Meet the author: Jacqueline West

Hello, hello! You may remember me talking about the creepy and mysterious middle grade novels The Shadows and Long Lost. The author, Jacqueline West, visited the school I work at for an author visit, and it was such a delight to meet her, I knew I wanted to introduce her to you all as well!

Ms. West is the author of the NYT-bestselling middle grade series The Books of Elsewhere, the Schneider Family Award Honor Book The Collectors, the YA horror novel Last Things, the Minnesota Book Award-winning middle grade mystery Long Lost, and several other odd and twisty books for young readers. Her poetry and short fiction for adults appear in a variety of publications. She lives in Red Wing, Minnesota.

1. What is your favorite part of the writing process, and least favorite part of the writing process?

My favorite part of the process is whenever I’m totally absorbed in the work. Everything around me disappears, time passes without my even noticing, and the world that I’m creating feels more real than reality. I’ve often heard this described as “flow state,” but I think of it as time travel, or simply as magic. These moments tend to come while I’m drafting something new, but they can also happen while I’m revising, especially when I’m reaching the end of a project and everything feels fully realized. Whenever they hit, it’s pure joy. Because I write my first drafts longhand, often in that dreamy flow state, my very first revision comes when I type up those longhand pages. Often I’ll have no memory of the exact words I’ve written, and there’s always A LOT of polishing to do, but I’ll usually find a great little line (or two or three) waiting there in my scribbly handwriting. It feels like a surprise present from some other, time-traveling version of myself. 

Least favorite part? Opening the first big feedback letter from my editor, seeing how much rewriting/rethinking work is ahead of me and feeling utterly incapable of any of it. I always get through it somehow, but ugh. I read that letter through my fingers, like I’m watching a scary movie. 

2. Tell us about someone who has inspired you creatively.

While I was in elementary school, I read Little Women by Louisa May Alcott on a constant loop. I read lots of other books at the same time—fairy tales, ghost stories, horse books, Calvin & Hobbes—but I could always turn back to Little Women and lose myself in the March girls’ world. Then I’d reach the last page and start all over again.

The character of Jo March (who is of course based on L. M. Alcott) showed me that becoming a writer didn’t just take inspiration or talent, it took WORK. It took hours and hours and hours of scribbling away all by yourself, and it took failing and falling down and going on anyway. Lots of books made me want to be part of the magic of stories, but Jo March made me love the work itself. I’m so grateful for that. 

3. What kind of books do you gravitate toward in your own reading life?

I’m an omnivorous glutton of a reader. I’m a reading wolverine. 

I still read multiple books at a time, just like when I was a kid, and I’ve usually got six or seven of them in various stations in my house (bedside table book, bathtub book, purse book, kitchen book…). I love dark fantasy and horror and other speculative stuff, which are the kinds of things I write, but I also really love to read the things I never write, like nonfiction—biographies, essays, humor, cultural writing. And I read a lot of older works as well as contemporary fiction. Right now, I’m reading a scholarly book about two poets, two contemporary novels, a book about American dance history, a forthcoming middle grade fantasy, and a fun horror novel. I’m all over the place. (Which probably gives me more tools to use in my own work. I hope.) 

4. Are there any characters in your books that are the most like you?

I’m pretty different from most of my protagonists. That’s why I write fiction: because I’m greedy, and I want the chance to slip into lives that aren’t like mine. The character I might be most similar to—even though we’re two different species—is Harvey, one of the three magical cats in The Books of Elsewhere. Harvey has spent a lot of time on his own, hidden away in an attic full of weird antiques, so he has this whole strange internal life where he imagines that he’s a pirate, or a secret agent, or one of the three musketeers. Harvey and the kid version of me would have gotten along really well. 

5. What is your superpower ?

I’ve been told that I’m good at creating believable, complex settings. I hope that’s true, because I love working with setting. Many—maybe most—of my stories have been inspired by particular places, and I love building imaginary locations that feel rich and real and fascinating, because I want to visit them too. 

6. What is one of the best pieces of advice you’ve ever gotten?

I’m really grateful to the authors who share their own processes—especially their own struggles—with the public. Back when I was writing my very first book, Neil Gaiman kept up a very lively blog where he would give generous, wise, in-depth answers to all sorts of questions from aspiring writers. I didn’t study creative writing in college, and I didn’t yet have a real-world community of authors to connect with, but I learned so much just by reading that blog. 

Something he said that I’ve written down and that I repeat to myself whenever I’m feeling discouraged and stuck and powerless is: “…Write the next thing. Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.” So that’s what I tell myself. Just write the next thing. 

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Thank you, Jacqueline! Side note: I’d forgotten how much Jo March influenced my own earliest visions of what it meant to be a writer. She’s an icon! Thank you for the reminder.

Readers, you can find links to books and more at http://www.jacquelinewest.com . And if you (or a young person you share books with) read one of Jacqueline’s books, drop me a line and let me know what you think!

See you next time!