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Chat with Ellen Airgood

 Live Chat with Ellen Airgood - THE EDUCATION OF IVY BLAKE(05/06/2015) 
4:53
Nora, EarlyWord: 

Welcome, everyone.

In a few minutes, we will begin our chat with Ellen Airgood, the author of The Education of Ivy Blake, which will be published by Nancy Paulsen Books, a division of Penguin Young Readers on June 9.

The Education of Ivy Blake is a companion to her previous title, Prairie Evers. In that book, Prairie moves from North Carolina to New Paltz, in upstate New York. Her accent, her name, and the fact that she was previously home schooled make her feel like an outsider. Happily she meets another outsider, Ivy Blake and they become fast friends.

Prairie comes from a loving family and Ivy does not. When Ivy's single mom decides to move to another town, Prairie’s family convinces her to let Ivy finish out the school year with them.

The Education of Ivy Blake shifts focus to Ivy and picks up when she rejoins her mother.

In a starred review, School Library Journal says. “Like Anne of Green Gables and many other neglected creative girls before her, Ivy is irresistible, and readers will be rooting for her all the way.”

This is Ellen’s third book. Her first, a novel for adults, South of Superior, was published in 2011.

Wednesday May 6, 2015 4:53 Nora, EarlyWord
4:55
Nora, EarlyWord: 

Hey, great to see you, Ellen. We'll start in a few minutes!

Wednesday May 6, 2015 4:55 Nora, EarlyWord
4:55
Ellen Airgood: 
Great to be here, Nora!
Wednesday May 6, 2015 4:55 Ellen Airgood
4:57
Nora, EarlyWord: 

Unfortunately, Lisa Von Drasek isn’t be able to moderate today’s chat, so I am sitting in for her.

Wednesday May 6, 2015 4:57 Nora, EarlyWord
5:00
Nora, EarlyWord: 

We've already got some greeting for you from participants, Ellen, so I will start posting them. First of all, Lisa is out there and says


Hello! Thank you Ellen for being here,

Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:00 Nora, EarlyWord
5:00
[Comment From JoAnn from NMJoAnn from NM: ] 
Hi Ellen!
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:00 JoAnn from NM
5:00
Ellen Airgood: 
Hello, Lisa! It's lovely to meet you in this way. Thanks for the wonderful questions you sent.

And Hello to JoAnn as well!
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:00 Ellen Airgood
5:01
[Comment From PamelaPamela: ] 
Love both books.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:01 Pamela
5:01
[Comment From JaniceJanice: ] 
Thanks for this, Ellen and even more so, the BOOKS!
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:01 Janice
5:01
[Comment From School LibrarianSchool Librarian: ] 
Can’t wait to share the book with my kids. I know they will love it
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:01 School Librarian
5:01
[Comment From BobBob: ] 
Loved the book, Ellen. Glad I could join the chat.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:01 Bob
5:01
[Comment From JackieJackie: ] 
Looking forward to getting to know you, Ellen.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:01 Jackie
5:01
[Comment From Jenny BJenny B: ] 
Thanks for chatting. Love both books.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:01 Jenny B
5:01
[Comment From Pam PPam P: ] 
Hi from Ohio!
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:01 Pam P
5:02
Ellen Airgood: 
Hello, everyone. Thank you for your kind words about the books, and for being here to chat. I'm excited about it.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:02 Ellen Airgood
5:02
Nora, EarlyWord: 

Lisa sent me some questions in advance, so I’ll let her do the honors of beginning --

Question from Lisa:

The education of Ivy Stands alone…

If you read that one first… you want to know more about the Evers…

If you read Prairie first…

You want to know what happens to Ivy…

Did you plan the books this way?

Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:02 Nora, EarlyWord
5:03
Ellen Airgood: 
I didn’t plan it that way, but I’m so happy that’s the way it works out. I’m always trying to make characters palpable, truly human. Faceted. I hope readers always wants to know more, as they might want to know more about any person who piqued their interest.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:03 Ellen Airgood
5:04
[Comment From PamelaPamela: ] 
Do you think people need to read both the books?
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:04 Pamela
5:05
Ellen Airgood: 
Pamela, I'd love it if people do read both books, of course...
But I really think they can each stand on their own very well. Both my editor and I tried to make sure that was the case....
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:05 Ellen Airgood
5:06
Ellen Airgood: 
I feel that Prairie and Ivy are themselves, actual spirits out in the world, and not 'mine,' really. And I want them to be able to stand on their own feet out in that world....
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:06 Ellen Airgood
5:06
Ellen Airgood: 
They are wonderful friends, but at the same time, they are very much individuals, and I wanted the books to reflect that. For them each to be strong in their own right.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:06 Ellen Airgood
5:07
[Comment From PamelaPamela: ] 
What did you have to do in the writing to make each stand alone?
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:07 Pamela
5:07
Ellen Airgood: 
Pamela, that's a great question, about what I had to do as a writer to make them stand alone. I think, in a way, I had to forget about P. EVERS as I wrote IVY....
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:07 Ellen Airgood
5:08
Ellen Airgood: 
It was a bit like starting completely new. Here was Ivy, in a situation. She had this great friend, and lovely family she'd lived with for a while, but the book is about NOW, and what will she do next...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:08 Ellen Airgood
5:09
Ellen Airgood: 
I wasn't sure as I began how much Prairie and the Evers would show up in Ivy's book. I had to let that play out. And in a way, Prairie is such a strong character, a force of nature, with such a bouyant voice, I was a little concerned about her taking over if she was too much present.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:09 Ellen Airgood
5:09
[Comment From Pam PPam P: ] 
The cover of IVY is darker than PRAIRIE, which fits with the books in my mind. Also, it seems to indicate they are two quite different. I assume that was deliberate?
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:09 Pam P
5:10
Nora, EarlyWord: 
Since you've mentioned the covers, I will post them for people to look at.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:10 Nora, EarlyWord
5:10
 Nora, EarlyWord
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:10 
5:10
 Nora, EarlyWord
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:10 
5:10
Ellen Airgood: 
Pam, covers are so important, and I'm so happy with what the art dept. at Penguin has done. I love both the covers. Today the UPS man brought a finished hard cover of IVY, and I love it. LOVE it. The hardbacks are bright yellow beneath the dust jacket...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:10 Ellen Airgood
5:11
Ellen Airgood: 
And that brightness beneath the somewhat somber cover is perfect for Ivy. It makes my skin prickly, actually. That is Ivy's beautiful golden heart beneath the sober realities of her life.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:11 Ellen Airgood
5:12
Nora, EarlyWord: 
-- I hear you run a diner in Marais, Michigan -- is this the one?
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:12 Nora, EarlyWord
5:12
 Nora, EarlyWord
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:12 
5:13
Ellen Airgood: 
Yes! That's our diner. I'm currently sitting just behind the window on the second floor. I can see Lake Superior and some boats out on the water.

We have a little gift shop on the second floor, and one table in the window for people to drink coffee and use the internet without being on the main floor using tables we need for diners. Also it’s quieter up here! ...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:13 Ellen Airgood
5:13
 Nora, EarlyWord
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:13 
5:13
Nora, EarlyWord: 
You also sent me a great shot of the diner in winter.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:13 Nora, EarlyWord
5:14
 Nora, EarlyWord
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:14 
5:14
Ellen Airgood: 
And just to add a little more about the covers, I loved Prairie's cover too, the brightness was perfect for her, and I can't count how many diners asked if those were my legs. They weren't, but could've been.
Ah, and there is my window, the view I am seeing right now...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:14 Ellen Airgood
5:14
Ellen Airgood: 
Winters are quite dramatic here!
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:14 Ellen Airgood
5:15
Nora, EarlyWord: 
Running a diner is time-consuming. HOW do you fit in writing?
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:15 Nora, EarlyWord
5:15
 Nora, EarlyWord
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:15 
5:15
Ellen Airgood: 
Nora, I have been asked that question about time so many times. I'm stubborn and I have worked very hard, I will admit. I've been dogged in my pursuit of this dream. And hard as it is...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:15 Ellen Airgood
5:16
Ellen Airgood: 
I have to say that running a diner feeds some fundamental core of me. I'm a high energy person, and the diner is a high energy place in the season...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:16 Ellen Airgood
5:16
Ellen Airgood: 
And the people. That's the real payoff in work like this. The people, the people. The friendships I've made. The things I've learned, both joyfully and not so joyfully. This place has grown me up.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:16 Ellen Airgood
5:17
Nora, EarlyWord: 

Michigan seems like a great setting. Why did you pick New Paltz for Ivy and Prairie?

Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:17 Nora, EarlyWord
5:17
Ellen Airgood: 
New Paltz seemed to pick me. Prairie arrived in my head, already talking, one rainy April day many years ago. (the far-gone year 2000!) …
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:17 Ellen Airgood
5:17
Ellen Airgood: 
I literally sat up in bed and started taking notes of what she was 'telling' me, grabbing sheets of scrap paper, the back sides of drafts of a different novel I’d worked on all winter. I hadn’t been looking to start another just then, but all this knowledge sprang seemingly from nowhere and I had to get it down...
Prairie’s first words to me were, "Folks said it could not be done but I did it." That line didn't end up in the book, but the words perfectly convey her resolute attitude that shines through …
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:17 Ellen Airgood
5:18
Ellen Airgood: 
One of the things she let me know is that her family had moved from North Carolina to New York State, and she did not like it one bit. I had lived in New Paltz for a year after graduating from University of Michigan--I was a writer for Scenic Hudson, an intern--and so that's probably why Prairie's images of New York State were images of New Paltz. A great town in so many ways. Great pizza! And The Bakery... Mmmm.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:18 Ellen Airgood
5:18
Nora, EarlyWord: 
Lisa just asked if she can buy a coffee mug from your diner!
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:18 Nora, EarlyWord
5:18
Ellen Airgood: 
Yes, Lisa, absolutely! We have those old fashioned thick ceramic mugs...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:18 Ellen Airgood
5:19
Ellen Airgood: 
I will happily mail you one...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:19 Ellen Airgood
5:19
Ellen Airgood: 
And totally off-topic but fun, I love stories of where those mugs show up...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:19 Ellen Airgood
5:19
[Comment From Deborah BaldwinDeborah Baldwin: ] 
Thank you for posting the covers! The differences are powerful!
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:19 Deborah Baldwin
5:19
[Comment From School LibrarianSchool Librarian: ] 
You live in a small town. How do people react to your being a writer?
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:19 School Librarian
5:19
Ellen Airgood: 
One of my favorites: on the table of a monastery in North Dakota. how random is that?
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:19 Ellen Airgood
5:20
Nora, EarlyWord: 

Prairie meets Ivy when she changes schools and has to try to learn to fit in. You write about that experience so well – it’s like everyone in the diner stopping and staring when a stranger walks in Did you experience that yourself?

Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:20 Nora, EarlyWord
5:20
Ellen Airgood: 
Deborah, It's really interesting and great to hear that about the covers. And about changing schools...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:20 Ellen Airgood
5:21
Ellen Airgood: 
I never did that, but there are endless situations where kids feel like outsiders, and I think I experienced most of them.

I was a bookish kid and somewhat shy in grade school, though I was also cheerful and sure of myself. In middle school I began to flounder. Oh, those wars girls have. Maybe boys, too, but girls seem more guilty to me of mean campaigns. ..
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:21 Ellen Airgood
5:21
Ellen Airgood: 
The machinations of cliques made me miserable, but I was part of them at least once, out of desperation, and I remember feeling ill afterward...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:21 Ellen Airgood
5:21
Ellen Airgood: 
The awkwardness grew in junior high, and by high school I was a band nerd with excellent grades, a horrible haircut and worse clothes, huge eyeglasses, and no idea of how to talk to people...

Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:21 Ellen Airgood
5:21
Ellen Airgood: 
But as awkward as I often felt, I always had friends, good friends. I always had fun things going on. I loved to be outside, ride our horses, to read and play clarinet and piano, all kinds of things. I was close to my family, I had things I knew I was good at. I had joys...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:21 Ellen Airgood
5:21
Ellen Airgood: 
I remember what a refuge and delight friendship was--and is. That’s what I wanted to write about.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:21 Ellen Airgood
5:21
[Comment From JoAnn from NMJoAnn from NM: ] 
Were you a reader as a child?
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:21 JoAnn from NM
5:22
Ellen Airgood: 
JoAnn, I was a VORACIOUS reader, always. My parents and siblings also. We did not have a TV in our home until I was 12. I lied about this at school...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:22 Ellen Airgood
5:23
Ellen Airgood: 
I pretended I had seen whatever everyone else had seen. usually this didn't work out, because I'd get it wrong. Oh, the humiliation of that.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:23 Ellen Airgood
5:23
[Comment From Lisa from MnLisa from Mn: ] 
In Prairie Evers- Prairie is home schooled and KNOWS that she will hate school because she is an excellent reader. I loved that both your books portray a nuance of school experiences… was this deliberate choice?
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:23 Lisa from Mn
5:24
Ellen Airgood: 
Lisa, I so wanted to give a balanced portrait of the pros and cons of both homeschooling and public school. School is such a huge part of kids' lives, and I have such vivid memories, both of the joys and the terrors...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:24 Ellen Airgood
5:25
Ellen Airgood: 
But as far as thinking ahead of how book one would be more a homeschool bias, a little, and book 2 a public school slant, Nope. I really did not know I would ever write a companion book to Prairie until I did it...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:25 Ellen Airgood
5:25
Ellen Airgood: 
Honestly, it seemed quite impossible to me in the two years between them that I would do that. Prairie seemed to have said all she had to, to me anyway, and quiet Ivy took a while to warm up to me and tell me what she had to.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:25 Ellen Airgood
5:26
Nora, EarlyWord: 

I think this earlier question from Lisa fits in here:


Librarians are talking a lot about diversity in books . Finding stories that express economic disparity this vividly are rare…can you say a few words about your choices.

Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:26 Nora, EarlyWord
5:27
Ellen Airgood: 
One writes what one knows, I suppose. What one knows and loves....


Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:27 Ellen Airgood
5:27
Ellen Airgood: 
I have a wonderful life here on Lake Superior. It has not been an easy road, however. It’s not for most people who make a life here while they’re young, as I’ve been blessed to do. The economy is tough. It’s a great life, and this place develops some amazing people, stoic, funny, understated...and rugged...and I’m a part of it all....

And growing up on a small farm in the thumb of Michigan, equally wonderful, also let me be comfortable with writing about economic disparities.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:27 Ellen Airgood
5:27
Nora, EarlyWord: 

You said you were a "band nerd." That's more acceptable now -- do you think kids have a wider range of ways to be accepted today, or do they still deal with the same age-old problems, just in new forms?

Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:27 Nora, EarlyWord
5:28
Ellen Airgood: 
Band nerd is a more acceptable thing now?! That’s cool. Even so I would suspect, human nature being what it is, that lots of kids face problems similar to Prairie’s and Ivy’s, and to the ones I faced in school...

Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:28 Ellen Airgood
5:28
Ellen Airgood: 
And anyone at any age needs to be able to walk that line between fitting in and not being vulnerable to the agendas of folks who might not be at the kindest part of their walk in life.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:28 Ellen Airgood
5:28
Nora, EarlyWord: 

I like what you said about it being important to have a community of friends, but also to be able to stand on your own. Tell me more about that theme.

Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:28 Nora, EarlyWord
5:29
Ellen Airgood: 
Friendships for kids--for adults too?--seem both easy and difficult to me. Natural and forced. But they become weird when the power play of school cliques comes in. …

I guess really, PRAIRIE EVERS, is about Ivy. About how sheltered Prairie has been from the kind of hardships Ivy knows, and how once they know each other, they complete each other in certain ways....


Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:29 Ellen Airgood
5:29
Ellen Airgood: 
I did not set out to write the story of one of my own friendships in school, but I'm sure it was a big part of the novel's origin. I had a wonderful childhood, but a close friend did not, and I was so sheltered that all I knew was, something was off, something was sad...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:29 Ellen Airgood
5:29
Ellen Airgood: 
I always wanted to help that friend. I had a special tenderness toward her. But it was not at all one way. She was lively and creative and FUN. She was more outgoing, more of a go-getter, much more daring. We helped each other.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:29 Ellen Airgood
5:30
[Comment From Judy DJudy D: ] 
Can you say who you like better? Ivy or Prairie?
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:30 Judy D
5:31
Ellen Airgood: 
Judy, I love them both. I really do. I absolutely could never choose between them. They both have such wonderful and unique personalities. And I say this with that feeling that they are their own people. I helped them tell their stories, but those stories seemed to be already out there, waiting to be told.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:31 Ellen Airgood
5:31
[Comment From Deborah BaldwinDeborah Baldwin: ] 
I appreciate the authentic voice you write with and how your stories deal with differences; economic, family, setting...yet show a community... a family (not necessarily the family you're born with).
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:31 Deborah Baldwin
5:31
[Comment From Lisa from MnLisa from Mn: ] 
The adults are all fully realized from the hardware man to the waitresses to the teachers…I was in awe of Beryl
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:31 Lisa from Mn
5:31
Ellen Airgood: 
Thank you, Deborah. That's a wonderful compliment. And thank you Lisa, as well...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:31 Ellen Airgood
5:32
Ellen Airgood: 
I’m so glad the characters seem so vivid and real to you. I am a very serious writer, and that kind of veracity is what I want more than anything.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:32 Ellen Airgood
5:32
[Comment From Lisa from MnLisa from Mn: ] 
You perfectly captured the ambivalence of the child who yearns for her mother but the mother is incapable of that role even with repeated ample evidence… …how do you know exactly how this feels?
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:32 Lisa from Mn
5:33
Ellen Airgood: 
Lisa, Thank you. I am not sure how I knew that. My own mother was fantastic. Much more like Prairie's mom....
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:33 Ellen Airgood
5:33
Ellen Airgood: 
I have a good friend who had a mom more like Ivy's...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:33 Ellen Airgood
5:33
Ellen Airgood: 
She said, when she read the draft, "Did you KNOW my mother?"
...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:33 Ellen Airgood
5:34
Ellen Airgood: 
Good for me, not so good for her. I did not know her mother, and she doesn't talk about her much, so that's not how I knew. I pay attention, I suppose. I meet a lot of people. I see a lot of things....
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:34 Ellen Airgood
5:34
Ellen Airgood: 
And to be very frank, for some aspects of Tracy, I took a long hard look at mistakes I have made....
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:34 Ellen Airgood
5:35
Ellen Airgood: 
Not that I am her at all, but I think we can all relate to mistakes and missteps and times when we have been lost or confused, when we haven't been or best selves... and I tried to amplify that. And, as I said, I observe.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:35 Ellen Airgood
5:35
[Comment From Deborah BaldwinDeborah Baldwin: ] 
Could you share a little bit about your writing process?
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:35 Deborah Baldwin
5:36
Ellen Airgood: 
Deborah, I could go on and on about that, and will try not to...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:36 Ellen Airgood
5:36
[Comment From Lisa from MNLisa from MN: ] 
ohh, I like that phrase "best selves"
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:36 Lisa from MN
5:36
Ellen Airgood: 
As far as process, I often find myself leaned forward with my eyes narrowed when I’m working on early drafts and names and the core actions of scenes. The tough stuff makes me feel ill sometimes. When Ivy’s mom lets her down badly in this new book, I had to leave the desk and the room as soon as I’d drafted the scene....

I felt nauseous and had chills and headed for the diner, where the reassuring hum of ‘real life’ was going on...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:36 Ellen Airgood
5:37
Ellen Airgood: 
Thanks Lisa! I think we do contain multitudes, as Whitman said, and so selves seems apt to me...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:37 Ellen Airgood
5:39
[Comment From BethannyBethanny: ] 
Did you study writing anywhere?
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:39 Bethanny
5:39
[Comment From Deborah BaldwinDeborah Baldwin: ] 
I think the intensity you feel while writing the action, helps us as readers connect with the story. You keep it real for us.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:39 Deborah Baldwin
5:40
Ellen Airgood: 
Thanks, Deborah! And Bethanny, I didn't study writing formally. I have a Bachelor's of Science from U of M. But I knew I wanted to be a writer from the time I was in the fourth grade...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:40 Ellen Airgood
5:40
Ellen Airgood: 
My fourth grade teacher gave lots of creative writing assignments.

The Halloween assignment, the first, was a huge Ah-ha moment for me. Those books I loved to read--somebody, some PERSON, wrote those books! I wanted to be that person. The first book I wrote....
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:40 Ellen Airgood
5:41
Ellen Airgood: 
Was not at all good. PRAIRIE EVERS was probably the fourth. How I started--I just started. I decided there was no time like the present. My adult novel, SOUTH OF SUPERIOR, was the first to come out, in 2011, but I had written the first draft of Prairie Evers many years before that. It did need lots of work, but Prairie's voice was already there, and the main themes of the story.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:41 Ellen Airgood
5:41
Ellen Airgood: 
I was writing all along, of course. My first readers were my family. Not long out of college I wrote a short story I wanted to share with my siblings. I made them sit on the couch with afghans over their heads while I read it out loud to them. No kidding! (They said it was good.)...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:41 Ellen Airgood
5:42
Nora, EarlyWord: 
You studied SCIENCES st the University of Michigan, NOT writing?
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:42 Nora, EarlyWord
5:42
[Comment From Suzanne (from Tennessee)Suzanne (from Tennessee): ] 
(I was a bookish band nerd with thick glasses and y best friend from those years is still my bestie, Her kids call me "Aunt Suzanne." )I think you did a great job of showing that sort of strong friendship.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:42 Suzanne (from Tennessee)
5:42
Ellen Airgood: 
Yep, Nora, science! I wanted to be an ecologist. Work outside by day, write novels by...night?... and now run a diner and write. Inside most of the time.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:42 Ellen Airgood
5:43
[Comment From Deborah BaldwinDeborah Baldwin: ] 
What advice would you offer for young writers?
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:43 Deborah Baldwin
5:43
Ellen Airgood: 
Suzanne, cheers to another b.b.n. Several of my good friends from then are still good friends as well. And advice for young writers... oh, I love that question...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:43 Ellen Airgood
5:44
Ellen Airgood: 
I've had a lot of good advice, but a piece I always come back to I read in Janet Burroway's book about writing fiction...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:44 Ellen Airgood
5:44
Ellen Airgood: 
Write about what troubles you, especially if it seems to trouble no one else.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:44 Ellen Airgood
5:44
[Comment From Lisa from MnLisa from Mn: ] 
was it hard to get Prairie published?
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:44 Lisa from Mn
5:45
Ellen Airgood: 
Lisa, that's a great question about publishing.... It's kind of complicated. Short version: my adult novel came out first, and PE followed along easily.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:45 Ellen Airgood
5:45
Ellen Airgood: 
BUT....
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:45 Ellen Airgood
5:45
Ellen Airgood: 
I had written PE and worked on it for years and finally put it away and then turned to the adult novel...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:45 Ellen Airgood
5:46
Ellen Airgood: 
I worked on that over the course of seven years between beginning and pub. date....
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:46 Ellen Airgood
5:46
Ellen Airgood: 
until at last...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:46 Ellen Airgood
5:46
Ellen Airgood: 
I had an agent!...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:46 Ellen Airgood
5:46
Ellen Airgood: 
The phone rang at the diner one spring day and the woman on the other end said, “Hello, Ellen, this is Joy.” I said, brightly, “Hi, Joy!” while I scrambled to think who that was. I wasn’t expecting my agent to phone me so soon after approving the mss as a go. I was in the middle of serving an order. Then it hit me: Oh my god. Joy! My agent!...

She had a book deal for me. I sank down onto the diner stool nearest the phone and put my head on the counter. “I think I might faint” I told her. She laughed. “Don’t do that,” she said. A moment later I served the breakfasts that were up. They were identical, to a couple from Wisconsin: two cheese omelettes with bacon and pumpernickel toast.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:46 Ellen Airgood
5:47
Ellen Airgood: 
For Prairie, it was different...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:47 Ellen Airgood
5:47
Ellen Airgood: 
I had worked on revisions with my agent’s assistant at the time, but I wasn’t aware that she and my agent were shopping the manuscript around. Sarah, Joy’s assistant, called me out of the blue one August night and gave me the news that PRAIRIE had been taken on by Nancy Paulsen. It was crazy busy and I remember that I had pizzas in the oven, and I gaped at the phone again....

This is not a pizza order, is it? It was a wonderful surprise.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:47 Ellen Airgood
5:48
Nora, EarlyWord: 

That diner does keep you real, doesn't it?


What was the process with your editor like for PRAIRIE?

Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:48 Nora, EarlyWord
5:48
Ellen Airgood: 
Nora, the diner does do that. Keep me real. And I'm really very thankful for that. (Mostly.) The process with Nancy Paulsen was great. She would put questions in the margins, leading me to think through some of the scenes more thoroughly, to go beyond where I’d stopped.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:48 Ellen Airgood
5:49
Nora, EarlyWord: 

Did you ever hit a wall in the writing process?



Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:49 Nora, EarlyWord
5:49
Ellen Airgood: 
Hit a wall? Oh, yes. A number of times. But I’m stubborn. I hit the wall and slump against it for a while, but then I get mad and climb over or around or whatever. Now and then I have been known to sledgehammer a wall down.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:49 Ellen Airgood
5:50
Nora, EarlyWord: 
I'm going to show the photo you sent me of the journal you kept about Prairie and Grammy …
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:50 Nora, EarlyWord
5:50
 Nora, EarlyWord
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:50 
5:50
Nora, EarlyWord: 
Please tell us about that.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:50 Nora, EarlyWord
5:51
Ellen Airgood: 
Nora, That journal is another of those things that makes me smile and makes my skin prickle a little at the same time. When Prairie was 'talking' to me I was keeping a journal and also cutting out photos from magazines that reminded me of Prairie and Grammy. The second photo, another journal page, involves the origin of character names...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:51 Ellen Airgood
5:51
 Nora, EarlyWord
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:51 
5:52
Ellen Airgood: 
There it is. Probably impossible for you to read, but I'm writing there about a walk I took, trying to 'hear' more of what the character was telling me. Her name.... It was as if I was listening closely to a far-off voice. I talk about that in the journal I was keeping at the time. I spelled Prairie wrong and my punctuation was terrible, but almost everything essential about the story was clear to me from the first. It’s scary, in a way. What if in a future book the ideas don’t come zinging along the metaphysical story wires so clearly? Will it work out?....
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:52 Ellen Airgood
5:53
Ellen Airgood: 
Mostly the names and the core facts just come. I have to listen for a while, and make sure I’ve understood correctly, but then I’ll know....
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:53 Ellen Airgood
5:53
Ellen Airgood: 
The last line in that photo says something like...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:53 Ellen Airgood
5:53
Ellen Airgood: 
Fear is what makes people mean.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:53 Ellen Airgood
5:54
Nora, EarlyWord: 

That's a great one -- so true.

Unfortunately, we have less than ten minutes left and some questions piling up. We'll try to run through them quickly.

Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:54 Nora, EarlyWord
5:54
[Comment From Lisa from MnLisa from Mn: ] 
would the grown ups who read your kid books like your grown up novel?
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:54 Lisa from Mn
5:55
Ellen Airgood: 
Lisa, that's a great question. Yes! It's been so wonderful, a great feeling. My adult readers of SOS have also responded warmly to Prairie, and I hope they will to IVY as well...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:55 Ellen Airgood
5:55
Ellen Airgood: 
I am a little nervous for Ivy...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:55 Ellen Airgood
5:56
Ellen Airgood: 
Her debut... I'm protective of her. She's been through so much, and is such an inspiration to me. I hope people will respond positively to her brave telling of her story and what she's learned.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:56 Ellen Airgood
5:56
Nora, EarlyWord: 

Lisa's been asking the following and I've been holding her off, but she insists! Just give her a "yes" or "no"!

Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:56 Nora, EarlyWord
5:56
[Comment From Lisa from MnLisa from Mn: ] 
I need to know!!!! do you raise chickens? Goats? Do you make your own cheese?
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:56 Lisa from Mn
5:56
Ellen Airgood: 
No, no, and no. Sadly. Dreams of mine. Diners don't allow that sort of thing...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:56 Ellen Airgood
5:56
Ellen Airgood: 
SOMEDAY.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:56 Ellen Airgood
5:57
[Comment From Deborah BaldwinDeborah Baldwin: ] 
Is there a certain place or time of day you like to write? How frequently do you write?
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:57 Deborah Baldwin
5:58
Ellen Airgood: 
Deborah, I prefer to write in the morning, but I will plow on regardless, as in the diner business I very often don't get my druthers. I try and write every day, pretty much. Try. I often write in bed. Also a great deal of all the books have been written at a long wooden booth in the back part of the dining room of the diner. (there's a whole set of rooms behind the facade.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:58 Ellen Airgood
5:58
[Comment From BobBob: ] 
I think boys will enjoy this -- the girls are kind of tom boys anyway and are kids most boys would like to hang our with.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:58 Bob
5:59
Ellen Airgood: 
Bob, thank you. I hope boys will like it, and I think so too. I received wonderful comments from boys on P. EVERS, as well as earlier unpublished books I took into the local schools, to reading groups, in order to feel like a 'real' writer long before I was published, and to get real input from kids.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:59 Ellen Airgood
5:59
Nora, EarlyWord: 
We might be able to combine the following two questions into one answer …
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:59 Nora, EarlyWord
5:59
[Comment From JoAnn from NMJoAnn from NM: ] 
Whose your favorite kids book author? Did you ever meet any authors when you were growing up?
Wednesday May 6, 2015 5:59 JoAnn from NM
6:00
[Comment From Deborah BaldwinDeborah Baldwin: ] 
What authors and/or books have influenced you as a writer?
Wednesday May 6, 2015 6:00 Deborah Baldwin
6:00
Ellen Airgood: 
Oh, favorite author. Oh gosh. Wait, stop....
Wednesday May 6, 2015 6:00 Ellen Airgood
6:00
Ellen Airgood: 
Favorites is always too hard of a question. Growing up, I loved Elanor Estes, I remember that. And Emily Dickinson's poem I'm nobody, who are you? And a thousand others... I never met any authors growing up...
Wednesday May 6, 2015 6:00 Ellen Airgood
6:01
Ellen Airgood: 
Though one of the tv shows we watched at my grandparents house, The Waltons, was beloved of me, and when Will Gear came to our school, I was dumbstruck.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 6:01 Ellen Airgood
6:01
Nora, EarlyWord: 
This may have to be our final question …
Wednesday May 6, 2015 6:01 Nora, EarlyWord
6:01
[Comment From JaniceJanice: ] 
Are there more Ivy/Prairie books in the pipeline?
Wednesday May 6, 2015 6:01 Janice
6:01
Ellen Airgood: 
As an adult... Steinbeck, Tolstoy, Dickens... are all authors I am inspired by. Again, so many.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 6:01 Ellen Airgood
6:02
Ellen Airgood: 
Janice, I'm not sure if there are more Ivy/Prairie books. I heard a voice in my head the other night, and it was a girl somewhere between 6th and tenth grade... She wasn't Ivy or Prairie. I haven't found out her name yet... I'm working on another adult novel at present....
Wednesday May 6, 2015 6:02 Ellen Airgood
6:03
Ellen Airgood: 
But the moment I can, I will be leaning forward to listen to that girl who said, It was squash or be squashed, that's what my parents didn't understand.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 6:03 Ellen Airgood
6:03
Nora, EarlyWord: 
Let's sneak in just ONE more … Lisa wants to know if you do school visits and if so how people can reach you.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 6:03 Nora, EarlyWord
6:04
Ellen Airgood: 
Lisa, Yes, I do like to do school visits, although I am so very far from anywhere it's not always easy to arrange. But I LOVE them. They are energizing. Also I can skype and etc. I have a website, EllenAirgood.com, and there's a contact form there that comes directly into my email. And I'm on Facebook, though the email is probably a better way to talk about visits.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 6:04 Ellen Airgood
6:05
Nora, EarlyWord: 

Thanks, so much Ellen. This was a lot of fun.

And thanks to all of you for joining us. What great questions!

Wednesday May 6, 2015 6:05 Nora, EarlyWord
6:05
[Comment From Judy DJudy D: ] 
Thanks, Ellen and thanks Penguin Young Readers for the eGalley. Loved it.
Wednesday May 6, 2015 6:05 Judy D
6:05
Ellen Airgood: 
Thank you ALL! It was wonderful to talk with you. Cheers!
Wednesday May 6, 2015 6:05 Ellen Airgood
6:06
Nora, EarlyWord: 

The next title in our program is: The Secrets of Blueberries, Brothers, Moose & Me: A Novel by Sara Nickerson A talented new middle-grade voice tells a story filled with heart about finding something all your own while the world changes around you. Read More »

Wednesday May 6, 2015 6:06 Nora, EarlyWord
6:07
Nora, EarlyWord: 

The next title in our program is: The Secrets of Blueberries, Brothers, Moose & Me: A Novel by Sara Nickerson A talented new middle-grade voice tells a story filled with heart about finding something all your own while the world changes around you. Read More »

Wednesday May 6, 2015 6:07 Nora, EarlyWord
6:08
Nora, EarlyWord: 

The next title in our program is:

The Secrets of Blueberries, Brothers, Moose & Me: A Novel

Sara Nickerson

A talented new middle-grade voice tells a story filled with heart about finding something all your own while the world changes around you
Wednesday May 6, 2015 6:08 Nora, EarlyWord
 
 

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