Today, author Heather Vogel Frederick agreed to do an interview on For the Bookish (which absolutely, positively made my year!) Heather is the author of the Mother-Daughter Book Club series (my personal favorite of hers! She is currently working on a seventh in the series!), The Voyage of Patience Godspeed, The Education of Patience Godspeed, Spy Mice, Once Upon a Toad, picture books for little readers, and two books (Absolutely Truly and A Little Women Christmas) coming this fall! She is also one of my absolute favorite authors, so I was very excited when she said yes to the interview. So, without further ado… the interview!
Me: Often times, you’ve said you knew you wanted to do anything that involved books from a very early age – you have fond memories of your father reading books to you and your sister as a child – and were born into a family of storytellers. Was there any particular book, author, or even family member that really inspired or encouraged you to want to be a writer, or take on a career in books?
Heather: Wow, there were SO many books that inspired me when I was growing up. Joan Aiken’s The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell. Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White. Anything by Elizabeth Enright (Gone-Away Lake) and Edward Eager (Half Magic) and Lloyd Alexander (The Book of Three). So many, many more. I lived for a time just a bike ride away from Louisa May Alcott’s home in Concord, Massachusetts, and she was my hero. I used to save my babysitting money for the entrance fee to her house (which is a museum), and when I’d go on the tour, I’d look around and think, “She wrote Little Women right here at this desk!” It made the possibility of being a writer someday feel very real to me. My parents both encouraged me to write, and I’ll always be grateful for their enthusiasm and support.
Me: Charlotte’s Web, Half Magic, and The Island of the Blue Dolphins are favorites of mine, as well. =) Do you ever feel discouraged, or even a little bit stressed, when it comes to being a writer? Currently you have two books (Absolutely Truly and A Little Women Christmas), debuting this fall and have said a 7th Mother/Daughter Book Club book will be out soon. What’s that like?
Heather: Discouraged? Rarely. Stressed? Now and then. Deadlines loom large on a writer’s calendar, and the closer they get, the faster we have to scurry to finish up the project in question. Which in my case right now is the still-untitled 7th Mother-Daughter Book Club story! I’ve been writing for a living for decades though, and am pretty well used to deadlines by now, so while they do keep my feet to the fire, they don’t knock me for a loop. As for the two books I have coming out this fall, that’s not stressful at all, that’s EXCITING! I can’t wait until my new “babies” make their debut! We writers are always hopeful that the world will love our babies…
Me: It’s exciting for your readers, too!! Being a huge fan myself, I know that you adore your readers and try to answer every letter, email, or comment that comes your way from your fans and even host a segment on your blog called “Saturday Story Starter” to gently encourage young writers from afar and inspire creativity. How would you advise your own readers who are aspiring to be novelists quite like yourself?
Heather: My guess is that most aspiring writers are already doing the number one most important thing you have to do to launch a writing career: READ. Aspiring writers should be inhaling books the way a desert dweller drinks water. Writers are like honeybees, grazing on books instead of flowers, ingesting words and images and beautiful language instead of nectar and pollen. Later, when we go to write, all that stored up beauty just flows out of us like honey.
Aside from reading, there’s one quality every writer must possess: patience. It can take time to grow as a writer. There will be many false starts, many stories started that end up in the trash or stuffed in a drawer for a later time when we’re better equipped to tell them. Be patient with yourself, and be persistent. Don’t give up.
Me: Wow, great advice! Other than writing, what are some of your hobbies and free-time activities you do in between novelling, blogging, and answering fan mail? =)
Heather: Oh, I am SO behind right now on answering fan mail it’s not funny. 🙁 That’s the tough part of having a deadline — I really do have to set everything else aside and focus on whatever story I’m writing, often for months at a time. I try and make space in my life for a few other fun things, though — I still read (mostly non-fiction, curiously), I swim laps (my favorite exercise), walk the dogs, cook, hike, occasionally go to the movies, that sort of thing. I don’t have any other hobbies at this point in my life, really. I love to knit, but haven’t had as much time for it in recent years as I did in the past. Oh, the sweaters I used to make!
Me: I wish I knew how to knit! It does sound like you’re pretty busy, though. Finally, just for fun, if you had the opportunity to live anywhere else in the world, where would it be and why?
Heather: England in a heartbeat! I absolutely adore everything about England.
Me: That’s where I’d go too, actually. I’ve never been to England – never even been out of the US! I was so jealous of Emma in Pies & Prejudice when she got to spend a year in England! 🙂
That’s all for today! I hope you enjoyed the interview and go check out some of Heather’s books – I love them all! And thank you again, Heather, for giving me the privilege of sending you the questions!
P.S. I’m going to be spending the next two nights with my cousins as my parents are going to a conference until Saturday, so I may or may not be able to post Saturday’s Stacking the Shelves. I’ll talk to you all lovelies soon, though! Ciao for now!
