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The Teaching Librarian 22.3 13 I don't have my very early stories --a couple years after I moved out of my parents' house, I asked my mom about them and she admitted she hadn't realized I'd want them and had thrown them out! I do have most of my work from junior high on, though some of the old computer files are difficult to open these days. I don't look at them very often, but when I do I'd say my reaction is divided pretty evenly between cringing at how much I had to learn and being impressed by how much I was trying to accomplish. What did you do before you began writing full time? What obstacles did you face as a young writer? My primary day job since my university days was tutoring and providing school support for children with special needs (mainly autism). It was a demanding job, but I enjoyed working with the kids, and the flexible hours gave me time to write. Lack of time was probably the biggest obstacle. I wrote relatively little when I was in university, other than over summer break, because I just didn't have the energy to stay focused between my course load and working. after I graduated, it was a little easier, but I always had to weigh the advantages of having more free time against the disadvantages of a lower income. What books influenced you when you were a teen reader? It'd be difficult to list them all! a few off the top of my head: I started reading stephen king and anne Mccaffrey's books when I was in junior high, and they introduced me to adult- level speculative fiction. I hugely admired king's ability to create and draw out suspense, and Mccaffrey's world-building. robin Mckinley's The Blue Sword had a major impact on me -- I loved her character dynamics and storytelling so much I tried to write a book modeled directly after it. Then in high school I discovered william sleator, with his unique scientific "what if"s, which encouraged me to push the limits of my own ideas. Congratulations on your successes! Your Fallen World trilogy is available in translation in a number of countries, and your latest Earth & Sky trilogy has sold in the foreign market as well. Why are the genres of fantasy, science fiction and the supernatural so fascinating to you? Thank you for the congrats! I think speculative fiction appeals to me simply because it allows me to push beyond the possibilities of the life I'm used to. There are so many more ideas to explore and conflicts to play with when I'm not restricted by what could really happen. and the wonderful thing is that those stories can still make powerful statements about the real world through metaphor and allegory, and through the characters' still-human emotions and relationships. Do you ever face writer's block? How do you plan a trilogy? Can you share a bit about your planning and writing process? I've never really struggled with what I'd think of as "writer's block." Usually if I'm stuck it's a sign that either I need to take a step back and ease off on the pressure, let my mind play with the characters and situation, and a solution will come to me, or that I'm trying to rush forward with an idea too soon and it needs more stewing time. My process usually involves a lot of stewing. I just finished the first draft of a book I got the initial idea for nearly ten years ago. It took that long for the pieces to come together in a way I was satisfied with. (Thankfully it usually doesn't take that long! a year or two is more average, and occasionally a concept comes together even faster.) during that stewing time I'm periodically thinking about the idea and jotting down plot possibilities, character traits, settings--all the bits and pieces that add up to a story. when I have a fairly solid sense of the overall plot and character arcs, I start outlining from beginning to end to make sure the whole story hangs together. If I need to do some research (which varies from book to book), I'll get that in there too, as the facts I find out often inform the course of the story. once I have an outline I feel is solid enough, I dive into the writing. I tend to draft quickly, and repeatedly -- I'll finish a rough draft in a couple months, and then do at least one if not two full rewrites before I'm ready to share it professionally. writing a trilogy has worked pretty much the same way, other than along with figuring out the bits and pieces of the first book, I'm making notes on the later books as well. I like to know what the basic character arc for the other books will be, and approximately how the entire story will end (in a vague evelynne Bernstein