Featured Author: Robin Stevenson

Bibliography at Orca

[New!] Liars and Fools: Fiona's life changed forever when her mother died in a South Pacific sailing accident. One year later, everyone tells her it's time to move on. To Fiona, moving on means leaving her mother behind—something she has vowed never to do. But Fiona's father has started dating again. His new girlfriend, Kathy, is a professional psychic who claims she can predict the future and communicate with the dead. Fiona is sure she is a fraud, although she secretly longs for her abilities to be genuine. With the reluctant support of her best friend Abby, Fiona sets out to put an end to her father's new relationship by trying to prove, with decidedly mixed results, that Kathy is a liar.

Robin is also the author of Governor General's Literary Award nominee A Thousand Shades of Blue, Ben's Robot, Big Guy, Dead in the Water, Impossible Things, In the Woods, Inferno, Out of Order, and Outback.

Interview

Why do you write, and why children's books? Why I write is an easy question: I write because I love it. I love the way one idea leads to another. I love getting to know characters and seeing them take on a life of their own. I love the way a fictional world can feel so real. I love the exhilaration of writing a first draft and I love the more leisurely pleasure of revisiting a story during the revision process. I love searching for the right word and editing out unneeded ones, rewriting paragraphs and pages and chapters to make the characters more vivid and the story stronger and more powerful. I write because I find it exciting and challenging and rewarding.

Why I write for children and teens is less obvious to me. I was a total bookworm as a kid, which might have something to do with it. If you read thousands of kids' books, maybe it is inevitable that you will end up wanting to write one. I was a shy kid and books were always a safe place for me when I was feeling lonely or uncertain. I used to read all the time, even while walking to school. Children's books helped form the lenses through which I see the world; they made my world larger and more complicated; they taught me that I could relate to people whose experiences were very different from my own—people who I wouldn't have met in my day to day life. I still enjoy reading children's and teen novels and can’t quite believe I actually get to write them.

Seriously—writing counts as a job? How great is that?

What kind of research do you do before writing a book? I do research as needed during the writing process, but I don't usually do much research before I begin—mainly because I don't know what the story is really about until it is at least half written. Also I have often drawn on my own experience—for example, in my novel A Thousand Shades of Blue the main character, Rachel, is on a sailing trip with her family that follows a route I sailed myself a number of years ago. However, I have just started a novel which is set in the early 60s and I wasn't around then. So now I am doing research about that time period. Actually, I'm enjoying the research so much that I am starting to wonder if I have just discovered a brand new way to procrastinate.

What's the funniest or most interesting reader response you've had? My favorite e-mail from a reader was from a fourteen year old who said she absolutely hated reading but was forced to read at school every day. She picked up a copy of my teen novel Inferno during school reading time and loved it. Couldn't put it down. She wrote such a rave review of it in her letter to me that I e-mailed her to ask if I could quote from it at an upcoming presentation to teacher-librarians. She gave me permission and we wrote back and forth a few times. She's now an avid reader and last time I heard from her, she was thinking about trying to write a novel herself. I wouldn't be at all surprised if she goes on to write a very good one!

Biography

Robin Stevenson is the author of a number of novels for children, teens and young adults. Robin has also worked as a social worker, counselor and university instructor. She enjoys reading, traveling, visiting schools and talking to people of all ages about books and writing. She was born in England, grew up in Ontario, and now lives in Victoria, British Columbia, with her partner and their son. For more information about Robin and her books, please visit www.robinstevenson.com.