Cindy Callaghan

Author Interview:

When and how did you start writing?

I’ve been writing forever.  In third grade I wrote my first play.  I was always into short stories, scenes and characters, plus, of course, lots of melodramatic poetry.  Then I put creative writing aside for college, grad school, the early days of my career clawing my way to the glass ceiling, and starting a family. 

About six years ago I saw an ad for a writing class and that catapulted me into my first novel, a fabulous suspense thriller.  The class became a critique group, and one story became another and another. 

Can you remember the first book that made an impact on you?

Michael Connelly’s THE POET was, undoubtedly, the first book that changed the way I feel about reading and writing.  I can’t continue until I make a confession - librarians and teachers aren’t going to like this. But here it is: unlike most readers and writers, I didn’t have a childhood filled with the love of books. Actually, I didn’t read a book for enjoyment until I was about twenty-six years old. Seriously, I never read Judy Blume, Trixie Beldin, or Nancy Drew, although I had friends that did.  I envied them.  But (and this is a big BUT) I always wrote stories, and poems, even plays.

As an undergraduate English major, and French minor, I read only what I absolutely had to read.  This familiarized me with a vast array of fancy writers and poets. I did well in a Shakespeare class – in fact, I loved studying Shakespeare ... I did not, however, enjoy reading Shakespeare. Instead, I opted to watch the BBC movie version whenever possible -– the same with Chaucer or Thoreau. Yet, I admire, like, and respect those works.

This is all kind of messed up, huh? Here’s where the story changes.

At about 26 years old I was roommate-less for the first time. I was finishing my MBA, and reading a lot of text books, as well as trade magazines, newspapers, and stuff like The Economist…not for enjoyment.

One day, I can’t remember the circumstances, I found myself in Borders flipping book jackets. There was a new release called THE POET.  The cover looked good. I’d never heard of the author, but then I’d never heard of any mainstream authors.

I bought it, and read it...the WHOLE book...cover to cover.  I loved it so much that I went back, and spent my precious waitressing dollars on everything else written by that author. I built a relationship with Connelly’s main character, Detective Harry Bosch, and followed him from case to case. 

I quickly branched into THE FIRM (Grisham), DISCLOSURE (Crichton), THE BODY FARM (Cornwell), ORCHID BEACH (Woods). I loved them too. So the mountain on my nightstand grew with every book those authors ever wrote.  I became a real mystery-lover...still am, but I’ve diversified.  I read and/or listen to twenty to thirty books per year. 

The more I read, the more my left brain re-awakened and I found myself wanting to write again.  In the last six years I’ve written three and a half novels. JUST ADD MAGIC (due out from Aladdin next Fall) is my first middle-grade project and the first one to be published.

It all comes back to Connelly’s THE POET. It convinced me that I could enjoy reading a book.

So, then what drew you to write a middle grade novel?

There are lots of reasons.  I’m a big kid at heart and I have lots of zany ideas bouncing around in my brain at any point in time. I think the middle grade audience is more receptive to those ideas.  I have kids now, and I love reading with them and to them. I’ve really developed an appreciation for middle grade books - they play an important role in the tween’s life. One of my many objectives with JUST ADD MAGIC was to draw kids in and keep them turning the pages because I don’t want them to miss out on twenty-six years of reading like I did.

Can you talk us through the writing of JUST ADD MAGIC? What were the key moments?

I wrote the first draft in about six weeks.  Then I revised and rewrote for months.  I’m part of a critique group, which is a very important part of my writing, and they critiqued the story over and over again. My dad also read countless drafts.  Then I thought it was ready to send to a literary agent, but since I knew I only had one chance to make a first impression, I hired an editor.  Once I received the editor’s comments, I pulled the manuscript apart again and sewed it back together.  It took about a year before I finally thought it was ready to send out.

Was it hard to get an agent? Can you talk us through the process?

I spent a lot of time on the internet researching agents.  I wanted a small, highly targeted list.  I looked at books I thought had a similar personality to mine, and tried to find out who represented those authors.  I also looked at who was speaking at SCBWI conferences because I thought they’d be interested in unsolicited queries.  I also looked at the big literary agencies and carefully researched what types of genres each agent was interested in.  On the basis of all this, I made my list which included Greenhouse Literary Agency. 

Enter the query letter.  I toiled over the query for weeks trying to get it just right. 

I sent out my submissions carefully trying to get each agent’s individual specifications just right.  I heard back from Sarah Davies right away, requesting the entire manuscript.  In her email I think she wrote, ‘Don’t get too excited.’ But, I did anyway.

Just a few days later, we connected on the phone.  She liked the story, but it had issues.  She was willing to work with me on those issues, so we did.  Once again, with Sarah’s comments and advice, I reworked the story.  I sent it back to her about three months later on a Sunday night.  By ten o’clock the next morning she called me that she wanted to represent it.  Things really took off then.  She pitched it very quickly and we had a bite from Aladdin, which was what Sarah called, ‘the perfect home for JUST ADD MAGIC’.

Describe your writing day. Where do you write? How do you organise your time? Where do you look for inspiration?

I really prefer big chunks of time to write, so I try to block a whole day, sometimes two.  I also go away overnight sometimes.  It is very hard to find a quiet place, so getting away to our mountain house alone or with a few writing friends works very well.  The coffee shop is a good place for me to edit on paper.  Also, I work better early in the morning.  If my creative juices are really flowing, like with a first draft, I can get up really early and write for hours.  It feels like minutes. 

Can you tell us more about your book?

JUST ADD MAGIC is due out from Aladdin in Fall 2010.

While cleaning the attic one day, Kelly Quinn, a curious sixth grader with a passion for cooking, finds a book of secret recipes bearing a warning: Beware of the Law of Returns.  Using the book, Kelly starts a cooking club with her best friends, clumsy roller-skating Darbie and fashionista soccer star Hannah.  The dishes from the book are delish, but they seem linked to strange occurrences at home, at school and on the soccer field.

Coincidence? Kelly Quinn’s theory:  There is no such thing as coincidence.  So, she devises an experiment involving a certain sixth-grade hottie.  Unfortunately, things backfire in a big way.  Kelly and her friends try to return life to normal, but their efforts are complicated by an annoying little brother, know-it-all Charlotte (blah!) Barney and the soccer team tryouts.  Just when the girls think they have everything under control, they discover that they really don’t.

Are there any tips you could give aspiring writers who are looking to get published?

The first thing you need to have is a good project; I think a safe critique group is critical to that.  Attending some conferences to get the lay of the land is a good way to get grounded.  The second thing you need is someone who knows what they’re doing in the publishing industry - an agent.