Happy
Wednesday Everyone! Today I’m excited to have debut author Carley Heath here to
share about her historical YA The Reckless Kind. It sounds like a fantastic
story set in Norway that deals with being queer and disabled. I’m looking
forward to reading it.
Here’s
a blurb from Goodreads:
A genre-defying debut, this queer historical YA
centers a wild and reckless trio who fly in the face of small town
tradition—full of compassion, love, and determination to live the lives of
their choosing.
It's 1904 on an island just west of Norway, and Asta Hedstrom doesn't want to
marry her odious betrothed, Nils. But her mother believes she should be
grateful for the possibility of any domestic future, given her single-sided
deafness, unconventional appearance, and even stranger notions. Asta would
rather spend her life performing in the village theater with her friends and
fellow outcasts: her best friend Gunnar Fuglestad and his secret boyfriend,
wealthy Erlend Fournier.
But the situation takes a dire turn when Nils lashes out in jealousy—gravely
injuring Gunnar. Shunning marriage for good, Asta moves with Gunnar and Erlend
to their secluded cabin above town. With few ties left with their families,
they have one shot at gaining enough kroner to secure their way of life: win
the village's annual horse race.
IWSG Post
Before I
get to my interview with Carly, I have my IWSG Post.
Posting: The first Wednesday is officially Insecure Writer's Support Group Day.
Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns
without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire
can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of
all kinds!
The awesome co-hosts this month are Kim Lajevardi, Victoria Marie Lees, Joylene Nowell Butler, Erika Beebe, and Lee Lowery!
Optional Question: What’s
harder to do, coming up with your book title or writing the blurb?
First, thanks so much to the IWSG for featuring Literary Rambles and me in their newsletter this month. I really appreciate it!
Now onto the question this month. I think a rough draft of the blurb is easier for me to write. That’s
because I have a general sense of the major plot points when I start a story.
Titles can be much harder for me. For example, I’m almost finished with my current
first draft (I can’t believe I’m almost done), but it’s still titled “New Story.”
I have some ideas for the title but won’t make a final decision until I finish
the draft.
What about you? Which is
harder for you to write?
Interview With Carly Heath
Hi Carly! Thanks so much for joining us.
1. Tell us about yourself and how you became a
writer.
Hi! Thanks for the chance to do this interview
with you! I’ve been writing from an early age. In fact, I remember my 1st grade
teacher would give out a daily homework assignment where we had to write a
one-page story. Though I went to college for filmmaking, I came to find that my
passion was for writing fiction and in 2014 began working in earnest toward my
first novel.
2. I bet your filmmaking classes helped you
when you began writing fiction again. Where did you get the idea for The
Reckless Kind?
Some ideas for this book likely started in
Middle School and High School. I was a horse obsessed kid and Norwegian Fjord
horses were my absolute favorites. I drew fjord horses all over my notes in
class. Sometime later, after college, I read Kristin Lavransdatter, the novel
by Sigrid Undset that lead to her winning the Nobel Prize for literature in 1928.
I adored many elements of that novel—especially the setting—but, sadly, Kristin
Lavransdatter is very not feminist. So,
I wanted to write something that had all the things I loved about Kristin
Lavransdatter but with a more feminist message. Instead of the story being
“defy your parents and you will suffer,” I wanted it to be “defy your parents
and live your best life.” Yes, the kids in my book face difficulties, but
through it all they have each other and find their way to their most authentic
selves.
3. That’s cool that you took the best from what
you liked about the author’s writing and then used that as a jumping board to
create your story. The Reckless Kind is set in Norway in 1904. What made you
decide to pick this country and time period for your story?
The Reckless Kind is
set in a fictional Scandinavian island nation called Hestaland which has a lot
of Norwegian vibes. I adore so many things about a Scandinavian setting—the
landscapes, the animals, the dark winters, the bright summers, the folk art,
and the clothes. So many of my creative decisions are connected to aesthetics
and a huge part of my creative process involves finding things on Pinterest
that inspire me. So, yes, much of the decisions regarding setting and time
period came out of my Pinterest searches. But, also, the early 1900s have a lot
of metaphorical potential. When conceptualizing the two brothers—Fred and
Gunnar—I wanted them to be opposites in many ways. One way that’s represented
is that Fred loves horses and Gunnar loves motorcars. The early 1900s were a
time when horses were still the primary means of transportation, but motorcars
are starting to be acquired by hobbyists. So that time period gave me the
chance to play with the horse/motorcar dynamic.
4. What research did you have to do to be
certain that your story was historically accurate? What advice do you have for
other writers who want to write historical fiction?
First, just reading books written close to that
time period and set in that time period helped me get a sense for the way
language was used and also the details of every day life. Happy Times in Norway
by Sigrid Undset was really useful to read right before I began drafting. I
also searched google books for 19th century travel guides for
English people travelling to Norway. Those had a lot of useful descriptions of
the countryside as well as the local customs and price of things in kroner. I
particularly loved this 1857 book called Unprotected Females in Norway, or the
Pleasantest Way of Travelling There by Emily Lowe which provided a great deal
of information about what two women travellers might experience on their own in
Norway without any gentlemen around.
My advice for other writers is to make use of
books.google.com! It’s great! You can search by year (so I was searching in the
1890-1910 range quite a bit) and then search for specific words. It’s useful if
you want to get some historical opinions on certain topics. For instance, do a
19th century search for “masturbation,” “carnal relations,”
“courting,” or “lovemaking” and you’ll get some very educational results. I
also found it useful when trying to come up with historically accurate similes
and metaphors. For instance, I did a 19th century search for “drunk
as a” and found “drunk as a boiled owl.” I’m still not sure what a boiled owl
is, but I used it.
5. That’s a great tip about books.google.com. Who
is your favorite character—Asta, Gunnar, or Erlend—and why?
I love them all equally, but lately I’ve been
thinking a lot about grumpy Gunnar and I’ve been hearing his voice a lot and
seeing what life has been like for him and Erlend after the events in The
Reckless Kind. I would really, really like to write a sequel that’s either
Gunnar’s POV or a dual POV with Gunnar and Fred, where the brothers have to
work together on something that causes their differences to flare up. He’s such
complex character and I really relate to Gunnar’s self-doubt and how he has
principles and sticks by them, but has had to suffer because of those
principles.
6. Your agent is Steven Chudney. How did he
become your agent and what was your road to publication like?
The book that would become The Reckless Kind
had been on submission for a year with another agent, but that agent left the
industry leaving my manuscript orphaned. I began querying again, worried that
the book would be less interesting to agents since it had already been on sub,
but I actually got a lot of interest right away which was heartening. I signed
with Steven about a month after I’d begun querying again and found that since
he was a more established agent than my previous one and he was able to get
responses from editors much faster. I was thrilled when Dan Ehrenhaft at Soho
Teen offered on the book as I’m a big fan of his list which includes authors
like Adam Silvera and Samira Ahmed. Dan ended up leaving Soho Teen after
acquiring my book, but Alexa Wejko took over and her editorial guidance has
been absolutely stellar. She really helped elevate the story immensely.
7. That’s great that you were able to find an
agent so quickly after your first one left agenting. You were a Pitch Wars
mentee and are now a mentor. Share about how your experiences with Pitch Wars
helped you and how it can help other writers. Do you have any tips on how a
writer can be accepted as a mentee?
Actually, I was never a Pitch Wars mentee. I
applied to Pitch Wars in 2016 and was rejected (sad trombone). I made a video
about being rejected and getting an agent and a book deal anyway. It’s posted
it on my YouTube
channel. Also: I
even got rejected when I applied to be a mentor in 2020. So, my advice to other
writers: don’t despair if you don’t get picked. It really just comes down to
mentors’ individual tastes, and being rejected shouldn’t cause you to think
negatively about your book. When I was an AMM mentor, I got 135 submissions and
about 12 of them were all really polished and practically query ready. Why did
I pick the one I did? For whatever reason, it just hit me in the right moment.
Think about how it is when you’re finding something to read. Though there might
be hundreds of really good ebooks books Available Now on your library website,
for some reason one just pops for you in that moment. That’s how it is for
mentors choosing manuscripts. Yes, polish your manuscript as much as you can.
Make those emotional moments as compelling as they can be, but understand that
Pitch Wars is just a fun alternative to querying. Most authors get their agent
from cold querying and acceptance or rejection in Pitch Wars should not be
internalized as a judgment on the quality of your manuscript.
8. Sorry about getting the mentee info wrong. I
noticed on your website that you have a lot of clips, articles, and interviews
listed. Share about how you have been able to get these opportunities that are
helping get out the word about your book.
Some of the opportunities approached me
first—they found me either on Twitter or the the21ders.com website. I also
found it useful to sign up with helpareporter.com. Once you sign up, you get
three e-mails a day listing journalists who are requesting pitches and sources.
Also twitter hashtags like #journorequest #sourcerequest and #prrequest can
lead to useful results. Recently, I had a lunch meeting with Brandie June,
author of GOLD SPUN, and she gave me a lot of tips on reaching out to book
tokers and podcasters, so I’m making a list now of folks to reach out to.
9. How else are you planning to market your
book?
From what I’ve
recently learned, marketing is paid advertisements and publicity is promotion
in the media that isn’t paid for, so I’ll leave the marketing to the publisher
but I’ll try to do as much publicity as I can on my own by reaching out to
booktubers, bloggers, book tokers, and making my own content on social media.
I’m still learning and seeking all the advice/guidance I can get : )
10. What are you working on now?
I have a queer YA Fantasy that means everything to me. It’s sort of
HOUSE IN THE CERULEAN SEA meets EVERY HEART A DOORWAY with Scandinavian and
cottage core vibes.
Thanks for sharing all your advice, Carly. You
can find Carly at: https://www.carlyheathauthor.com
https://twitter.com/carlylheath
https://www.instagram.com/carlylynheath/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCibVCIkd_5gsegJgnp-XXdA
Giveaway Details
Carly has generously
offered an ARC of The Reckless Kind for a giveaway. To enter, all you need to do is be a follower of
my blog (via the follower gadget, email, or bloglovin’ on the right
sidebar) and leave a comment by November 20th. If your e-mail is not on your Google Profile,
you must leave it in the comments to enter the contest. Please be sure I have
your email address.
If you mention this
contest on Twitter, Facebook, or your blog and/or follow me on Twitter, mention
this in the comments and I'll give you an extra entry for each. You must be 13
years old or older to enter. This giveaway is U.S.
Upcoming
Interviews and Giveaways
Monday, November 8th I have a guest post by
debut author Jessica Speer and a giveaway of her MG nonfiction BFF or NRF (Not
Really Friends)? A Girls Guide to Happy Friendships
Tuesday, November 9th I’m participating in the
Super Stocking Stuffer Giveaway Hop
Monday, November 15th I have an interview with
debut author Terry Catasús Jennings and a giveaway of her chapter book Definitely
Dominguita Sherlock Dom
Tuesday,
November 16th I’m participating in the In All Things Give Thanks Giveaway Hop
Monday,
November 22th I have an agent spotlight interview with
Danielle Chiotti and a query critique giveaway
Monday, November 29nd I have an interview with
debut author Nancy McConnell and a giveaway of her MG fantasy Into the Lion’s
Mouth
Hope
to see you on Monday!
