When did you start writing?
Believe it or not, I started writing when I was twelve years old. I used to read a lot when I was young. There was a library across the street from my elementary school in Brookline, MA and I used to go there after school frequently and pick out books to read. I would stay there and my mother would pick me up on her way home from work. Reading was my favorite activity. I loved disappearing into the world that the writer created for me. I learned so much about other
cultures, history, different people or magical creatures. It also helped me to bear even the most boring activity. For example, it used to be one of my chores at home to sweep the stairs inside the house and I didn’t like it much. There were about 18 of them. To make it more fun, I used to sweep three stairs, sit down and read a chapter, sweep three stairs, sit down and read another chapter. It used to take me two hours to finish sweeping those stairs -- something I could have easily finished in ten minutes!
Anyway, when I was 12 years old, I was sitting at home and I had finished all of my library books and didn’t have anything to read. So I decided to write my own story. I took out a pen and an old notebook and I started writing. I spent the whole summer writing my first novel and I liked doing it so much that I decided that I wanted to be a writer. I kept writing stories -- hundreds of them in notebook after notebook -- and then I studied writing in college.
How long does it take you to write a book?
It takes me about a year and a half to two years. Of course this is different for each writer. Some writers may spend 5 -10 years on a book. Then there’s the other side -- Zora Neale Hurston wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God in 7 weeks! I don’t write full-time, meaning it’s not the only kind of work I do. When I am working on a project -- a book, I get up and write about four hours each morning. Then I go do my other work -- teaching, editing, researching -- whatever it is I am doing at the time. I also spend a lot of time revising what I have rewritten. I may write a chapter in one week and spend the next two weeks revising it until sounds and feels right to me. Then I may have to revise it after my editor or a trusted reader has read it. I strongly believe all writing improves with revision.
How do you come up with the ideas for your books/characters?
I’m very character-driven. That means that ideas for stories come to me in the shape of characters rather than plots. It’s like having people in your head with you. At any moment a character may present itself to me, and I have to write him or her down and get as many thoughts about them down as soon as possible. Then I have to find their story or plot -- I have to find out what’s going to happen to them. I may not get to write their story for a few years but I keep the ideas on paper or computer so that I don’t forget.
Who or what influenced you to become a writer?
I had two great influences in my life when it comes to my writing. The first was my mother who is a great storyteller. She didn’t tell me or my brother or sister the traditional Haitian stories or folktales of Bouki and Malice and others. She told us stories about growing up in Les Cayes, a Southern province of Haiti. She told us stories about our family. Her stories were always rich with detail and spiced with humor. I grew up proud of my culture and my homeland because of those stories. I want to be able to write stories as well as she could tell them. Her voice has been a great influence on me.
The second important influence was a professor and children’s book writer that I took classes with in college. Her name is Kristin Hunter Lattany. I used to read her children’s books like The Young Landlords and Soul Brothers and Sister Lou when I was growing up and was lucky enough (I would even say destined) go to the school where she was teaching. I took a class called Writing for Children with her and that’s when I found out that I had a ‘voice’ for it, and found that also I enjoyed it immensely. I created my first book, Seth and Samona, in her class. When I was trying to get it published, it was Kristin who turned me on to the contest that my publishing company does every year for New Children’s Books. I won that contest and became a published writer as a result.
Who are your favorite authors?
That’s really hard because there is so much out there and they all have something different but equally enthralling to offer. With adult writers, I love Octavia Butler, Mariama Ba, Paule Marshall, and Toni Morrison. I am proud and admiring of the work other Haitian writers such as Maude Heurtelou, Liliane Nerette Louis, Danielle Georges, Ketsia Theodore and of course Edwidge Danticat are doing. In the children’s book arena, I’m a great fan of Christopher Paul Curtis, Lois Lowry, and L.M. Montgomery.
Do you like being a writer?
Yes. It’s great fun to go into a bookstore and find your book on the shelves. I am so pleased when I get letters from children who have enjoyed one of my books. It is wonderful to know that what I have written has touched someone. It is the greatest compliment.
Is writing hard?
Yes and no. It takes discipline. You have to establish a routine for yourself because you can get easily distracted working at home. As with any skill, the more you do it, the better you get at it and the more ideas you have. I would say that for me the writing part is not as hard as the getting to the writing part.
What advice would you give to other young writers?
Read. If you already know what kind of genre you’re interested in writing, then read thirty books in that genre. I’m a firm believer that reading can teach you to write. If you want to write Mysteries, read tons of them and you’ll soon get a native sense of what it takes to write one -- the various conventions involved in them, their stylistics. If you’re already at the writing part -- develop relationships with what I call ‘trusted readers’ -- people who are willing to read your work and provide you constructive criticism. These should be people who are readers themselves of course, teachers, other writers -- people whose criticism you trust.
