Today, my
darling readers, I am thrilled to present A.J. Paquette to you in an interview. Ms. Paquette is the author of the recently-released NOWHERE GIRL, which is definitely
one of my favorite reads of the year. I hope you enjoy reading A.J.’s answers as much as I did!
Author Website
A. J. PAQUETTE lives in Massachusetts with her family, where she is also a literary agent. Nowhere Girl is her first novel.
1) The majority of NOWHERE GIRL is set in Bangkok, Thailand. By the wonderfully-written descriptions of the city, readers would assume you've traveled there before. Have you?
Yes, I actually did visit Bangkok many years ago. There’s something about setting foot in a place yourself that I think really helps to anchor the tone and feeling of any given location. With that said, though, it was a brief visit very long ago, so I knew I would need more than that to get all the details right. Basically, I spent a lot of time immersing myself in every possible view of Thailand: I read as many novels set there as I could get my hands on; I read travel guides voraciously; I watched movies; I researched specifics on YouTube. I also spoke and emailed with friends currently living in Thailand, who read my manuscript and helpfully pointed out certain specifics I had gotten wrong. All in all, it was a form of long-distance immersion that was immensely satisfying, and the more so when I hear from readers that, even just for a moment, they too felt like they slipped across the ocean and set foot in that amazing city.
2) Luchi Ann is very -- can't find the right words to describe it -- sophisticated and brave girl for her age. When the idea for the story came to you, was she always so young or did you ever plan for her to be older? Basically, was the story always middle grade or did you originally plan for it to be YA?
Luchi’s age was something that I did grapple with when first starting to tell her story. I had envisioned this originally as a YA novel—the themes and some story elements feel darker and more mature than a typical MG. Knowing that Luchi would need to travel such a long distance on her own, I also felt she might do better being a bit older. On the other hand, she had remained in prison alongside her mother until her mother’s death, and in the end this was something I could not conceive of an older teenager doing.—At least not a strong, smart girl such as Luchi is. So she needed to be old enough that she could capably make her way alone in the world, and yet young enough that she was still willing to follow her mother’s lead for as long as she was able. That thirteen/fourteen-year-old age is right around the time kids are really coming of age, growing into who they will become as adults, and that ended up feeling just right for when Luchi’s story should begin.
3) One of the big themes in NOWHERE GIRL is finding a home, a place where you truly belong and know it with every little fiber of your being. To me, the whole book was about Luchi Ann being ripped from her home (her home = wherever her mother was) and struggling to find a new one. What I want to know is: what does "home" mean to you?
Wow, good question! I have definitely had a tumultuous and widely-traveled upbringing, so the meaning of home is a concept that I do grapple with in my own life. (Maybe that’s where some of the subtext comes from? Hmmm…) But in pondering your question, I would say that home is very much about the people I care about. I don’t have the luxury of a long-lived and deeply-rooted family house to look back on, so for me, home is my family, plain and simple. Much like the old clichéd saying, my home really is where the heart is.
4) I know you've written a few picture books, and that your website mentions some upcoming projects, but can you tell us anything about what to expect from your writing in the future?
There’s definitely lots of new stuff brewing! My next project to be released will be THE TIPTOE GUIDE TO CHASING MERMAIDS (Tanglewood, 2012), a companion picture book to my 2009 release THE TIPTOE GUIDE TO TRACKING FAIRIES. I am also hard at work on PARADOX (Random House, 2013), a fast-paced YA science fiction novel about a girl who wakes up in a rocket ship on an alien planet, with no idea who she is or how she has come to be there, only knowing that she has to get moving while she still can. I realize this doesn’t tell you much about the actual storyline—but that’s intentional! Stay tuned… :)
5) On top of being a writer and mother and human, you are a literary agent at the Erin Murphy Literary Agency. Have you learned anything from your clients that you've been able to apply to your own writing and processes?
I feel so blessed to have such talented authors on my client list, and I feel like I am always learning from them: their amazing work ethic, dedication to their craft, professionalism, and passion for what they do. They are the best of the best! You can read more about some soon-coming debuts from EMLA at the blog Emu’s Debuts
http://emusdebuts.wordpress.com/
6) What is the best thing about being a published writer?
Very hard to say, but I think there’s a special rush you get from the idea that somewhere, maybe next door, maybe all the way across the country, someone might at this very moment be picking up those words you’ve written in the dark, alone at your computer, might be reading them and infusing their own emotion and subtext and viewpoint into them, might be taking these words you’ve written and making them their own, giving them new life. To be a part of creating something that has the potential to pretty much last forever… how insanely fabulous is that?
See? A.J. Paquette is delightfully wonderful. If you like great writing and emotionally thrilling stories, you must check out NOWHERE GIRL.
10/8/11
