Interview: Swati Avasthi, author of Chasing Shadows

I'm thrilled to welcome, Swati Avasthi, author of Chasing Shadows and Split! Check out the interview to learn more about Swati, which character's prose she struggled with, the original title of Chasing Shadows, and her favorite type of word!

___________________

The Interview

Did you have trouble writing any of your characters or specific scenes within the novel? Or, were any characters or scenes particularly easy to write?

What surprised me the most was that storytelling in the visual format, the graphic sections, was the easiest part for me.  I hadn’t written in that form and never really thought of myself as a visual writer. Being so comfortable in the form was a pleasure.

 On the other hand, the prose for Savitri — the PoV that you would think would be the easiest for me since she is probably the character who is most like me both in terms of racial identity and personality — was a real struggle.

Has the title changed or stayed relatively the same as your novel journeyed towards publication?

BIDDEN was the working title for a few drafts.  As the story developed, it became clear that Holly wasn’t being called to the Shadowlands. Rather she started pursuing the Shadowlands and so a word like “chasing” seemed like a better fit. I named the Land of the Dead “the Shadowlands” because of a biblical association (“though I walk through valley of the shadow of death”).  Since I wasn’t talking about ghosts but about the idea of absence, shadows seemed like the right fit too.

What book or author has most influenced you as a writer or in general?

Oh a ton, of course. For CHASING SHADOWS, there are a few texts that directly influenced the book.  The Hindu legend of “Savitri” is retold and intentionally mistold in the book.  Certainly American superhero comics influenced this book from DC to Marvel to Vertigo (but not really in the same way since I came to them as an adult) and, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gillman, which is a wonderful story. 

All these texts influenced me as a person – helping to inform my understanding of what it meant to grow up, to stretch loyalty to the breaking point, and to lose people you loved.  Since they influenced me as a person, they ended up influencing me as a writer, too.

What jobs did you have on your way to becoming a writer/published author? Is there a certain work experience that has shaped your writing?

Jobs – lots of varied jobs from teacher/grader to paralegal to mom.  Although being a paralegal and coordinating a domestic violence clinic really influenced my first novel, SPLIT, even more than that was working in the theater because it has really shaped my writing.  I think of characters as whole people whose desires drive the action of the story and that comes from the theatrical notions of superobjectives, objectives, tactics, and beats.

If you had to pick a favorite word, what would it be and why?

Wow, that’s even harder than picking a writer. I love words – the way they sound, the way the feel in your mouth, the way they carry a meaning and associations.  I love words that are nouns and verbs like “stain” or “swallow” or “split” (all titles of my publications) and I picked the titles in part because I loved the word itself.  So today, I’ll say, “grasp” because it has energy, a clear visual picture, and multiple meanings.

My blog is dedicated to my personal hiding spot, books. Who, what, or where can be credited as your personal escape from reality?

In every place I’ve lived I've come up with a local spot – watching Lake Michigan break against concrete blocks by myself in the early morning at “the point” in Chicago, up in the Sandia Mountains in Albuquerque New Mexico hidden in a copse of Aspens, walking on a shale beach beside Lake Superior. But I can’t easily to get to most of those, living in Minneapolis proper, so I opt for my bedroom. We have light blocking curtains and when I really want to escape, I turn off all the lights in the house, close the door, pull the curtains and breathe.  It’s the closest thing to a sensory deprivation tank that I think I could stand.  I revel in not being able to see my hand and just disappear into the darkness.

Find out more about Swati and her books here! 

______________________

Review: Little Fish: A Memoir From a Different Kind of Year by Ramsey Beyer

Ramsey Beyer was a teenager from a small town in Michigan, looking forward to her first year living in a city far away from home. She chronicled that year in a series of zines featuring personalized lists (such as "things I can't wait for" and "top 10 worst sounds") alongside comic illustrations. Through her blog, Ramsey also reflected on her struggles with loneliness, friendship and potential romance. Her new book, Little Fish: A Memoir from A Different Kind of Year, weaves all of these materials into a poignant, beautifully illustrated, and deeply reflective graphic memory detailing her transformation to an eighteen-year-old city dwelling art student. Little Fish perfectly captures that time in a young person's life when the past feels abandoned, the future seems totally open, and every day is a revelation.

___________________________________

There were two things about  Ramsey Beyer's memoir, Little Fish: A Memoir From a Different Kind of Year, that immediately convinced me I needed to read it: 

1. Ramsey is from the small town of Paw, Paw, Michigan, which is very close to where I attended university.. I left my small northern, Michigan town to move to Kalamazoo, which is much bigger than where I grew up, and I, like Ramsey, felt like a little fish in a new, big pond.

2. Little Fish is a memoir told in various formats, including illustrations, lists, and blog entries. As a blogger who writes lists constantly and has a deep appreciation for contemporary graphic novels, I couldn't imagine Beyer creating something any better suited to my tastes!

Little Fish follows Beyer as she leaves Michigan, and her comfortable life and close-knit circle of friends, to attend art school in Baltimore. In many ways, Beyer could represent any recent graduate who moves away to attend university after high school, but I felt a special connection with her, as a small-town girl and a fellow Michigander. Though Beyer moved much further away than I did for university (all the way to the East Coast!), I went through a very similar experience following my graduation, and I can vouch for the honesty of the feelings and experiences described in Little Fish. 

Beyer perfectly captures the excitement, confusion, and emotional ups and downs associated with a young adult's first big move from home. Multiple times throughout the novel, Beyer refers to how secure she felt in Paw Paw and how that was both a good and bad thing. There are times when she just wants to escape the small town life. She yearns for diversity and change, but, other times, she fiercely misses home. While she enjoys the new people she's met at school, she misses the people from small town Michigan... though she can't quite explain just what quality the people from home possess that her new acquaintances do not. Later, she can't imagine spending vacation away from Baltimore and her new friends, who have quickly become constant companions, but, by the end of break, she isn't so sure she's ready to return to university life. She admits that, if she could come up with a good enough reason, she might never have small town life behind.  These parts of the novel really resonated with me, as I went through the exact same things when I was at university. At school, I was constantly saying that I couldn't wait to go "home," but when I was back in my hometown, I was couldn't wait to go "home" to university. Beyer tactfully addresses this confusing issue of having two homes and divided feelings about both, which often goes unmentioned and ignored when kids are considering the changes they'll experience when leaving for school, but later ends up being an emotional and confusing issue.

I immediately fell in love with Beyer's easily accessible graphic style and her penchant for list writing. There's something very fresh and perhaps even novel about Beyer's memoir that feels very fitting, given the topics and themes found within. Considering that this memoir addresses so many different firsts - freshman year of university, moving away from home, becoming independent, finding oneself, and experiencing one's first serious relationship - I can't help but feel that Little Fish would be a great first introduction to graphic novels for those who haven't read one before. It mixes in plenty of text, in the form of lists and blog-like entries, so the comic elements are somewhat spaced out. The illustrations aren't overly complicated and I never felt like I might be missing some hidden meaning within the images, which I've sometimes felt when reading graphic novels... and that I fear might be off putting to those who are hesitant about picking one up. To me, Little Fish would be a great stepping stone for readers who would like to branch out into graphic novels, but who have been a bit shy about it.

I highly recommend Little Fish to readers of memoirs, graphic novels, and YA. Beyer's debut offers something to each of these genres individually, but also unites them in a unique and interesting way.

_________________________________

More about the Little Fish Blog Tour.

Interview: Kendare Blake, author of Antigoddess

Today Kendare Blake visits The Hiding Spot to chat about her newest novel, Antigoddess! I'm a huge supporter of this book (check out my review!) and urge you all to go out and pick up your own copy because this great book releases TODAY! Read on to learn more about Kendare, including her favorite word (hey, we support all types of words here), the gorgeous, but ill-fated original title of Antigoddess, and the hiding spots that threaten to distract Kendare from writing us more fantastic books.

___________________________

Did you have trouble writing any of your characters or specific scenes within the novel? Or, were any characters or scenes particularly easy to write? 

Athena and Hermes came pretty easy. Athena’s brand of curmudgeon felt like something I was very familiar with, though I don’t think of myself as particularly curmudgeonly. She was also the character with the softest underbelly…she has the most defense mechanisms, she basically is one big defense mechanism…so in that way she sort of reminded me of Cas. Who I miss intensely.

Somebody who gave me a little bit of trouble though, was Cassandra. That damn girl. I thought she’d be this really put upon creature, always trying to find her way out of a bad situation, trying to take care of people and do the right thing. I thought she’d be extremely tragic. And then…well, she started to surprise me.

Has the title changed or stayed relatively the same as your novel journeyed towards publication? 

The title totally changed. When I wrote it initially, I thought it would be a standalone, or maybe a duology like the Anna series. The title was supposed to be Sing, Goddess. The sequel would have been Speak, Muse. You might recognize those as the opening words of the Iliad and the Odyssey, respectively. But then my agent read it and said it didn’t fit the violent action of the book. So I came up with Antigoddess instead. It was inspired by Antigone…that poor girl, born against everything.

What book or author has most influenced you as a writer or in general? 

That would be a two way tie between Milan Kundera (The Unbearable Lightness of Being) and Caitlin R. Kiernan (The Drowning Girl), two writers I have no business mentioning because they’re supreme writerly beings. But there it is. In the tie for third place would be almost every other writer I’ve ever read. You can learn something from everybody.

What jobs did you have on your way to becoming a writer/published author? Is there a certain work experience that has shaped your writing? 

I think I try to omit all day job influence. Which is not to say I haven’t enjoyed many of them. I’ve worked as a project manager for a quality control firm, I was a server in college, first job was selling jeans at the mall, and oh yes, not to be forgotten was the summer I sold garbage door to door.

When I was in grad school, I did a short stint of work experience for a literary agency in London, and that was cool.

If you had to pick a favorite word, what would it be and why? 

Hm. Hm. That’s a tough one. But I’d have to go with…deflated swear words. You know, the swear word you say when things have not gone your way and you are left bereft and sort of exhausted. Often they are preceded by the word, “Well.” As in, “well…fuck.” Whoops! You probably need to asterisk one of those letters!

My blog is dedicated to my personal hiding spot, books. Who, what, or where can be credited as your personal escape from reality? 

Books make a great hiding spot. Very clever blog name, by the way. I suppose my personal escape from reality…let’s go with escapes. RPG video games can suck several hundred hours off my life if I find a good one. I love indie films and philosophical books, the kind that stretch your brain out and make it make weird animal noises.

And oh yes, old cartoons. Like Sailor Moon or Batman Beyond. Or Gargoyles.

Now I want to go do all of that stuff. But I should probably be writing!

Find out more about Kendare and her books here!

______________________________