Inside the Writer's Studio with Monika Schröder

Today for Inside the Writer’s Studio we have with us Monika Schroder, author of The Dog in the Wood, Saraswati’s Way, and the newly released My Brother’s Shadow. I was introduced to Monika by the irrepressible Kirsten Cappy, the brain behind Curious City. Shortly thereafter, Monika was working on a piece for Hunger Mountain about the writing of My Brother’s Shadow. It is an honor to have her with us today to dig into her process and her keen insights into human nature.

Welcome,  Monika. And let us all welcome My Brother’s Shadow to the shelves.

A bit about the book:

From the publisher, FSG

As World War I draws to a close in 1918, German citizens are starving and suffering under a repressive regime. Sixteen-year-old Moritz is torn. His father died in the war and his older brother still risks his life in the trenches, but his mother does not support the patriotic cause and attends subversive socialist meetings. While his mother participates in the revolution to sweep away the monarchy, Moritz falls in love with a Jewish girl who also is a socialist. When Moritz’s brother returns home a bitter, maimed war veteran, ready to blame Germany’s defeat on everything but the old order, Moritz must choose between his allegiance to his dangerously radicalized brother and those who usher in the new democracy.

And though out only one day, the reviews are in and they are outstanding!

“A good choice for sharing across the curriculum, this is a novel readers will want to discuss.” --Booklist

"In this nuanced and realistic work of historical fiction, Schröder (Saraswati’s Way) immerses readers in her setting with meticulous details and dynamic characters that contribute to a palpable sense of tension. Moritz’s intimate narration captures the conflicts, divided loyalties, and everyday horrors of the period." --Publishers Weekly

" 'War gives meaning to some men's lives. For other men, the experience of war extinguishes all meaning in life,' says a man who becomes Moritz's mentor; Schröder makes this sad and ever-timely lesson all too clear."--Kirkus Reviews

“The sorrow and the pity of World War I haunt every page of this unsparing coming-of-age story set in Berlin during the war’s final days. Monika Schröder skillfully sketches in the fractured political background of a disintegrating imperial Germany. She doesn’t miss a beat in her fast-paced first-person narrative as sixteen-year-old Moritz copes with his family’s misfortunes, finds his calling, and discovers love…This is a memorable and instructive novel.”—Russell Freedman, Newbery-award winning author of The War to End All Wars: World War I

Now on to the interview!

Monika, how do you stay inspired to face the dreaded blank page? Is it something you dread? Look forward to? Share a bit about your writing process.

I dread writing the first draft. I am not good at tapping into the “white heat” some writers describe that lets them write pages and pages of unedited text in one swoop. My “inner editor” is always on and I experience a constant struggle between the part of my brain that thinks about structure and function of a scene or a chapter and the part that just feels what needs to happen next. So probably like every writer I dread the blank page, but over time I have learned that sitting and staring is part of the process. When I talk to kids I tell them that one secret of writing is to just “keep your butt in the chair.” I don’t have a rule about minimum amount of pages per day, but I am very disciplined when it comes to just spending time in front of that page, be it empty or partially filled, and waiting until I can write the next sentence.

I much prefer revising to composing a first draft. Once there is something to shape it is easier to get into the flow.

Name a writer whose work and/or career you admire. And why do you admire them?

I like the books by Avi, since I enjoy the way he makes place and time come alive. And I also admire Jennifer Holm who writes always with a strong voice and has a gift of creating lively characters in historical fiction.

Theme can be seen as a dirty word but as writers I believe we all have something to say, something we want to share with the world. What is that something for you?

I think that one theme I have investigated in my writing is how war and political transitions affect regular people and children in particular.

I have always been interested in history. Germany, my home country, has started two World Wars in the last century. Both wars not only brought death and terror to large parts of Europe but also ended in defeat followed by fundamental changes of the political system. I have tried to imagine how regular people dealt with these changes. I find it fascinating that a German person born at the beginning of the 20^th century could have experienced a monarchy, a failed democracy, a fascist dictatorship, a socialist totalitarian regime and then again a democracy, just within one life span. 

In my first novel, THE DOG IN THE WOOD, I wrote about the end of World War II and how people in a small village in east Germany experienced the arrival of the red Army. My new novel, MY BROTHER’S SHADOW, is set in 1918, another important transition time in German history. I tried to imagine what it might have been like for a young man who had grown up under the Kaiser to see the monarchy disappear and be confronted with socialist ideas and women’s emancipation. The defeat in the war led to a socialist revolution in Germany. The split between those who considered this a hopeful event and those who thought of it as treason foreshadowed the conflicts to come during the Weimar Republic.

What do you feel is your strength as a craftsperson? How do you turn your weaknesses into strengths?

I hope that my strength lies in pacing and characterization. I believe my weakness is voice. I hope to have tackled this weakness by writing MY BROTHER’S SHADOW in first person. The book I am currently working in is also told in first person. And I have another work-in-progress that I am trying to tell in two alternating voices.

How does “place” come through in your writing? How important is place in this current novel/picture book? Is it tied to a place you once lived or are familiar with or is it a new world entirely?

I think place is very important in my books. I have written two novels set in Germany and one set in contemporary India, and I hope that readers feel transported to those locations while reading the books.

MY BROTHER’S SHADOW is set in Berlin, my favorite city. I have lived in Berlin in the late 1980 and early 1990s and was always fascinated with the city’s history. When I wrote the book, which takes place in the year 1918, it was easy to imagine what Berlin looked like at the time. Also, there are a lot of photographs and even early film reels available to help an author see the setting.

Currently, I am working on a book set in the 1830s. The story starts in Boston and the character takes a boat to Calcutta. I have visited both cities but the historical time period requires a lot more research for me to depict it authentically.

How do you balance the internal and external arc in the story? Which comes to you first—the external action or what is emotionally at stake? How do you weave the two together? 

I seem to develop the external plot structure first. For THE DOG IN THE WOOD I had to slowly create a character that this story could happen to. Akash, the main character of SARASWATI’S WAY, was fleshed out in my mind early on and I knew that his internal journey would be connected to his relationship to his gods and how he defines fate. I knew the story’s arc would take him from his village to the train station in New Delhi, but I didn’t learn about the obstacles along his way until I wrote the book. 

When I started to write MY BROTHER’S SHADOW I knew it would be a story about disillusionment, about how the main character, Moritz, deals with the loss of what once was and adjusts to a completely new world. I knew that Moritz’s brother would return from the war and join the reactionary forces in Germany, opposing his mother’s involvement with the socialist movement. But the details of his journey and the emotional development that he went through I had to discover through the process.

Which literary character, yours or another author’s, do you most relate to? And why?

In my own work I can relate to Akash. He is a math wizard (I used to be very good in math), he has a burning desire to fulfill his dream and the stamina to pursue it, but he has to learn patience (I still haven’t learned to be patient).

Inspired by the Actors Studio, what sound do you love? What sound do you hate?

I love silence. When my husband and I spend the summers at our cabin in Northern 

Michigan I enjoy the absolute silence at night. Having lived in big, noisy cities for the last 15 years probably has made me crave silence even more. We have now left New Delhi, a noisy city of over 17 million, and moved to the mountains of North Carolina, where it is more silent.

But if you ask me about my least favorite ones I might name a few: I don’t like the sound of chain saws or loud machines but I also have some quirky dislikes: I don’t like hearing someone clipping his nails or cracking his knuckles or the sound of people jingling coins in their pockets. (I know this is weird.)

Be brave. Share a paragraph from a WIP. 

                As I passed the reverend’s room I noticed that the door stood ajar. I peeked inside and found his chamber empty. I gave the door a light push and it opened without the familiar squeak. The reverend must have fixed it himself as I noticed a dark oil stain around the hinges. I entered the room where the bag stood on the bed. Next to it a large map was spread out on the cover.  I recognized the almost triangular outline of India, as I had read about the country in Uncle Ezra’s magazine. On the left bottom of the map was written: “A New Map of Hindoostan by Major James Rennell, Surveyor General to the Honorable East India Company.” I stepped next to the bed to study the tiny names of cities and rivers. A circle was drawn in red pencil around a city in the northern part of the country. Leaning closer I tried to decipher the name. Dehly. I wondered if this was the location of the reverend’s brother’s mission.  Looking at the bag I contemplated a quick search for the heavy object that caused the clanging sound earlier but I didn’t dare to touch it. When I heard footsteps on the stairs I quickly hurried from the room. I had just reached the hallway when the reverend appeared on the landing, wearing his coat and hat. “You are still awake, Caleb?” he asked, eyeing me suspiciously.
                “I’m just about to go to bed,” I said, glad the loud banging of my heart was inaudible to him, and that I could slip into my room without another word.

In ode to Maebelle, the main character in my new book Truth with a Capital T, who keeps a book of little known facts about just about everything, please share a wacky piece of trivia that has stuck with you or please share a little known fact about YOU.

I only drink three kinds of beverages: water, red wine (preferably Merlot from South America) and high end second flush Darjeeling tea.

Thank you to Monika for being with us. I will always have water, red wine and Darjeeling tea on tap for you! 

Inside the Writer's Studio with K.A. Nuzum, Author of The Leanin' Dog

Help me welcome author K.A. Nuzum to Inside the Writer’s Studio. K.A. Nuzum is the author of The Leanin’ Dog which is now out in paperback. I adore this book and wrote a Reading Like a Writer essay on it last year. I’m not the only one who adores The Leanin’ Dog. The book was named an International Reading Association 2009 winner for Intermediate Fiction and a Best Book of the Year by SLJ.
 

Here is what Booklist has to say:

Eleven-year-old Dessa Dean lives with her father, a hunter and trapper, in a remote wilderness area. So traumatized by witnessing her mother’s death that she cannot bear to leave the cabin even to use the outhouse, she is plagued by nightmares and tormented by waking “daymares.” She lives a lonely life until a lame, half-starved dog comes to the door. In reaching out to befriend the skittish dog, she begins to think beyond her limitations and takes the first step toward healing. In a convincing first-person narrative, Dessa tells of her frustration with her troubles, her hopes when the dog appears, her determination to bring him into her life, and her slow progress toward that end. Though the plot’s outcome is predictable, readers who enjoy animal stories will no doubt find plenty to like here. A quiet novel from the author of A Small White Scar (2006). Grades 4-7. --Carolyn Phelan --

Is there a story behind The Leanin’ Dog that you wish to share? (Ie: the ah-ha or lightning moment where the story inspiration struck)

Yep!  I had three big "ah-ha" moments writing The Leanin' Dog.  The novel grew out of a short story I wrote years ago in a bed, huddled under the electric blanket.  I was staying, as I do yearly, in the second floor, unheated bedroom of my rancher friend's 1918 ranch house.  This is where I run away to write.  My faithful chocolate lab, Moot, sat on the floor beside me, leaning against the side of the bed.  Pen in hand, notebook on lap, I stared out the window, waiting for inspiration.

As I watched, it began to snow big fluffy flakes -- slowly at first, but soon, I couldn't see beyond the thick curtain of white.  The mesa, miles to the south, disappeared into the storm, then the juniper and pinon pine trees on the far side of the dirt road that ran past the house.  The road was blotted out next and finally, even the stand of elm trees just beyond the back yard fence disappeared.

I looked down at Mooty.  She looked back at me and smiled, and I thought, "What if a big brown dog like that was out in a snow storm like this?"

That was the first "ah-ha" moment.  The second and third, the deeper, plot-filled and theme-filled ones necessary for the evolution of the story into a full novel, came later.  They came as the answers to the critical questions I had about the story, the explanations for the scene I had set: Why was there a little girl all alone, day after day in a remote mountain cabin?  And, why would a big, brown dog come ascratchin' at that cabin door?

How do you stay inspired to face the dreaded blank page? Is it something you dread? Look forward to? Share a bit about your writing process.

Truthfully, I am horrified by the BLANK PAGE and avoid it like the plague, whenever possible.  I do this by two means.  First, I follow the sage advice that when you stop writing, you don't do it at the end of a section, or the end of a chapter.  You do it in the middle of something, a scene or a piece of dialogue.  That way, you have something to come back to that already has momentum.  The second way I avoid a blank page is getting my speed up coasting downhill.  That is, when I sit down to write, I don't pick up where I left off, but go back five or ten pages in the story and line edit those pages.  That helps me gather the speed I need to zip into a new section "effortlessly", and it gives the additional benefit of constantly tightening and focusing the story.

How does “place” come through in your writing? How important is place in this current novel/picture book? Is it tied to a place you once lived or are familiar with or is it a new world entirely?

Often, "place" functions as a character in my books. A Small White Scar (HarperCollins, 2006), my first novel, is a coming of age story.  THe exterior landscape, the plains and mesa country of southeastern Colorado, acts as one of the antagonists that the main character must confront head-on, struggle with, and triumph over.  And, his physical journey through this harsh country mirrors his emotional/psychological passage from childhood to adulthood.

"Place" is equally important in The Leanin' Dog.  The setting is the western mountains of Colorado in the dead of winter.  The tiny, isolated cabin where the main character, Dessa Dean, lives, is not only her safe haven from the brutal winter blizzards (one of which caused her mother's death), but her prison, as well.  Suffering from agoraphobia after witnessing her mother's demise, she is unable to push herself any further into the world than the front porch of the cabin -- until that big, brown dog enters her life and begins to heal her heart.

The landscape of this story and its weather, are indeed familiar to me, and really, are part and parcel of my own soul. As a native Coloradan I've spent a lot of time exploring and embracing and celebrating our state's myriad landscapes and ecosystems.  Seriously, this state has such variety to its physical features.  I mean, we have the great prairies, real sand dunes, the foothills, and our great 14ers and alpine zones.  We have pronghorn antelope and rattlesnakes, black bears and bald eagles, mountain goats and moose, plus an indigenous, endangered toad. (No, honest the Chamber of Commerce is not giving me a kickback for saying any of this.) Colorado offers so many possibilities for settings, and, because there have been so many different waves of migration from all different directions by all different peoples, it is a virtually bottomless well from which to draw characters.

How do you balance the internal and external arc in the story? Which comes to you first—the external action or what is emotionally at stake? How do you weave the two together?

Usually, it is the external action and the characters that come to me first.  That was certainly the case with A Small White Scar (HarperCollins, 2006).  The story evolved from a true life adventure my rancher friend and his best buddy had traveling a hundred miles on horseback to compete in a rodeo when they were fifteen.
And, with The Leanin' Dog, the dog and the little girl and the weather showed up first.  I have found that most of the questions of theme and meaning are present in and waiting to be excavated from, the setting and the physical circumstances of my characters.

Writers love books; we love reading. What book do you turn to over and over again and why do you love it?
The Milagro Beanfield War by John Nichols (Random House, 1974).  I love everything about this novel: the plot, the true-to-life characters, The New Mexico setting, the themes of loss and friendship and the resilience of the human heart.  It is how organic the book is that makes me love it so (it's the first of a trilogy, but I don't think the other two are as good).  The characters spring from the setting, as does the plot. One of the very hardest things about writing a novel is creating a whole world that makes sense, and Nichols has done this perfectly in The Milagro Beanfield War.


Inspired by the Actor’s Studio, what sound do you love? What sound do you hate?

I love, my ears love, my heart loves, the sound of mourning doves calling from the cottonwoods at the back of our property on summer mornings.  I also love the sound of the furnace kicking on and the warm air blowing through the heating vents early, early on winter mornings when I am still in bed.
I hate the sound, from November through February, on Saturday mornings, of geese honking as they fly over the house and the shotgun blasts that come immediately after.

Be brave. Share a paragraph from a WIP.

The colt was beautiful; his body was white, but had a sunny cast to it, as though he'd rolled in butter.  His mane and tail were the darkest brown could be without turning to black, and his legs from the knees down, were a lighter shade of brown.  His hooves were gray, and all but the back right set as they should, in a straight line below his fetlocks.  The last, though, was twisted, turned almost ninety degrees from where it should be so that the colt walked with a marked limp, sagging into the right rear leg each time he stepped with it, and moving always slightly sideways instead of straight forward.  It was unusual for a horse to have golden eyes, but this colt did.  They were flecked with black, and they were lit from the inside by a gentle and calm spirit...and by high curiosity.

In ode to Maebelle, the main character in my new book Truth with a Capital T, who keeps a book of little known facts about just about everything, please share a wacky piece of trivia that has stuck with you or please share a little known fact about YOU.

The von Trapp farm in Stowe, Vermont was originally owned by my great grandparents, Presson and Elvira Gale. 

Thanks, K.A. for being here today. Go pick up a Leanin’ Dog or two and share the new paperback edition with a child in your life.