Fabulous New Fiction: 2k10 Debut Author Denise Jaden

Denise Jaden has written a gorgeous book about loss and faith and family: LOSING FAITH. I know it's gorgeous because I could not put it down. I'm so pleased to introduce her on the blog today.

Congratulations on the publication of your novel, LOSING FAITH. It's a beautifully written story. Can you tell us a bit about the story and what inspired it?

LOSING FAITH is about Brie, a girl who loses her sister, Faith, in a mysterious accident. While grieving her sister’s death, Brie discovers her role in a dark and twisted religious cult…a cult that now wants Brie for a member.

When coming up for the idea for LOSING FAITH, all I really knew was that I wanted to write a story about sisters. The idea came to me that one of the sisters would have died, and the other would suddenly realize she had never known her sister as well as she thought. I talked it through with critique partners until I discovered Faith’s secrets. I lost a close friend of mine when I was sixteen, and I think this was inspiration in part for the story as well.

How long have you been writing for children/teens? Have you written other books or is this your first effort?

I’ve been writing for about seven years, and while I thought I started by writing for the adult market, it’s only lately that I can look back at my early work and see that I’ve always had a teen voice. I’ve written six novels (seven if you count the one that even I won't look back at!), which are all in various stages of revision.

I know what you mean about discovering that you are really writing for teens! Can you describe your path to the publication of LOSING FAITH?

I wrote the first draft of LOSING FAITH during NaNoWriMo 2007. From there, I spent about nine months revising, then started to query. As rejections staring piling up, I continued to revise. In October, 2008, I attended the Surrey International Writers’ Conference and sat down to pitch my book to Anica Rissi from Simon Pulse, among other agents and editors.  I left the conference with several requests to see my manuscript, including a request from Anica Rissi. I didn’t send to any of the editors at that point, but just doubled my efforts to get an agent quickly. By November I had a couple of offers of representation, and a couple more based on revisions. After accepting an offer of representation from Michelle Humphrey, I went through a line edit with her and we sent out my manuscript to several editors in January, 2009. By March, Anica Rissi from Simon Pulse made an offer on the book, which I was thrilled to accept.

Do you have any advice for beginning writers?

Write because you love to write. Publication is based on so many variables, and can really play with your mind if that is your main goal. Write a lot, don’t be afraid to try new things, but know that not everything is supposed to make it into your finished book. And finally, read, read, read.

My own favorite advice! Can you tell us something about your personal life – inspirations, plans for the future, goals, etc.?

I’m a homeschooling Mom. My son is six and I love the time I spend with him. At this point he is my main focus, but I know as he grows older and more independent, that’ll change. I look forward to the day when I can spend three or more hours per day writing. I’m also a professional Polynesian dancer and I’d love to one day travel more with my dance troupe. But for now, I’m really enjoying plenty of time at home with the family.

Polynesian dancer! Okay, that's another whole blog post. In the meantime, do you have any new writing ventures underway?

Yes, I do! I’m currently working on another YA novel called PERFECT AIM, about a teen archer who, in the midst of family turmoil, falls for her young and understanding woodworking teacher.

It sounds fabulous. Do you have a website where readers can learn more about LOSING FAITH? 

Yes, my website is at www.denisejaden.com and my blog, which I update regularly is at www.denisejaden.com/Blog.html

Reading Like a Writer: Voice

The revisions on Forgiven are done (for now – there’s always more to do!) and now on to “Reading Like a Writer” (RLAW, for short.)

Before I start, with Tell Me A Secret (Holly Cupala) and The Sky is Everywhere (Jandy Nelson), I’d like to point to blog posts by my friend Bethany Hegedus, who began her own RLAW segment not long ago (her first post: http://bethanyhegedus.livejournal.com/984.html ). Both Bethany and I are graduates of the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA program in writing for children, and these analyses are a kind of standard ritual, and one of the ways we hope to improve our work.

There seems to be a thing in books for teens lately about dead sisters. Tell Me a Secret and The Sky is Everywhere share that theme (along with a number of other books: Jane in Bloom by Deborah Lytton and Losing Faith by Denise Jaden are two that come to mind.) Secret and Sky are both contemporary novels written in first person, both protagonists are grieving, and both – Miranda in Secret and Lennie in Sky – go through a “thing” with their dead sisters’ boyfriends.

Yet these two novels, which in my opinion are among the best of this year, have strong, distinctive voices and that’s what sets them apart. So in this segment of RLAW, I’d like to start with voice.

There is authorial voice (the way you phrase things every time you write; for example, I’m very fond of parallel construction.) But the voice of your character is unique to the work.

In Secret, Miranda speaks in past tense with an urgency that drives the narrative:

“We sat together in the silence, time passing like the stream of cars whizzing beneath us on the highway. Another wave of pain threatened to engulf me, and I isolated it in my mind. It began the size of a marble and swelled into a watermelon, pink and fleshy and throbbing. Giving in would mean going back, something I wasn’t ready to do yet. Not until I knew everything.”

Miranda’s emotional edge is driven by her secret, which is captured in the image of something “pink and fleshy and throbbing;” the narrative voice is evocative but terse. Time is Miranda’s enemy, and her deadline (which we know about right from the start) looms. Cupala chooses a sentence structure that is elegant yet straightforward. She often ends her paragraphs with simple declarative sentences: “Maybe fear did, too.” “We each had a little of both.”

In Sky, Lennie’s voice couldn’t be more different: dreamy, languid, with unique and expressive vocabulary:

“I realize something that scares me: I’d be happy, but in a mild kind of way, nothing demented about it. I’d be turtling along, like I always turtled, huddled in my shell, safe and sound.

"But what if I’m a shell-less turtle now, demented and devastated in equal measure, an unfreakingbelievable mess of a girl, who wants to turn the air into colors with her clarinet, and what if somewhere inside I prefer this?”

Nelson chooses complex compound sentences and elevated imagery (“turtling,” “turn the air into colors”) that are exactly right for Lennie.

Miranda is an actor – she may be conflicted, but she’s constantly on the move, taking things in hand (not always successfully, which is the source of the novel’s tension.) Lennie is a dreamer – processing slowly and carefully, through words (poetry), and the tension here is driven by her inability to act at the right time. And these two disparate personalities are expressed by the unique voices given to them by Cupala and Nelson.

I’m sure I could go on, but I’ll turn it over to you. What unique voice have you read lately, in which the language used by the writer perfectly mirrors the personality of the protagonist?

Craft Issue: Revision Checklists

I know I promised a "Reading Like a Writer Series"... and it is coming! But I'm in the midst of the first major revision of Forgiven, and it's due on my editor's desk yesterday. Well, Friday, but the pressure's on. And RLAW takes some deep analysis.

Because I'm thinking revision, I thought I might share with you a few thoughts about how I work through a manuscript the second, third, fourth, umpteenth time.

In addition to smoothing all those plot inconsistencies, adding twists and turns, and working on character-deepening, and there are a few things I "checklist" as I revise. Here they are:

• Find all the "ly" words (i.e., adverbs) by using the Word search feature and eliminating most.
• Search for "it is/was" and "there is/was". It's almost always stronger to use different phrasing. (Or...Phrases are almost always stronger without "it's".)
• Search for places where my character "felt," "saw," "looked," etc. When I'm really inside my character, those phrases aren't necessary.
• Search for sentence "flow." In particular, I look sentence by sentence for stronger first and last words.
• Search for passive voice and other indicators of "telling."
• Try to make sure there's tension on every page. 
• Remove dialogue tags wherever possible. Even "said" can get in the way when only two people are talking.
• Make sure gesture substitutes for internal thoughts wherever possible.
• Look for those things that popped up in my subconscious and may be amplified - recurring metaphors or images.
• Watch for repetition.

I try to do a dedicated pass for each of these items. These are really the last bits - if the story needs to be stronger in general I try to use some of the exercises that Donald Maass uses in his Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook.

Now - back to work...and I promise, back soon with RLAW!

...And More Secrets!

Holly Cupala is giving a grand finale to her book launch, including prizes. Post a comment here and then follow the link to let Holly know that you posted. Here are the particulars:

Party Prizes! Here’s what people can win:

Signed TMAS books!
TMAS t-shirts!

Fan-made bracelets by Hannah S!
Music that inspired the book!
Sneak Previews!
Bookmarks and Handmade Magnets!

and...

A Tell Me a Secret handmade necklace!

HOW TO WIN? Share the Trailer Love!

1. Click here to go to YouTube, then click the Share button to send to your Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or blog! 5 pts each
2. Click here to tell us where you posted and enter to win!

Plus Holly will be featured at readergirlz for the entire month of August, with a live Twitter chat coming up! Hope you enjoy the trailer, and thank you so much for being part of the virtual tour and party!

(And, dear readers, I promise soon a "Reading Like a Writer" post! I'm working on my revisions of FORGIVEN...so please forgive me!)

Secrets!

Just for fun, Holly Cupala (TELL ME A SECRET) asked authors to "dish"...so here are a few secrets, including one of my own:

Voices You Should Hear: Holly Cupala and TELL ME A SECRET

As you all know, I just got home from Vermont College of Fine Arts, where I graduated with my MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. That was a thrill, and already I miss all my friends. More later.

But right now there are new things to explore - among them, my new series on "Reading Like a Writer." That's up at the end of the week. In the meantime, I'm delighted to participate in a blog tour for the radiant Holly Cupala, whom I finally met at BEA, and whose debut novel, TELL ME A SECRET, is truly as special as she is. Here's what Holly has to say about TMAS and more:

Congratulations, Holly, on the publication of TELL ME A SECRET! Can you tell us a bit about the story and what inspired it?

First, thank you so much, Janet, for having me!

TELL ME A SECRET is a YA novel about a seventeen year-old, Miranda, who has been reeling from the loss five years before of her bad-girl older sister and wondering what happened the night she died. She’s right at the cusp of having everything she wants—a new friend with access to her sister’s world, a ticket to art school, a boyfriend—when she finds she has a secret of her own. It’s a little bit mystery, a little bit suspense, a little bit family story.

I started writing TELL ME A SECRET after two losses—first, a very close friend’s sister died. Then my husband and I lost our first daughter at birth. It was devastating, and I almost stopped writing altogether. A few months later, I went to a writing conference with friends, and Justina Chen (whose latest, NORTH OF BEAUTIFUL, is extraordinary!) took me out to lunch and asked, with utmost kindness, “Are you thinking about writing about Ezri?”

It was like she gave me permission to go there. Right after that we went to Libba Bray’s session, “How to Shut Off Your Brain and Get to the Heart of Your Writing,” and the story came out of nowhere. Literally fell in my lap, and I started writing as fast as I could.  

I love that story and I applaud your desire to write about something so true. How long have you been writing for children/teens? Have you written other books or is this your first effort?

Well, I suppose this dates me back to childhood, circa first grade, when I started writing fiction. Then there were the teen romance novels (two of them: Stolen Love and Playing the Field) in eighth grade—that was before I actually experienced teen romance. Tragic poetry followed. I went to college and grad school and was just about to become a professor or something when suddenly I went, Huh? This wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life. I joined the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), took classes, joined critique groups, wrote some pretty bad stuff, started writing some fairly decent, publishable stuff. It didn’t have the emotional core, though. I was writing to please other people and avoiding writing what was meaningful to me. When we lost Ezri, it sort of stripped all of that away. I stopped caring about what other people thought and started writing the story that wouldn’t let me go.

Can you describe your path to the publication of TELL ME A SECRET?

I should admit here that it wasn’t an easy book to write. It meant plunging into grief and painful relationships, and an enormous amount of doubt. I might not have started writing if Justina hadn’t called and bugged me (in the nicest way possible, because she is such an encouraging, generous person). Then another friend, unrelated to my writing life, called to tell me he’d had a dream that I was supposed to be working on something, and I’d better get to it!

So for the next year or so, I wrestled the story onto the page. Libba Bray says writing is bloody and brutal, and I definitely felt that. Then I received an SCBWI Work-In-Progress Grant—it was a signpost. We had a second daughter, I kept writing, met my awesome agent, Edward Necarsulmer IV, at another writing conference, and he sold it in a preempt to our top choice (she has been amazing to work with!).

Do you have any advice for beginning writers?

Writing is a process that involves both the mind and the heart. You can’t just decide to write something meaningful one day and pour it out the next—it takes time to hone your skills as well as to unlock a story that is important to you. There are ways to cultivate both—taking writing classes, reading excellent books, finding like-minded peers to journey with you. Most of all, writing. Maybe not every day or even every week, but take time to prioritize putting words on a page. Nothing is wasted in life—you will get there, if it is truly important to you.

Can you tell us something about your personal life – inspirations, plans for the future, goals, etc.?

I feel like so much of the world is in flux right now. There are so few constants. My goals have become considerably more modest over the last few years—my New Year’s Resolution last year was to give my to-do list to the Higher Power of To-Do Lists (inspired by The Higher Power of Lucky, of course) and to take one speck, one open door at a time.

As for inspirations, I find that in my close relationships—friends I have had since high school and before, my wonderful writing community, my husband who is my favorite person ever (Kamran in TELL ME A SECRET kind of looks like him!), and our daughter. They are my constants. And of course, books!

I know you blog, both personally and with the readergirlz. What do you like best about blogging?

This is probably completely cliché, but I love that it’s connecting to a community. So much about writing is solitary that it’s wonderful to check in with people (my blog roll is a mile long), put thoughts and questions out there, and interact with other book-lovers. readergirlz has been especially wonderful in that way—I have loved being a part of it. 

Do you have any new writing ventures underway?

I just handed in my second novel to my editor (code name: CREED)! I’m on pins and needles hoping she likes it. In the meantime, I’m thwarting my anxiety by talking to you!


Thank you, Holly! Here are some other details about Holly's blog tour and ongoing contest:
The full tour schedule is here: http://www.hollycupala.com/2005/01/tell-me-secret-virtual-tour.html Next stop: Wednesday, July 28^th at Eve’s Fan Garden http://evesfangarden.com/

Prizes each week for blog comments – we’re giving away signed books each week, t-shirts, music, journals, gift cards, and more!

TELL ME A SECRET Tour Contest Entry Rules

•        Leave comments at any official tour stop or Holly’s blog (www.hollycupala.com) throughout the tour! Each comment counts as an entry (one comment per post*).

•        Tweet about the tour (@hollycupala) and tell us what you think!

•        Post about the tour, then leave a comment at my blog.

•        Prizes available to US/Canadian shipping addresses only.

Each week's prizes will be announced at Holly’s blog the following week - check back to see if you've won and contact us at the contact link at www.hollycupala.com (we will hold prizes for 2 weeks).

* Comment calculation: for instance, during week one you can comment once at every official stop, and once on any of my posts for that week to be entered in that week's prize drawing.


Read a two-chapter preview of TMAS here: http://www.hungermtn.org/tell-me-a-secret/

MFA, and Life Thereafter...

I'm back from Vermont College of Fine Arts, with MFA in hand, and master's hood on my back (not really, but it is awfully pretty. Two shades of green. My favorite color.) To all my peeps, readers, friends - new blog posts coming, starting this Tuesday with a "Secret" launch.

And late in the week I promise I'll start my new "reading like a writer series." I'm especially jazzed after all the terrific lectures I heard from faculty and fellow grads in Vermont. Here's a pic of me taken right before my own graduate lecture:

There are talented students emerging from the Vermont program. I guarantee some of them will be household names in children's lit.

In the meantime, I'm working feverishly revising FORGIVEN (Speak/Penguin, 2011) having received an excellent edit letter that mirrored all my own concerns. It's so lovely to have an editor like Jen Bonnell, who is brilliant, as well as delightful!

Reading Like a Writer: Introducing a New Craft Series

A few years back, Francine Prose (can you imagine a more perfect writerly name?) wrote a terrific book titled Reading Like a Writer. In it she asserts that in order to learn how to write, a writer must first read – read analytically, read critically, read everything. At Vermont College we have a craft session on reading like a writer in which we analyze books through on-line discussion; during our first two semesters we’re required to write numerous analytical essays that force similar examinations of others’ work.

I’m beginning a new segment on my blog – an occasional segment in which I’ll analyze some aspect of contemporary middle grade and young adult fiction, and invite you to chime in with comments.

In my first analysis, after I return from my Vermont College graduation (yay!) toward the end of July I’ll compare two recent novels:

Jandy Nelson’s The Sky is Everywhere, and

Holly Cupala’s Tell Me a Secret.


These novels contain similar themes and plots, which they both handle successfully, but they are quite different in style and tone.

 

For now, I’d like to review a few of the ideas that Prose puts forward.

·      Reading like a writer requires close reading. Every word, phrase, image, everything in a piece is important. This is not the “character analysis” or “plot summary” kind of reading, but specific reading.

·      Certain writers endure. Certain works endure. We may not all like Jane Austin, but there’s no doubt that her novels endure. The question is…why?

·      If a writer is struggling with how to create a certain mood, scene, or exchange, it is beneficial to look carefully at how other authors handle the same tricky material. How does dear Jane handle party scenes? How does Hemingway use dialogue?

I hope you’ll join me in my quest. If you have books you’d like to see analyzed, let me know. If you have ideas you’d like to see me pursue, have at ‘em.

Look for my first post on "Reading Like a Writer" toward the end of July.

Voices You Should Hear: Picture Book Author Peggy Archer

Something a bit different today - I'm pleased to be able to host picture book author Peggy Archer. Here's what she has to say about how she crafts her books...

Congratulations on the publication of your newest picture book, NAME THAT DOG! Can you tell us a bit about the book?

Thank you, Janet!

NAME THAT DOG! is an alphabet book, and a book of poems about dogs and their names. It all started when we got a puppy and named her Snickers. After we named her, I started thinking of how she actually reminded me of a snickers bar. She was a caramel color. Her ears looked kind of like milk chocolate. And she was definitely nutty! So I wrote a poem about her and her name. I had no idea at that time that this would be the start of a picture book.

I wrote more poems about Snickers, and eventually about other dogs, too, including poems about dogs’ names. It grew into the idea of writing a book about dogs and their names.

I chose the alphabet as a framework, and selected names that fit the dog’s looks or personality rather than using people’s names, although there were a few exceptions. Elvis was named for a famous person. Frank was a nickname for frankfurter. Rex was also a nickname, for T-Rex, and Oscar was named for the Oscar awards. I wanted the poems to be fun, and make the reader smile. I used a marching rhythm for Liberty (born on the 4^th of July), and put yoyo tricks into the poem about YoYo. I thought that adding the breeds of the dogs pictured would be an added bonus. My own dog, Snickers, is in many of the poems. She passed away last November, but her memory will live on in this book.

I know you also have other picture books - can you tell us about them, too?

My very first book, ONE of THE FAMILY, is a Little Golden Book published in 1984. At that time most of the ‘new baby’ books were about an older sibling feeling left out and adjusting. My own kids loved new babies! We have six children. I wanted to write about a family where the new baby was accepted and fit right in. ONE OF THE FAMILY is out of print, but can be found on e-bay.

My next book didn’t come out until 2005. TURKEY SURPRISE, Dial Books for Young Readers, is a Thanksgiving picture book about two pilgrim brothers hunting for a turkey and a turkey who is trying very hard to keep out of sight. The idea came from the radio, when two DJ’s were talking about turkeys flying. I never knew that turkeys could fly, and wasn’t sure that I believed it. So I did some research, and found out that wild turkeys do, indeed, fly. After that, I knew I had to write a book where the turkey would fly. The turkey only flies on one page of the book. The real story is about the little pilgrim brother who doesn’t want to hunt for a turkey, and the story goes from there. TURKEY SURPRISE sold well, and came out in paperback from Puffin in 2007 and made the NY Times bestsellers’ list for children’s paperback books that November.

FROM DAWN TO DREAMS: Poems for Busy Babies, Candlewick 2007, was my first book of poetry for children. Intended for babies and toddlers. I wanted to write poems about things that they could understand. I also wanted it to be something that a grownup and the child could interact with. FROM DAWN TO DREAMS is a collection of poems about very simple things that happen throughout a young child’s day—riding in the car, naptime, taking a bath, and rocking, etc. 

When you have an idea for a book, how do you structure it? Do you storyboard? Freewrite?

I think about it a lot first. Once I get the beginning in my head, then I can start writing it down on paper. Then I go to the computer to finish it. I don’t outline. I just write, beginning to end. Then revise a lot, and think about details, and tightening the story.

I can only imagine that when you surrender your story to an illustrator, you must have to believe that he or she will "get" your vision. Can you talk about that?

It’s a leap of faith! I need to trust my editor’s vision as well as that of the illustrator and the art director. In the end, I love it. The editor’s and art director’s job is to match the words with illustrations to make a book that is appealing and enjoyable to read. It’s not always what I’d imagined when I was writing. But in the end I can see that the illustrations complete the book, and make it even better. In TURKEY SURPRISE Thor Wickstrom brought the little dog into the story, which along with the expressions of the turkey, added so much to the humor of the story. Hanako Wakiyama’s illustrations for FROM DAWN TO DREAMS gave it a nostalgic dimension. And Stephanie Buscema’s wonderful dogs and detail, including paw prints on the cover and spine, in NAME THAT DOG! add more fun to the book.

Can you tell us something about your personal life – inspirations, plans for the future, goals, etc.?

I have a wonderful husband who has always been very supportive of my writing. We have six children, and six grandchildren. I work as a pediatric nurse at St. Anthony’s hospital, although I only work a few days a month now.  And I am the assistant regional advisor for Indiana SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators), a wonderful organization for children’s writers and illustrators. I love spending time with my family, and enjoy doing things outdoors. I also enjoy reading mysteries and doing puzzles. And someday I am going to start line dancing again!

I’m inspired by other children’s authors and their stories, by people who work with children, and by children themselves. I didn’t start to write for publication until I had five children of my own. I sometime wonder what it might have been like if I had started sooner. Thinking about that, I don’t think I would change anything. I love being a nurse, and I feel blessed to have been able to work only part time and spend time with my children as they were growing up. I love being a children’s author, and I’m enjoying that now. I hope to continue to write books that children love, and that publishers will want to publish. And I hope to always have children in my life.

Do you have any new writing ventures underway?

I’m working on a manuscript about animals and teeth that I hope to have completed by the end of the summer. And I’m looking for a home for a Christmas story called THE BABY IN THE BARN.  I hope to get back to a couple of unfinished projects, and a new idea not yet started, sometime soon.

Do you have a website where readers can learn more about your books? 

My website is at www.peggyarcher.com, and you can also read my weekly blog there. 

Fabulous New Fiction: 2k10 Debut Author N.H. Senzai

SHOOTING KABUL by N.H. Senzai debuted this week - and this is a story that is not only of the moment but also receiving terrific advance press. And I think the cover is truly gorgeous. I'm delighted to have Naheed here to discuss her novel. And check out the number of cookbooks she owns...I'm ready to invite myself to dinner!

Congratulations on the publication of your novel, SHOOTING KABUL. It's receiving terrific advance press. Can you tell us a bit about the story and what inspired it?

SHOOTING KABUL was inspired in part by my husband’s experience fleeing Soviet controlled Afghanistan in 1979.

The story is about a boy, Fadi, who never imagines he’d start middle school in Fremont, California, thousands of miles away from home in Kabul.  But, here he is, half a world apart from his missing six year old sister who’s been lost because of him, as they'd fled Afghanistan. Adjusting to life in the United States isn’t easy for Fadi’s family and as the events of September 11th unfold, the prospects of locating Mariam in a war torn Afghanistan seem slim -- impossible. Desperate, Fadi tries every hare-brained scheme he can think of to find her. When a photography competition with a grand prize trip to India is announced, Fadi sees his chance to return to Afghanistan and find his sister. But can one photo really bring Mariam home?

How long have you been writing for children/teens? Have you written other books or is this your first effort?

Gosh, I’ve been writing since the fifth grade, but got serious about it around five years ago. My first novel is a badly written fantasy, which is where I learned the craft of writing (it is lying in a box in my attic!) SHOOTING KABUL is my second book, the first to be published.

Can you describe your path to the publication of SHOOTING KABUL?

When I first got the idea for the book I wrote a synopsis for my agent, Michael Bourret, who liked the concept right away. I wrote it pretty quickly, in about 6 months. Michael suggested some edits and after completing those changes Michael submitted the novel to a group of editors. We were lucky to get a deal within three weeks after interest by multiple publishing houses. We chose to work with the clever and insightful Alexandra Penfold at Simon & Schuster.

Six months! Wow - I'm impressed. Do you have advice for beginning writers?

Dig within yourself and write what you know, you’ll surprise yourself! Really, don’t try to follow trends, write what you love, but look at your life, you’ll be surprised what unique knowledge, angle you have to write YOUR book.

Such great advice - and you've clearly followed it. Can you tell us something about your personal life – inspirations, plans for the future, goals, etc.?

1. At age four I moved to Jubail, Saudi Arabia from San Francisco when my father, a civil engineer, was transferred for work. I lived there 10 years, made tons of friends, ate camel meatloaf, camped on the beach with my girl scout troop and had a blast.

2. I went to a boarding school in London, England, wore a navy, itchy blue uniform and was voted “Most Likely to Lead Literary Revolution” (Mostly because I was reading comic books and romance novels when I was supposed to be analyzing Anna Karenina, doing calculus problems and distilling compounds in chemistry.)

3. I love to cook and own over 300 cookbooks. Most of my favorites deal with dessert..(Sshhh... I have sweet tooth and a secret desire to become a pastry chef.)

4. I’ve sailed down the Nile, through Cairo, past the Pyramids, the Temple of Luxor and swam with barracudas in the red sea.

5. I am an Intellectual Property Consultant in Silicon Valley by day and help companies and inventors figure out what to do with their patents. A few of the technologies I’ve worked on are: hybrid cars, plastic packaging, car seat warmers, fireworks, cell phones, meat processing, MRI machines and robots.

Wow. What an amazing resume! Do you have any new writing ventures underway?

Yes, I have another idea for a middle grade of am working on with my editor, but it’s all top secret right now !

Do you have a website where readers can learn more about SHOOTING KABUL? 

www.nhsenzai.com

Thanks, Naheed!