I'm really excited today, because I get to kick off this run of introductions by interviewing my good friend and co-conspirator Yael Tischler! When I first met Yael, back in September 2012, it was clear within about a minute that we were going to be great friends. Since then we've co-written stories, embarked on numerous adventures, invited you all to join our barricade, and finished some MAs into the bargain.
That alone would be excellent grounds for an interview. But Yael isn't just one of my best friends, she's also someone whose stories always excite me - a fantastically talented writer with a real gift for getting into characters lives and voices. And the reason I'm so excited about today? I honestly can't wait for the rest of the world to get the chance to read her writing.
So, ladies and gentlemen. I give you... Yael Tischler!
1. What made you want to be a writer when you were younger? Has it changed as you got older? And why do you think you write for YA in particular? The first thing I ever remember writing was when I was ten. It was a sequel to Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars. For some reason, the characters really made an impression on me, and I couldn’t fathom the story ending - I felt like they still had lives to live past the scope of the novel and I wanted to give them the chance to live them. So I guess you could say I started off writing fanfiction, because I got so caught up in other people’s fictional worlds, that I wanted to do everything I could to continue to live in them. I still wrote fanfiction up into my teenage years, but there was a switch at some point, that I think has to do with developing agency in general when you’re a teenager, where I realized that I didn’t just have to live in the worlds of other writers, but I could also create my own. It’s kept me going ever since. I don’t think I became serious about my writing until about 4 years ago, though, when I lost my voice for an entire summer. It was a huge wake-up call that I wasn’t immortal and that I couldn’t wait forever to achieve my dream of being a published author. So that was the moment that I really threw myself into my writing and I think it’s pretty poetic that the summer I lost my speaking voice was the summer I found my voice as a writer. I think I’m drawn to YA because many of the major themes - finding your voice, discovering your own power and agency, honing your identity - are themes that still resonate with me in terms of where I am on my own journey. I also think YA happens to be best thing since sliced bread, perhaps even better, and I’m told people should write what they most enjoy reading.
2. If you had to get stuck in a fictional universe, what would it be? Who would you be with? And what would be the first thing you did? OMG I would definitely be stuck in the His Dark Materials universe, not because I have any kind of deep affection for soul-destroying-religious-fanatic-kidnappers, but dear GOD do I want a daemon!!!! I would be with my awesome daemon, of course. I would quite like to have a golden retriever. Or a chinchilla. Or actually NO a ring-tailed lemur!!!!! The first thing I would do would be to sneak out of alternate-universe Oxford with my bosom-animal-friend-soulmate and journey North to make friends with talking polar bears and then see the Northern Lights and walk across a bridge in the SKY!
3. Do you have any writing rituals that you would like to share with the group/blog? Occasionally when I have trouble getting started, I put on the most motivational song of all time - obviously, “Make a Man Out of You” from Mulan - and dance around like a crazed maniac. Seriously, there is nothing like singing about defeating Huns to make you fearless about jumping headfirst into your novel. I mean, I might get bemused looks from my flat-mate, but it is highly effective.
4. Your novel, Shards of Glass*, is set in a harsh, post-apocalyptic landscape. What would you want to bring to the streets of your city, Paradise, to make it better, and how long do you think you’d survive? Well, if I’m totally and brutally honest... a day sounds a bit optimistic? I kinda like creature comforts and my self-defense skills leave something to be desired. But let’s say, for the sake of argument, that I was around long enough to make a lasting contribution to my post-apocalyptic city. I’d want to start a story-telling circle, I think. Part of what makes Paradise such a rough place is that people don’t tell stories anymore, they don’t talk about the things that are important to them, they don’t create things. I’d want to create an avenue for people to begin to tell stories again, because stories are how we articulate our identity/identities. And when we have a firm hold on our identity, we’re much better able to make active decisions about how we want to live our lives. People in Paradise don’t think that broadly, they think about survival on a day-to-day basis, and I think that’s one of the reasons it’s not progressing as a city, because nobody spends time thinking about the bigger picture, about how to make it better.
5. For that matter, if you could save one of your characters from the events of your novel, who would it be? To be honest, it’s much more fun to watch them suffer (MMMWAAAHAHAHAHAH). Okay, maybe fun isn’t the right word, but I do think that each of the horrible things that befall my characters is instrumental in their growth, and I wouldn’t want to deny them that growth. That being said, there are certain characters who I feel more protective of, because I love them so much that I can’t bear to think of them hurting for any reason. Ren, my main character’s honourary brother, is just such a character. He’s so sweet, loving, and deeply empathic, the sort of person who’d do anything for anyone. I really, really hate the fact that he goes through some tough stuff in Shards, but I do think it shapes him into a much stronger and more self-actualized person by the end of the novel.
6. If you could meet any author, alive or dead, who would it be? Oooh good question! I’m very lucky that this year, I’ve actually gotten to meet a lot of my long-time literary heroes, including Moira Young, Patrick Ness, Neil Gaiman, and Holly Black. I think I’d probably want to meet Lois Lowry, since she’s the first author who really made me want to write - I’ve already mentioned Number the Stars, but The Giver was also incredibly seminal for me.
7. We’ve recently finished the greatest course of all time, aka Bath Spa’s MA in Writing for Young People, which has obviously left a huge mark on all our lives. But what are you taking with you, and what is your favourite memory from the course? There’s no doubt that my writing grew immensely over the course of the year, and that it was instrumental in helping me to own my identity as a writer. The course’s greatest gift, though, is most definitely the writing community that I now feel a part of. I have well-read critique partners who get the genre I’m writing in, but more importantly, I also have friends who fundamentally understand this crazy thing I’ve decided to do with my life. (Cue the “awwwwww....”) My favourite memory from the course - that’s a tough one. But I think I’ll go with the moment on our retreat to Kingcombe, the first week of classes, when we the sea looked so inviting that we had to strip down to our underwear and jump right in, even though it was a chilly autumn day (read: FREEZING). Our tutors could do nothing but shake their heads and smile indulgently. That was the first moment I knew I’d landed amongst My People.
8. You have a real gift for sparse, poetic writing that cuts right the core of your characters. Does this come naturally, or is it something you arrived at through hard work and good teaching? (and, if so, can I learn it too?) You are sweet, my dear Cinders! The answer to this question is yes? By which I mean, I didn’t always write this way, so I must’ve learned it at some point. The first time I remember writing in a way that felt true, where I really heard a character speaking through me, was when I did my final re-write of a story called The World in Sam’s Pocket, about an eight-year-old girl struggling with the challenges of having an autistic younger brother. I wrote my first draft of that story about a year and a half before I managed to write the final draft. I kept re-writing and re-writing and re-writing with the help of writing groups that I was a part of, but it didn’t sound authentic, for whatever reason, and so I moved on to writing about demons and fairies and a chassidic drag queen for a few months and almost forgot about the story. Until one day, I just heard the main character, Ashleigh, chattering away in my head, telling me about her life. When I went back to the story, it was very much like taking dictation from her. For me, style is very tied to voice and character, so that re-write - which worked super well and is now published in The Mitre - was a turning point for me. I realized that if I wanted to be able to write well, it was important for me to listen for my characters and let them tell the story the way they needed to tell it, instead of imposing the narrative on them. I needed to step back. So if my writing ends up being poetic, I’m not sure I can take much credit! It’s my characters who do the talking, I just listen.
9. The children’s book industry is obviously a wide-ranging and multi-headed creature. But what would you like to see more of a reader/ writer? Positive and/or varied relationship models. Definitely. I think that the default in very popular YA is often to have nice-adventurous-girl-falls-for-dark-angsty-attractive-narcissist (cf. Bella & Edward, Clary & Jace, Will & Tessa), which granted is a totally valid fantasy, but a) it’s not the only sort of relationship that’s possible in the universe and b) of all the possible relationships in the universe, it’s not the healthiest. I mean, is it actually that great to be in a relationship with a partner who tells you you can’t hang out with your friends? Who stalks you and sneaks into your house at night to watch you sleep? Who constantly insults you and patronizes you, because you didn’t grow up like they did? Who plays emotional games with you because they don’t want to let you get too close? I want more books where the girl ends up with a kind, compassionate, supportive partner (i.e. the boy next door who usually gets thrown by the wayside). I want more books where the girl has to teach the guy something very important about life (without being a one-dimensional manic-pixie-dreamgirl). I want some books where the girl is the angsty-narcissist. Or if the guy is the angsty narcissist, I want the girl to give him a piece of her mind. For that matter, I want more stories where girls love girls or boys love boys and it’s seen as mainstream, as opposed to highly unique. I want to see relationships that are sex-positive, where characters who are legitimately at the age to be exploring their sexuality do so in a way that is safe both emotionally and physically, if that’s what they want and they feel ready. I think there are some people out there who are doing it really well - Sarah Rees Brennan shines in this respect. Without spoiling any of the pairings, the characters often discuss consent and communicate about their needs/wants. There are same-sex pairings. And all of the relationships look different. There’s not one way to be in love with somebody. And if you are hooking up with somebody who’s not respecting you (even if they are a dead sexy angsty narcissist), it means that you should SAY something about it, not accept it as the norm and certainly not think of it as an ideal.
10. How does it feel, as a Canadian writer, to be settling (though perhaps only temporarily) in the UK? Are there huge differences you’ve noticed between the Canadian, American and British book industries? So, Canada’s publishing industry is inversely-proportionate to its land mass. Most of the Canadian YA authors you’ve heard of - i.e. Rachel Hartman, Kenneth Oppel, and Moira Young - have made it either in the US, the UK or both. So it’s really exciting to be living somewhere that has a substantial book industry. I’d say Canada tends to piggy-back on the US market in books quite a lot, so when I think of differences between the industries, it’s really comparing the US and the UK. The biggest thing I’ve noticed is that their are certain books that are huge in the UK that just never made it to Canada/the US. I’d never heard of David Walliams or Judith Kerr or Enid Blyton or Frank Cottrell Boyce or Helen Dunmore, and that was crazy to people over here. Conversely, I had to pull apart all of the bookstores in the Southwest of England to find a copy of Robert Munsch, the man who defined my childhood. Also, everyone reads Lois Lowry growing up at home - you seriously can’t avoid it. It wasn’t a given that everyone had heard of her here. The other thing is that the US is just bigger, so it can handle more of the same kind of book. The UK’s been over Dystopia for a while now and the US is still churning them out.
11. With imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, have you ever stolen anyone/anything to put into a book? And were you found out? So people who know my Mum will be aware that she has a rather colourful way of speaking, so while she isn’t a character in my novel, I’ve chosen some of her catch-phrases to give to particular characters. Most notably, “If I believe that, what’re you going to sell me?” and “You’re so full of shit, your eyes are brown.” I’ve also made use of my relationships with my siblings and cousins to fuel the makeshift family relationships in my novel. For example, with us there is constant, not-so-witty banter about how much each of us smells, which my characters tend to do. There’s also a scene where my main character and her youngest brother team up to wake up their honourary brother from a delicious slumber by pouncing on him. My brother Ben will undoubtedly remember the day my littlest brother Raphy and I pulled this one on him. I haven’t been officially “found out,” but I’m not going out of my way to hide these things either. I’m sure my family will recognize them when the time comes....
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So, there you go folks. Huge thanks to Yael for answering my excess of questions in detail, and keep watching the blog as more interviews are posted. And, as always, if there's anything you want to know, why not ask us in the comments?
*working title.
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