Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Interview with K.L. Going, author of Saint Iggy



Please welcome K.L. Going, author of SAINT IGGY, to the YA Authors Cafe.

Marlene P.: Do you remember writing the first words of your books? Are they still the same?


K.L. Going: Oh yes! I remember writing the first words of each of my books, and they are practically the only parts of my novels that remain intact. Those first lines always set the tone for the book and establish the character in my mind.


Marlene P.: What is the hardest part of writing for you?

Honestly, the hardest part is putting my work out there and hearing what people think. I’ve mostly heard great things, but it’s tough when people say stuff that’s mean spirited. I thought I’d get more used to it when I had more books out, but instead there’s just more to hear! My first novel, Fat Kid Rules the World, has been challenged in a couple school districts and that is difficult.


Marlene P.: What one question do you wish an interviewer would ask you but never has?

K.L. Going: How much ketchup would be too much? Answer: Is there such a thing as too much ketchup? I really don’t think so.


Marlene P.: What are you working on now?

K.L. Going: I have a lot of projects going on at once. I’m finishing up a how-to book for Writer’s Digest called Writing the YA Novel which is due out in spring of 2008. Plus, I’m also finishing up a new teen novel for Harcourt called King of the Screw Ups, which will also come out in 2008. I have a picture book under contract which is waiting for an illustrator, and I am contracted to write a short story for an anthology. *phew*


Marlene P.: What kind of research have you done for your stories?

K.L. Going: Fat Kid Rules the World was the most fun to research because I got to explore the world of punk rock. For Saint Iggy, most of my “research” came from my time living in a housing project in New Orleans when I did volunteer service. With my middle grade novel, The Liberation of Gabriel King I researched the 1970’s since it’s a historical novel, and for my upcoming novel, The Garden of Eve, I researched apple orchards.

How’s that for variety?


Marlene P.: Tell us something about you that no one knows.

K.L. Going: I’ve attended a very odd list of concerts. They range from Huey Lewis and the News, to Motley Crew, to John Mellencamp, to Pete Yorn.

I’ve also studied three different martial arts: Tae Kwon Do, Goju Ryu, and American Kempo.


Marlene P.: How did you become a writer?

K.L. Going: I started writing as a kid and never stopped. I became published when, years later, I finally worked up my courage to submit my work to publishers and one of my books got accepted!


Marlene P.: What is your favorite line, passage, or chapter from your book?

K.L. Going: I’m going to answer this question using my newest YA novel, Saint Iggy. My favorite passage from this novel is the scene where Iggy stands in the circle of color created by the church window. I loved writing this scene and still appreciate what it stands for.


Marlene P.: Have you ever wanted to quit writing? Why?

K.L. Going: Oh yes. I fantasize about it often, even though I know I would never go through with it. Writing is hard. Being published is even harder. Having a published book requires you to do a lot of things that are contrary to an introverted nature such as mine. Like giving speeches. The whole marketing piece of being an author is counter-intuitive for me.


Marlene P.: What are your hobbies?

K.L. Going: I work part-time at a local gym. I know that doesn’t sound like much of a hobby, but I do it for fun because it’s social and I like to work-out. I also love independent film. I like watching them, creating them, and supporting them in any way I can.

Marlene P.: What’s on your nightstand right now?

K.L. Going: I’m reading Orson Scott Card’s Alvin Maker series. He’s such a great writer, and these books are pure fun and escapism!



***** I’d love to invite any of your readers to visit me on my forums as well: www.klgoing.com/forums. We have great discussions and I’m always looking for new participants!

~~Cafe Note~~ As a regular part of our interviews, featured authors will pop back in for one week after their interview is posted to answer any other questions blog readers may leave for them. So if you have any questions or comments for K.L., send them now! She'd love to hear from you!

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi everyone! Mar, thanks for posting this interview. I'm happy to stop in this week and see if I can answer any questions your readers might have. Feel free to ask me about ketchup, Ewan MacGregor, and how I became an Indianapolis Colts fan at exactly the right time for all the wrong reasons. Ha. Oh, and you can ask about anything else you want to know about. Like, um, my books I guess. :-}

Anonymous said...

nice interview. i rellay liked st.iggy.
amy g koss

Anonymous said...

Hi KL!

I'd like to know more about your book for writing YA novels. What subjects will you be covering?

"Ketchup, it's a food group, right along with chocolate."

Melissa Wyatt said...

Hi, KL! I absolutely loved Troy's dad in Fat Kid Rules the World. I think he's one of the best father figures in YA fiction. Can you talk a little about his creation?

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the nice comments!

My writing book will be coming out with Writer's Digest this spring (2008) and it will cover all the traditional how-to topics such as developing great teen characters, building strong plots, setting, selling to editors/agents, marketing, you name it.

The difference is it will cover these topics from a YA perspective, including a chapter on the history of YA and a teen panel at the end of every chapter where teens answer questions about what they like or don't like in the books written for their age group. (I'm getting teen panel responses in now and they're great! Teens it's not too late to participate!)

Can you tell I'm excited about this project? It's been a lot of fun to work on.

Anonymous said...

The dad in Fat Kid Rules the World was a surprise. I didn't set out to have him be such a strong character, but he developed that way over the course of writing the book. I came to love him too... especially the way he is so strong and so obviously loves his sons and yet doesn't always know what's best for them. I think a lot of the best parental figures are like that.

My own dad is a wonderful role model. He isn't anything like Troy's dad, but he's a strong man who has always done what's best for his kids.

Melissa Walker said...

Hey, KL.

Thanks for the great interview. I'm finding the promotion stuff hard, too. How do you know when you've "done enough"? It seems like you could work on it 24/7 and still not feel like you've done all you could. Would love to get your thoughts.

Melissa

Anonymous said...

Hello! What a great interview, KL and Mar.

Thank you for taking time to answer our questions, KL. I'm excited to read about your upcoming writing book. I'm definitely pre-ordering it. :)

My question has to do with the process of writing. For me the most difficult part of writing a novel is completing it. When I'm 1/2 or even 1/4 of the way through, I always lose interest or have doubts about the story, myself, my writing, etc and I want to give up.

Any advice or thoughts about this? How do you know when to give up and when to keep plugging away (even if it 'hurts' & feels like you're going nowhere)?

I'm always tempted to start over with a new story in hopes it will inspire me.

Thanks in advance for your insight.

Anonymous said...

Those are both great questions. I'll answer them one at a time in seperate posts...

I'll start with marketing. I totally agree -- you could definitely do it 24/7 and it still wouldn't be enough. I can't tell you how many times I start my day saying, "I'm going to write today" and at the end of the day I haven't written a word. I've done a zillion promotional things instead.

I wish I had a magic formula, but I don't. I can say that I've erred in both directions. For a while I said yes to everything until it affected my health and my sanity and even my desire to be a writer. I've also said no to everything. But right now I'm taking a new approach, trying to market using my strengths instead of my weaknesses.

What this means for me is that I've finally accepted that traveling to author visits at schools and libraries far from home is not my forte. Not only do I get very nervous before hand, but I have Crohn's disease, and the traveling affects my health, making it difficult to manage, so I've started saying no to almost all requests.

I've replaced that kind of marketing with doing more on-line. I have a web site, forum, blog, MySpace page, and I try to be creative, filming book trailers and recording pod casts. Coming up with soundtracks kids can download for their Ipods. Writing my own teacher's guides.

In other words, after much struggle, I've given myself permission to play to my own strengths. I still spend too much time marketing and not enough time writing, but hopefully I'll become more disciplined about that too. I figure, you can't tackle everything at once. :-}

Anonymous said...

I know this feeling well. You're half way through writing your book and suddenly you get the BEST idea that seems so much more appealing!

Resist the temptation to let yourself get distracted. Trust me, this is something everyone deals with. Writing a book is hard, and the middle part is the hardest. The fresh enthusiasm of the beginning is gone, yet the end isn't in sight. Should you stop?

I will tell you this in all honesty: the hugest accomplishment of the writing process is finishing that first draft.

Many, many people have ideas for books. Only a percentage of them will start writing. Of that percentage, a smaller percentage will actually finish their first draft. Of that group, only a small number will take the time to edit. Even a smaller number will have the perseverance to submit their work to editors and revise again and again until they are published.

You want to be in that last group. What starts as 100% gets narrowed down to 1% -- and that's the percentage that includes YOU. Write 1% on a note card and tape it to your wall.

Remind yourself that editing is as much a part of getting published as writing. Editing can do wonders -- both the kind of editing you do on your own, and the kind you will do with an editor once you have a contract. But it all begins with getting that first draft written.

How do you know when to give up and when to keep plugging away? Always keep plugging away.

Don't doubt yourself. Everyone's first drafts are weak. Everyone. Give yourself and the story a chance for revision. I promise you will learn a ton no matter what the ultimate outcome, and when you see how much your stories improve through revision you will be better equipped to see the next story through, and the next one, and the next one... you will also take the things you learned and apply them to the writing process when you start your next first draft.

Always starting and never finishing will keep you in the same place as a writer. You'll learn the same lessons over and over again. So let go and give yourself permission to slog through the middle of the book even if you have doubts, even if your prose is weak. Give yourself a chance to be in that 1%.

Anonymous said...

Wow! That was way long! Sorry... Hope that wasn't tmi. Ha.

Anonymous said...

Now I do have one question... I never heard of a book trailer before talking and working with you on the one for Garden of Eve. Tell me where did this idea come from and did you have the trailer planed from the get go or did the process come together after a lot of thought?

Thanks, Sara-Elizabeth

Anonymous said...

Opps, lost the top of my comment here is the whole thing:

KL, Great interview!!!

By the way I loved Iggy, Fat Kid, and Liberation. But I have to Say I truly love your latest (Due out in October) The Garden of Eve. I think all KL Going fans will agree with me once they read it that it is your best book so far!. Thank you for the Advance Reading Copy and letting me be a small part of the Eve project.

Now I do have one question... I never heard of a book trailer before talking and working with you on the one for Garden of Eve. Tell me where did this idea come from and did you have the trailer planed from the get go or did the process come together after a lot of thought?

Thanks, Sara-Elizabeth

Anonymous said...

Hey, KL loved Iggy, Fat Kid, and Liberation. But I have to Say I truely love your latest (Due out in October) The Garden of Eve. I think all KL Going fans will agree with me once they read it that is is your best book so far!. Thank you for the Advance Reading Copy and letting me be a small part of the Eve project.

Now I do have one question... I never heard of a book trailer before talking and working with you on the one for Garden of Eve. Tell me where did this idea come from and did you have the trailer planed from the get go or did hte process come together after alot of thought?

Thanks, Sara

Anonymous said...

Hi!

Thank you for the comment about writing a book and actually finishing it and all that fantastic jazz. It was totally inspiring
(sorry I sound like I'm brownnosing.)

Where did you get your inspiration for the charecter Iggy? How did you manage to make somone who could be portrayed as so unlikeable so sweet and lovable?

-dancing in the rain
(is that you miss sara-elizabeth? my word, hello!)

Anonymous said...

Sara,

To answer your question, book trailers are a new thing that authors and publishers are just trying out. In fact, my publisher is very curious to see what kind of response I get because they haven't done any yet.

You can check out the trailer for The Garden of Eve on You Tube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-GLfbrSTAU &mode=user&search= (Or just go to the Non-Lame stuff page on my web site, www.klgoing.com.)

I did think about it a lot ahead of time, but mostly I thought about how we could film it with no budget, when it's summer time but the book takes place in late October... So we had to come up with shots that were creative, but still told the story.

And of course we needed a great actress who would work for ice cream!

Anonymous said...

Dancing in the Rain,

You asked about how I created Iggy's character to be so sweet when he could have been perceived so negatively. Good question!

I love to work against type in my books, making people think twice about characters they'd guess they knew if they met them in real life. I tried to show Iggy's thoughts at the same time I showed his actions, so even as he's doing something many people would disapprove of (like calling the teacher a name) we see things from his point of view and find ourselves laughing or loving him in spite of everything.

Also, I fell in love with Iggy, too, so I think the fun I had writing him comes across on the page.

Anonymous said...

Hi KL! Thanks for the great interview, and thanks to Marlene too.

I am so sorry to hear about the turmoil surrounding Fat Kid and I can imagine how it must be frustrating for you. But Fat Kid does Rule and his story will find its way into kids' hands, regardless of how some people might try to stop it. It is an absolutely brilliant book.

What amazed me most about Fat Kid and The Liberation of Gabriel King, is how you were able to nail the voices of people that aren't "like" you, or aren't of your culture. It takes a great deal of bravery for a writer to put herself in someone else's shoes and try to speak for that person.

Did you ever worry that you'd miss the mark? Did anyone ever say to you, "Hey, that's not how we talk or think"?

G. Neri said...

K.L.-
I loved St. Iggy. You are one of the few female writers who seem to truly get the teenage male voice. How do you account for that? Also, St.Iggy seems to be a great companion book to SMACK. Have you read Melvin Burgess?

-g. neri

Cynthia Leitich Smith said...

Lovely interview. I'm looking forward to all of your upcoming books. I'm especially pleased to hear too that you have a YA writing book in the works--the need is there. Congratulations on all of your success!

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Cynthia! Greg and Jennifer, your questions are similar. Yes, it is difficult when the voice of your narrator is very different from your own. I'm glad that no one has yet had that, "what were you thinking?! You totally missed the point." reaction.

Usually I get the opposite reaction, and that gives me a great opportunity to talk about how we all have many inward similarities despite our outward differences.

When I start writing the voices come to me unbidden -- they come first and the plot comes second. So I don't ever set out to write a certain "type" of character. Instead, I focus in on the core emotions involved and then I figure out how I can relate to those feelings in my own life experience.

Greg, I haven't read Smack, but I will put it on my reading list.

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed your interview too and loved Fat Kid Rules the World!

I'm wondering if you're a plotter or a plunger? Has that process changed as you've written more books?

Anonymous said...

I am definitely a plunger, and no that process hasn't changed yet, but believe me... there are times when I wonder if it would be so hard just to make a teensy little outline. So often I get to the end and think, "Now what am I going to do?!" But most of the time I prefer not knowing what's going to happen next.

Anonymous said...

KL, thanks so much for your terrific answer to my question.
It definitely wasn't tmi- it was *very* helpful and inspiring. :)

I'm copying your response as well as a big '1%' and posting it by my computer for daily encouragement. I'll be contacting you with even more heaps of thanks when I make it to that coveted 1%. :grin:

Much success & best wishes to you on all your current and future projects.

Georgina said...

That sounds like a really interesting book. :)
Maybe i'll check it out sometime.

PS On your links roll it says Scott WesterfIeld instead of Westerfeld.

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Anonymous said...

hi, omg i read saint iggy, and i know this sounds completely wierd, but i have a huge crush on iggy now. i love him. he is a good kid, and i love him. i wanna fall in love with someone like that.

megan(single and 15 years old btw)

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