Readers, last week I promised you an exclusive guest post from the authors of A Dragon's Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans by Laurence Yep and Joanne Ryder (see my review here). Now, I'm thrilled to present their post. Giveaway details below.
We were happy to agree to Joanne’s request to
do a guest blog post about writing A
Dragon’s Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans. Since Larry and I met in journalism school at
Marquette University, we decided to answer some traditional reporter-type
questions for you.
Who are we? Larry
and I are married and children’s book writers.
We’ve written well over 100 books, but until recently we wrote books
separately. Larry usually writes novels,
and I write poetry and picture books.
What has changed? We fell
in love with the idea of a dragon who has a pet human. We both were so charmed
by our 3000-year old dragon, Miss Drake, and her 10-year old pet, feisty
Winnie, we wanted to work on the book together.
It is our first collaborative work.
When do you write? Larry
is a lark and writes in the morning. I
am an owl and write best in the quiet of night.
We talk about our work at lunch…often away from home with a picnic at
the beach or enjoying a meal in town.
It’s nice to take a break from writing, share problems we’re having, and
get new ideas. We always end up writing notes on napkins and stuffing bits of
scribbled paper tablecloths in our pockets.
Where does the story take place and where do you write? We set the book in San Francisco
because we both love the city. Larry was
born there, we lived there for years, and we both think of it as a unique and
rather magical place.
When we moved away and looked for a home in Pacific Grove, we had two
conditions. We needed two studies and
lots of wall space for bookcases. We
each have our own writing spots, computers, and our books nearby.
How do two people write one book? I am
sure there are many different ways to write together, but this seems to be
ours. Larry writes the opening, we work
on the overall plot, he writes some chapters, and I write others. We share what we’ve done and rewrite and edit
all the parts till we are happy. Larry,
as a novelist, has a much better understanding of plotting and dramatic arcs,
etc. As a poet, I work on images and
details and the emotional thrust of the book.
So we each bring the elements we know best to the story.
Larry and I have lived together for 30
years. That most likely made this
project easier to do. Earlier on we might have had some clashing of egos. But we do respect each other and treat each
other kindly most of the time. I think
we both kept our relationship in mind as we tussled a bit over plot
points. In addition, we do laugh and
tease a lot. The banter between Miss Drake and Winnie came quite naturally to
us.
We both hope readers can see how much fun we
had creating these two ever-so-different friends and that they will join us in
seeing what Miss Drake and Winnie do in the future. There’s more magic to come!
_________________________________________
Thank you so much, Joanne and Larry! I loved hearing about your process and especially how a novelist and a poet who are happily married can create magic together. I look forward to more adventures.
Readers, the authors have generously offered one signed hardcover copy for a giveaway. To enter, you must be a follower of this blog and you must leave a comment on this post. If you spread the word via Twitter or Facebook, please let me know and I'll give you extra chances for each mention. This giveaway is open to US and Canadian addresses only and will end at 10 pm EDT on Sunday March 22, 2015. Winner will be announced on Monday March 23. Good luck!
