An Interview with MaryroseWood of the upcoming book “Why I Let My Hair Grow Out”

www.maryrosewood.com

Faith McKay

FantasyIsLove.com
To get us started, maybe you could give a bit of information about who you are.

Maryrose Wood
Sure. I was raised on Long Island and moved to New York when I was seventeen to go to NYU as a theatre major, and I've lived in one or the other of New York City's various boroughs ever since. My creative background kind of evolved from acting to directing to comedy improv to writing, and then my writing evolved through playwrighting to screenwriting to doing lyrics and bookwriting for musicals, until finally -- FINALLY! -- I found my calling writing novels. It's been a fun journey. And I have two kids, ages 9 and almost 12 -- being a mom is a huge part of my life and certainly helps keep me grounded in the world of young people, which is a huge help writing YA novels. And a dog.

FantasyIsLove.com
Do they approve of your books? (The children, and maybe the dog...)

Maryrose Wood
The dog is a big supporter. Writing is a kind of solitary activity, and it's very nice to have her under my chair or my desk when I'm working. I also frequently read aloud to myself when writing (it's a very useful habit, I recommend it to all writers!), and the dog is always attentive and laughs at the jokes. And yes, of course my kids are incredibly supportive. My daughter is proud to be the "first reader" of my finished first drafts.

FantasyIsLove.com
For those aspiring writers who may be reading, can you walk us through a typical writing day for you? Any other writint tips, besides keeping a dog under your chair for support?

Maryrose Wood
A typical writing day for me involves stumbling around in the morning to get the kids to school, then some serious coffee consumption and a brief (sometimes not brief enough!) check of email and the virtual world. Then to work! Right now I'm at the beginning of one project and the very end of another, so the tasks are quite different -- both essential parts of the writing process, so I'll describe a bit of each.
The book I'm at the beginning of is the sequel to WHY I LET MY HAIR GROW OUT. I'm in the early, loose brainstorming phase, where I have a pretty good idea of the overall story but not a lot of specifics yet. For me this is a split-screen process -- on one side of the laptop screen is the manuscript I've started writing. On the other is my "ideas and outline" document, where I map out ideas for events, plot twists, characters, and the overall structure of the book.
I do some outlining beforehand but I like to start writing as soon as possible. The ideas I have when writing are so vastly superior and more unexpected than the things I think of when outlining, it's better to just let it rip. But I keep track of what I'm doing, and as good ideas come I plug them into the outline and keep playing with story and structure as I go. Otherwise it would just be flailing around. It's like wandering an unmapped landscape and drawing the map as you go.
Essential if you want to find your way back!
The other project that I'm near the end of, is a book called MY LIFE: THE MUSICAL, which will be a spring '08 release. This book has already been through three big drafts, and what I have here is a printout of the final manuscript with my editor's final pencil-written suggestions and questions. Rewriting is what it's all about, people! There's no getting around it. So this requires a much different kind of thinking than the rip-roaring improv mode of a first draft.
It's all detail, detail, detail -- making sure there are no plot holes, tightening everything that can be tightened, fixing any lapses of logic or language that can be made fresher or clearer.

FantasyIsLove.com
The projects and the processes sound really different. So how do you switch modes between the two?

Maryrose Wood
Coffee and naps! Two great tricks to reboot your brain. I know of writers who'll work on one project in the morning and another after lunch, but I tend to work on one project at a time. Depending on deadlines, I'll put one down and and pick up the other for a week. The two books have totally distinctive voices, though -- WHY I LET MY HAIR GROW OUT is written in the very funny, often kind of snarky contemporary teen voice of Morgan, the main character and the sequel is too.
MY LIFE: THE MUSICAL is written in the third person and had a kind of urbane, "wacky fable of Broadway" feel to it. So once I begin working there's no confusion at all.

FantasyIsLove.com
For those who haven't heard about your new book yet, (shame on them!) could you give a brief explanation of what "Why I Let My Hair Grow Out" is about?

Maryrose Wood
Love to! It's the story of Morgan, a sixteen-year-old girl from Connecticut, whose boyfriend dumps her on the last day of her sophomore year of high school. She is heartbroken and impulsively chops off all her hair in a fit of teen angst. Her parents decide some distraction is in order, so they send her off to Ireland, into the care of the Emerald Cycle Bike Tour Company.
Soon, she had a very unusual bike accident that sends her tumbling into the long-ago past of Irish legend. It turns out she's a bit magic herself, and in the guise of her long-ago alter-ego, Morganne, she has a whole bunch of adventures. She gets to undo some faery enchantments, swim with a mermaid, have a very enchanted romance, and she even learns the basic rules of hurling!
I had a terrific time writing the book, it's just a romp through a lot of the Irish myth I love, combined with a very contemporary and funny teen voice.

FantasyIsLove.com
Was that voice based on anyone?

Maryrose Wood
My inner snarky teen, of course!

FantasyIsLove.com
Will the sequel take place in Ireland as well?

Maryrose Wood
Aha! No, actually, I thought it would be really fun to bring Morgan back to Connecticut and find out that the magic has followed her into her "real" life as an American high school junior. My working title for the sequel is WHY I MISSED MY JUNIOR PROM. Two teasers: a faery ball will be involved, and also, I'm planning to definitely answer the age-old question: why are there no female leprechauns?

FantasyIsLove.com
Amazingly, I'd never even asked that question! The sequel sounds as though it will live up to its predecessor. Are there any fantasy novels in particular that inspired you to write these books?

Maryrose Wood
You know, I've always been drawn to mythology and myth-based fiction, like the Lord of the Rings trilogy. One of my favorite books growing up was A Wrinkle in Time, where a "real" world cracks open and the heroine has this astonishing adventure in a realm she didn't even know existed. Even my non-fantasy books, like MY LIFE: THE MUSICAL and my first novel, SEX KITTENS AND HORN DAWGS FALL IN LOVE, play with the dual-reality idea.
In KITTENS, the main character has this kind of magical relationship with New York City, which exists as a place where all kinds of fantastic things can burst through normal reality. And in MY LIFE: THE MUSICAL, the main characters are always bounding between their real lives and the fantasy world of musical theatre, and sometimes the two get confused! It seems to be a preoccupation of mine.

FantasyIsLove.com
So then "Why I Let My Hair Grow Out" wasn't that much of a jump for you. In closing, would you like to give a quick "Why you should read 'Why I Let My Hair Grow Out'" shout out?

Maryrose Wood
Read it because you will have a bunch of laughs and will probably get a huge fiction-crush on the character of Colin -- everyone who's read it so far has fallen head-over-handlebars for him (he's the guy who drives the luggage van for the bike tour company, and he's a little bit more than that too, if you read carefully. And yes, he will be in the sequel!). Also, if you read the book I guarantee you will never, ever look at the tango the same way again.

“Why I Let My Hair Grow Out” will be released on March 6th! To find out more about “Why I Let My Hair Grow Out”, and other Maryrose Wood books, please visit www.maryrosewood.com