Kids' Question and Answers
I work with both Mrs. Fischer and Mrs. Martz's students in writing at Minnie
Cannon Elementary School. These are some of the questions they asked me
one day about HUNGRY.
Cannon Elementary School. These are some of the questions they asked me
one day about HUNGRY.
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What made you think of writing HUNGRY?
HUNGRY started as a short story "Deborah's Choice" for an anthology called Alien Visitors
that Bruce Coville edited. My husband asked me to write more because the story was funny.
It was his favorite of all of my stories. I started on HUNGRY thinking I was just writing
another short story, but after "chapter two" I realized I had the beginning of a novel.
Why do the aliens have to eat people? How would Deborah
feed on Willy?
Home Worlders are carnivores. They enjoy the "essence" flavor they get from the
terror of their prey. Their identity is tied to feeding on sentient beings (creatures
like humans who are aware that they think). They believe it's their duty to the
Home World to conquer other planets and feed. They use their six tentacles that
have rows of very sharp teeth to feed, along with the mouth on their faces. They
have three stomachs to digest their meals, like a cow, as Deborah points out.
Do the aliens drink anything?
They only drink water.
What do the aliens look like underneath? How do they put on
their human skin?
The Home Worlders have green wrinkly skin and six tentacles. In terms of size and
shape, Deborah's species isn't that different than us. They walk on two legs and
have arms and hands, though I haven't described what their hands look like yet.
The human overskin is grown over their bodies.
Did you always want to write? Who inspired you?
In fifth grade, my teacher gave me C. S. Lewis' THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE
WARDROBE to read because she thought I'd connect with it. I did!
My sixth grade teacher read THE YEARLING, by Marjorie Rawlings, as well as
Roald Dahl's JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH. The following summer I read my
first adult science fiction book, EARTH ABIDES, by George Stewart. In seventh
grade, I had a great English class in which we read a science fiction anthology that
I really enjoyed. A year later I discovered THE PEOPLE by Zenna Henderson.
Jane Yolen, Ursula LeGuin, and Madeliene L'Engle were three writers I especially
read and studied as a young woman.
Bruce McAllister, was my writing teacher at the University of Redlands, and he was
the one who first told me (since second grade, anyway) that I was a good poet and
fiction writer.
Can kids be authors?
If you've written a paper, a poem, or a story at school, then you're an author.
There are websites for kids to publish their work (links below), print magazines,
and places for you to get your stories and illustrations made into real books.
The advice I was given was: write, write, write and read, read, read. The more you
read, the more your vocabulary grows. You also learn the rhythms of language by
reading a lot without even knowing you're doing it.
The more you write, the easier it is to find that creative place inside of you that
holds your best ideas. Keep journals, add your art to the journals, and don't throw
away your work! When you're older, you'll want to look back at it. Journals are
also great places to find ideas that could be made into stories.
What's the hardest thing about writing for you?
Getting to know a new story is very difficult, trusting that my writing is going to go
somewhere. Next to that, I'm lousy at finding my own typos.
What's your next title? Will you write more books about Deborah?
The book I'm working on now is called STARVED. I certainly hope I'll publish a lot
more books!
Links for young authors:
Stories from the Web
Young Writers' Clubhouse
Midlink Magazine
Stone Soup Magazine
Streetside Stories
Cyber Kids
HUNGRY started as a short story "Deborah's Choice" for an anthology called Alien Visitors
that Bruce Coville edited. My husband asked me to write more because the story was funny.
It was his favorite of all of my stories. I started on HUNGRY thinking I was just writing
another short story, but after "chapter two" I realized I had the beginning of a novel.
Why do the aliens have to eat people? How would Deborah
feed on Willy?
Home Worlders are carnivores. They enjoy the "essence" flavor they get from the
terror of their prey. Their identity is tied to feeding on sentient beings (creatures
like humans who are aware that they think). They believe it's their duty to the
Home World to conquer other planets and feed. They use their six tentacles that
have rows of very sharp teeth to feed, along with the mouth on their faces. They
have three stomachs to digest their meals, like a cow, as Deborah points out.
Do the aliens drink anything?
They only drink water.
What do the aliens look like underneath? How do they put on
their human skin?
The Home Worlders have green wrinkly skin and six tentacles. In terms of size and
shape, Deborah's species isn't that different than us. They walk on two legs and
have arms and hands, though I haven't described what their hands look like yet.
The human overskin is grown over their bodies.
Did you always want to write? Who inspired you?
In fifth grade, my teacher gave me C. S. Lewis' THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE
WARDROBE to read because she thought I'd connect with it. I did!
My sixth grade teacher read THE YEARLING, by Marjorie Rawlings, as well as
Roald Dahl's JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH. The following summer I read my
first adult science fiction book, EARTH ABIDES, by George Stewart. In seventh
grade, I had a great English class in which we read a science fiction anthology that
I really enjoyed. A year later I discovered THE PEOPLE by Zenna Henderson.
Jane Yolen, Ursula LeGuin, and Madeliene L'Engle were three writers I especially
read and studied as a young woman.
Bruce McAllister, was my writing teacher at the University of Redlands, and he was
the one who first told me (since second grade, anyway) that I was a good poet and
fiction writer.
Can kids be authors?
If you've written a paper, a poem, or a story at school, then you're an author.
There are websites for kids to publish their work (links below), print magazines,
and places for you to get your stories and illustrations made into real books.
The advice I was given was: write, write, write and read, read, read. The more you
read, the more your vocabulary grows. You also learn the rhythms of language by
reading a lot without even knowing you're doing it.
The more you write, the easier it is to find that creative place inside of you that
holds your best ideas. Keep journals, add your art to the journals, and don't throw
away your work! When you're older, you'll want to look back at it. Journals are
also great places to find ideas that could be made into stories.
What's the hardest thing about writing for you?
Getting to know a new story is very difficult, trusting that my writing is going to go
somewhere. Next to that, I'm lousy at finding my own typos.
What's your next title? Will you write more books about Deborah?
The book I'm working on now is called STARVED. I certainly hope I'll publish a lot
more books!
Links for young authors:
Stories from the Web
Young Writers' Clubhouse
Midlink Magazine
Stone Soup Magazine
Streetside Stories
Cyber Kids
