Ryan Elizabeth Penske

Ryan Elizabeth Penske is a mix of a Midwest and Southern California upbringing, where she discovered her love for snowy Halloweens in Michigan and the everlasting California sun, but most importantly her love for reading in her early teens. Now, after writing her debut YA novel The Dreamers, she looks forward to completing her MA in English Literature from Chapman University where she received her BA in English Literature, Rhetoric, and Cultural Studies. Between moments of writing and her academic pursuits, Penske spends her days with her best buddy Indy, her Australian Shepherd. Together they enjoy hiking, going to bookstores, traveling, spending exuberant amounts of time of “BookTok,” and of course dreaming.

My Q&A with Penske:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

The title of my novel, The Dreamers, relates directly to a specific element of the story. Not only are the characters constantly dealing with the notion of dreams, thinking about dreams and what they mean, but they are also actively dreaming and in a dream state quite a lot throughout the novel. The characters who are able to dream figments of the future are also called “Dreamers” by staff that work in The Dreamers main setting of the novel, The Manor de Reves.

I write a lot of stuff, whether that be for my masters program or creative work, and I always find the title to be the last thing I think of or come up with. I think the “meat” of the work has to come first to then inform the author on what a piece should be called. I think if you title something first, very rarely will the title from the very beginning stay the same. With my novel The Dreamers however, I had enough of the premise and concept of the actual Dreamers in my story figured out, that from opening the first word document I ever began writing the story in, I titled it The Dreamers. Luckily for me it stuck, and everyone who read it including my editor and publisher liked it.

In general, I think a title should reflect the most important part of your story. It doesn’t have to be something blaringly obvious or spoiler-y, but I think what is the most cool is when a story has a title that allows for the readers to have an “ah-hah” moment and connect/understand the title once they get to a certain point in the story. I recently had this experience with Corelli’s Mandolin, and I loved the way the title related to something not quite so obvious in the book at first, but very significant to the storyline the further you read and uncovered.

What's in a name?

For me so far, the naming of characters and places goes by a case-by-case situation. Sometimes a character’s name is simply chosen because I like it, or sometimes it holds significance to something in my life. For example, the main love interest in The Dreamers name is Charlie. Charlie is the name of the boy I had a major crush on in middle school, so I thought it would be funny to pay homage to that first personal crush I had back when I was young. Another example would be Clear Water High, which is the high school my main character Stella goes to. The street I grew up on is called Clear Water, so again I enjoyed pulling in an element from my real life and using it as inspiration and fun easter-egg nods towards in the novel.

I think names can both hold great weight, but also not. I would argue that it's up to the author to decide whether a name should be something meaningful and special or if a name can just simply be one they like or think sounds nice. I definitely think if you want to have a strong character that is memorable and makes a great impression, then I would spend a bit longer thinking of what you should name them than simply choosing a random name from a list. Almost everything that has a name in The Dreamers, whether that be a person or place, relates to something from some point in my life, so I do think that naturally authors will default to naming something that has a fun relation to themselves or their lives, but I’m sure that changes with the more you write and maybe run out of names!

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

I don’t think my teenage reader self would be surprised by my novel at all, but more so elated and over the moon that I am a published author! This has been a lifelong dream of mine, so I think my teenage self would be jumping up and down. It makes sense that my first novel is a YA book, because the YA blockbuster series that came out and were massive hits when I was a teenager, such as The Hunger Games, Divergent, City of Bones, all of those type series, are what made me a big reader and ultimately inspired me to start writing The Dreamers.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

This is a great question because funny enough, I think beginnings are way harder to write than endings, but the ending to The Dreamers changed at least three times! Beginning a piece, whether it's an academic paper or a creative piece, I always find writing an intro or that first paragraph to be the hardest. It's the story in the middle and at the end that I always have the clearest vision for, so once I get to those parts it's always so much easier. My ending idea however, was changed greatly from my first draft of The Dreamers, and that is due to different eyes reading the story and helping me mold it to have a different outcome for the better. That’s what great editors are for!

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

When writing my first every main character, Stella in The Dreamers, I leaned on personality traits of my own to help shape her. I think I did this because it was an easy way to begin molding a character and give her personality that I felt comfortable with writing because I naturally knew how she would then go about responding to or handling a situation. I wouldn’t say she is a carbon copy of myself, as there are certain traits I also have, but I think she naturally became her own character very separate from myself as she is faced with circumstances, people, and situations that are worlds different from anything I have faced. I think if you are able to write great characters, they naturally take up a life of their own as the story unfolds even if you have something different originally intended for them.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Any and all stories across page, screen, stage, etc. that I have enjoyed or felt connected to inspire and influence my writing. The most significant answer I can give to this question would be all creative works I was exposed to while attending the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. I was at the festival and attending cast, writer, and director interviews, including film premieres, and the creativity was so electric that it inspired me to begin writing The Dreamers. Specifically, I remember viewing Emma Roberts' film premiere for Paradise Hills (2019) and finding a lot of influence for the setting and vibe of The Dreamers. Other than this specific instance, this answer might feel cliché, but it's a testament to how influential this story has been to so many people, would be the Harry Potter series. I guiltily will admit that I have never read the book series in full, but the movies have always had a permanent presence in my life. The strong sense of characters, relationships, and iconic setting that the stories hold influenced the way emphasis and efforts I put into writing stand out characters and memorable settings.

Visit Ryan Elizabeth Penske's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Laila Ibrahim

Laila Ibrahim is the bestselling author of After the Rain, Scarlet Carnation, Golden Poppies, Paper Wife, Mustard Seed, and Yellow Crocus. Before becoming a novelist, she worked as a preschool director, a birth doula, and a religious educator. Drawing from her experience in these positions, along with her education in developmental psychology and attachment theory, she finds rich inspiration for her novels. She’s a devout Unitarian Universalist, determined to do her part to add a little more love and justice to our beautiful and painful world. She lives with her wonderful wife, Rinda, and two other families in a small cohousing community in Berkeley, California. Her children and their families are her pride and joy. When she isn’t writing, she likes to cuddle with her dog Hazel, take walks with friends, study the Enneagram, do jigsaw puzzles, play games, work in the garden, travel, cook, and eat all kinds of delicious food.

Ibrahim's new novel is Falling Wisteria.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

I put so much thought into my titles. And they don't come to me quickly. I needed Falling Wisteria to be culturally sensitive, stand alone and fit with the Yellow Crocus series which meant a plant or flower. My initial working title was Cherry Blossom, but one of my Japanese American beta readers thought it was a stereotypical trope, so I wanted to change it. To be honest I didn't want to go full on purple since I'm heading there, but haven't gotten to the end of the family saga yet. When I googled 'Japanese flowers that grow in the SF Bay Area' I was delighted to see wisteria on the list. I knew at once it was the flower that would be in the title. I have a beautiful wisteria plant in my backyard--they are very common in Berkeley, but I didn't realize they were native to Japan.

Wisteria is a perfect metaphor for making it through hard times, for finding beauty in the midst of pain and of learning to make a home in a new place.

What's in a name?

For this novel, Falling Wisteria, I used names from my own family and friends--with their permission of course. It was fun, and a little unsettling, to use so many familiar names. The main character, Kay Lynn, was named after my daughter, Klin, in the previous novel. On more than one occasion I misspelled my main character's name. I named Kay Lynn's daughter Lizzie, after the character in my first novel, Lisbeth, who is her great grandmother. And I chose my brother's name for Kay Lynn's brother, and my son-in-law's name for Kay Lynn's husband. The Fujiokas are named for our family friends, Kimiko, Donna and George, though in real life Donna and George are the parents and Kimiko is their daughter.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

Very surprised. I always loved reading, but I was not a natural writer. The stories would surprise my teenage self, but the discipline and devotion to writing would be a shock.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

Each story reflects something I've struggled with in my life. I'm certain I was processing COVID and the complexity of a worldwide pandemic in Falling Wisteria. Kay Lynn was overwhelmed by the news, uncertain what she needed to pay attention to in the world versus taking care of her own small world. There was so much happening in so many places all at once. There was also no knowing how long it would go on.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I appreciate a psycho-spiritual tool called the Enneagram. Friends told me about it in the early 2000, but I didn't learn much about it then. In 2016 I realized it would help me with character development--for my writing. But after doing a deeper dive into it I have come to value it for my personal character development. It's a great tool for giving me more compassion and insight to myself and to other people.

Visit Laila Ibrahim's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Elena Taylor

Elena Taylor spent several years working in theater as a playwright, director, designer, and educator before turning her storytelling skills to fiction. Her first series, the Eddie Shoes Mysteries, written under the name Elena Hartwell, introduced a quirky mother/daughter crime fighting duo.

With the Sheriff Bet Rivers Mysteries, Taylor returns to her dramatic roots and brings readers much more serious and atmospheric novels. Located in her beloved Washington State, Taylor uses her connection to the environment to produce tense and suspenseful investigations for a lone sheriff in an isolated community.

Taylor is also a senior editor with Allegory Editing, a developmental editing house, where she works one-on-one with writers to shape and polish manuscripts, short stories, and plays.

Her favorite place to be is at Paradise, the property she and her hubby own south of Spokane, Washington. They live with their horses, dogs, and cats. Taylor holds a B.A. from the University of San Diego, a M.Ed. from the University of Washington, Tacoma, and a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia.

The new Sheriff Bet Rivers mystery is A Cold Cold World.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

The title, A Cold Cold World, came to me very quickly. There were a few different reasons why it fit the book so well and was on my mind. There is a song by Blaze Foley with the same title. (Titles are not covered by copyright). I love the simplicity of the lyrics and the tune. It’s about regrets and the challenges of living.

Further, Blaze Foley was murdered, making him an apt figure to inspire a mystery novel. The first novel in the Bet Rivers series focuses a lot on music, the protagonist, Bet, and her father and friends are musicians and singers, and would often sing together. I feel it’s a song they would have performed.

I also wanted to pit Bet against a monster storm. When I lived in North Bend, Washington, we usually got a few inches of snow at a time, which might linger for a week. One winter we had several feet that stuck around for eight weeks. That’s the storm I recreated here. It was definitely a cold, cold world. I’m thrilled that my publisher liked the title as much as I did.

What's in a name?

Elizabeth “Bet” Rivers came to me out of the blue. I knew she was Bet before I knew that was short for Elizabeth. Names are very important to me, though they are a combination of me researching the meaning of names and using those, and names that appear in my mind as if by magic.

Alma is named after an Alma that I worked with years ago, an equally tough, tiny, almost octogenarian who would no doubt have done a great job running a sheriff’s station.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

My teenaged reader self would not be the least bit surprised at A Cold, Cold World. She read mysteries nonstop and loved small towns, horses, and women who stand up for themselves.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

I find it very easy to write an opening scene. That’s usually where my imagination takes hold. But I quickly work at finding the ending. For me, the middle is extremely challenging to write if I don’t know where a story or a character is going.

Each book is a little different with regards to rewrites. The beginning might change the most if I realize new things by the end of a first draft, but I also once changed who the killer was after several rewrites on a certain novel, so endings can change too.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

There is some of me in every character I write. My characters reflect how I understand the world, including the dark side of people. So, while I’ve never killed anyone, and like to think I never would, I put myself into the shoes of my killers and try to imagine the situations they are in to do the things they do.

I do believe there are evil people in the world, but no one is defined by a single action. We are a complicated intersection of our histories, our biology, and our situations. There are psychopaths out there, but the much more interesting criminal is the one who knows right from wrong and makes a bad choice anyway.

I like to consider what drives people to do the things they do, and the fact that a person’s fortune can change on a dime through one careless act or bad decision. People often say, “I had no choice.” But we always have a choice, and what we do says a lot about us.

Another choice might have been the better path, but it often wasn’t as obvious, or was harder to commit to. Much better if we can see all the choices in front of us before we make a big decision.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

As mentioned before, music inspires me. In bluegrass and country music, there are a lot of songs that tell a story. I’ve always been intrigued by how much character and plot can be packed into a song. (If you don’t believe me, read the lyrics to "Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts" by Bob Dylan).

I also take inspiration from photos, paintings, and the world at large. I’ve had novels and stories inspired by deep dark lakes, images of people and buildings, and true crime events or things I hear on the news. Finding a story is the easy part, writing a satisfying plot is what’s hard.

Visit Elena Taylor's website.

--Marshal Zeringue