Bookalicious

I was super lucky to meet Eliot Schrefer at the Teen Author Carnival in New York before the Book Expo America. I watched his panel and through he spoke very intelligently on what it was like to write his latest book The Deadly Sister. Thanks so much to Eliot and Scholastic for stopping by!

Pam: How hard was it to go with an idea from your editor and write?

Eliot: Very easy, actually. It’s sort of like having an essay assignment in high school; it’s actually easier to write one that’s on an assigned question, than one that’s open-ended. It requires your brain to go in directions that it wouldn’t tend to naturally, and surprisingly makes you more creative, rather than less.

Pam: Was it easy to expand on the topic he gave you?

Eliot: Yes and no. The topic was really general–just the two major plot points, really, and a title, and I filled in the middle. I knew I wanted to set The Deadly Sister in Florida, which is where I went to high school, and that naturally gave the book some directions to go. The heat and the concrete, the listlessness and occasional seediness, gave me inspiration.

Pam: Did you flesh it out or was the outline already done?

Eliot: I wrote my own outline. I didn’t really outline my previous books, but this one really required it. Because it’s a murder mystery, I almost had to make a spreadsheet–there are so many clues to plant, leads to follow or tie up. There’s no room for the narrative to meander in a book like The Deadly Sister.

Pam: I heard you have been on a boat for quite a while researching a new novel. Can you give us any small preview?

Eliot: Ah! It’s still in the early stages, but I can tell you that it’s about a bacterial outbreak on a freighter. The research was really interesting. A ship at sea is such a sealed-off, lawless place. It runs much more like a dictatorship than an office.

Pam: What are you reading at this moment, and the last book you read that you can’t get out of your head?

Eliot: I’m currently reading “I am not Afraid” but Niccolo Ammanti. It’s a bit like The Deadly Sister, actually, in that it captures some of the breakdown of social order that happens during a really hot summer.

Pam: Have you ever read a book that you wished you would have written?

Eliot: Yes. Many times. I’m a sucker for a well pulled-off surprise ending. They always make me jealous.

Pam: What is the earliest age you remember wanting to be a writer?

Eliot: Second grade, I think. I collected seeds from the tree behind my house and made little books about them. The plots were, umm, basic.

Pam: What else is coming up that we should be in the know about?

Eliot: There’s a comic fantasy coming out from Scholastic in April called Geek Fantasy Novel. It’s by a mysterious author named E. Archer, and he and I are very well acquainted.

Pam: Where can we stalk you on the interwebs?

Eliot: I’m a facebook scrub. But www.eliotschrefer.com usually has what’s going on.
Thanks so much for having me! It’s been fun.