Hello Beautiful People,
I couldn’t be happier to introduce you all to our latest featured author in the School Time Author Q&A Series, Anna Shinoda. Anna holds a BA in Communication Studies from Long Beach State, a member of Society Of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), and has been nominated twice for the Sue Alexander Most Promising New Work Award. She married musician Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park in 2003, and has led efforts with the band’s non-profit, Music For Relief, in the U.S. and abroad.
Ladies & Gents, meet Anna Shinoda…
MM: First things first, did you ever envision yourself as an author?
AS: I’ve always had a very vivid imagination and would spend my childhood summers writing stories in notebooks. Somehow those notebooks disappeared along the way. I do still have two of those stories, hardbound through the young authors program in 5th grade and 8th grade. I knew I wasn’t technically published, but it was huge for me at my stories had been good enough to be one of the few chosen to represent my school. Being a part of the Young Authors program meant I got to spend a whole day at a conference, hearing authors speak and getting a few books signed. The whole process was so incredible, and I remember thinking that was exactly what I wanted to do when I grew up.
But my parents were really worried about that as a career choice – it wouldn’t pay well, work would be inconsistent, and the chances of actually getting published are low. I dreamed about being an author, but was afraid to pursue it. Eventually I decided to work toward that dream, starting with taking writing classes at UCLA, joining SCBWI, and giving in to my reading and writing addiction.
MM: When you were a teenager, what was your favorite book?
AS: Most of my for fun reading stemmed from authors that I liked in class. When I loved A Tale of Two Cities in class, I tried to read as much Dickens as possible. Anything by Jane Austin or Charlotte Bronte or Mark Twain. Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
Wait. You asked for just one favorite! I’m going to go with Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. It is so wonderfully bizarre and dark. I bought my copy already yellowed with age and use from The Twice Read Bookshop in the little town I grew up in. I loved the illustrations by Sir John Tenniel almost as much as I loved the writing.
MM: What do you hope readers walk away with after reading Learning not to drown?
AS: I hope it brings a better understanding of what it’s like to love someone who is capable of doing monstrous things, how their actions effect every part of your life, that it’s not the cut and dry story of good and bad that we’d like for it to be.
If a reader has someone in their life that is incarcerated, I hope it gives them the strength to look at the truth of their situation and inspires them to do what they need to thrive as an individual.
And I hope it encourages everyone to make peace with the skeletons that they might have in their lives.
MM: Just for fun, if you were stranded on a desert island, what movies would you want to have with you?
AS: Harold and Maude, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Bottle Rocket, Heathers, Garden State. And if I can include a TV show, I’d want to bring the complete Six Feet Under series.
MM: Just for fun, if you had to choose five musicians to listen to for the rest of your life, who would they be?
AS: Mike Shinoda – Not just because I married to him – I love his music, and am so proud of the body of work he’s created, whether it’s with Fort Minor, Linkin Park or the scores he’s been a part of.
Also, Cat Stevens, The Doors, Frank Sinatra, Heart…
MM: Just for fun, what books are permanently on your bookshelf?
AS: Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Poisonwood Bible by Barabara Kingsolver, The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Tony DeTerlizzi’s The Spider and The Fly, The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, Sonya Sones Stop Pretending, Kit’s Wilderness by David Almond, The Witches by Roald Dahl, How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff, The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, On Writing by Steven King, Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.
MM: Do you write at a particular time of day and/or at a particular place?
AS: I used to write mostly late at night – from 10pm to 3 or 4am – in my home office. I have kids now and those late nights are no longer an option if I want enough sleep to stay sane, so I write whenever and wherever I can.
MM: Can you describe your writing process for our readers?
AS: I daydream a lot. My best ideas come to me as visions – usually when I am walking or riding my bike or driving or taking a shower. When I can hear the characters and see and sometimes even smell things in the scene then I try to sit down and get as much of it down on paper or in my computer as possible. Once I have quite a few of these scenes written, I try to put them in some kind of order, then fill in the blanks to make it into a story. Then come the edits. I do as much as I can on my own, then let my husband and my critique group give me feedback. Then it goes to my agent for her feedback, and finally my editor. I am very grateful for the input, and I rarely use specific suggestions as fixes. The critiques help me identify problem areas so I can go back into daydream mode and find new ideas to help my novel grow.
MM: What’s next for Anna Shinoda? (In terms of new and upcoming projects.)
AS: I’m trying to concentrate on finishing another YA novel, but I keep getting distracted by two other ideas. I’m not telling yet what the next book is about, in case a different idea takes off – but some topics I am currently most interested in are body image, our complex relationship with the environment, and the shortsighted ways to fix problems that actually make them worse.
MM: In today’s economy, arts programs are being cut. What reasons would you give to a politician for preserving the arts?
AS: It’s hypocritical that in history and English classes, we study literature, art, music and film and are told how important they are, but they are treated as lesser subjects: electives, hobbies, easy A classes that are written off as so unimportant that they are often the first to be cut.
Not only does art reflect the political and historical climate of an era, practicing the arts nurtures our emotional, spiritual and creative minds. It gives an outlet for people who are going through trauma that leads to creation instead of destruction.
Without creativity, math is just math, science is just science. Add creativity to math and science, and that mixture allows everything from new technology to curing diseases.
Funding programs to encourage creativity can be seen as a wise investment to keep our country on the cutting edge of invention, and it will also be a reflection of a culture that finds the art of its time worthy enough to study in future classrooms.
MM: Who is/was your greatest teacher?
AS: I’ve learned so much from so many different places – experiences, visiting museums, reading, tutorials on you tube, and from so many different people, whether they are literally teachers or not. But I’m going to go ahead and answer this about one of my actual teachers who made a profound impact on my life as a writer.
Mr. Buchta was originally my journalism and English teacher in grades 7th and 8th. When I started my tenth grade year, he moved from the middle school to my high school. I took every class that I could from him. Journalism, creative writing, English. He had a lot of respect for his students, and always treated us like the adults we so desperately wanted to be like – like in his classroom, he set up a coffee station for his students so we could have fresh coffee while we worked. It seems silly saying it, but it made his class memorable and enjoyable, and I felt like an adult every time I walked into his classroom. He encouraged us in journalism to take on the harder stories about school and community concerns while also letting us cover sports and doing fluffy pieces on stuff like prom fashion. I already loved literature and writing and journalism, but he was witty and fun and open-minded and made those classes even more enjoyable. I’m happy to say I still keep in touch with him by, of course, writing each other really long letters from time to time.
Thank you, Anna!
Live, Love, Learn,
Megan &