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Books by Linda Granfield: 97 Orchard Street Pier 21 Amazing Grace The Legend of the Panda Silent Night High Flight |
Linda Granfield [ Interview ] Not many authors ask their neighborhood fast-food restaurant to call when they change the package the french fries are served in. And not many authors save empty oatmeal packages, clothing tags, or movie tickets "just in case". Some may call Linda Granfield a pack rat, but she doesn't consider this material junk; it's all research that could someday find its way into a book. Blowing the dust off Non-fiction is what Linda does best. Growing up in a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, Linda was surrounded by historical sites that she could easily walk to from her home. That atmosphere sparked her love of history and a curiosity about the many facts left out of school history books. She has written books on everything from Niagara Falls to the ins and outs of creating a newspaper, to cowboys, and circuses, and the story behind favorite poems and hymns. She usually finds an idea for a new book in the midst of writing, she says, and there's never enough time for all the books she would like to write, or all the stories she would like to learn more about. Linda now lives in Toronto, Ontario where she spends her days visiting schools, writing and tramping around dusty back rooms of galleries and antique shops, looking for one more piece of the puzzle for her latest book. |
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Interview What was your favorite book as a child? Little Women, Snipp, Snapp, and Snurr books, silhouette-biography series by Bobbs-Merrill What is your favorite book now? No one book is my favorite. I read biographies, tons of magazines (every topic except math!), and always look forward to new books by Sarah Ellis, Brian Doyle, and Diana Wieler (all YA authors). Who reads your new work first? I usually read the text that's the day's work to my husband at the end of each day. He may offer suggestions - I don't always listen! Do you have a favorite place to write? Describe it. It used to be in my cold unfinished basement, which is now a warm, cozy study. There's plenty of sunlight from the high windows. Tons of research books around, a chair next to my desk where my kids sit after school and tell me what's been going on ("the after-school chair"), a favorite print of a Sargent painting is next to my desk, and I look at it a lot when I'm writing - I kind of 'travel' into it while I'm pondering. Lots of pictures of my family and a 100-year-old oil lamp that my father used to study by. Lots of big file drawers filled with stuff that might come in handy for a future book. Hanging on a hanger - the little cowgirl shirt I wore when I was four years old and thought I was Annie Oakley. [ Top ] What was your first written story (that you can remember)? Not a story, but a booklet of poems, called "My Poems" (!) for the parent night when I was in Grade Five. That's also the year I read Little Women, the year I wrote a play of Little Women, the year I wrote for the mimeographed classroom newspaper. Grade Five - THE year. Where do you get your ideas from? Sometimes I find a new idea while I'm researching the current book. For example, Silent Night came from a bit I found while working on In Flanders Fields. And The Legend of the Panda came out of work done for an OWL magazine article. Another idea has sprung from the work for High Flight. What do you do when you have writer's block? I don't really get writer's block. What I do get is fear of stopping the research part and picking the day to put my fanny on the seat in front of the computer and actually start writing the first draft! Maybe tomorrow...maybe Tuesday... maybe after marshmallows fly... What are the best things about being an author? The best things are meeting other children's authors and illustrators; the fascinating things that happen while I'm researching, like meeting people with great stories to tell; lucky happenings that match me up with history and historical places. It's great fun to watch the wonderful illustrations take shape, too. It's always great to travel and see kids in different places, to share the book when the work is done. It's fun to do the radio and television work after the book is out. When I was a kid watching television, I never thought I'd be on television! 'Best,' too, is the feeling of accomplishment when a book is finished. [ Top ] What are the worst things about being an author? The worst things are hitting dead ends when researching, and doing all the business-work that goes with being an author. It's also hard to stop working, because everywhere I go I see things I could write another book about! Cold coffee and the mess I have to clean up after I finish writing a book can be pretty bad too. How do you feel about bad reviews? Naturally, after putting anywhere from one to four years into a book, I'm a bit hurt by a bad review. I can't say I've had many over the ten years of writing. (Authors never see every review out there.) And the couple I remember were cases of reviewers not reading the book closely and seeing what I was doing. So the hurt is only for a moment...then I'm just sorry the reviewer didn't enjoy it the way others have. Ultimately, I care what my readers (not reviewers) think. And they seem pretty pleased. And, of course, a writer has to please herself first, before she even gives it to the editor. If you could meet any famous person, who has ever lived, who would it be? Thomas Jefferson (because he could do just about anything), the painter James Whistler (because he was a 'character'), Annie Oakley (because she was a cowgirl), and Leonardo da Vinci (although I'd have to learn Italian to understand him!). |
