Angelhood – Interview with A.J. Cattapan

Amy Cattapan is the latest inductee into our author hall-of-fame with her debut novel, Angelhood. And as you know, we non-adults at the Scriblerians do our interviews old-school slam book style.

Amy writes – So excited to join the slam book! Here are my answers:

AJ in The Man Who Came to Dinner

Nickname:

I write under the pen name A.J. Cattapan, but nobody really calls me by my initials. I just like following in the footsteps of other children’s writers like J.K. Rowling, L.M. Montgomery, and C.S. Lewis. I’ve had a few close friends who have occasionally referred to me as “Ames.” An even smaller circle of friends in high school who ran cross country with me could get away with calling me “Bulldog.” Our coach gave me the nickname. I asked if it was a reference to my looks. (I was very self-conscious of my pimples, frizzy hair, and thick glasses.) But Coach said he called me Bulldog because I wouldn’t quit, so I was okay with the nickname.

 

Genre:

YA Supernatural

 

Personal Philosophy:

I like the philosophy of the character Auntie Mame by the play of the same name: “Life’s a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death.” Auntie Mame didn’t believe in starving, and neither do I. God has given us a beautiful world with many wonders to behold. Why not appreciate all He’s given us?

 

Favorite scripture:

Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare, not for woe, plans to give you a future full of hope.”

 

Favorite quote:

See Auntie Mame quote above. 🙂 Side note: It was also a favorite quote of my high school theater teacher, and for those who’ve read Angelhood, you can guess what she meant to me.

In high school I was a…

theater geek! But we can discuss that more in your later questions.

 

Do you see yourself a Christian author or an author of Christian fiction? What do you think the difference is?

This is a tough one. I didn’t set out to write a Christian book. In fact, when I wrote Angelhood, I didn’t even know there was such a thing as Christian fiction. My faith just seems to seep into my writing one way or another, whether it comes out pretty directly or symbolically. That being said, I guess I’d consider myself a Christian author, meaning that I’m a writer who happens to be Christian, and if that influences my writing, so be it.

Angelhood is about a girl who commits suicide. What inspired you to cover this tough topic?

In the eighth grade, we had to write a research paper. We could write about anything: the history of our favorite sports team, an important event in history, our favorite animal. I could’ve written about the legend of the unicorn or how rainbows are formed. But no. I chose teen suicide as my topic. Seriously, I don’t know what was wrong with me. Or maybe nothing was wrong with me. Maybe when we’re young we just have morbid fascinations. I’ve seen plenty of my middle school students reach for the books about teen suicide and child abuse. I guess I just wanted to offer a book about suicide that also offers hope. So many contemporary books on the topic end simply with more sadness. I always have to believe there’s hope for something better.

 

Nanette is into drama. As a former theatre geek, (GEKE) I have to know is this something you share with your heroine?

As mentioned above, yes I was a theater (or should I say theatre?) geek in high school. My fascination with the theater began in the sixth grade when my mom took me to see Guys and Dolls at our local high school. It was all so magical to me. When high school rolled around, the theater program was the one thing to pull me out of my shy shell. I worked stage crew, acted in many plays and skits, and even directed a one-act play my senior year. After college, I did a number of community theater shows and even performed a small role in a professional production of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, so I can cross “Get paid to act” off my bucket list. 🙂

 

Warren is an interesting character. Is there something you can reveal about Warren that doesn’t appear on the pages?

Oh, I know how you love Warren! Okay, here’s a couple little tidbits. I picked the name Warren because it means “Guard.” Good name for a guardian angel, right? And then for his looks, I went to Google images and just started looking up pictures of guys named Warren. I found a photo of the actor Warren Beatty when he was young, and I thought, “Yep. That’s it! That’s my leading man.” LOL! That’s why Warren has such a throwback look. He’s based off a 1950s photo of Warren Beatty!

 

Speaking of Warren, is there a chance we’ll get his story?

My, you really do love Warren! Oh, Gretchen, if God ever sends me the right story idea for Warren, I’ll write it just for you! In the meantime, as I told a teen who interviewed me on a podcast, I’m not going to write a sequel just to write a sequel. I’ve seen too many authors write bad sequels just for the sake of “cashing in.” If the right story idea comes along for a sequel, I’ll write it. In the meantime, you may have to use your imagination for Warren. 🙂

 

How long have you been writing?

I have evidence of stories I wrote back in the third grade (really bad stories), and I’ve written a variety of things (poems, screenplays, stories) here and there over the years, but I would say that I’ve only gotten really serious about publication for the last 10-11 years. That’s when I started taking classes on writing for children. That eventually led to a few magazine pieces being sold, and that led to trying my hand at novel writing. Angelhood was my third novel. I have four in total, but only Angelhood has sold so far.

 

Angelhood takes the perspective of a person dying and becoming an angel. This isn’t scriptural and yet the story is otherwise orthodox. Without spoiling it, what would you tell a reader to who wants to put the book down because of this?

This is a tough but excellent question, and I’m glad you asked. Even my oldest brother, who wrote to me after the first few chapters to tell me he was enjoying it, said that he could “nit-pick the theology” because people don’t really become guardian angels, but hey it worked for “It’s a Wonderful Life,” right? Yes, you have to take my story as it is . . . just a story. If people are willing to go along with Clarence Oddbody becoming an angel for the sake of that story’s message, why not play along with the same idea for mine? In the end, my story is fiction. It’s not meant to be a nonfiction explanation of angels. Rather, it’s a symbolic story of God’s unending mercy and His unfailing presence in our lives–if only we’re willing to seek Him.

Thank you A.J. for sharing some details about Angelhood! I loved Angelhood. It’s a Wonderful Life is my favorite movie. Anyone who likes this movie will like Angelhood. While the plot is different, it’s a similar story showing the value of every life.

What is your favorite book and/or movie about angels?

FAMILIARITY DOESN’T ALWAYS BREED CONTEMPT

credit to neilcommonplacebook.wordpress.com

 

Derwood, Inc. by Jeri Massi. My all-time favorite novel to teach my fifth-graders. For eleven years straight Derwood, Inc. was one component of the literature curriculum in my Christian school.
Now, I am NOT a person who despises change. I thrive on change. If I had to stay with the same text for three years straight, I searched for ways to tweak lesson plans and make them better. Make them more applicable. More fun. NOT BORING. Because everyone knows the old adage,

Credit to zazabong.blogsopot.com

Derwood never got boring. Jeri Massi’s story is both hilarious and serious, absurd and real. Every year the antics of the Peabody kids were a new thrill for my students and a much-anticipated reading class for me. More than once, as we read chapters out loud, we would literally ROFL. Well, not the teacher.
The book stars Penny and Jack Derwood, the two oldest of a blended family. Together they make a great kid-comedy team rivaling Abbott and Costello. Stir in three more siblings, a gang of bullies, and an international crime ring, and you have a recipe titled, “Don’t Stop. Read the Next Chapter.” By the end of the book, the characters have grown in their Christian faith while the reader never feels captive to a sermon.
You’ll delve into dangerous mysteries to be solved, yet even in the darkest moments a giggle may slip out of you. You’ll listen to Jack’s crazy stories knowing full well they are absolute figments of his imagination – but little brother Freddy doesn’t know that. There are bad guys who are really bad and bad guys who turn into good guys and good guys who maybe aren’t as good as you thought.

From a fifty-ton-mile-long octopus to a near-lethal can of peaches, Jeri Massi keeps you highly entertained and on the edge of your seat. Not only did she write a wonderful work of entertainment, she did it five more times. There are six books in the Peabody Kids series.
Unfortunately, Derwood, Inc. is no longer in print. After a search of several websites, I found editions may be purchased for as little as thirty-nine cents and as much as a thousand dollars! Four to nine dollars seemed the average for a used copy. My own library doesn’t carry the book (shame on them!), and I’d share mine, but it’s so tattered I have to keep taping in the pages!
In addition, BJUPress published a guide which teaches children how to write a good story. It sets up exercises to practice creating characters, using the five senses in descriptive writing, and planning a stair-step approach to build tension in the plot.

 

Q: You’ve been hunting for a new favorite in middle grade humor?

A: Derwood, Inc. Ready, set, read!

Pay No Attention to the Man, Woman, or Whaterver Behind the Curtain.

What makes for a well-told story? I’m not asking what makes a story good or bad. It is true a well-told story can mean the difference between a story being liked or disliked, but that isn’t always the case.

The most interesting thing about bad storytelling is that it has never stopped an audience from enjoying a story they liked. The stories that interest us as human beings all share some basic elements whether the media\genre is a newspaper article, novel, short story, TV drama, radio drama, true story, current event, biography, memoir, or historical event . Let me give you an example.

I don’t like opera or light opera, but I love a good story. Here is a story I liked:

As a narratives go, there are definite things going on in this clip. There is so much more going on story-wise underneath and behind that is designed to be transparent to the audience. It is this transparency that often means the difference between getting people to view your work or ignore it. When a storyteller learns to master (just knowing them isn’t enough) these transparent elements, it won’t matter what genre or media you use, people will watch, listen, or read your narratives.

If you were in a face to face class with me, after having watched the video, I would ask, “How many of you found the clip interesting and would at least tune in for the next episode?” Of course there’s always some punk in a one hundred level course that thinks showing any interest in a class topic is uncool, but the bulk of students I have shown this clip do found it interesting.

Now comes the fun part,  Did you like this? What makes this something you would follow into the next week to find out what happens or not follow? Please post your answers as replies.

Of course I’m going to share these transparent things, but I want to give you dear audience the opportunity to weigh in. Why? Because learning is always best done together, and I may be the one sharing this, but I never pass up an opportunity to learn something new from others.

Giving Thanks for Books and Reading

 As both an author and a reader, I am thankful for everyone and everything that contributes to creating and enjoying a book.

I’m thankful for my eyesight, which I’ve come close to losing a number of times. I would’ve learned to read Braille, but how would I have been able to appreciate beautiful fonts and book covers?

Which leads me to being thankful for artists, designers, and photographers who make the presentation enjoyable. And the manufacturers of computers, layout programs, ink, paper, binding materials, printers, and large presses. Plus all the individuals who invented them or use them to produce books.

Although I’m a fan of printed paper, I’m also thankful for electronic devices that allow people to read more books conveniently.

I’m thankful for editors, publishers, and literary agents who never tire of reading others’ work and improving upon it (at least that I’ve seen admitted).

Speaking of improving another’s work, I cannot express enough thankfulness for critique groups. The critique partners I’ve had the honor to share manuscripts with are worth their weight in gold. And I give thanks to beta readers who read pre-published work for the love of reading and who offer their invaluable opinions.

I’m thankful for bookshelves and those who build them (including my loved ones–and you know who you are). And everyone who sells and buys books for bookshelves in schools, stores, and public libraries.

I give thanks for electricity and reading lamps and, on behalf of readers from centuries past as well as those who use them still, gas lamps and candles.  Oh, yes, and sunlight. May darkness never hinder our reading.

Most of all, I am thankful for my Creator who guided me to write and for my country, where I am free to think, to write, and to read what I wish.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving, and I hope it includes reading a good book!

 Cynthia

The Killilea Family: In Everything Give Thanks

As November arrives and the Thanksgiving/Christmas season of goodwill begins, I will inevitably bump into a grinch who grouses about his or her lack of blessings. The economy is awful, their health is failing, the family is falling apart. Their greatest joy seems to be passing on bad news. I have the feeling I ruin the day further by promising to pray.

Complaints. Credit to robliano.wordpress.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In my own seasons of calamity I have learned to be content, and I hope I will honestly be able to say at the end of my earthly life when all seasons come to a close, “I know both how to be abased and how to abound.”
One of those difficult seasons arrived early in life when my sister was born. A victim of the German Measles epidemic in the mid-1960’s, Tricia entered this world with several congenital defects. For her first two years, she was in and out of hospitals as doctors became detectives in discovering what was wrong and what, if anything, medicine could do to help. One of her challenges was cerebral palsy (CP).

So when I was twelve and Tricia was two, my mom handed me a book. Karen. A true story, Marie Killilea wrote about the hardships of raising a daughter (Karen) with CP. Except the hardships were laced with such joyful episodes of the Killilea family loving and supporting each other, how could I feel sorry for them for long? I identified with them. My family was like theirs.
Karen’s parents treated her like all of their other children. While she had a delightful personality, Karen was no angel, and she paid the consequences just as her brother and sisters did. That’s how my parents treated Tricia. Karen’s siblings helped teach her to walk and eat and play like other children. That’s what my brothers and I did with Tricia! They even had a dog who assigned himself the duty of Karen’s guardian. Well, the similarities ended there. Our dog wasn’t that talented.
The book was not a new publication when I first read it. Karen was born in 1940. Most doctors of the era advised Marie and her husband to place Karen in an institution and forget they ever had a daughter with that name. In response, Marie pioneered the founding of the Cerebral Palsy Association of Westchester County which later joined with other local organizations to form Cerebral Palsy Associations of New York State (CP of NYS) . With the help of a few willing doctors, they tried highly experimental exercises to help Karen coordinate her muscles. Their success brought new hope to thousands of other families who were struggling with the sorrows of CP.

 

Marie Killilea also wrote a sequel, With Love From Karen, and a young children’s version of Karen titled Wren.

                                                                   While Marie passed away several years ago, Karen, now in her mid-seventies, still lives in New York state.
Do you want to know what it’s like to live day by day with a child who requires constant physical care? Read Karen. Do you want to expose your children to situations where people rise up courageously to face circumstances beyond their control? Have them read Karen. Is your family going through its own rough season? Be encouraged. Read Karen.

Why I Don’t Give 1-star Book Reviews

  Have you noticed a disparity between the rating systems of Amazon and Goodreads?

On Amazon, a one-star rating is “I hate it.” On Goodreads, “Did not like it.”

Let me start by saying I seldom use the word “hate” in any situation, and if I do, it’s usually in anger over something profoundly evil. And books I don’t like are not necessarily evil.

Anyway, I don’t ever give fiction a one-star rating because if I think the work is poorly written or not a story I would like, I don’t read very far into it. And if I don’t read the whole story, I don’t rate it.

I can usually determine from the first few pages, first chapter, or a sneak peek of the middle that I won’t enjoy a particular book, but that doesn’t mean the next person won’t. With excerpts available in so many places online, including  author websites and reviewer blogs, I don’t think a reader needs my one-star rating of a novel or novella to decide whether to read it. For me, if an excerpt doesn’t grab me, I don’t buy the book — and probably won’t look for it at the library either.

I’ll often give an author a second chance if I reject the first of his or her novels I pick up (not always the first one written). Most of the time, I’m glad I did.

This brings me to the other rating levels.

On Amazon, two stars mean “I don’t like it.” On Goodreads, “It was okay.” To me, there’s a huge difference between them. I give two stars to a book on Goodreads if I was able to stick with it and read all the way through but it didn’t impress me in any way (therefore, it was okay). On Amazon, “It was okay” would be three stars, whereas three stars on Goodreads is “Liked it.”

The rest of the rating systems for Amazon and Goodreads compare as follows:

4 stars: Amazon – I like it. Goodreads – Really liked it.

5 stars: Amazon – I love it. Goodreads – It was amazing.

If I review a book on one site, I copy and paste the same review on the other, but my star ratings usually differ. For a book I “liked” on Goodreads (three stars), I “like it” (four stars) on Amazon. For a book I enjoy a lot, if I “Really liked it” on Goodreads (four stars), it’s probable “I love it” on Amazon (five stars).

Good books are like my friends. If I “really like” you, you can assume that I love you too (in a nonromantic way).

Do you rate books on either site? What are your personal rating criteria? Do you ever stop reading a book because you don’t like it, or force yourself to read one, and then give it a low rating?

  Cynthia

WWJD. What Does It Mean to You?

Several years ago, the fad of WWJD bracelets made the rounds of Christian schools and spread through surrounding neighborhoods. The whole thing irked me. Yes, IRKED me, as in annoyed, irritated, bothered me.

If you’re too young to remember the fad, WWJD stands for “What Would Jesus Do?”

“How could such a reminder irk you?” you might ask.

Well, (big sigh), I watched my students at school and the teens in the youth group and anyone sporting a WWJD bracelet. I’m sorry to say I saw no difference in their behaviors or their general outlook on life.

What’s more, I had used the phrase, “what would Jesus do?” as one of the major themes in my Christian walk, long before WWJD became a popular acronym. And I meant it. I got in the habit of asking myself that question, really a form of prayer, for hundreds of decisions that I needed to make, big and small. Those four words changed my worldview and my heart.

Do you know where I first learned of the phrase? From the book, In His Steps, by Charles M. Sheldon.

Written over a hundred years ago, Sheldon created a fictional town where one pastor and a few members of his church pledge to spend a year doing only what they think Jesus would do. The editor of the local paper has to decide what Jesus would want in the news. A wealthy young woman must consider if she is in the same position as the rich young man who met with Jesus. All who participate have some tough decisions to make as they endeavor to help the needy, serve their fellow man, and most of all, please their Savior.

Of course, their decisions affect everyone in town.Some neighbors, even fellow church folk, are not pleased at all, which makes for great conflict, and great conflict makes a great story.

While Sheldon originally wrote the book for adults, Helen Haidle has written a version for children. Either works well for read-aloud if you want to make this part of a family story time. If you’ve never read In His Steps, I urge you to add it to your list. Like me, you may never be the same again.

Favorite Opening Lines plus a chance to win Lauren Oliver’s Delirium!

Vanessa Morton writes: My favorite books are those with a stunning opening line. I want the words to grab me by the shoulders and pull me into an engrossing story, like these from Alexa Privet’s The Ophaedron.

When Septimus Mawbry was a very young lad among the living, his parents were stolen through an ancient mirror by a woman who wore a gown of woven emeralds.

Privet’s opening line raises several delicious questions: if Septimus is no longer among the living, what happened? And who is that woman wearing a gown of woven emeralds? And why did she steal his parents? I need to know more.

Then there’s this opening from Lauren Oliver’s Delirium.

It has been sixty-four years since the president and the Consortium identified love as a disease, and forty-three since the scientists perfected a cure.

Love is now a disease to be eradicated? Really? And what is this “cure?” Tell me more!

A clever opening lets you know you’re in good hands, so sit down and strap in for a great ride. Lauren Oliver’s book delivered with pages of beautiful language and world-building. See my complete review here.

What’s your favorite opening line and why? Share it with us by leaving a comment below, and your name will be put in a hat. If you sign up to follow this blog or share this post on Facebook, your name will be put in twice. One lucky winner will be drawn from the hat on November 1st, and will receive a digital copy of Delirium.

If you want to leave a comment, click on the title of this post, then scroll to the bottom for the comment box!