Sarah Prineas (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} sarah_prineas) wrote,@ 2008-09-09 11:46:00 |
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Up and Down the...
She's a poet and a picture book writer, an essayist and a novelist, whose first middle-grade book, Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains (oh, how I love that title), is out now from Random House.
Meet the charming, the smart, the overscheduled, the delightfully snarky Laurel Snyder.
I asked the questions; she responded.
Me: First of all, for context, please tell us a little about Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains.
Laurel: It's a funny little book, a fairy tale of sorts. It stars a snippy milkmaid named Lucy and a clumsy prince named Wynston. When Wynston's dad forces him to begin searching for a "suitable" princess, Lucy gets mad and runs away, to a strange town where the word is oddly ordered-- alphabetized and scheduled. Someone recently told me it reminds them of The Ordinary Princess. Do you know that book?
Me: I do not! But Scratchy sounds simply wonderful; I can't wait to get my paws on it. Next question. I live in Iowa City, home of the Iowa Writers' Workshop; you have an MFA in poetry from said workshop. As we both know, Iowa City is a writing town, but is known for for its adult, mainstream writers. What's your take on this situation? Do you feel like your literary writing peers take your children's writing career seriously?
Laurel: Oooooooh, we're doing this? OK!
Basically, I loved my time in the workshop on many levels. I had good teachers, made some wonderful friends, and fell in LOVE with Iowa. But it's true that the workshop model breeds a kind of hierarchical system. Some students are "better" then others, as evidenced by funding. Some poetry is "better" than others, based on what aesthetic is in vogue at the moment. People who come from the coasts for two years are often snobby about the midwest and that drives me NUTS! And I don't really think that way of approaching books is especially useful. It made me not want to write.
But so it's no surprise to me that the workshop doesn't address or consider children's literature in any way. I've never actually heard anyone there say anything bad about it, but nobody is asking me to come back and teach, now that I'm publishing children's books. They aren't inviting me to come read from my books. I'm just not of interest. My books aren't in the same sphere. I wish this wasn't so, but that's the way the workshop is.
Me: Indeed. So what's your favorite bookstore in the entire world, and why?
Laurel: I have a few. Prairie Lights in Iowa City, where I saw so many amazing readings in my seven Iowa years. The Red Canoe in Baltimore, which makes the very best gazpacho on earth, and has used books for little kids to grub up while adults browse the new stock (SMART!) And Little Shop of Stories, Little Shop of Stories in Decatur, Georgia, which needs neither readings nor snacks because they have the best staff on earth!
Me: Oh yeah, gotta love those indies! Little Shop of Stories is the BEST. Speaking of kids...and books...tell us about writing with kids [Laurel has two little boys]. How do you manage that?
Laurel: I don't. I dream and dream about kindergarten. Right now I have 8 kid-free hours a week and that just isn't enough. So I jot notes to myself during naps and in the car (where the littles are restrained!) and in a month, when I begin the next book in earnest, I'll get a sitter for afternoons. I find I need 4 solid hours to write anything really.
But I will say that having kids has made me a much more industrious writer. I don't mess around anymore. When there's time set aside for writing, I write! I cannot afford writer's block when a sitter in Atlanta costs 12-15 dollars.
Oh, also I refuse to cook and clean when I 'm writing. We don't starve to death, but I'm not exactly Martha Stewart.
Me: You mentioned food. If you could order anything off the menu of the Hamburg Inn, what would it be?
Laurel: Oh, this is going to gross you out, but I miss the "veg pat bennie" SO MUCH! That's waitress-speak for an eggs benedict made with veggie sausage instead of ham. And now that fall is coming, I have a hankering for a pumpkin pie shake.
Me: I'd order the pig pat bennie, for sure. So what were you like as a kid?
Laurel: I was the oldest of three, and when my parents split up I became a kind of surrogate parents to my sibs as we shuttled back and forth . So I was bossy and clucky and watchful. I have a memory of being about 8, and pulling a box of spaghetti down from a grocery store shelf with my sister on my hip.
I was also obsessively a believer in magic. I used to think that if I drew a picture of a fairy, and got it RIGHT, that fairy would apear before me. So I drew a lot. I write little books about unicorns. I thught I was a witch at one point. Really really. I wasn't a princessy-girl, a girlie-girl, but I liked glitter.
Me: What were your favorite books when you were a kid? What books out now would your kid self have loved?
Laurel: Oh, Edward Eager and Roald Dahl and E. Nesbit stand out. But there's a long list. I named most of them in my acknowledgments page, actually. I read everything, though. I kind of lived at the library. I know my younger self would have loved Ellen Potter's Olivia Kidney. The Girl Who Could Fly, by Victoria Forrester. N.E. Bode's The Anybodies. And of course The Magic Thief!
Me: Haha. What's up next, o multi-talented one?
Laurel: LOL! Talented at not doing the dishes!!! I have a picture book out next month (art by a new illustrator named Jaime Zollars), Inside the Slidy Diner. It's a little spooky! Then another novel from Random House next May, Any Which Wall. With art by LeUyen Pham.
Me: Good stuff! Now ask yourself any question you think I should have asked.
Laurel: Would you like some cake?
Laurel: Yes, always! Who doesn't want some cake?
She's a poet and a picture book writer, an essayist and a novelist, whose first middle-grade book, Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains (oh, how I love that title), is out now from Random House.
Meet the charming, the smart, the overscheduled, the delightfully snarky Laurel Snyder.
I asked the questions; she responded.
Me: First of all, for context, please tell us a little about Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains.
Laurel: It's a funny little book, a fairy tale of sorts. It stars a snippy milkmaid named Lucy and a clumsy prince named Wynston. When Wynston's dad forces him to begin searching for a "suitable" princess, Lucy gets mad and runs away, to a strange town where the word is oddly ordered-- alphabetized and scheduled. Someone recently told me it reminds them of The Ordinary Princess. Do you know that book?
Me: I do not! But Scratchy sounds simply wonderful; I can't wait to get my paws on it. Next question. I live in Iowa City, home of the Iowa Writers' Workshop; you have an MFA in poetry from said workshop. As we both know, Iowa City is a writing town, but is known for for its adult, mainstream writers. What's your take on this situation? Do you feel like your literary writing peers take your children's writing career seriously?
Laurel: Oooooooh, we're doing this? OK!
Basically, I loved my time in the workshop on many levels. I had good teachers, made some wonderful friends, and fell in LOVE with Iowa. But it's true that the workshop model breeds a kind of hierarchical system. Some students are "better" then others, as evidenced by funding. Some poetry is "better" than others, based on what aesthetic is in vogue at the moment. People who come from the coasts for two years are often snobby about the midwest and that drives me NUTS! And I don't really think that way of approaching books is especially useful. It made me not want to write.
But so it's no surprise to me that the workshop doesn't address or consider children's literature in any way. I've never actually heard anyone there say anything bad about it, but nobody is asking me to come back and teach, now that I'm publishing children's books. They aren't inviting me to come read from my books. I'm just not of interest. My books aren't in the same sphere. I wish this wasn't so, but that's the way the workshop is.
Me: Indeed. So what's your favorite bookstore in the entire world, and why?
Laurel: I have a few. Prairie Lights in Iowa City, where I saw so many amazing readings in my seven Iowa years. The Red Canoe in Baltimore, which makes the very best gazpacho on earth, and has used books for little kids to grub up while adults browse the new stock (SMART!) And Little Shop of Stories, Little Shop of Stories in Decatur, Georgia, which needs neither readings nor snacks because they have the best staff on earth!
Me: Oh yeah, gotta love those indies! Little Shop of Stories is the BEST. Speaking of kids...and books...tell us about writing with kids [Laurel has two little boys]. How do you manage that?
Laurel: I don't. I dream and dream about kindergarten. Right now I have 8 kid-free hours a week and that just isn't enough. So I jot notes to myself during naps and in the car (where the littles are restrained!) and in a month, when I begin the next book in earnest, I'll get a sitter for afternoons. I find I need 4 solid hours to write anything really.
But I will say that having kids has made me a much more industrious writer. I don't mess around anymore. When there's time set aside for writing, I write! I cannot afford writer's block when a sitter in Atlanta costs 12-15 dollars.
Oh, also I refuse to cook and clean when I 'm writing. We don't starve to death, but I'm not exactly Martha Stewart.
Me: You mentioned food. If you could order anything off the menu of the Hamburg Inn, what would it be?
Laurel: Oh, this is going to gross you out, but I miss the "veg pat bennie" SO MUCH! That's waitress-speak for an eggs benedict made with veggie sausage instead of ham. And now that fall is coming, I have a hankering for a pumpkin pie shake.
Me: I'd order the pig pat bennie, for sure. So what were you like as a kid?
Laurel: I was the oldest of three, and when my parents split up I became a kind of surrogate parents to my sibs as we shuttled back and forth . So I was bossy and clucky and watchful. I have a memory of being about 8, and pulling a box of spaghetti down from a grocery store shelf with my sister on my hip.
I was also obsessively a believer in magic. I used to think that if I drew a picture of a fairy, and got it RIGHT, that fairy would apear before me. So I drew a lot. I write little books about unicorns. I thught I was a witch at one point. Really really. I wasn't a princessy-girl, a girlie-girl, but I liked glitter.
Me: What were your favorite books when you were a kid? What books out now would your kid self have loved?
Laurel: Oh, Edward Eager and Roald Dahl and E. Nesbit stand out. But there's a long list. I named most of them in my acknowledgments page, actually. I read everything, though. I kind of lived at the library. I know my younger self would have loved Ellen Potter's Olivia Kidney. The Girl Who Could Fly, by Victoria Forrester. N.E. Bode's The Anybodies. And of course The Magic Thief!
Me: Haha. What's up next, o multi-talented one?
Laurel: LOL! Talented at not doing the dishes!!! I have a picture book out next month (art by a new illustrator named Jaime Zollars), Inside the Slidy Diner. It's a little spooky! Then another novel from Random House next May, Any Which Wall. With art by LeUyen Pham.
Me: Good stuff! Now ask yourself any question you think I should have asked.
Laurel: Would you like some cake?
Laurel: Yes, always! Who doesn't want some cake?
