Ann Downer » Frequently Asked Questions

Actual Questions from My Readers

Who inspired you to start writing? When did you start writing? How much time does it take to write a book? How old were you when you started writing?
Do you have any hobbies?
Do you do your own drawings?
Where did you get the inspiration for the characters of Gideon and Merlin?
What inspired you to write Hatching Magic?

“Who inspired you to start writing? When did you start writing? How much time does it take to write a book? How old were you when you started writing?”
Ben K., Ohio

I started writing in sixth grade. For one assignment, I wrote a story in which my sister and I were shipwrecked on an island, à la Island of the Blue Dolphins. Then, in the eighth grade, I read Ursula LeGuin’s A Wizard of Earthsea, and immediately began writing the story that was eventually published as my first book. It was 1974, and I was 13, when I started the story that became The Spellkey.
That book took me 11 years to complete, and another two to publish, and Hatching Magic took about 8 years, including a few during which the incomplete manuscript was banished to the attic. Sometimes I can finish a book in a few years, but to my chagrin I’m a slow writer.
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“Do you have any hobbies?”
Katie L., Grade 5, California

Well, reading, of course, and looking in used bookstores and the kind of antique stores best characterized as curiosity shops. I enjoy hiking with my family, both near our home in Boston and up in Maine. When I have time, I enjoy photography, collage, and baking bread from scratch. And movies. Do they count as a hobby? I also like to go to museums—they seem to be a particularly good source of ideas for books.
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“Do you do your own drawings?”
Shaina H., Grade 5, Arizona

No, publishers almost always hire the artist to create the art for the dust jackets and any inside illustrations. I’ve been lucky that the artists for the Hatching Magic series have been so talented and creative. You can see more of their art at these links. Omar does the English editions and Regina the German ones. Omar also designed my logo of a dragon hatchling and an inkpot.
Omar Rayyan, www.studiorayyan.com
Regina Kehn, http://www.reginakehn.de/
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“Where did you get the inspiration for the characters of Gideon and Merlin?”
Brandon S., Grade 6, Illinois

Hmm, I never really thought about exactly where they came from. Merlin has a little of the fussiness of Agatha Christie’s detective Hercule Poirot in him, but I suppose he’s a combination of a number of people I’ve known through the years. He’s just what came to mind when I thought, What would a Harvard professor who was a wizard look like? Gideon is tougher to pinpoint. He originally started out much more mysterious, but as I wrote him he became more human, and I used his interactions with the two-headed snake Ouroboros to create humorous situations about a 13th century wizard encountering 21st century technology.
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“What inspired you to write Hatching Magic?”
Carrie-Ann D., Grade 4, Washington

Originally, it was a story set in Eureka, California. Theodora was a girl called Isobel, who had a brother called Nikko. They moved to California with their parents to run a bookstore and coffeehouse, and met up with a special-effects “wizard” for Hollywood who turned out to be a real wizard. I tried hard to write that book for years, but only when I added Wycca the wyvern, changed Isobel to Theodora, and changed the brother into a nanny did the book begin to write itself. One boy at a school visit said “Well, that book [the Eureka version] sounds better.” Maybe it would have been! And maybe I will write that one, someday.
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...And Other Frequently Asked Questions

Where did you go to school?
How did you get your first book published?
Where do you get your ideas?
Where do you write?
How do you deal with writer's block?

Where did you go to school?
I attended schools in Falls Church, VA; Manila, Philippines; and Bangkok, Thailand. I graduated from Smith College in 1982 with a degree in English (but only after flirting with a career in science--I wanted to work with great apes). I've also attended Bread Loaf Writers Conference and the now defunct Radcliffe Publishing Course.
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How did you get your first book published?
I was extraordinarily lucky. In 1984, when I had been out of college a few years, I applied to the Bread Loaf Writers Conference at the University of Vermont. I was given a dining room scholarship, which meant I served meals in the dining room to pay my fees. The waiters got to do their own readings to the assembled conference goers, and I was given a chance to have my writing critiqued one-on-one with my own tutor, the wonderful, talented, generous Nancy Willard, author of many books but of the especially wonderful A Visit to William Blake's Inn and Angel in the Parlor. The stories I showed Willard for her comments were chapters from my "Great American Novel" (what aspiring twentysomething author isn't working on one of those?) but I mentioned to her that I had a finished fantasy manuscript at home. Willard was kind enough to suggest I show it to her friend and agent, Barbara Lucas. Barbara took me on and sold the book on her second try to Atheneum Books for Young Readers and I've been with Atheneum in its various incarnations ever since, with Marcia Marshall as my editor for the first three books, and Ginee Seo for the others. For advice about getting published yourself, go here http://www.underdown.org/basics.htm
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Where do you get your ideas?
On walks, often. Or something I read will stick with me. Reading about the ergot fungus explanation for the witch mania in Salem gave me the idea for the ergot fungus plot line in The Glass Salamander. And an actual glass salamander in an art museum in Chicago gave me the title for that book and the character of Caitlin's guide, Newt. An interest in stories about the famous Wild Boy of Avignon gave me the idea for the character of Ulfra in the Spellkey books, and another museum visit, to the National Museum of Natural History in D.C., introduced me to the real Direwolves of the Ice Age. I'm a big believer in "white space," the writing that gets done by your subconscious when you aren't at the computer. All kinds of experiences get stored and filtered in the brain and come out later. Just being out and about, noticing little random things, most especially observing and listening to people-these are the ways I recharge my creative batteries.
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Where do you write?
I write on a laptop (Macintosh G3 Powerbook) in a coffeehouse near my day job, in libraries, at the kitchen table at home, and sometimes in bed! Laptops are wonderful.
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How do you deal with writer's block?
Well, I try to see times that I am not writing as part of the writing process...that "white space" of life that's necessary to feed the unconscious mind with ideas. But if I do get well and truly stuck, I sometimes do laundry, make soup, bake bread. If I get really, really stuck, I banish the project to the attic for a while and try not to obsess about it. It's amazing how many times I have thought of the way out of a really bad plot problem while in the shower.
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