*Season #SIX (Summer 2019)
How did you come to know ZJ?
Thanks, so much for reading the book. Through the process of writing him and rewriting him, and really trying to put myself into his skin, ask myself what this would feel like to have a beloved relative finally not be familiar. And not only not be familiar to you in the way that you have always known that person, but for you to not be familiar to that person. What does that loss of a connection feel like, look like and sound like. Just rewriting, I wrote so many poems to try to get to the essence of feeling and to try to understand how it would impact someone like ZJ. Someone who is 10, 11, 12 and has always seen this person as their hero and to have that person taken away while that person is still there. So, I really had to come to know him by asking myself hard questions, by sitting with those questions, by imagining what it would feel like. Even through the pain of that imagining, eventually I got to the boy. I also had to figure out who are the people he could lean on. Where was the hope of his story? Who were his boys? What did he love? What made him happy? That helped me develop a character who is multi-dimensional and felt real to me to the point where I would start writing about him and I would either get really fast or really happy depending on what he was going through. But I did leave "The Ever After" feeling quite hopeful about who he would become.
What do you think is his most admirable quality?
I think that he has what I like to see in everybody, or I would like to see in everybody. It is his empathy. He really feels his father's pain and he really feels his father's loss. He really cherishes and loves and sees his friends and cares about them. So, I know that's more than one admirable quality, but I think empathy and confidence has all of that. When you have empathy your kinder or more caring, you're more thoughtful. You truly see people for the best of who they can be, and I like to think that is ZJ.
What do you think DJ can offer to other children that are experiencing similar situations to what he went through?
I think there are all kinds of ways in which we lose loved ones. We lose them through Dementia or Alzheimer's. We lose them through alcohol and drugs. We lose them to death. We lose them through illness. I think one thing that DJ did was he remained very present. He went through the changes with his father rather than abandoning him. Rather than checking out which is okay to do sometimes, because even as young people you have to take care of yourself, but he did both. He hung out with his people and boys. He did stuff he loved. He made music and he was there for his dad. He was there as often as he could be because he realized how precious that time is with that loved one. He realized how important the love is. You know we talked about Dr. Regina Simmons Bishop and how she wrote about kids needing both mirrors and windows in their literature. For those who need a mirror for those who are experiencing something like what ZJ is going through. They can see reflections of themselves and the shifting in their own lives. For those who maybe have not yet or will never experience this, what they can have is a glimpse of what might be happening to someone somewhere and learn empathy through that experience of seeing through that window.
Do you and ZJ share any similar qualities?
Any similarity to my characters, I try not to make them too much like me, but I always say there's a little bit of Jacqueline Woodson in everybody I create. Of course, I keep in mind my own 12-year-old son. I might find myself at 12. I read books that help me think about voice and stuff. It's really important to me to be around people I love. It's important to me to see people and to not make snap judgments and to not feel like I should prejudge anyone and to believe that there's some good in everybody and to really enjoy. So, I would say that there are definitely ways in which we parallel each other. I love music. I listen to music all the time. I can't sing. I can't play guitar, but yeah definitely some of me is in him, but he's not me. He's ZJ.
SEASON #SIX (Summer 2019)
Interview #122 with Tamara Bundy (Author of Pixie Pushes On)
Interview #123 with Lindsay Lackey (Author of All the Impossible Things)
Interview #124 with Tae Keller (Author of When You Trap a Tiger)
Interview #125 with Jamie Sumner (Author of Roll With It)
Interview #126 with Hena Khan (Author of More to the Story)
Interview #127 with Phil Bildner (Author of A High-Five for Glenn Burke)
Interview #128 with Leslie Connor (Author of A Home for Goddesses and Dogs)
Interview#129 with Gillian McDunn (Author of Queen Bee and Me)
Interview #130 with Jody J. Little (Author of Worse Than Weird)
Interview #131 with Jenn Bishop (Author of Things You Can't Say)
Interview #132 with Kaela Noel (Author of Coo)
Interview #133 with Rebecca Stead (Author of The List of Things That Will Not Change)
Interview #134 with Gae Polisner (Author of Jack Kerouac is Dead to Me)
Interview #135 with Emily Blejwas (Author of Like Nothing Amazing Ever Happened)
Interview #136 with Joy McCullough (Author of A Field Guide to Getting Lost)
Interview #137 with Kim Baker (Author of the Water Bears)
Interview #138 with Erin Entrada Kelly (Author of We Dream of Space)
Interview #139 with Jess Redman (Author of Quintessence)
Interview #140 with Melanie Conklin (Author of Every Missing Piece)
Interview #141 with Lindsey Stoddard (Author of Brave Like That)
