What was your favorite book when you were a child?įor books that my parents read to me, The Big Tidy-Up by Norah Smaridge, The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone and Michael J. Probably in terms of influence and love Susan Cooper, Neil Gaiman, Alice Hoffman, Mary Stewart, and Tolkien. Can you name your top five favorite or most influential authors? Right now those books are Travels by Hans Christian Andersen, The Way We Lived Then: Recollections of a Well-Known Name Dropper by Dominick Dunne, and The World of Shabby Chic by Rachel Ashwell. What’s currently on your nightstand?Ī felt bee made by my daughter, a business card for a gorgeous clothing store I fell in love with in Nantucket and regret not buying anything from, and what I call ‘comfort books’-books I can read a few pages of before I go to sleep that doesn’t cause me stress. There are so many gorgeous lines in the book that hint as stories we’ll never know, and so I think we’re always left imagining them to ourselves-and if we are very lucky, as I am, sharing those ideas with others. As the boy who wouldn’t grow up, Peter has so much room to be reimagined and reinvented, both by readers and writers. The original Peter Pan story is just so brilliant and wistful and melancholy, but also sparse-like a beautiful charcoal line drawing instead of a full oil painting. I haven’t read or seen a bad Peter Pan interpretation-yet! What do you think it is about Peter Pan that makes him such an enduring character and that draws you, as an author, and/or readers to his stories? I also love the YA novel Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson and the Peter and the Starcatchers series by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, particularly the audio version read by Jim Dale. It’s lush and brilliant and melancholy in all the right places. I love, love, love the 2003 live action film with Jeremy Sumpter. But I also realize it might be so bad that it could be fun to answer.) Do you have a favorite Peter Pan pastiche, television or motion picture adaptation/interpretation, or production? A least favorite? (I realize that you may not want to address this one and if that is the case, please don’t. But that’s also what makes Peter Pan such an evergreen story-that Barrie left so much on the table for others to interpret. But when I’d finished Darling Girl, it did occur to me that some people who loved Peter Pan might not be happy with my version of the story, even though I don’t think it is a huge stretch from the original, if you read it with a critical eye. I try and write just for me-the type of story I love to read and look for on bookstore shelves. Were you intimidated by the idea of writing a new work based on such well-known novels and characters as Peter Pan? I tend to think a lot about a story before I start writing it, so the bones usually stay the same, but during the actual process, this book became less about Peter Pan and more about the Darling women, their hopes and dreams and perspectives. How did the novel evolve and change as you wrote and revised it? Are there any characters or scenes that were lost in the process that you wish had made it to the published version? Darling felt, and later Wendy, standing at the window watching their daughters fly away. But also the very mixed emotions I felt as my oldest child approached leaving for college. Barrie’s sad and fascinating life, and, of course, Peter Pan itself. Inspiration included a crazy dream I had about a Wendy look-alike trapped in a tower and hooked up to medical devices, J.M. Inspiration is often fickle and eclectic, and that’s true of this book as well. What was your inspiration for Darling Girl? Darling Girl is her second novel and she recently talked about it with Daryl Maxwell for the LAPL Blog. She is the author of Evenfall and a contributor to WriterUnboxed, dubbed a “best of the best” website for writers by Writer’s Digest. She lives with her family in Massachusetts, where she loves reading fairy tales and sometimes writing them. A former reporter and editor, Liz Michalski now crafts articles on human interest, living, and health as a freelance writer.
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