Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Interview with M. E. Rabb from Teenreads.com

Author Information
M. E. Rabb was born in Manhattan, raised in Sunnyside, Queens, and now lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband Marshall. She's published short stories and essays in various magazines including Seventeen, Mademoiselle, and The Atlantic Monthly. Her series of young adult novels, MISSING PERSONS, is about two sisters from Queens who run away to the Midwest and become private detectives.


INTERVIEW

July 2004
Q: Where did you get the idea for MISSING PERSONS?
MER: A few years ago, I gave a reading at a Barnes & Noble in Manhattan of a story that featured a teen narrator. An editor was in the audience and asked me if I had any ideas for a teen series. I then came up with the characters of Sam and Sophie Shattenberg, two sisters who've lost their parents and run away from home. Around the same time, I met a woman who was working for a private detective. She told me all sorts of funny stories, and I decided I'd make Sam and Sophie into detectives. I've always loved mysteries --- our father used to read Sherlock Holmes stories to my sister and me when we were little, and I devoured the Nancy Drew books and Sue Grafton's mysteries. And I always secretly wanted to be a detective myself.
Q: Why did you decide to have the sisters leave their home in New York City and run away to the Midwest?
MER: Sophie and Sam's experience in Indiana is based partly on my own experience attending college in Indiana. While growing up in New York City I'd always fantasized about living in a small town in the Midwest, near farms and horses and cows. (I think this fantasy came from reading too many Little House on the Prairie books as a kid.) When I first arrived in Indiana I was in for a major culture shock, but I quickly grew to love it.
Q: That seems funny that you longed to move to a small town, since so many girls in small towns dream of growing up in New York City.
MER: Even though New York City has a reputation for being such an exciting place, when you grow up there it's really not very exciting at all. It's just home --- a home that's often dirty, smelly, and way too crowded!
Q: THE ROSE QUEEN and THE CHOCOLATE LOVER are as much about the sisters and their relationships and romances as it is about the mysteries. Was this a conscious decision?
MER: My favorite parts of mystery novels are often the sections that discuss the characters' inner lives and relationships. In Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone mysteries, I love the parts that discuss Kinsey's personal life and romantic interests. And I often thought while reading Nancy Drew, "Enough about the clue in the diary. Are you going to kiss Ned or what?!"
Q: In THE CHOCOLATE LOVER Sophie struggles to come to terms with her Jewish identity. Was this an important issue for you too?
MER: I didn't think too much about being Jewish until I lived in Indiana. In New York City you can kind of take being Jewish for granted. There are a lot of Jewish people in New York, and Jewish culture is everywhere --- Jewish food is commonplace, and Yiddish is intermingled in most people's vocabulary. In Indiana I tried to make matzo ball soup for Chanukah and the man in the grocery store had never heard of matzo meal. He said, "Check in the ethnic section, near the salsa and the soy sauce." I knew in theory that Jews were a minority, but I'd never felt it until I left New York City. Being in a non-Jewish environment actually made me feel more Jewish than I'd ever felt before, and that was a surprise to me. I decided to put that experience in the books.
Q: When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
MER: I've kept a journal since I was ten years old, and I've written in it almost daily since I was fifteen. Keeping a journal has been extremely important to me as a writer --- it's made me realize that I can't live without writing. Writing helps me make sense of the world. I'm often not sure what I think of an experience until I see it before me on the page.
Q: You also write literary fiction for adults. What's the difference between writing for adults and writing for younger readers?
MER: You can be goofier in young adult fiction. An asthmatic cat appears in the third MISSING PERSONS novel, THE VENETIAN POLICEMAN. It would be difficult to write asthmatic cat scenes in a serious adult story!
Q: Sophie in THE ROSE QUEEN discusses the books that have meant a lot to her. What books have been important to you?
MER: THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK, ANNE OF GREEN GABLES, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, and I CAPTURE THE CASTLE were very important books to me as a teenager. Anne Frank, Anne Shirley, Scout Finch and Cassandra Mortmain are such strong, inspiring role models. Those books helped me figure out who I was and who I wanted to be, and helped shape my dreams and ambitions.
Q: In THE ROSE QUEEN and THE CHOCOLATE LOVER there's a lot of humor mixed in with sadness over the loss of Sophie and Sam's parents. Is this based on personal experience?
MER: Unfortunately my sister and I also lost both of our parents early, although we weren't as young as Sophie and Sam were when they lost theirs. Part of our way of dealing with it was to try to keep our sense of humor as much as possible, even during the worst times. There's sort of an archetypal "orphan" character that appears in lots of young adult novels, but I wanted Sam and Sophie to deal with the loss of their parents in a real way. For instance, the loss is part of what makes the sisters so close, since they're the only family they have left. This was true for my sister and me also. And there are scenes where Sophie decides she needs to just put the grief out of her mind --- this was true for me, too.
Q: What advice do you have for aspiring writers?
MER: Never give up. That's the most important thing to remember. It's so easy to be discouraged, but you have to believe in yourself and keep writing no matter what.

-Teenreads.com

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Want to Read More Books about Teens as Detectives?

Abrahams Down the Rabbit Hole : An Echo Falls Mystery

Arnold Rat Life

Berk The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin

Dunlap The Musician's Daughter

Ferguson The Christopher Killer : A Forensic Mystery

The Dying Breath : A Forensic Mystery

Gratz Something Rotten : A Horatio Wilkes Mystery

Haddon The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Madison Lulu Dark Can See through Walls

Portman King Dork

Rabb The Venetian Policeman

Richards The Death Collector

Rushford In Too Deep

Scrimger From Charlie's Point of View

Thompson Creature of the Night

Wynne-Jones The Uninvited

Interested in Reading More Books about Missing Persons?

Try these other titles about missing persons:

Brooks Black Rabbit Summer

Green Paper Towns

Hautman, Logue Snatched

Sorrells Fake ID

Strasser Wish You Were Dead

Westerfeld So Yesterday

Wynne-Jones The Boy in the Burning House

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

How to Disappear

I found a surprising number of websites giving advice on how to disappear. 

http://www.skeptictank.org/hs/vanish.htm

http://www.escapeartist.com/efam/45/Disappearing.html

How to Disappear from Facebook and Twitter

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1954631,00.html

Here’s a great story about a writer for Wired Magazine who tried to disappear

http://www.wired.com/vanish/2009/11/ff_vanish2/

Thursday, April 8, 2010

This month’s book: Missing Persons book one: The Rose Queen by M.E. Rabb

rose queen This is the first volume in a really fun and well-written mystery series: Missing Persons.  Sophia and Samantha Shattenberg have to make new lives for themselves after their father’s death if they want to avoid having to live under the rule of their evil stepmother Enid, a tall, wiry woman who, Sophia said, “Called us ‘the young ladies’ in the same tone she used for ‘the rodents in the subway.’”  Sophia and Sam’s mother disappeared years before, last traced to Indianapolis, so is it just coincidence that the girls head there to make their new start?  They are aided by Sam’s best friend Felix, who hooks them up with a not-very-scary minor criminal (he has a huge orange tabby cat named Cubby, pictures of Cubby and copies of Cat Fancy magazine in his office, and his nana sends him homemade ravioli) who helps them establish their new identities with fake birth certificates, social security cards, and a driver’s license for Sam.  Their new (old) car breaks down in Venice –”the Europe of the Midwest, see our beautiful canal” –and they decide they might like small town life.  Unfortunately for them, things are not as quiet in Venice as they thought they would be.  Noelle, local mean girl soon to be Queen of the Rose Parade, hates Sophia on sight (“As Rose Queen, I’m going to do my best to help Venice’s underprivileged residents. The dwarves, the pasty, the orphans.”), and when she’s murdered after last being seen getting out of Sam and Sophia’s car, Sophia becomes the prime suspect.  Of course they decide they’d better solve the murder themselves, before someone discovers their true identities (they did steal $300,000 that was supposed to be inherited by the evil Enid).  Review by Stacy Church

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Positively Poetry at the Westwood Public Library

Positively Poetry at the Westwood Public Library is a celebration of poetry that includes the publication of an anthology of original poetry by students in grades 3 - 12, a public reading from the anthology, and sometimes a writing workshop or two!

Send us your poems for The Westwood Library's 2010 Poetry Anthology. All students in grades 3 - 12 are invited to send one original poem for inclusion in our 2010 anthology. Poems should be no longer than 30 lines, and must have family friendly language and content. Deadline for submissions is April 16. Email us at westwoodpoetry@yahoo.com and include your full name, grade, name of your school, phone number and email address. Check out our poetry blog at westwoodpoetry.blogspot.com, where some of the poems will be published.

Looking for Reviews of Newly Released Young Adult Books?

Check out the Westwood Public Library’s other young adult blog, YA Show and Tell, for reviews of new young adult books.  Some recently reviewed books:

Once Was Lost by Sara Zarr

Chasing the Bear by Robert Parker

Salt by Maurice Gee

Eli the Good by Silas House

Wings by Aprilynne Pike