptoms that we recognized, because another family member had suffered the same symptoms. In 1996 my grandpa was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He had ignored all the warning signs, being of that WWII generation that was tougher than nails. By the time he saw a doctor it was too late. He was gone within six months at the age of sixty-four.

They started with a CT scan and found a mass in my mom’s brain. “Yes,” they said, “it could be a brain tumor. It could be benign. It could even be the results of a slight stroke.” All we knew was that my mom’s brain had a mass.

After crying all night I started thinking about all the things my mom would miss out on if the worst were realized. The things she put off until retirement. Inevitably I began speculating about my own mortality. What if I died tomorrow? Could they say I was doing what I loved?

The answer was a resounding no.

I called the Fiction Writing office on the last day to add or drop classes and asked how long it would take me to graduate if I switched my major. Two years. In the span of a half hour long conversation I switched my major to become an undergraduate in Fiction Writing and signed up for classes that would throw me right into the thick of things. These classes might be the first in a long sequence, but for me they’re the light at the end of a very long tunnel.

An MRI clarified the mass. It is not brain tumor, but instead the result of life long migraines and high blood pressure. It is not life threatening. Both my mom and I have a new lease on life.

Writing is the path I was meant to take, but I wasn’t meant to take it until now. I am a very different person from when I was in my early twenties. The writer I have become has confidence in my ability and the determination to succeed.