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What I found fascinating about The Secret Keeper is that the author Paul Harris is also a journalist who covered the war in Sierra Leone.  I wanted to know how much of his personal experience played into the writing of this book and was thrilled to be able to ask Paul some of those questions.  Please welcome Paul to the Maw Books Blog . . .

Maw Books:  How and why did you become a journalist? Can you briefly share a few highlights from your career?

Paul Harris: I always wanted to be a journalist and I think I have been lucky to have had that ambition from a young age. When I was about 9 years old I started a newspaper at my school (it lasted one edition!). So it was simply a matter of doing student journalism, getting a journalism qualification and then battling to get a job. The reasons why I  wanted to be a journalist are a mix. Every journalist (I would hope) wants to change the world a little bit for the better. But every honest journalist should admit that it’s a chance to have an awful lot of fun, see some exotic places and get to see your name in print. My main highlight would be covering the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. It was a panel set up by archbishop Desmond Tutu to examine apartheid era crimes by all sides. It was a privilege to watch a nation try to heal itself like that, with all the moral compromises and complexities that that involved.

Maw Books:  Starting a newspaper at nine?  It’s no surprise you became a journalist!  You spent a month in Sierra Leone covering the civil war.  It is obviously this experience that drove you to write The Secret Keeper.  But you’ve also covered many other conflicts across Africa and elsewhere. Why did you choose this story over any of the other stories that you could have told?

Paul Harris: I think Sierra Leone held the most fascination because for me it was the most extreme experience.  More so than two months embedded with the military during the invasion of Iraq or other conflicts which I just dipped in and out of.  In Sierra Leone I was operating alone, in a strange country amid utter chaos.  It was a heady mixture of excitement and fear.  It was also the conflict that put a full stop on my African experience. I decided to leave shortly after.

Maw Books:  I can only imagine the things you must have seen and heard.  Why write a novel in the first place?  Is it something that you have always wanted to do or have been interested in?  What led you to turn from journalism writing to novel writing?

Paul Harris: I always wrote fiction, especially when I was a child. I fell in love with Tolkien and spent many hours writing my own stories set in fantasy worlds (writing a fantasy book is still a secret ambition of mine). Then, after I had left Africa, I decided to take my desire to write a novel seriously and followed the dictum: write what you know. So I began the process of taking some of my own experiences as a setting and starting to work what sort of themes I wanted to explore.

Maw Books:  Was it easy or difficult to switch to a different style of writing for The Secret Keeper from your journalism writing?

Paul Harris: It was very liberating actually. Fiction is an opportunity to play around and say exactly what you want. Journalism has rules to stop that sort of thing.

Maw Books:  I imagine being an war correspondent stationed abroad can be very frustrating when faced with the ignorance of others who either have little to no interest in the stories that you are risking your life to bring to them.  Do you think you can reach a new demographic with a novel (as opposed to journalism writing), to those who may not be aware of some of the current conflicts around the world?

Paul Harris: Definitely. The best fiction can bring the most obscure parts of the world to people’s attention and reach people that don’t consume too much news or have become disillusioned with it. I imagine that Khaled Hosseini has done more to bring Afghanistan alive for people than a thousand news stories.  Perhaps, hopefully, what happens is someone will read the fiction and then be inspired to find out more about the reality.

Maw Books:  I must admit that Hosseini spurred my desire to read more books that take place in Afghanistan, which I’m lucky to say I have.  What do you hope the reader learns, if anything, after reading The Secret Keeper?

Paul Harris: I think, at heart, it’s a story about moral complexity. That very few things are black and white. Good people do bad things, bad people do good  things. Everything is a shade of grey.

Maw Books:  What was the personal emotional impact on you from your experience in Sierra Leone?  How does covering war stories change you?  And how do you suppress this emotion in your journalism writing?

Paul Harris: It was pretty intense. I thought I was fine but after I left (and was incredibly relieved to get out) I noticed that I was behaving in certain strange ways: edgy, short-tempered, constantly nervous. I remember walking through a Nairobi street when a car exhaust backfired several times and it set my heart racing so much I thought I was about to have a panic attack.  But I think for most journalists the impact of covering conflicts will be as varied as the person. Some very fine friends make their whole careers out of it. Some of them thrive, others become very damaged. For me, it gave me a great sense of perspective and the preciousness of life and a feeling that war truly is the greatest folly of mankind. As for suppressing the emotion in writing, I think the simple rules of writing journalism will keep a lot of it out. But also a little bit of emotion – and breaking those rules – is generally a good thing. There is no such things as true objectivity, especially about tragedy, and nor should there be.

Maw Books:  Was the experience of writing The Secret Keeper cathartic in any way?  A way for you to release some of the emotions that you felt while in Sierra Leone or any other war torn country?

Paul Harris: I think it was. It felt good to get it out on the page, probably more than I realized I needed.

Maw Books:  After witnessing so much real-life drama how do you recreate that drama in The Secret Keeper?  How are real life emotions different than emotions as written on a page?

Paul Harris: What a fascinating question. I think (I hope) that I tried to recreate that drama as accurately as possible and give my characters emotions that would ring true. I think authors should aim to recreate authenticity. Because readers are not fools and will spot a fake. So I guess it is up to the readers to say if I have succeeded or not.

Maw Books:  How have the real life people you met in Sierra Leone influenced the characters/personalities in your book?

Paul Harris: A lot, but not all. The romance between Danny and Maria was inspired by an affair that a colleague and a local aid worker were having.  Kam, Danny’s driver and fixer, was based entirely on my driver in real life. Ali was inspired by a guy I met on a helicopter trip.  I did not even speak to him, but he just looked so… shady and yet totally at home in his environment. I just extrapolated him from there. The scenes in the hotel bar were all taken from real life. That place was a real “Star Wars” bar that everyone went to every night. Covering a conflict like that at leaves gives one a vast amount of exotic source material.

Maw Books:  I thought Kam was quite the character!  How much (if any) of you is there in Danny?  Is there anything specifically that happened to him that is based upon your real life experiences?

Paul Harris: I think inevitably there is a lot there. A friend pointed out that there is very little physical description of Danny in the book and I guess that is because in my mind’s eye he was basically me. There are several specific incidents inspired by real life events: the shooting outside the RUF leader’s house, the trip to Bo and the fire fight up country towards the end of the book. Mining those events for fictional purposes did feel a little surreal at times.

Maw Books: Knowing what your author photo looked like I have to admit that I kept picturing Danny as you.  And what fascinating experiences!  Was there a particular scene that you knew you had to write about?  That never changed from the moment you conceived it?

Paul Harris: Weirdly, the last sentence was pretty much the first sentence that came to my mind. Writing the book felt like a journey to get to that point and though it took lots of turns and twists, I felt I never really lost sight of it.

Maw Books:  What surprised you most about your book and/or characters as you were writing? Did anything turn out radically different than you’d originally thought it would?

Paul Harris: This is a tough one. I had an unusual experience writing the character of Danny’s girlfriend, Rachel. I wanted her to be a sympathetic, good person.  But at the end of the first draft my editor said she didn’t really care for her at all, saying she came over as negative and complaining. With that in mind I went back and reread those bits of the book with a fresh eye and was astonished to discover she was right. I had written her in print in a way completely different than what I thought I had. So I went back and rewrote her parts to do her more justice.

Maw Books:  While I was reading The Secret Keeper I kept visualizing the story as a movie playing out in my head.  If The Secret Keeper were a movie, who would you cast as your characters?

Paul Harris: That’s a fun question. A lot of people say it feels very cinematic. Perhaps Penelope Cruz as Maria. As Danny is inspired by some of my own experiences, I think modesty forbids me making any suggestions. I’ll leave it to readers’ imaginations. They are likely to be more honest than mine.

Maw Books:  I could totally see Penelope Cruz as Maria.  Good choice!  Can you briefly share with us what you think the current state of Sierra Leone is and what you think is in it’s future?

Paul Harris: Sierra Leone – I am delighted to say – is doing well. It is still desperately poor and has huge needs, but the war is over and has been for almost a decade now. Progress is slow but with such a history any sort of progress is to be celebrated. The same can be said of much of the rest of the region where equally devastated countries, like Liberia, are also recovering and stable. It is good news in a troubled world.

Maw Books:  I was haunted with the blank stares and listless ex-child soldiers as you wrote about them in the book.  Maria, works for an orphanage that took in ex-child soldiers in an attempt to rehabilitate them and place them into homes.  Will you share with us some of your experiences with child soldiers in Sierra Leone? Is enough being done for them?  What, in your opinion, needs to be done?

Paul Harris: My experiences were mostly limited to meeting them at  roadblocks and trying to negotiate my way through them. It is incredibly scary and also incredibly sad, to meet such young children, armed with machine guns, drunk and high and dangerous, and yet fundamentally still children who respond to a laugh and a smile. It is a problem that felt almost impossible to solve and I am no expert. But they need all the help and understanding they can get to help them recover from traumatising experiences that we can never imagine and yet not lose sight of the fact that they remain children.  Like everything else in Sierra Leone, resources are small and the need is great.  But, at the very least, no more child soldiers are being created.

Maw Books:  I have a special interest in Sudan.  You have spent some time in Sudan.  Can you briefly share a little bit about some of the stories that you covered there?

Paul Harris: I spent some time traveling with Christian missionaries who were buying back black African Sudanese who had been captured in slave raids by Arab Sudanese. I know that sounds incredibly medieval but the South of Sudan back in the 90s was just that kind of place. It is a different world.  I also covered a lovely story on a sort of ‘Olympics’ that aid groups organized in the area for local kids who had little else to enjoy in tough childhoods defined by the ongoing civil war. I loved south Sudan.  People were generous and kind and it really felt like going back in time.  My favourite moment was sleeping in a south Sudanese village, deep in the bush and being awoken by terrible screams and shouts. In the middle of a war zone, you could imagine all sorts of horrors. But the next morning we discovered one of the village elders had had too much to drink and his wife had kicked him out of their hut. It was their argument we had heard.  As someone who fundamentally believes that every human being is basically the same, it was a good lesson in the universality of human experience!

Maw Books:  I’ve read a bit about the slave trade in South Sudan.  It’s just so crazy!  And now for a few more “lighter” questions.  What’s the last book you finished and what’s on your nightstand right now?

Paul Harris: The last book I read was the excellent Columbine by Dave Cullen. I have not got anything on my night stand just yet as I am about to start doing research for a new book and am going to draw up a long non-fiction reading list based around US politics to kick things off.

Maw Books:  What is the best writing advice you have ever received and in turn the best writing advice that you could give?

Paul Harris: The best advice I got was write what you know. It was a great help in giving me the focus to write a book after several false starts over the years on less solid ground. My advice would simply be: a writer writes.  So many people say they have books in them, but never finish what they start.  You have to persevere. To the end. It sounds blindingly obvious, but the main reason most people don’t get published is because they don’t write a book.

Maw Books:  That makes perfect sense.  If you could have dinner with any five people, dead or alive, who would they be and why?

Paul Harris:

Jesus Christ (just to solve the mystery of who he actually was)
Archbishop Desmond Tutu (the most ‘good’ person I have ever met) Aristophanes (great sense of humour)
JRR Tolkien (he created an entire world inside his head)
Mae West (she would make it a proper party)

Maw Books:  Speaking of dinner, a question that I ask of every single author I interview is to share with us a recipe that I will later make and blog about.  Do you have a favorite from your world travels that you would care to share with us?

Paul Harris: Food during a lot of my travels has not been that good (two months of military rations in Iraq!). But here is a dish from Cape Town in South Africa, with its origins in the Cape Malay community, people descended from Malaysian slaves brought over by the Dutch in the 17th Century.  It is called Bobotie and is a bit (only a bit) like a moussaka.

Link to Bobotie recipe.

Maw Books:  Seriously, sounds delicious.  I’m going to try to get everything I need for it.  So what are you doing right now?  Do you have any more books in your future?

Paul Harris: I am just starting a second book. Set against the backdrop of an American presidential campaign. I covered the 2004 and 2008 elections and want to capture some of that amazing excitement and drama. As I said earlier: write what you know.

Maw Books:  Anything else you would like to share with the Maw Books readers?

Paul Harris: Just to say thanks for reading and commenting.  The experience of doing this sort of thing online is a lot of fun and also blogs like Maw Books are so important these days. For readers and for authors.  We’re entering a whole new world together.

Giveaway: I was able to pick up a second copy of The Secret Keeper that I would love to pass on to you.  To enter, leave a comment on this post telling me what you found the most interesting from this interview with Paul Harris.  If you would like to double  your chances of winning, also leave a comment responding to my book review of The Secret Keeper.  Giveaway is open world-wide and I’ll pick a winner on May 27th.

Links of interest:  The Secret Keeper website.  Maw Books review of The Secret Keeper.
Genre:  Mystery/thriller.
Publisher:  Dutton Adult.  April 2nd, 2009
Hardcover, 336 pages.  ISBN: 0525951024
The Secret Keeper is available from your independent bookstore, Powell’s, Barnes and Noble and Amazon.
.

In The Secret Keeper, Danny Kellerman, a British journalist, four years earlier landed the story of his lifetime when sent to Sierra Leone as a war correspondent to cover the political upheaval and civil war taking place there.  Being on the front lines had always been his dream job, but what he didn’t expect was to fall in love with Maria, an American woman who ran a orphanage for ex-child soldiers.  They have a brief but passionate relationship and when the crisis elevates he has no choice but to board a plane and go back home leaving Maria behind.

Four years later, Danny is living back in London with his girlfriend and is at odds with his father.  Danny receives a letter from Maria which pleads for him to return to Sierra Leone because she’s in trouble and needs his help.  But the letter didn’t arrive in time, and Danny learns that Maria was murdered just days earlier in a roadside robbery.  Danny can’t shake the feeling that there isn’t something right and that there had to be more motive surrounding her death than just a “roadside robbery.”

Against his family and his girlfriend’s wishes, he returns to Sierra Leone to find answers.  While there is a new type of peace in Sierra Leone, it’s not the same country that he left.  Former rebel leaders now hold high offices in government and secrecy and corruption seem rampant.  And asking to many questions about Maria gets Danny further into trouble and he soons finds himself in dangerous and life threatening situations.  As he uncovers more of the mystery surrounding Maria’s death, he finds that she might not be the woman that he thought she was.

What I liked about this book was knowing that the author Paul Harris is a journalist turned novelist and that he spent time as a war correspondent in Africa covering the conflict in Sierra Leone.  I found that completely fascinating and wondered how much of his experience was pulled into the novel.  Thank goodness, I was able to ask Paul directly and you’ll be able to see some of his thoughts in my author interview which I’ll feature tomorrow.  I will be the first to admit that I’m really ignorant on the political climate of Sierra Leone and I appreciate being introduced to new places and new people through fiction.

The Secret Keeper was fast paced with lots of twists and turns that had me unable to guess how the book would end.  I liked the multiple story lines, one told in 2004 as Danny researches Maria’s death and the second in 2000 with Danny’s first trip to Sierra Leone and his falling in love with her.  I enjoyed seeing how the two stories came together and revealed their relationship together as he was uncovering her death.

What I didn’t like about the book?  Long time readers of my blog can probably guess that I am not a fan of lots of foul language.  I can stand some language but when I feel like I’m getting bogged down with it than I get very distracted.  At one point, I almost wish I had kept track of the number of times the “F-word” was used.  When the characters get into a rollicking conversation, it could be as many as 5-6  a page.  Of course, it’s not every page, but it’s just enough to make me a little hesitant to recommend it to those who like cleaner reads.  On a good note, the sex scenes were very tastefully done.  The “leave it to my imagination” kind.

I don’t think The Secret Keeper will make my top ten reads of the year, but overall, I liked it.  It had a great storyline, believable characters, and set against a volatile background of war, greed, murder, and deceit, it makes for an intriguing read.  I can also see it as a great movie.  Plus, you know me and my Africa war books.  I’m always up for anything that covers those type of issues.  Just beware the language.

The Secret Keeper will be on tour the rest of May and into June with TLC Book Tours, so do check out what other bloggers are saying.  As for me, I’m really curious to see what everybody else thinks.  But that’s not all folks!  Come back tomorrow for an interview with Paul Harris. I have to admit that this was one of my most intimidating interviews I’ve ever conducted.  What do you ask a man who has risked his life covering war stories in Africa?  You’ll find out.  And as if that’s not enough, I got my hands on a second copy of The Secret Keeper, so I’ll be doing a giveaway tomorrow as well!

Do you have any other recommendations for books set in Sierra Leone?  This is a topic that I’d love to read more about.

Links of interest:  The Secret Keeper website.  Blog stops with TLC Book Tours.
Genre:  Mystery/thriller.
Publisher:  Dutton Adult.  April 2nd, 2009
Hardcover, 336 pages.  ISBN: 0525951024
The Secret Keeper is available from your independent bookstore, Powell’s, Barnes and Noble and Amazon.
.

To enter, simply share with me  your savvy.  What’s a savvy you say? Why I’m glad you asked!  In the Beaumont family, at the age of 13, each child receives their own savvy.  Think supernatural ability.  No one knows what savvy is going to appear  on their special day and their new talent must be tamed.  Mibb’s mother can do everything perfectly, even if she makes a mistake, it’s a perfect mistake.  Her grandfather can create land and her late grandmother was able to catch radio waves and put them in jars.  Rocket, age seventeen, can create electricity, and Fish, age fourteen, can control water.  In fact when he turned thirteen he wasn’t able to control his savvy and the whole family had to movie after he created a hurricane.

But what’s so wonderful about savvies, is that we each already have our own.  A deep, special hidden talent that is just waiting to be discovered and nurtured.  And I think that’s partly what makes this book so special, it explores finding our own special savvies.

In my interview with Ingrid Law, she said that her savvy would be to breathe underwater and to fly.  In other interviews she’s mentioned that her natural savvy is that she smiles a lot, her silly savvy is that she’s clumsy and spills things all the time.

My dream savvy?  That’s a hard question.  I would love to snap my fingers and have the house clean itself and the food cook itself.  That way I could have time to do other things.  A savvy I already have?  Hmm . . .  I’d like to think that I have an eye for detail.  Nothing escapes my attention.

If you’d like a copy of Savvy for yourself or as a gift for a friend, share with me what your dream savvy would be. If you could have any supernatural ability, what would it be? AND what’s a savvy that you think you already have? To qualify, you must answer BOTH of these questions.  Think of it as me getting to know you better!  Open internationally and will close Wednesday, May 6th.

Ingrid Law’s website and blog.  My interview with Ingrid Law and book review. Many thanks to Kidz Book Buzz for coordinating Ingrid’s blog tour!  Check out what other bloggers are saying about Savvy: A Christian Worldview of Fiction, All About Children’s Books, Becky’s Book Reviews, Booking Mama, Cafe of Dreams, Dolce Bellezza, Fireside Musings, Hyperbole, KidzBookBuzz.com, Looking Glass Reviews,  Never Jam Today, Olive Tree, Our Big Earth, The 160 Acrewoods, Through a Child’s Eyes.

First, lets start with the signed Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson giveaway!  If you missed that post, check it out as Laurie has some amazing things to say on video.  That whole night was one of the most enjoyable literary outings I’ve ever had.  And a HUGE shout out to the The King’s English Bookshop for sponsoring this great giveaway!  Thanks to those who visited the Kings English Bookshop or checked out the IndieBound website .

And the winner of a *signed* Wintergirls is . . .

Alyce from At Home With Books!

Congrats!

Last month, I was able to see Jodi Picoult speak and she was gracious enough to sign not one, not two, but seven of her books in this awesome giveaway! I transcribed most of Jodi’s Q & A, so check it out if you haven’t done so already.

And the winner of seven *signed* Jodi Picoult books is . . .

Mari from Mari Reads!

Congratulations!

(Perhaps my biggest weakness these past few months is getting these mailed out on a timely basis.  I PROMISE these will go out on Tuesday along with the winners of my giveaways from last month.  I know, I know.  Kill me now.  My guilt is huge. I am not allowing myself to hold another giveaway until I get these out and I’ve got one scheduled for Tuesday.  So the pressure is on!)

Congrats again ladies!

Pssst . . . miss this giveaway? Find out if I have any other current giveaways.

Today, I show off all the signed books in my house.  Do you have a lot of signed books?  Does having a signed book make you value it more?  I’ll tell you that I think it does.  I love meeting the authors and having them personalized.  And even if I don’t meet the author, I love having them arrive in the mail already signed.

More on getting a lot of those books signed and meeting the authors are detailed in the posts below:

• More on Meeting Laurie Halse Anderson and a Signed Wintergirls Giveaway!
• An Open Letter to Laurie Halse Anderson
• On Meeting Jodi Picoult and an AMAZING Giveaway!
• An Evening Spent with David Ebershoff, Author of The 19th Wife
• The Tale of Shannon Hale and a . . . Zucchini (????) (Rapunzel’s Revenge release party)
• Authors Here, Authors There, Authors Everywhere! (Sara Zarr, Shannon Hale, Brandon Mull, Brandon Sanderson, James Dashner, Jessica Day George, Ann Dee Ellis, Mette Ivie Harrison)
  
• My Evening Spent with Stephenie Meyer

Seriously, those giveaways right now are amazing!  Don’t forget to enter!

The night was off to a great start and as I was able to introduce myself to Laurie before things got started. And then I turn around and there’s Sara Zarr, author of Sweethearts and Story of a Girl, chatting in the corner! So while talking to her who comes up? Why, it’s James Dashner, author of The 13th Reality series! And as if that’s not enough, Jenn (marketing manager at Kings English) waves across the room and calls out “Emily!” Emily as in Emily Wing Smith, author of The Way He Lived, whom we’ve been emailing about an interview together.  Why, oh why, didn’t I take my photo with Emily? She turns right around and introduces me to Anne Bowen. And I swear there were a ton of other authors there that I didn’t know who they were.

First, a special message from Laurie just for the readers of Maw Books!

There’s nothing like an amazing author coming to town to get all the Utah writers together in one room. And it was so much fun to be in that room and for once felt comfortable there.  I carpooled up with my friend Cari of Book Scoops and while there we discovered that the gals over at My Favorite Author are based in Salt Lake too.  That was fun!

I can’t believe how fun the night was and Laurie was kind enough to speak to her fans, local authors and bloggers.  I recorded as much of the conversation as I could. Laurie has some wonderful things to say.  She speaks about body image, eating disorders, writing Wintergirls and Speak, writing, literacy, on changing the canon of literature taught in schools, and teen book bloggers.  Enjoy!

Would you like to win a copy of Wintergirls?  Not just any copy, but a signed copy?!

Thank you to The King’s English Bookshop for sponsoring this amazing giveaway!

The Kings English Bookshop has been Salt Lake’s literary resource for independent minds since 1977. We have the most comprehensive children’s book selection in the state of Utah as well as mysteries, new fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction, nature, and western writers. Located in a beautiful residential neighborhood of Salt Lake City, the store provides services to people anywhere in the world. If you are in town, drop by; there are chairs scattered throughout eight book-packed rooms.

There are tons of ways to enter.  One entry will get you in, the rest is up to you.

• To enter: Leave a comment on this post with your thoughts about body image and eating disorders or responding in some way to the video.
• One additional entry for each of the following:
  • Leave a comment on my open letter to Laurie Halse Anderson, my Wintergirls, Speak and Chains book review and The Ides of March Madness post telling me which book you think will win the charity book reading tournament.
• For TWO additional entries:
  • Blog about this giveaway in a post (not sidebar).
  • Subscribe to my blog’s feed to receive updates either through your favorite RSS reader or by email.
  • Follow me on Twitter AND tweet about the giveaway. 
    
• For FIVE additional entries each:
  • Visit the King’s English website or blog and come back and tell me one discovery.  A new book to check out, a favorite title from a bookseller, a favorite author who calls Utah home, upcoming events that you think I should cover, who founded The King’s English, your favorite author who’s paid the Kings English a visit, etc.  You get the idea.  Go and discover!
• For TEN additional entries:
  • Visit the IndieBound website and tell me why we should shop local.  Also consider showing your support of Indie Bookstores by becoming an affiliate.

Contest will close at midnight on Friday, April 10th, the same as the Jodi Picuolt giveaway.  Open internationally.  Thank you again to The King’s English Bookshop for hosting Laurie Halse Anderson and for sponsoring this giveaway!

Oh, Laurie Halse Anderson, how I love you.  Isn’t that a bit scary?  But I do.  My admiration and respect for you just went through the roof.  Last night was one of the funnest book-ish nights I’ve had.  A highlight for sure.  When I introduced myself as saying, “You might not recognize my name but I’m Natasha Maw,” you did immediately know who I was, broke out into a huge smile, didn’t hesitate to pull me into a tight, warm embrace as though we’ve been friends for years. You thanked me for writing such wonderful things about your books.  I could feel how genuine your statement was.  I thanked you for hugging me.  Seriously, I’d only been in your company for a couple of moments but I knew right then that you were indeed somebody very special.  Having moments like those makes this whole blogging thing worth it.

The more I watched you, the more I knew that not all authors have your talent for making whoever you were talking to feel like they were the only one in the room at that moment. I watched as you ran off for a piece of paper so you could write a note to a teenagers friend who had strep and had cried because she couldn’t come. I watched as you talked on a cell phone to a mother’s daughter because you knew it was important to that mother. I watched as that teenager almost cried as she told you that she had been abused and that Speak had made her speak out. I was touched as you got up to embrace her and tell her your own story. I saw several people who were starting to tear up after speaking with you as they turned away to leave.

You never stopped smiling and then after most of the crowd had filtered out and the hard core fans and local authors (including Sara Zarr, James Dashner, Emily Wing Smith, Ann Bowen, and others)  remained you spoke to us in such an intimate setting that I couldn’t stop thanking my lucky stars that I was there.  I loved as you talked about Wintergirls, Speak, your writing and the importance of literacy.

Thank you for your energy, your dedication, your passion, and your words. Truly an author who will always have a special place in my heart and my bookshelf.

(Now for those books of yours I haven’t read . . . well, I guess I better get reading!)

Watch for an upcoming post about the Laurie Halse Anderson book signing including a special video message just for the readers of the Maw Books Blog, video of Laurie talking about Wintergirls, Speak, literacy AND  The King’s English Bookshop is sponsoring a giveaway for a signed Wintergirls.  Seriously, don’t miss it.  In the meantime check out my book reviews of Wintergirls, Chains, and Speak.

I discovered that Jodi Picoult is one of those authors that once you see them in person, you just can’t help but like them.  She has this feel good persona about her, which for some reason I wasn’t expecting, I don’t know why (okay, okay, I admit I haven’t liked everything I’ve read).  But her energy was great.  She began the evening by giving a reading from Handle with Care.  And thank goodness, Jodi hates spoilers about as much as I do, so it was a nice spoil free evening.  I loved hearing her read because I could hear how she imagined each voice and character as she wrote.

Here is a short video that I took (I would have loved to do more but I was running on low batteries!  And I’m really, really sorry for the sideways video!  I obviously wasn’t thinking when I took the video on my camera.  I thought I fixed it because every time I view it on my computer, it’s normal.  But every time it uploads to YouTube it’s sideways.  I’m giving up and going with it.)

After the reading, Jodi Picoult took questions from the audience.  I tried to transcribe her answers but her stories in response to the questions were so detailed and fun that it was impossible to transcribe.  So these are briefly some of the questions and answers, but not even half of what she said.  And if there are any mistakes, they are mine and not Jodi’s words.

Question:  How did you choose this particular topic for Change of Heart?

Jodi Picoult Answer: While on book tour, she was reading a newspaper about a woman who was suing for a wrongful birth (meaning that had they known there child would be severely mentally or physically handicapped they would have terminated the pregnancy).  She had never heard that term before – wrongful birth – and ended up interviewing the woman in addition to many others.  It ends up that not a single one of the mothers would have ended the pregnancy had they had the choice.  They loved their children, but taking care of them were expensive.  In exchange for telling a single white lie while under oath in front of a judge, they would receive the money to take care of them.  Easy, no?  Picoult was drawn to this idea as well as the mixed message that it would give to a child who was there 100% mentally.  Meaning, a mother saying “No, I wouldn’t have had you” and “I’m doing this for your own good.”  Picoult spent a lot of time with families who had OI (brittle bone disease).

Question:  How long does it take you to do the research for your books?

Jodi Picoult Answer: Nine months! Just like a baby!  Her husband gives her a bunch of congratulatory ballons at the end of each nine months.  Each book has a different pattern, but for Change of Heart it was 3 months research and six months writing.

Question:  Do you do all of your research or do you outsource?

Jodi Picoult Answer: She keeps looking for her staff but can’t find them!  Researching the book is the best part of the job and she wouldn’t give it up for anything.  It’s exciting and it gets her excited about writing the book.  Plus, when would she be able to do all the cool stuff like she does?  I can’t remember all that she said, but needless to say, she had done a lot of cool stuff including ghost hunting, living with the Amish, and visiting death row.  She also receives about 200 emails a day and she answers every single one of them.  They are all written by her, she doesn’t outsource it at all.

Question:  What’s your favorite book that you have written?

Jodi Picoult Answer: She says that this answer is subject to change at any time but it’s Second Glance because she had the best research for that book.  She then went into this great story about going down to Rhode Island and going ghost hunting.  She saw a lot of cool things.  Wish I had done video of the answer to this question.

Question:  When you begin writing a book, do you know how the book is going to end?

Jodi Picoult Answer: Yes, she definitely knows how it ends before she begins writing.  She likes to leave the reader bread crumbs along the way so when the twist ending comes, the reader doesn’t feel duped.  She always, always gives clues throughout the book.  While she always knows how she is going to get from A to Z anything from B to Y is fair game.  Her characters always surprise her.

Question:  Most of your books take place in New England.  What do you love about the area?

Jodi Picoult Answer: She’s actually from New York, but if a cat has kittens in the oven doesn’t mean that they are biscuits!  She now lives in New Hampshire and loves it.  One of the last holdouts of American with no strip malls, a green square.  New England is antiquated with lots of history.  Her books are a love letter to New England.

Question:  How do you go from all of this to writing for Wonder Women?

Jodi Picoult: It all began when she wrote The Tenth Circle and her main character was a graphic novelist who didn’t express himself very well, so we read his story through the graphic novel portion of the book.  Afterwards, D.C comics called and asked if she’d like to write some issues of Wonder Woman.  Her initial thought was no, but her kids told her she’d be crazy.  Writing Wonder Woman was the hardest thing that she has every done.  It’s not a one man show.  She has to work with illustrator, editor, etc. and if she wants Wonder Woman to meet up with Batman that she has to call Batman’s people and schedule a “playdate.”  It was really stressful to to be trusted to advance the story and not ruin the characters long history.

Question:  How involved were you with the movie My Sister’s Keeper, if at all?

Jodi Picoult Answer: She was just in LA and saw a screening for the movie which comes out in June.  The actors are amazing!  Even Cameron Diaz is good.  It’s beautifully shot.  If you’ve read the book, you’ll recognize 90% of the movie.  Her friend kept getting mad at her during the screening because she’d keep feeding the lines to her.  But she had no say whatsoever about the movie and they changed the ending!  Horror.  She was so upset and vocal about the change that she got thrown off the set.  She says its a great movie and it is what it is.  Just close your eyes for the last ten minutes and then go home and read the ending of the book.  Definitely go see it.

Question:  What was it like living with the Amish while researching Plain Truth?

Jodi Picoult Answer: She got introduced through a Mennonite via a message board and a family agreed to have her live with them for a week on their dairy farm.  The father ignored her and they were highly suspicious of her motives because Oprah had just done an episode about living simple lifes and a lot of people were moving down to become Amish.  Everything that happened in the book, she did on the farm with the exception of the church service because the Amish hold services every other weekend and she was there on the odd weekend.  She did have the bishops and elders talk her through the scene though.  Deeds speak louder than words.   This was evident when they did Bible study from the English Bible instead of the German while she was there.

Question:  Are they are any issues that you wouldn’t write about?

Jodi Picoult Answer: Not afraid of issues.  And then she said something else very insightful that I didn’t write down.  Sorry.

Question: Where did you get the idea for Keeping Faith? (I couldn’t hear this question and she didn’t repeat it. I think that’s what it was.)

Jodi Picoult Answer: The idea of God as a female figure came while she was playing with her young son, who asked her who God was.  Somebody who watches out and protects us she responded.  Son:  Like a babysitter?  Yes, like a great big babysitter.  Son:  So he’s a man?  Well, that’s what most people believe yes.  Son:  Well all of my babysitters are girls.  Light goes off in Picoult’s head.  She doesn’t belong to any organized religion and thinks that there are a lot of different paths to get to the same place.

Question:  Tell us about your next book?

Jodi Picoult Answer: Her next book, House Rules, is already finished and at the publishers and will come out in 2010.  It’s about a man with high functioning Aspager’s Syndrome who is charged with murder.  The book that she is researching now that will come out in 2011 is about embryo donation and gay rights.

Question:  Before becoming a writer, did you have an interest in becoming a lawyer?

Jodi Picoult Answer: As every English major did at one point or another, she did consider going to law school.  She’s very happy to not be a lawyer but enjoys researching all the loopholes in the legal system.

Phheewww!!!  My hand was cramping!  Did you learn anything interesting?

HUGE GIVEAWAY!!  I bought you a brand new hardcover copy of Handle with Care! Yes, you!  But not just any book but a signed book.  Jodi even signed it with “congratulations” if you are my lucky winner!

But wait.  That’s cool.  But that’s not huge. So how about SIX more signed books?!  Seriously, somebody is going to walk away with not one, not two but SEVEN signed Jodi Picoult books! The additional six are used but they are signed!  Yep, that’s Jodi up there signing away.  I literary pulled them all off my own bookshelf, got them signed and decided to give them all away to you.  I just couldn’t help myself.  So if you are a huge Picoult fan or know somebody who is then this is the giveaway for you!

The books:  Handle with Care (hardcover), Nineteen Minutes (hardcover), Perfect Match, Vanishing Acts, My Sister’s Keeper, Second Glance, and Songs of the Humpback Whale.

Okay, the rules.

• I have to limit this one to U.S residents only.  Sorry, I just can’t send a box this big out of the country right now.  I spent my bucks on the brand new Handle with Care.
• Contest will close at midnight on Friday, April 10th.  That will give you two and a half weeks.  Plenty of time to anticipate winning!
• For one entry, leave a comment on this post telling me which of Jodi Picoult’s books is your favorite and why.  If you haven’t read any books yet, tell me which one you’d like to read the most.  Or tell me what you found most interesting from her reading and Q & A above. Don’t forget this step!
• One additional entry for each of the following.
  • Twitter about and link to this post.  (I’ll give you up to five entries on this one if you twitter about it at least five different days during the two week period)

  Edited to add: I’ll catch the tweet for sure if you include @mawbooks somewhere in the tweet.

  • Follow me on Twitter.
  • Mention and link to this giveaway in any of forums or social networks sites that you frequent (i.e Facebook, etc.)
  • Stumble, Digg or fav this post through any of the social bookmarking site.
• Five additional entries:
  • Blog about this giveaway in a post (not sidebar).
  • If you don’t have a blog, email three Picoult loving friends and tell them the good news and cc me on the email (natasha at mawbooks dot com)
  • If you are not already subscribed to my blog’s feed to receive updates either through your favorite RSS reader or by email, then do so.  The way I figure it, is that if you like Jodi Picoult books enough to want to win them, then you probably like books, right?  Then you’ll probably like to hang around my blog long enough to talk about them.
• Ten additional entries:
  • Already subscribed?  Just mention it and you just got ten more freebie entries!  I want to reward my regulars.

So enter as many or as little times as you want.  It’s all up to you.  One, two, twenty.  However hard you want to work it, is cool with me.   But isn’t this just too cool?!  I’m super excited to be giving away SEVEN SIGNED JODI PICOULT BOOKS!

This got me thinking.  What is the most horrific thing you’ve ever done to ruin a book?  Dropped it in the bathtub, spilled food on it, bled on it, thrown up on it (okay, sorry I’ve got kids, so this does seem very, very plausible to me)?  Pet eat it, ran it over with your car, have an unfortunate run in with a pair of scissors?  Was it a book that you loved?

Besides this particular water incident, I can think of a time when I was in middle school, I had a cockatiel who was left out of its cage a lot.  He chewed up my cover for my Anne of Green Gables book.  The cover, not the book – luckily – had to be thrown away.  My kids are awful when it comes to books!  If I leave a book out I am pretty much asking for trouble.  They have torn out more than their fair share of pages which then have to be thrown away.

So which books have you ruined and how did you do it?  Where they salvageable or beyond repair?  I know you’ve got stories!  And I’m sure you’ve got stories even better than mine!  So let’s hear them!

P.S  I am celebrating on closing in on my 10,000th comment!  Will you be my 10,000th commenter?  If you are, you’ll win your choice of a book from more than 30 titles in my giveaway pile!