I did this interview a few months ago, and it just came out in the local paper...any typos are my fault, since I typed it up.
[My city's] teen publishes first novel
By Michael Zwelling
The single panel comic: few have made the career of it the way Gary Larson has done with his surrealistic humor series The Far Side.
Even fewer have done what Hannah, a 16-year-old sophmore at my school has done, writing an inagural novel due for publication this fall this is based on a single image.
"I've seen the comics where there's an island a single palm tree in the middle with a couple of people wearing rags and stranded," she said.
"I couldn't just have a laugh and move on. Instead I started to think to myself, 'What are the dymanics of that situatoin, of these two people stuck together on this island where there is no space, no privacy?'"
Her book, The Sublime, looks at three people trapped on an island just off the Florida Caost who try to function as a group.
It was written by long hand in a series of notebooks. "I always have a notebook with me and I've always like dwriting in them, it has sort of always been my hobby."
Chapters jump around; editing occurs in the margins. Some pages are dog eared and some have corners ripped off. There are also doodles, phone numbers and musings.
Hannah initally thought she would photocopy her book and place the finished product in stores herself. (**It was this crazy complicated plan with a friend of mine. Looong story**) "That's when I found this guy on Myspace and things changed from there," she said.
Brad Grochowski, owner of Authors Bookshop in Baltimore, read her manuscript and passed it onto friends at Cantara Books.
"I loved the story and that that, at least, they could offeer her some feedback," he said. "Instead, they sent her a contract."
Grochowski said he was struck by the decieving sense of passivity in the story. "The protagonists has been given a steady, unexcitable voice despite the incredible thigns happening to him," he said. "In some ways, it captures teen indifference. But, more importantly, it forces the reader to care because the protagonist doesn't."
Imagine someone running from a buliding screaming that everything they care about is gone. Imagine their panic.
The Sublime characters are never panicked, never emotional, despire the circumstances. "You want to grab the characters and shake them up," he said.
The senior editor and Cantara Books had a similar reaction to the novel, but said Hannah knows the temprement of the teen market.
"It is my long-held theory that the best books for young adults are those written by young adults," said Michael Matheny, with Cantara books. "And the story itself seemed to be wonderfully imaginative."
While the wheels are turning on the publishing front there are those close to Hannah who haven't yet read the book.
"If we want to read it I guess we'll have to buy our own copy," said Hannah's mother. "That's okay, though, I think any parent would be proud to buy their teenager's first published book."
Woooooot.
[My city's] teen publishes first novel
By Michael Zwelling
The single panel comic: few have made the career of it the way Gary Larson has done with his surrealistic humor series The Far Side.
Even fewer have done what Hannah, a 16-year-old sophmore at my school has done, writing an inagural novel due for publication this fall this is based on a single image.
"I've seen the comics where there's an island a single palm tree in the middle with a couple of people wearing rags and stranded," she said.
"I couldn't just have a laugh and move on. Instead I started to think to myself, 'What are the dymanics of that situatoin, of these two people stuck together on this island where there is no space, no privacy?'"
Her book, The Sublime, looks at three people trapped on an island just off the Florida Caost who try to function as a group.
It was written by long hand in a series of notebooks. "I always have a notebook with me and I've always like dwriting in them, it has sort of always been my hobby."
Chapters jump around; editing occurs in the margins. Some pages are dog eared and some have corners ripped off. There are also doodles, phone numbers and musings.
Hannah initally thought she would photocopy her book and place the finished product in stores herself. (**It was this crazy complicated plan with a friend of mine. Looong story**) "That's when I found this guy on Myspace and things changed from there," she said.
Brad Grochowski, owner of Authors Bookshop in Baltimore, read her manuscript and passed it onto friends at Cantara Books.
"I loved the story and that that, at least, they could offeer her some feedback," he said. "Instead, they sent her a contract."
Grochowski said he was struck by the decieving sense of passivity in the story. "The protagonists has been given a steady, unexcitable voice despite the incredible thigns happening to him," he said. "In some ways, it captures teen indifference. But, more importantly, it forces the reader to care because the protagonist doesn't."
Imagine someone running from a buliding screaming that everything they care about is gone. Imagine their panic.
The Sublime characters are never panicked, never emotional, despire the circumstances. "You want to grab the characters and shake them up," he said.
The senior editor and Cantara Books had a similar reaction to the novel, but said Hannah knows the temprement of the teen market.
"It is my long-held theory that the best books for young adults are those written by young adults," said Michael Matheny, with Cantara books. "And the story itself seemed to be wonderfully imaginative."
While the wheels are turning on the publishing front there are those close to Hannah who haven't yet read the book.
"If we want to read it I guess we'll have to buy our own copy," said Hannah's mother. "That's okay, though, I think any parent would be proud to buy their teenager's first published book."
Woooooot.
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That is AWESOME. I wish I could have done that, but I needed an excuse for locking myself in the computer room for several hours every day.
