Joyce McDonald

BIO

Joyce McDonald is the author of many outstanding novels for teens, including SWALLOWING STONES, an ALA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults, and SHADES OF SIMON GRAY, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and a nominee for the Edgar Allan Poe Award. She lives in Blairstown, NJ.

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INTERVIEW

July 2004

Teenreads.com contributing writer Carlie Webber recently spoke with Joyce McDonald, author of DEVIL ON MY HEELS, the moving story of a teenager in the late 1950s who raises serious questions about her hometown and the activities of some of her fellow citizens. In this interview Joyce explains the importance of setting in her novels, reveals the difficulties she experienced in getting her latest book published, and offers helpful advice to those who would like to enter the writing profession.

TRC: You tend to set your books in your home state of New Jersey. Why did you choose Florida as the setting for DEVIL ON MY HEELS?

JM: I lived in Florida for several months after I'd finished graduate school. Setting is important to my stories. In order to use details that will bring the reader into my fictional world, it helps if I'm familiar with the place I'm writing about. Florida happens to be one of those places. Also, my husband was born and raised in central Florida. Many of the stories he has shared with me over the years were transformed into fiction and threaded through my middle grade novel, COMFORT CREEK (1996). I wanted to revisit that landscape in another book, so in 1998 I began work on what would become DEVIL ON MY HEELS.

TRC: What was the inspiration for the plot of DEVIL ON MY HEELS?

JM: When I began writing this book in 1998, I thought it was going to be about a girl who uncovers disturbing family secrets. And while this is still the basis of the now-published version, the secrets have undergone numerous changes over the years. Initially I set the story in 1961. My research (very extensive research) focused on the civil rights movement. Many of the earlier drafts reflected this. I even used the Cuban missile crisis as a metaphor for the ultimate consequence of hatred. In other words, the book was a massive, overwhelming hodgepodge --- everything but the kitchen sink. And it was way over the top!

My first editor at Delacorte (I'm currently on my third) suggested I put the book on the shelf until I could figure out what it was really about. Excellent advice! I did just that and went on to write SHADOW PEOPLE and SHADES OF SIMON GRAY. But the characters in DEVIL ON MY HEELS stuck with me. They sometimes whispered to me at unexpected times. I went back to work on the book in the winter of 2002. By then I was working with a different editor who suggested that I think of Dove's story as a microcosm of the larger picture. Rather than focusing on the civil rights movement, she thought I might want to take another look at the migrant workers' situation, which at the time was only in the background of my story. Something clicked during our conversation, and a few weeks later I found myself setting the book in 1959 and taking it in an entirely new direction. (This is after five years, many major character changes, six very different titles, and enough drafts to fill thirty-three floppy disks!)

TRC: Poetry is a prevalent device in DEVIL ON MY HEELS. Who are some of your favorite poets? Do you write poetry?

JM: When I was in my late teens and early twenties, I often wrote poetry. Last winter I had an opportunity to participate in a three-day poetry retreat organized by friend and fellow author Susan Campbell Bartoletti. Maria Mazziotti Gillan ran the workshops. It was an amazing experience. Her favorite expression: "You have to go into the cave." We all have those dark places we'd rather avoid. Poetry is a way of exploring them, of facing our demons.

Some of my favorite contemporary poets include Sonia Sanchez, Brigit Pegeen Kelly and Stephen Dunn. I have a tremendous admiration for writers who can tell an entire story in free verse. Examples: Karen Hesse's OUT OF THE DUST, Jacqueline Woodson's LOCOMOTION, Sharon Creech's LOVE THAT DOG.

TRC: Before you started writing teen novels, what did you do for a living?

JM: Before my teen novels, I wrote middle grade fiction, a picture book, and a few academic works. At the time I began writing my first book, a middle grade novel called MAIL-ORDER KID, I had my own small press and a small bookstore. Before that I worked in the publishing industry (at Scribners, when it was still a family owned company). After returning to school to finish my doctorate, I taught writing and literature at two local universities: Drew and East Stroudsburg. No matter what type of work I did, I was always balancing it with my writing.

TRC: Many of your books blend American history with mystery. Are you interested in one particular period of history?

JM: Any period of history is of interest to me if I stumble upon a story that sparks my imagination. History is a series of stories woven together --- millions of individual tales, some more interesting than others. As a writer, I love to mine the past for stories that might shed light on the present. In DEVIL ON MY HEELS I chose a dark period in our own history to explore racial issues that are still prevalent (although in different ways) today.

TRC: What are some of your favorite books, and why?

JM: All of Barbara Kingsolver's books, particularly THE POISONWOOD BIBLE. She's a master at choosing just the right detail. Anne Tyler is also one of my favorite authors. Her subtle nuances are brilliant, and I love her unique, sometimes quirky, characters. I also enjoy reading books with elements of magical realism. As for YA authors, I could go on for pages, but to name just a few: Han Nolan's DANCING ON THE EDGE, Laurie Halse Anderson's SPEAK, and Annette Curtis Klause's BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE.

TRC: What advice do you have for beginning writers?

JM: I know you've heard it before, but here it is again: Read! Read! Read! There isn't any other way to truly learn the craft. You're picking up all those fictional elements without being aware of it --- by osmosis. You can take courses, and attend writing seminars and workshops. But the best teachers are the books written by your favorite authors.

TRC: What are you working on now?

JM: A young adult novel tentatively titled DROWNING LESSONS, scheduled for publication in spring 2006. It's about human connection and the meaning of family --- lighter in plot and subject matter than my previous novels. I realize that's a bit vague, but I've never been good at coming up with those one-sentence synopses.

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