Interviewed for MonsterLibrarian.com

Ellen Hopkins as author of several YA novels dealing with frightening issues and situations faced by teens today, Ellen is being interviewed as part of Banned Books Week as she was disinvited from the Humble, Texas Teen Lit Festival when a middle school librarian shared concerns with some parents who went to the district superintendent. Although he had never read Hopkins’ books, and other librarians lobbied to keep her as a speaker, he still canceled her appearance. Ellen’s titles include Crank , Impulse, Glass, and Fallout.

ML: While some people joke that they wish their book was banned because it would be great for sales, what actually goes through your mind when someone labels your books inappropriate for their audience?

EH: Either that they haven’t actually read my books (but rather pulled content out of context), or that they have a seriously warped view of the contemporary teen experience. Unfortunately, few enough young adults live healthy, scrubbed lives. And what’ might be deemed “inappropriate” for them is necessary for many others.

ML: What tools have you used to approach a teen audience about such serious topics authentically, but also at a teen level rather than an adult level?

EH: I spend a lot of time talking to teens, both online and through primary outreach. They talk freely to me, so I truly understand many of their issues and concerns. It’s hugely important to walk where they live, rather than assuming what that place is.

ML: Do you think that teens are different from adults after all, or do we have a skewed idea of the average teen’s worldly knowledge?

EH: Everyone’s story is different. Personal. Many teens are forced to grow up much too quickly, but even those who are allowed an “average” childhood observe peers who have been touched by issues like addiction, depression, abuse, etc. Surely they know these things exist. Why not allow them some sort of perspective?

ML: You mentioned at the forefront of Crank that this book came, more or less, from your real life. Combined with the censorship issue, do you feel that there’s a segment of people who want to just hide all uncomfortable issues from public view?

EH: Of course. Or they just don’t want to look at these things themselves. And what this does is to make them feel somehow superior than, or at the very least apart from, those who are affected by them. Empathy is critical. But ignorance won’t lead you to understanding.

ML: How do you think this affects individuals coping with these issues and how we as a society handle them?

EH: They feel alone in their problems. I can’t tell you how many readers I’ve heard from who really believed that, until they saw themselves between the covers of a book. Mainstreaming them is huge, and they deserve to be considered “just a regular person,” albeit one going through difficult times.

ML: All the individuals in your books have both environmental issues and their own bad decisions to cite for their circumstances. What role does society and the people in supposed support positions play in addiction and depression, among other issues?

EH: Actually, they don’t all have environmental issues. Some do have support, but choose the wrong path anyway. There is a big chunk of choice involved in every bad decision. Learning by example is valid, but when you have the information to know that turning in a certain direction can lead you to a very wrong place, most of the “blame,” if you want to call it that, is on the individual.

ML: As you point out in the upcoming third book in Kristina’s life, Fallout, the damage of addiction is never isolated to just one person. How do we, as individuals, best help those struggling? And is there ever a time when we just have to let go, for our own sake?

EH: There absolutely comes a time when you have to realize there is nothing more you can do to convince someone you love to turn their life around. You simply have to say, “Look. I love you, but I cannot stand by and watch you kill yourself slowly. When you want help I’m here. Until then, goodbye.” That may sound cruel, but self-preservation is paramount to helping someone else. If you’re a wreck, you’re useless to them, anyway. And if they refuse help, despite knowing the likely outcome, they will head down that path anyway.

ML: Likewise, how do we reach to each other as the friends, parents, children or loved ones of addicts? How do we support each other while we’re struggling to support the people struggling with the monster?

EH: First, we refuse to judge them. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been called a bad mother because of my daughter’s actions. At some point, her choices were completely hers, as they are for everyone. We offer an ear. A shoulder to cry on. Resources, which we can help them find. And mostly, we prop them up when they fold.

ML: Where is the line in addiction (or with those struggling with mental illness) between choices the addict is responsible for, and choices they make as a victim themselves? How do the people on the sidelines resolve issues of forgiveness and personal responsibility in a situation where the person damaging them is also a struggling victim?

EH: Mental illness is much different than choosing a path that can lead to addiction. The former isn’t a choice. The information to make positive decisions is available. Too many people believe they can control their drug of choice. But the drug is almost always in control. Forgiveness is easy. Trust is much more difficult, and should never be given lightly. If an addict truly wants help, it is available, but it is a rocky path. The monster always calls, something people in support positions must always remember. Never give an addict money. Clothe them. Feed them. Make sure their children are safe. But enabling them is the quickest path to watching them fade away completely. This may seem harsh. But I’ve watched my own child relapse, after six years sober. I love her. Always. But I can’t help her die.

ML: This is the question where I usually ask about other releases the author has, or exciting projects they’re working on. While I’d definitely like to hear yours as well, do you think you could also list some great resources (other than your books) for those struggling with these issues?

EH: Addiction is rarely conquered alone. Many people find the way out through Alcoholics Anonymous (which, for some reason, most addicts find more helpful than Narcotics Anonymous). And for family members, Al Anon will not only help you through, they will offer local resources you might need.

My next young adult book is Perfect (about the drive for the unattainable goal of perfection), due out Fall 2011. And I’m currently writing my first adult novel-in-verse. Triangles (also 2011) is about midlife freakouts.

First appeared at MonsterLibrarian.com

Dr. Kim Paffenroth is the author of the recently released Valley of the Dead. He has also written Dying to Live, Dying to Live: Life Sentence, Orpheus and the Pearl, and Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero’s Visions of Hell on Earth which won a Bram Stoker Award in 2006. He has edited the zombie anthologies History is Dead and The World is Dead.   He is a professor of religious studies, and the author of several books on the Bible and theology.

ML: All your books have been impressive with their depth, but Valley of the Dead is a really impressive work. It’s clear you tried to bring the same feel and poetic style to the book as that in Inferno, how difficult was it?

KP: It wasn’t difficult at all, once I started, but it’s exactly what held me back from starting the book, which I’d been thinking of for a long time. I’ve read Inferno probably ten times since the first time in college, so I knew I had that aspect of the work down – how to depict the sinful and monstrous, the kinds of imagery Dante would use, how he’d think of and analyze evil and grotesque things. But I struggled to get a feel for him as a man, as a character – to round out his reactions and analyses and make him less of an observer and more of an actor in the story. Then it clicked in 2008, when I read this Medieval work called The Romance of the Rose – it spells out the idea of courtly love to which Dante would’ve subscribed. I knew some of the ideas from reading the endnotes in Inferno, but reading the fuller treatment and discussing it with students in class made it clearer and more vivid to me, and I finally thought I could tackle Dante as a character and not just a thinker.

ML:  Religious and sociological musings are heavy factors in your books, and yet it never ends up sounding preachy. How do you open the paths to discussion and consideration, without crossing into evangelism?

KP: Great question, and let me be honest: I don’t think anything I’ve ever written is preachy, but my early stuff is definitely heavy-handed. I’ve worked on that, here and in the sequels to Dying to Live, which are just as religious as my first novel, but I worked hard on the language and dialogue to make sure people were talking only obliquely about the subject, and the narrator didn’t step in to “tag” things with their meaning. I learned to trust the reader more, and the stories are stronger. But as for preachy – I’m not, because my usual message is that the world is a wonderful but awful place, and different characters react differently to that reality. How would you preach such a message? It’s not something someone needs to “convert” to, it’s not an overtly or specifically religious (let alone Christian) message. It’s just an observation, so you lay out the images that would lead one to that observation and you let the readers connect the dots.

ML: Despite your skill and critical acclaim, you appear to be devoted to the genre small press. Can you tell us why, and how this has affected your writing career?

KP: No hidden or mysterious or altruistic motive there: Permuted’s been very good to me. We sell a ton of books, and they now have a deal with Simon and Schuster to reprint some of their earlier titles (including Dying to Live). It gets me noticed and gets me other, related work. For example, I’ve gotten several speaking engagements because someone at a college heard about the “zombies and theology” guy and they asked me to come speak at their school. So it’s worked out well for me.

ML: There are a lot of literary plus monster mash ups going on. Care to comment on the trend or recommend any favorites?

KP: Well, it depends on how it’s handled, doesn’t it? If you take the public domain words of a classic and intersperse them with your words – that was funny the first time it was done, but now I don’t think there’s any point or anything to be accomplished by that. If you read classics and let their ideas influence you, sometimes in quite specific ways that readers can pick up on – that’s a good thing. Every book about a journey should be influenced by the Odyssey. In fact, I’d say I’d love to see more zombie stories influenced by someone other than Romero (may his name be praised) – but I don’t want to see more that are just adding words to an already existing text. That shouldn’t even need to be said, but I guess it shouldn’t have to be said that I don’t want another film made from an SNL skit or a 1970s television series, but they keep getting made, don’t they?

ML:  Why zombies? Have you ever considered writing with another kind of “monster”?

KP: Zombies are a very handy trope for me, as I want to deal with issues of sin and theodicy, and they fit the bill pretty well. But one thing I’ve tried a couple times is to go to the opposite end of the undead spectrum: if zombies are bodies without minds, then ghosts are minds without bodies, and they’d represent an opposite set of problems and conflicts, so I’d like to work more with ghost stories.

ML: Horror is a difficult, and much maligned genre. Why do you write it?

KP: What compels me about the Christian worldview is how seriously it takes evil in our lives. So ironically, though many Christians eschew horror as inappropriate or even opposed to their lives and faith, I’d see it as the worldview most congenial to horror. And there’s another element that comes from all religious traditions equally, I think – the idea that the universe is – from a human perspective – essentially unfathomable, mysterious, and, most of the time, fairly hostile to our needs. Again, that seems like the worldview espoused by any horror writing.

ML:  Why do you think people should read it (and that it’s so important to include in public collections)?

KP: I’d say horror is simply a “given” of our existence, and to ignore it would be to ignore an essential part of my life. Zombies aren’t real; serial killers are, but they’re pretty rare. But real evil – either committed against us or by us, in all different levels of severity or frequency – is something most all of us will have to confront. All literature ultimately helps us deal with the real world, and horror has a part to play in that education.

ML:  Despite some pretty gory, brutal (and just plain depressing) scenes an element of hope always remains through Valley of the Dead. What do you think keeps people (and characters) going in hopeless situations?

KP: I’ve never been asked that! You took me by surprise. I’d say, in my experience, it’s a devotion to something other than oneself, something one gives a higher value to than one’s own comfort, well-being, or life. And it can be any number of things, either personal, societal, or religious – honor, love, one’s children, the Common Good, or God. It could even be something negative, like revenge or hate. The trick, as a writer, is to make the motive believable, and to get the reader to appreciate the motive, even if s/he doesn’t share it.

ML: Do we, like most of the valley dwellers in Valley of the Dead, just fail to see the depth of either our misery, or our blessings?

KP: Two in a row that I’ve never been asked! I think that’s a very good way to put it, and reminds me of the terrible self-knowledge in the Oedipus cycle: he’s fine, so long as he doesn’t know the truth, but he has to know the truth. Living a lie isn’t really an option, and the truth will be revealed regardless. That’s the real power of Dante’s vision – not all the cool tortures, but how he sees the afterlife as revealing who we really were, all along. It’s not punishment or reward – it’s just living (eternally) with ourselves and our decisions. That’s why I could move the whole story into a secular, earthly realm, and not lose his message, because his observation is simply to extend our present situation out into eternity.

ML: What else can we look forward to reading from you in the future?

KP: A novelette I wrote a couple years ago, Orpheus and the Pearl, is going to be reissued by Belfire Press this fall. A short story I wrote with Julia and RJ Sevin, “Thin Them Out,” will be in John Joseph Adams’s anthology The Living Dead 2, also this fall. The third installment in the Dying to Live saga will be out in spring 2011. I hope you all like what I do with zombies in all of them!

Maria V. Snyder is an award winning author of books Poison Study, Magic Study, and Fire Study,  latest release is the young adult dystopian novel Inside Out from Harlequin Teen.

ML: Let me start by saying I absolutely loved Inside Out. You were clearly channeling the dystopian masters with this novel, and yet you managed to keep it from feeling totally oppressive while I was reading it. Not at all what I expected from a Teen Harlequin book. What made you want to write such a stand out book like this?

MS: A dream! I dreamt the whole story, the world, the characters, the Pop Cops, and even the twists! When I woke up, I wrote it all down before I could forget it.  I haven’t ever done that before and haven’t since – I wish I could remember what I ate for dinner that night 😉

ML: You’re writing for a teen audience, and I’ll admit I had to wallow through several English teacher’s attempts to teach dystopian novels in high school. Do you think Inside Out and Trella can reach a teen audience better than Orwell, Bradbury and Huxley and why or why not?

MS: Wow that’s a loaded question – lol!  I can’t say I can reach a teen audience better than those three famous authors, but I do think a teen audience can relate to my novel.  The main protagonist is a loner who doesn’t want to hang out with her social group, and she only has one friend.  She thinks her life sucks and that the upper workers have it made. Trella believes she doesn’t fit in with the other scrubs. Her views of life have been spoon fed to her from an early age.  She’s supposed to think that way.

Which is similar to growing up today.  Your parents tell you what’s right and wrong and how you’re supposed to act.  When brought down to the basic bones of the story, it’s a classic coming-of-age.  But I added in adventure, suspense and action–which I hope entertains the readers as well as shows Trella’s growth.  And I think today’s teens will be able to relate to Trella verses some of those older characters who lived in an older time. Trella reflects today’s attitudes towards freedom, independence and cynicism.

ML: Inside Out is much different from your other work (to begin with it’s science fiction and your other books are fantasy). For readers and librarians who might not know, can you tell us some of the differences and more importantly, some of the similarities that could interest Inside Out and SF fans in your other titles?

MS: With Inside Out, one of the major difference was I had to keep close track of the setting details. Since the world is completely contained, I had to know where everything was and stay consistent throughout the story. I drew up maps and diagrams in the early stages of writing.  And this is the main science fictional element. I do have some advanced weapons and technology, but it remains in the background.  I don’t explain the scientific reasons why and how a kill-zapper works, just show one being used and the result.

FYI – The maps of Inside weren’t included with the book, but they are posted on my website at: http://www.mariavsnyder.com/maps.php

ML: You’ve done a lot of interesting research for your books. Which experience was your favorite?

MS: I really enjoyed taking the glass classes.  I learned how to gather and work with molten glass as well as cut glass, fuse glass, make glass beads and a stained glass mirror.  Glass is a fascinating medium and you can reuse it and recycle it forever.  I do have to add, learning how to ride a horse (the real Kiki) was the most challenging and educational.  Kiki was the best teacher I’ve had so far 🙂

ML: If you were in a library and it was burning down (horrifying I know) which books would you save?

MS: The rare books that are irreplaceable.  A decade ago this would have been a harder question as once a book is out of print, a reader was out of luck.  But now, with eBooks, the Internet, and scanners etc…if you really wanted a certain book, it’s not hard to find a copy.

ML: What are some of the challenges in writing (and living it) a totally contained world like Inside?

MS: Finding a good hiding place – I had to be very creative with this one 🙂  Waste is an issue – what do you do with the trash?  There isn’t much as they have to reuse, repair and recycle everything.  Also there are limited resources.  I tried to anticipate all the needs of the people living Inside – food, air, water, clothing.  Paper was another challenge–paper uses a ton of natural resources and harsh chemicals even when it’s recycled.  I didn’t have the space or the resources to have paper in Inside.  Instead they use wipe boards and refillable markers.  Ink can be harvested from indigo plants grown in hydroponics.

ML: Is there an unknown book you love, but no one seems to know exists?

MS: I really enjoyed Libyrinth by Pearl North – it’s a YA by a new author and I don’t think it’s well known. It has books and a library that’s a maze and good characters.

ML: Likewise, is there a book you love that everyone else seems to hate?

MS: Not that I can think of 🙂  I pick up books based on recommendations from my friends and family and from blogs so usually someone really loved it so I’ll pick it up.

ML: You said on your blog that the idea from Inside Out came from a dream. Have any of your other dreams fueled stories?

MS: No.  It was the only one so far.  I don’t even get help with stories I’m working on!

ML: What are you working on now?

MS: I’m working on Outside In, the next book in the Inside series.  It starts about nine weeks after the end of Inside Out.  I really can’t tell you too much or else it will spoil the plot of Inside Out.  I’ll just say, Trella finds herself in more trouble.