Asterwood is her first novel for children.
Stolos holds an MFA in fiction from NYU, where she was a Writers in the Public School Fellow. Her short fiction has appeared in Joyland and No Tokens. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter.
My Q&A with the author:
How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?Visit Jacquelyn Stolos's website.
Asterwood is a clean, simple title and I love that. It signals the novel's setting to readers, and I'm a setting-oriented writer--it's usually the detail that comes first in the pre-draft, dreamstorm stage of my work and the detail that speaks loudest in my finished books--so it feels right. I can't take credit though! There were many placeholder titles before my brilliant editor, Wendy Loggia, suggested Asterwood.
What's in a name?
So much. The novel's protagonist, Madelyn, is named for my niece. At the time, Madelyn was the only baby in the family, so of course I had to name the child in my book after her. Books take some time to write so now, at the time of Asterwood's publication, I have a daughter of my own, another niece, three nephews, and one more niece or nephew on the way. I have some work to do if I'm going to keep up the tradition of writing each kid their own fantasy! Plus, baby Madelyn has grown into a kid with her own wonderful, distinct personality that's nothing like this imagined character. I've been thinking of C.S. Lewis's famous inscription for his goddaughter Lucy in The Lion, Witch, and The Wardrobe. Girls certainly do grow faster than books, Clive!
How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?
My teenage self would not be surprised at all. Asterwood is a return home for me. It begins and ends in Derry, New Hampshire, my hometown, where I spent a lot of my time having imaginary adventures in the woods behind my house as a kid. While I never found a shimmering rift in time and space that brought me to a magical forest, my afternoons under that dark canopy were wild and enchanting. Asterwood has flavors of some of the wonderful contemporary middle grade authors I've read as an adult --shoutouts to Kelly Barnhill, Grace Lin, and Colin Meloy-- but I owe its bones to the authors I read as a tween and who shaped how I experience the world. Madeleine L'Engle, Tolkien, Lois Lowry, Sharon Creech, my Gods.
On the other hand, my 20's self, who read and wrote spare, fragmented adult literary fiction set in the big cities I've lived in as a young adult, would fall over in shock.
Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?
Oh my goodness endings, endings, endings! Asterwood has had about three million different endings. Readers, what do you think of this one? If you don'tlike it, I can send along another to suit your taste. Maybe someday I'll publish a version with a choose-your-own-adventure finale.
Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?
Absolutely. Though Madelyn's named after my niece, she's certainly a young me: a day-dreamy, bookish kid who struggles to connect with other kids in her elementary school and thinks her nerdy dad is the bees knees. Madelyn lives in her imagination, as I did. Ha, who am I kidding, as I still do.
Horrifyingly--please don't run from me screaming and crying--Stella, the queen of the cannibals, has got bits and pieces of me too. Like Stella, I'm a woman of brutally deep convictions (I don't believe we should save forests by eating children! Do I need to say that?). My daughter was born while I was writing this novel and Stella became the place where I ruminated on the murderous strength of a young, scared mother's love.
What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?
My calico cat Annie, who passed a few years ago, is Dots, Madelyn's loyal and beloved kitty companion. Trees and sunlight. I have often joked that I've engineered entire novels simply as an excuse to spend my time ruminating on the way afternoon light looks filtered through leaves moving in a light breeze.
Writers Read: Jacquelyn Stolos.
The Page 69 Test: Asterwood.
My Book, The Movie: Asterwood.
--Marshal Zeringue