Where are you
from? Where do you live now? Do you do anything else in addition to writing
great books?
When anybody asks where I’m from, Mississippi is
always the answer. I was born in Cleveland and lived there until I graduated
from college. My family lives in Jackson, Batesville, and Oxford now, and I visit
whenever they’ll let me. I’ve lived a lot of places, but about ten years ago,
my husband and I moved to St. Petersburg, FL, where I write books, review a
few, and read a lot.
When did you
get your start as a writer? How long have you been writing?
For my entire career, I was a school librarian. I
left that job, which I loved, because I wanted to see if I could write. That
was in 2001. My first book [Glory Be]
was published by Scholastic Press in 2012.
What were some
of your favorite books as a child? Authors, illustrators, you name them.
Alice in Wonderland, Little Women, anything that
could be considered a series (Nancy Drew, Cherry Ames, you name it!), and the
fairy tales my mother and grandmother read to me.
Top 3 favorite
authors and illustrators that inspire you today?
Barbara O’Connor for her southern humor, Kirby
Larson for her fabulously detailed historical fiction, and way too many others
to name. I love reading middle-grade novels most of all.
In your own
words, describe what Making Friends with
Billy Wong is about.
Azalea Morgan prefers
having one best friend and staying close to her Texas home, but when her
grandmother needs her help, off she goes to Arkansas. Things are different
there, the rules, the people. It’s the early 1950s, the dawn of the Civil
Rights era. Her grandmother’s favorite grocery store is owned by a Chinese
American family whose nephew, the outgoing, friendly Billy Wong, has recently
come to work and to go to school in Paris Junction, Arkansas. Billy and Azalea
learn a lot from each other—and from the community. It’s a friendship story told
around actual history of the times.
Please describe
your creative writing process.
I’m not much of an
outliner but I do spend an inordinate amount of pre-writing time scribbling in
notebooks, trying to figure out my characters. Because I write historical
fiction, I do a lot of research which usually influences how the story plays
out. Once I have my characters and the time and place, I work very hard to come
up with a plot! Early drafting is not my favorite part of writing. I much
prefer the fine-tuning, the editing, the deepening of stories.
You’ve written
two other books for Middle Grade readers, and they are all set in distinct time
periods and places. Describe the time and place you choose to use in Making Friends with Billy Wong.
I chose Arkansas after
attending an interesting “homecoming” event sponsored by Delta State
University’s Mississippi Delta Chinese Heritage Museum.
The weekend was filled
with stories of Chinese immigrants and their families who’d grown up in the Delta,
including Arkansas. I wanted the town to be small, much like the ones I
remembered from my own childhood. Everybody knows you and watches out for you!
The time just before
Brown v. Board of Education seemed perfect for a boy like Billy Wong who wasn’t
allowed to attend a segregated white school in his community but was able to
thrive in a new school, in a new place.
I love the line
“Maybe I shouldn’t climb trees to daydream in the clouds./ But high on a tree
branch, stories pop wide open.” What does this line mean to you?
Billy’s voice turned out to be so much fun to
write! Azalea was originally the only narrator of the story. But there was so
much she couldn’t know. I tried writing Billy’s chapters as straight prose.
They weren’t very interesting. In fact, my agent may have used the words “info
dump” to describe them. One day I closed my computer and sat with a notebook
and began scribbling. I made lists, wrote letters, listened closely, and
Billy’s voice emerged. This was the first thing he said to me. He’s a dreamer,
a storyteller, a connector, but he’s also a very responsible great-nephew who
wants to help his family.
Who was the
inspiration for Billy Wong? And why did you choose to write his thoughts in
verse (a writing choice that I loved!)
Billy was inspired by a friend I went to Cleveland
High School with. He was into everything! When we reconnected years later, he
still was. Although he’s really not completely like my character, Bobby Joe
Moon did answer my nonstop questions about his family’s stores and what it was
like growing up in Mississippi.
I’m not sure I “chose” this form for his thoughts.
They popped out, much like Billy’s stories, though of course, I did tweak them.
But the variety, the brevity, the poetic feel to his words just seemed right.
In your
author’s note you note that there were many Chinese Immigrants in the
Mississippi Delta, where you grew up. What were things you noticed as a child
that made it into the book?
I spent a lot of time
with my grandmother and my mother shopping at various Chinese grocery stores in
Cleveland. I remembered how it felt to hear their language spoken behind the
meat counters and the cash registers. I especially remembered noticing the
writing, the labels on boxes of things I didn’t recognize. But shopping at
these stores was a completely normal, everyday part of my childhood. Later, when
I told friends about this, they were very surprised. That’s when I thought I
might have a story.
My own grandmother had a
small garden behind her house. We picked beans in the hot summertime, a job I
did not like a bit. But the sense of playing outside till dark, of having the
freedom to ride our bikes all over town—those were the memories I brought to
this novel.
What was your favorite scene to write in Making Friends with Billy Wong?
I always love writing the scenes that seem visual,
the ones that play out in your head. I think this is what a good scene is, but
it doesn’t always come easily. Perhaps my favorite scenes were the ones that
Willis DeLoach took over. When Billy and Azalea sneak out to his trailer in the
pecan grove, when he barges into the historical room at the library—Willis is a
complicated fellow and I think he makes the scenes more interesting, don’t you?
What do you
love about writing books for children?
I love the editing, the tweaking, the adding little
details. I also really love talking to students and teachers about writing and
books.
What is next?
Any future projects for us to look forward to?
I always hope there’s a future project! As soon as
I figure it out, I’ll let you know.
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| Get Making Friends with Billy Wong at your local bookstore on August 30th! |
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