YALLFEST starts today + interview with Danielle Paige, author of STEALING SNOW

by Jocelyn Rish

Y’all! YALLFest is here! YALLFest is here!

As I mentioned earlier, I’m hitting YALLFest this year as a not-so-secret operative for Adventures in YA Publishing. I’ve got a few big interviews already lined up, and I’ll be checking in at events and chatting with authors throughout the weekend to share the YALLFest experience with y’all.

It all starts today at 2:00 with YALLCRAWL, a signing event through the streets of downtown Charleston with authors like Victoria Aveyard, Sarah Dessen, and Kiera Cass. The afternoon continues with even more awesomeness until it results in a glorious explosion of YA author amazingness tomorrow.

Just feast your eyes on the schedule: http://www.yallfest.org/schedule/

Since I don’t have any actual YALLFest scoop to share with you yet, I’m going to share an interview we did a few weeks ago with one of the YALLFest authors: Danielle Paige, author of the New York Times bestselling Dorothy Must Die series.

I met Danielle at last year’s YALLFest when I was freelancing for MTV. It was my first time doing in-person interviews, and I was terrified. Danielle was one of the very first YALLFest authors I hesitantly shuffled up to and asked for an interview. She was so sweet and funny, pretending I wasn’t a total dork as I stammered out my questions.

And then we just chatted about some of our favorite TV shows, which helped calm my nerves. After that delightful experience, I was able to plunge into the rest of the interviews with more confidence. Thanks, Danielle!

So I’m now thrilled to present Danielle’s interview about the first novel in her new series STEALING SNOW.

Danielle, what was your inspiration for writing STEALING SNOW?

I have been obsessed with fairy tales since I was a kid, and I always loved the Snow Queen story because it was such a mystery. I wanted to know why the Snow Queen became evil and why she kidnaps Kai. Unlike Frozen (which I love) the Snow Queen in my book has a much darker journey, and she really goes to some places that Elsa does not.

What book or books would most resonate with readers who love your book–or visa versa?

I am a huge fan of Marissa Meyer and Leigh Bardugo. Their books really influenced my worldbuilding, and Marissa’s ability to push the retelling envelope without losing the fairytale is something I try to emulate.

Was there an AHA! moment along your road to publication where something suddenly sank in and you felt you had the key to writing a novel? What was it?

I had never imagined myself as a novelist. I loved being a scriptwriter and I thought that was what I would be doing forever. But when soaps started getting cancelled I started looking around for other writing opportunities. I wrote a pilot about college kids for MTV and realized how much I liked writing for teens. Then I decided to try YA.

What’s your writing ritual like? Do you listen to music? Work at home or at a coffee shop or the library, etc?

I usually write at home and every day I go to the same coffee shop with yesterday’s pages and revise. Sometimes there is music. I am not someone who needs quiet for writing. I listed to a ton of country for Dorothy and Snow has been a lot of Bon Iver. And there is always Taylor Swift in rotation.

What advice would you most like to pass along to other writers?

Don’t be precious about your first draft. Finish it so you can start the real work of revising it. I meet so many writers who get stuck. I think the best cure is to get to the end. Once you know you can do it, you can do it again and again.

What are you working on now?

Finishing Snow 2! And then I get to dig into my next series: a Fairy Godmother origin story.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Stealing Snow
by Danielle Paige
Hardcover
Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Released 9/20/2016

Seventeen-year-old Snow has spent the majority of her life within the walls of the Whittaker Institute, a high security mental hospital in upstate New York. Deep down, she knows she’s not crazy and doesn’t belong there. When she meets a mysterious, handsome new orderly and dreams about a strange twisted tree she realizes she must escape and figure out who she really is.

Using her trusting friend Bale as a distraction, Snow breaks free and races into the nearby woods. Suddenly, everything isn’t what it seems, the line between reality and fantasy begins to blur, and she finds herself in icy Algid–her true home–with witches, thieves, and a strangely alluring boy named Kai, none of whom she’s sure she can trust. As secret after secret is revealed, Snow discovers that she is on the run from a royal lineage she’s destined to inherit, a father more powerful and ruthless than she could have imagined, and choices of the heart that could change the fate of everything…including Snow’s return to the world she once knew.

This breathtaking first volume begins the story of how Snow becomes a villain, a queen, and ultimately a hero.

Purchase Stealing Snow at Amazon
Purchase Stealing Snow at IndieBound
View Stealing Snow on Goodreads

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Danielle Paige is the New York Times bestselling author of the Dorothy Must Die series, and the upcoming Stealing Snow series (Bloomsbury, 2016). In addition to writing young adult books, she works in the television industry, where she’s received a Writers Guild of America Award and was nominate d for several Daytime Emmys. She is a graduate of Columbia University and currently lives in New York City. You can find her on twitter and instagram.

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Are you going to YALLFest this year? Have you read STEALING SNOW yet? Does getting to the end of your novel help you know you can do it again? Share your thoughts about the interview in the comments!

Happy reading,

Jocelyn

Jocelyn Rish

Jocelyn Rish is a writer and filmmaker who loves researching weird and wonderful animals and sharing what she learns. Her debut was BATTLE OF THE BUTTS, about ten animals that do weird things with their butts. Her latest book is BATTLE OF THE BRAINS, a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection about ten animals with mind-blowing brain abilities. When she’s not writing, she tutors kids to help them discover the magic of reading. Jocelyn has won numerous awards for her short stories, screenplays, films, and novels and lives in South Carolina with her adorable dog. Find out more at www.jocelynrish.com.

Post @ Jocelyn Rish and/or Adventures in YA Publishing. All rights reserved.

Posted: Nov 11, 2016

Category: Imported from AYAP

Tags: YA Author Interviews | YALLFest

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The first slide is an animation of a science/magic room in a castle. A cartoon character of a mad-scientist looking man in in the foreground says: “Hello! Dr. Frankenstein here to say, Well Done on kid lit zombie week! I’m an expert at reviving the dead, and let me assure you, with a little spark, you can bring dead projects to life. Especially if you dig up parts from other dead things. I’ll even let you have a sneak peek at my laboratory’s store room to consider potential parts for your dead project. If you see something with a yellow glow, that means you should click it. Have fun!”

He points to the right side of the screen and a new scene slides in of a castle science/magic storage room. There are various cartoon Frankenstein body parts scattered around. Some of them have a yellow glow. If you click on them, the images below appear (I’ve added alt text to them, so I hope it works).

The Heart of your story is the main character. The protagonist is the beating core that truly brings your story to life. If your MC doesn't make kids (and their grown-ups) care within the first few pages, your story will flatline. </p>
<p>Your main character needs to be:<br />
• Relatable enough for kids to see themselves<br />
• Unique enough to stand out in the slush pile<br />
• Active enough to drive the story<br />
• Memorable enough to survive multiple readings at bedtime</p>
<p>Where do you find this amazing donor heart? It might be the very thing you loved so much about the manuscript you want to revive. It might be the younger sister from your shelved YA novel. Or maybe it’s the hilarious kid you blogged about meeting at a school visit. Find a character beating with potential and place it in the center of your story.<br />

The Brain of your story is the theme or central message. The theme is the big idea that controls everything else. Picture books are more than stories - they're tiny life lessons disguised with humor and heart.</p>
<p>But your theme needs to be:<br />
• Subtle enough not to trigger the dreaded "didactic" rejection<br />
• Clear enough for a four-year-old to grasp<br />
• Universal enough to speak to both kids and adults<br />
• Fresh enough to prevent agents and editors from responding with "Not another sharing/bedtime/first-day story!"</p>
<p>Check your other dead manuscripts to see if there is a recurring theme, something that really seems to be speaking to you. Find the bit of poetry you scribbled on the back of a receipt to see what theme inspired it. Reread the pep talk you texted your critique partner at 1am. Pick the theme that will drive your story, giving it purpose, direction, and deeper meaning.<br />

The Legs of your story is the plot. Not to be confused with a grave plot.🤪 The plot is what keeps everything upright and moving, as well as providing support for all the other elements. You have very few words to use in a picture book, so you need to do a lot with each plot point.</p>
<p>In general, your plot should:<br />
• Hook readers fast<br />
• Build tension that a child can follow<br />
• Create page turns that feel natural<br />
• Wrap up in a way that satisfies</p>
<p>You can borrow a plot twist (a leg) from one manuscript and the opening (the other leg) from a different manuscript. Consider if the subplot of the middle grade novel you trunked would work better as a picture book. Or maybe your Facebook post about a disastrous camping trip could become a story for kids. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other until you have your storyline.

The Arms of your story are the side characters.

The Torso of your story is the setting. Setting helps a story breathe and connects all the elements of the story. It isn't just where your story lives, it's what makes your story ALIVE. It's the difference between "this happened in a park" and "this happened in that park, the one with the twisty slide that burns your legs and the creaky swing that sounds like a baby crying.”</p>
<p>Your setting should:<br />
• Make your character's world feel real<br />
• Contain your story in a way that makes sense to young readers<br />
• Connect different scenes and moments organically<br />
• Give your illustrator enough room to add visual subplots</p>
<p>Half-finished manuscripts are a great place to dig up settings, since you worked out the place details before the plot petered out. Or maybe you had to cut a second fantastic location from your chapter book. You can also revisit the detailed caption from your Instagram carousel documenting your tour of that delish candy shop. Disinter a robust setting that can house all of your story's vital organs.

After you press the Click When Done circle button, the lights flash with the sound of electricity buzzing. Then the screen goes black and lightning zaps across the screen with the sound of thunder.

The screen then lights up to show the storage room, and all the Frankenstein pieces have been assembled into the whole monster. An upbeat song plays in the background. Then a speech bubble pops up with the words, “I’m alive! I’M ALIVE!” Then the screen goes to black.

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