This month’s interviewee, MG novelist Lindsay Eagar! Cin cin to mugsy mornings!
Middle grade isn’t a genre, it’s an age group in the literary world. Publishers use age groups to classify books that will eventually land on bookstore and library shelves, which are processed into even more categories (nonfiction, mystery, memoir, to name a few). I know MG is an age group and not a genre, but I’ve always identified with its categorical themes of change, adventure, and internal conflict. The focus is on the main character and their relationships with family and friends, the scope is set on the character’s immediate world and their reaction to it. Profanity and graphic violence are avoided and any romance is relegated to a first crush or kiss. It’s a children’s book age group that radiates sweetness while simultaneously delving into slightly more mature themes that kids are slowly learning, and I admire its simplistic yet profound views on life. A clear example is Kate DiCamillo’s Opal coming to terms with her mother’s absence in Because of Winn Dixie, or Lindsay Eagar’s Carolina being drawn to her Grandpa Serge, who is dying from dementia in Hour of the Bees.
I love Eagar’s middle grade novel and have read it multiple times. In fact, I can proudly say I have read all of her books, which all happen to be MG novels. I managed to snag an interview with her to talk about her fantastic MG heroines, writing process, and tips for hopeful middle grade novelists.
How did you begin your journey as a children's book writer?
Who doesn’t love a warm cup and a journal? Photo courtesy of Lindsay Eagar.
My journey really begins with reading. I was fortunate to grow up in a house full of books with parents who made sure I had plenty of reading material, and I was voracious. I devoured books. I also loved telling stories in all forms—writing, drawing, directing my younger siblings in plays and ballets, coaching neighborhood children in home movies I directed with our camcorder. I was a writer because I was a reader, and the stories I inhaled were overwhelmingly for children: The Witches by Roald Dahl, The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins by Dr. Seuss, Greek mythology, Jan Brett, and Little Women by Louisa May Alcott were some of the most influential.
Board influences! Photo courtesy of Lindsay Eagar.
I always knew I would write. It took me several failed novels to understand that I wanted to write children’s fiction, at least primarily, and between 2010-2013, I wrote and revised three projects: a since-trunked YA about bagpipe-playing mermaids in Ireland, a middle grade that eventually became Race to the Bottom of the Sea (my second published novel), and another middle grade novel, Hour of the Bees, which would be my debut.
I queried Bees in summer of 2013 and signed with my first agent that August. We revised the book for about six months before taking it out on submission in late May 2014. I sold Bees and Race to Candlewick Press in June of 2014, and I’ve sold four more projects to Candlewick since then.
Do you have any influences or favorite authors that have impacted your writing?
It’s so hard to narrow it down! Here’s a few that came to mind:
A Series of Unfortunate Events taught me the boundlessness of form and structure, and the delights of playing with narration.
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn was a book (NOT a children’s fiction book, FYI) that showed me how far an author can go in terms of subject matter, tone, blasphemies, shock, profanity, and that all of those things work in tandem with wonder. (Yes, even in children’s fiction!)
Louis Sachar’s books remind me of what childhood feels like, what kinds of things were funny, what kinds of things hooked me into a plot.
Kelly Barnhill’s work, especially in children’s fiction, has served as an echo for the kind of work I want to make. Her books are life-affirming, full of adventure and heart and despair—everything I want a children’s book to be.
What is your favorite genre and age group to write for?
Hands-down, that upper middle grade category is golden. I’m talking about ages 10-14, when you start to understand that your childhood is winding to a close. It’s a bittersweet time, but it opens up so many possibilities as a writer. My favorite genre is anytime I get to bend reality. If that means big fantasy with lots of rules, great. If that means just a slight change in the rules of our current universe, great. I love using speculative genre as a way to illuminate a story.
Do you have a specific place where you write your stories?
“ I almost always end up working at my kitchen table.” Photo courtesy of Lindsay Eagar.
Sigh. I have a beautiful office space in my bedroom with a gorgeous emerald green velvet chair that makes me feel like a Bond villain and lots of good artwork that makes me feel inspired… and I almost always end up working at my kitchen table, right in the middle of all my family’s action and drama. For as long as I’ve been seriously writing for publication, I’ve been a parent, so I’ve learned to write in little bursts here and there, sitting on the living room floor, hanging out near the swing set at the park, waiting in the school pickup.
These days, my work time is much less fractured, thanks to a wonderful partner and the fact that my children are more independent now that they’re older. Still, I can’t bring myself to leave the kitchen table. My office space is lovely but dusty. Alas!
Your books feature adventurous girls navigating family, loss, and personal growth. What inspires the creation of your protagonists?
Absolutely they are inspired by me. Me as I was when I was ten, twelve, fourteen. Me as I was when I was twenty and looking back at my younger self with envy, because I mistakenly thought I was only blissfully happy when I was a kid.
I was so lucky to have a good, safe, emotionally healthy childhood. But I still experienced grief, sorrows, injustices. Every time I write a protagonist who showcases big emotions, makes mistakes, thinks terrible thoughts, or causes drama in any way, I know I’m writing a character who would have been a mirror for me.
What advice would you give to aspiring children's book authors?
To be an author of any kind requires that you work much, much harder than you’ll get credit for. Writing is about quietly, invisibly chipping away at projects that no one else will ever love as much as you do, and the compensation is pathetically small, both in terms of paychecks and also in terms of respect, accolades, energy returns, etc.
First checked out from the library in June 2018!
If you still want to do it, even though you’ll need a day job or a patron, and even though all book releases are ultimately disappointing because you give the world a piece of your soul and most of them don’t need what you’re selling, then you’ll want to protect your relationship with your writing at all costs. Publishing should be a small part of your writing life, not the other way around. It’s hard. It’s really hard. But if you can find a way to make your own forms of currency and provide your own compensation, then it’s the most fulfilling thing in the world.
Please read Lindsay Eagar’s debut novel, Hour of the Bees, or any of her other wonderful MG novels for that matter. She has a new book, The Patron Thief of Bread, coming out in May! Visit her website, lindsayeagarbooks.com and follow her on Instagram @lindsayeagar. Tell her Rebecca sent you!