Interview With Deborah Wiles

Before we start, I apologize. I would not have posted A Warning (But a Good One) if I had known how long it would be until I actually posted the interview with Deborah Wiles, author of Countdown and other great books. Thank you for being so patient.

What characters in Countdown did you have a lot of fun creating and writing about? I had fun creating all of them. Franny is a lot like me, so she was especially fun, as was Margie, because she’s a character with “bite.”

Like Franny in the book, did you ever compose a letter to Chairman Khrushchev? I composed letters to President Kennedy and to Khrushchev, all the time. They were in my head, and usually at night, in bed.

Countdown is the first in a trilogy. Why did you decide to write one when you haven’t before? I wanted to write about the sixties, and I needed more than one book. My three novels that take place in Mississippi form a connected trilogy as well.

What did you do when you had writer’s block or weren’t in the mood to write? I remembered I had a deadline, and I went back to work! I do something physical when I need a break or have trouble moving ahead.

What were the problems you ran into while writing the book? I often didn’t know what happened next and went down wrong pathways and had to back up and begin again, but eventually I figured it out.

What made you decide to write for children? I always say I write for ten-year-old me, and that’s why I write for young readers.

Where did you get your materials for the scrapbook part of the book? Was it fun? The scrapbooks were lots of fun to create. The material came from many different places: songs from the sixties, newspaper articles, photo archives, movies, magazines, and more.

Hope you enjoyed hearing from this great writer just as much as I did! Visit Deborah Wiles online and get to know her other books.