Read and Shine » An Evening with Lisa Graff

An Evening with Lisa Graff

By Sheilah Egan

Photo by Emmy Widener.

Used with permission.

In the up-close-and-personal setting at Hooray for Books in Alexandria, VA, Lisa Graff began her presentation with low key remarks and a reading from A Tangle of Knots (Starred in Kirkus and Booklist), thus establishing the tone for a very pleasant “evening with the author.” The audience was eager and she gave them just what they wanted to hear: tidbits about her writing, insight into some of her characters, and the opportunity to hear her read aloud.

Her voice is clear and her reading is well paced, easily capturing the interest of everyone as she let the story come to life with her own bright smiles and expressions punctuating the text. When she read some of the more humorous passages and clever details, she employed a relaxed, friendly manner that almost belied the actions of some of the eccentric characters. “Zane can spit perfectly.” she said, looking up briefly in a quick aside. All of the characters have their own particular “voices” and distinctions, many of which she addressed as she read. Despite the urgings of the crowd, Graff concluded the reading only having whetted the appetites of her listeners.

Her poise and obvious interest in the audience’s questions allowed her to field a variety of queries from both students and participating adults with great aplomb. One local librarian had brought two of her students to the event as a reward for their volunteer library work. They were delighted with their “reward” and their questions were thoughtful and direct. Other questions covered such things as how she works, favorite books, requests for advice about writing, etc.

Graff said for her a new story begins with a plot-driven outline that grows in detail as she develops the characters and the details that give the story “a rich, believable reality. Despite the fact that her main interests were science and math, she was passionate about writing from an early age—probably because her own mother was a librarian. She wanted to become a doctor; but once she started writing, she found her true calling. Her advice for aspiring writers included tips such as: save everything–you may be able to “steal” ideas from your own self when writing later in life; be persistent, keep writing and revising; observe and jot down observations from daily life; practice; continue to write when stuck, even if it is just “stuff,” and eventually you will find your way back to real writing.

While working as a children’s editor at Farrar Straus and Giroux, she learned the craft of helping others make their work the “best it could be,” She suggested that writers need to learn from books on writing, read a lot, discuss ideas with others (teachers, friends, mentors), and keep in mind that writing is a very personal experience. When she first began to work with her own editor, she had to accept the editing process and not take it as a personal affront. She came to realize that she had to separate herself from her characters and to grow from her editor’s criticisms and suggestions. In Umbrella Summer she drew on her own experience of having a seriously ill sibling to give veracity to the worries of the healthy sister. Writing from real life can help shape a book, but the author’s imagination is the basis of the story and the characters that populate the invented world.

Humor is important in writing middle grade fiction and she is a naturally “fun” person. Tattling on herself, she related stories about how absorbed she can become when caught up in a section of a story. Everyone was laughing as she described missing her stop on the subway line because she was thinking “so hard about a scene for the Georgie book.” It got even funnier when it came out that, after having headed back to her stop on the returning train, she missed her exit for the second time! “…I walk up and down acting out dialog. I have to say it out loud to make sure it sounds right.” The audience “ate up” the idea that she baked over thirty cakes while deciding which recipes to use in the book, A Tangle of Knots. “My friends loved coming over to help eat them.” She used real recipes but did invent the “garlic cake.”

Lisa Graff is very open with an audience and gives them an invaluable glimpse at the process of writing a book, while spurring them to consider writing, and encouraging them to be life-long readers. Visit her website for more.