N. West Moss

N. West Moss is the author of the memoir Flesh & Blood and the short story collection The Subway Stops at Bryant Park. Her essays and short stories have appeared in McSweeney's, The Saturday Evening Post, and The New York Times, among other publications. She lives in New Jersey.

Birdy is her first book for young readers.

My Q&A with the author:

What's in a name?

Birdy and Mouse are brother and sister. These are their secret nicknames that their mother gave them, but their mother has died after a long illness and now Birdy and Mouse are the only two who know these secret names.

There is great power, I think, in naming ourselves rather than taking the names that others give us. Birdy and Mouse are in control of very little in their lives, but they can define themselves through their chosen names. These nicknames remind them of their mother, and also provide a language that only the two of them know. One of the questions of the book is, who will they invite into their chosen family? We can tell who they are coming to trust because they allow those few people to call them Birdy and Mouse.

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

My teenage self wouldn’t be surprised at all. I think she would have said to me, “What took you so long?” It’s almost as though I have found my way back to the girl I once was in writing Birdy.

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

Writing is hard, period. With Birdy, I found that I had to start somewhere, so those original opening pages were more of a way for me to overcome inertia than to tell the actual story. Eventually I cut those pages, but I needed to write them, if only to get started.

It became clear that I needed to get Birdy and Mouse to their new home more quickly, so that we could watch them as they struggle to start their lives over.

The ending was the opposite. My first version of it was fairly short, and as the book developed, I needed to expand the ending to tie up some of the loose ends. My wonderful editor, Christy Ottaviano, asked me a few questions while I was working on the ending, and those questions galvanized me. With her questions in mind, I felt the ending became much more moving and ‘finished.’ I always say, “Thank goodness for librarians, teachers, and editors.” I don’t know where I’d be without them.

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

When I first saw the cover of Birdy, created by the wonderful Carrie Shryock, I fell in love. I showed it to my sister and she said, “How did Carrie know what you looked like as a kid?” She was right. Somehow, the artist had channeled my childhood self into her drawings of Birdy, and that girl on the cover looks a whole lot like 11-year old me, right down to the freckles on her nose.

Birdy reads and writes in her journal. She also worries and hopes that people will see what is special about her. I admit that those are all aspects of my character as well. Birdy’s circumstances, though, are very different from mine. I am the youngest of 4 children, and both of my parents lived full, happy, long lives.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I love being out in the woods. In fact, I love being outside, period. In spring and summer, when I’m reading I’ll take my books out to the porch, just so that I can watch the hummingbirds at the feeder and listen to the spring peepers and the cicadas. I could be happy forever watching the robins hop in the grass, and the bees and butterflies in my flowers, and I often walk for hours in the woods.

All of that love of nature ended up in Birdy. My love for insects, which is a real and deep love, will be showing up in my next book.

I also find that art make me a better writer. I make sure to listen to music every day, and I often have impromptu, solo dance parties when I need a short break from my writing. Going to a museum, any museum, works magic on my creativity. I am lucky to live near New York City and I take in as much incredible art as I can.

Visit N. West Moss's website.

Writers Read: N. West Moss.

--Marshal Zeringue