Can you tell a little bit about yourself and about your books?
My first YA novels, What the Moon Saw and Red Glass, were inspired by the time I spent living and traveling in rural Mexico and northern Guatemala, and my work with immigrants in the southwest United States. My new novel, The Indigo Notebook, takes place in the Ecuadorian Andes, and is the first in a new travel-adventure series. After moving around quite a bit, I've now settled in Colorado with my husband and our toddler son, whom we adopted from Guatemala two years ago. I still try to travel every chance I get!
In Red Glass, 16-year-old Sophie takes a road trip from Tucson to southern Mexico and Guatemala with four unlikely companions, and finds herself opening up to love and adventure along the way.
The Indigo Notebook is about 15-year-old Zeeta and her flighty mother, who live in a different country every year. This year, in the Ecuadorian Andes, Zeeta helps an American boy search for his birth parents. With him, she encounters adventure, mystery, love, and ultimately, the truth about what she really wants.
What inspired you to write The Indigo Notebook and Red Glass and what influences and experiences did you bring into the book?
In Red Glass, most of the characters, settings, and occurrences were inspired by real people and places and experiences. Dika's, Mr. Lorenzo's, Angel's, and Pablo's stories of how they ended up in the U.S. are similar to stories my immigrant friends have shared with me. Many of the adventures that the main character, Sophie, has on her travels are things that have actually happened to me while traveling alone in Latin America. And like Sophie, I found that most people I met were kind, generous, and interested in connecting with me and helping me. As far as Sophie's insecurities and anxieties, these are struggles that I've had to deal with in my own life. Like Sophie, I discovered that the best way to overcome the fears was to expose myself to new experiences and people, and embrace all the surprises that life has to offer.
The Indigo Notebook was inspired by time I spent in the Ecuadorian Andes while researching a memoir called The Queen of Water (available Spring 2011) co-written with my friend Maria Virginia Farinango. While spending time in indigenous Otavaleño communities, I heard fascinating stories that I wanted to weave into a novel. One of my book's storylines involves an adopted American boy's search for his birth parents in the Otavalo area, which interested me because I was in the process of adopting my son as I wrote this. The book also explores Zeeta's relationship with her mother, and Zeeta's assumptions about what will make her truly happy—both issues that most readers should relate to in one way or another. They're definitely issues I've thought a lot about during my teen years and even now.
If you could be a character from your book one day, who would it be and why?I really love all my characters (even the bad guys to some extent!), so it's hard to choose a favorite. I think I'll say Mamita Luz, who is considered the mother of the village of Agua Santa in The Indigo Notebook. She's been through some major sadness and come out stronger for it… and all the children of her community benefit from her warmth and wisdom. She nourishes their bodies with fresh-baked bread, and nourishes their hearts with heaps of love. I would love to have this generosity of spirit-- it's something I strive for, even though it may take years before I even come close to Mamita Luz's open-heartedness.
What do you like most about writing for young adults? When I read a book as a teen, it had the power to shift my entire worldview. I would get completely lost in books, and let them become a part of me. Now that I'm an author, I notice that my young readers often have the same reaction—they really felt they were there with Sophie in Mexico, that they became close friends with the characters, that it made them sad to finish the book and leave their friends. I feel so lucky to be writing for an age group who open themselves up to letting a story enter them and change them. It's amazing to think that readers see the world differently (hopefully in a more compassionate and interested way) after reading my books.
Can you give us a view into a typical day in your writing life? It's changed a lot now that my son is here! I used to stumble out of bed, make tea, and get straight to writing, since early mornings were my freshest, most creative time. Now, Toddler wakes up early and we cuddle in bed for a while, then I change his diaper, make him his "mush," get him dressed, brush his hair, wash his face, brush his teeth, walk around the neighborhood with him, change his diaper again… and by the time we bike over to his daycare, I'm already beat! Nevertheless, I spend a few hours writing in my little silver vintage trailer while drinking lots of tea with milk and honey. After lunch, I take a walk to the park or river with my dog, which reinvigorates me a bit. In the afternoons, when my creative energy feels low, I try to take care of e-mails, reader mail, promotional stuff, setting up author visits, readings, etc. In the late afternoon, I do dishes, laundry, cook dinner, and then bike to pick up Toddler from daycare. We have dinner as a family, then walk or ride bikes to the park or river. Usually I don't work in the evenings or at night, since I want to spend time with my family… and by the time Toddler is asleep, I'm too tired to do much other than hang out with my husband, read, or maybe watch some Hulu. The day goes by incredibly fast…
What were your favorite books as a young adult? Mary Stewart's books (the Merlin books, and others, like Locked in Time), A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L'Engle), House of Stairs (William Sleator), Zilpha Keatley Snyder's books, Natalie Babbit's books (like Tuck Everlasting), Judy Blume's books, Scott O'Dell's books, Katherine Paterson's books, Dicey's Song, The Great Gilly Hopkins, and many more! Many of these I read with my mom. She read aloud to me for a half hour before bed until I was about in eighth grade… such good memories!
Do you have a dream, something you'd love to achieve with your writing? This might sound a little hokey, but honestly, I would like to feel that my soul continues to touch other souls through the stories I tell. I think that writing is a deeply spiritual endeavor, and I want to always remember and stay true to this.
***MANY THANKS LAURA!***
For more about Laura and her books you can visit her site by clicking here
