Shannon Hale

“Our World with One Step to the Side”: YALSA Teen’s Top Ten Author Shannon Hale Talks about Her Fiction

TAR: This quotation in the the workshopping experience is helpful because I would probably be of interest to inspiring creative learned to accept feedback on my own work, even writing majors: “Hale found the creative-writing if ultimately it didn’t take me where I want to go program at Montana to be very structured. ‘You get (it’s all for practice at that point!). As well, reading in a room with 15 people and they come at you and giving feedback on early drafts of other with razors. I became really tired of the death- people’s work was crucial for training me to be a oriented, drug-related, hopeless, minimalist, better editor of my own writing. existential terror stories people were writing.’” This What I don’t like (and I don’t think this is a seems to be the fashion in university creative writing program-specific problem) is the mob mentality programs, but it is contrary to the philosophy of that springs from a workshop-style setting. Any­ secondary English ed methods of teaching composi­ thing experimental, anything too different, is going tion classes (building a community of writers to get questioned or criticized. I found myself where the environment is trusting and risk-taking is changing what I wrote, trying to find what I encouraged as opposed to looking for a weakness thought would please my professors and col­ and attempting to draw blood). What do you find is leagues, not trying to find what most pleased me. the best or most useful approach to responding or This is one reason why, I think, publishable seeking response to your work in its early drafts? material is rarely produced in an MFA program. I wrote The Goose Girl after graduating. Shannon: I don’t know that the University of Montana supported any particular philosophy. It was more TAR: How do you see the role of a female protagonist determined by the attitudes of the instructor and or how do you want your female protagonist to be the participants. I think what made U of M different perceived by your readers? than, say, my undergrad workshops, was that every­ one there was very serious about becoming a writer. Shannon: I’m very lucky to be writing after decades of This was not a fun elective class—this represented writers have fought for their genuine, interesting, and a serious gamble of time, money, and hope, and no varied heroines. I don’t have the burden of writing one took it lightly. I don’t think anyone set out to on offense, trying to prove that girls actually are be harsh, but we were. In a way, I think that’s good interesting enough to be main characters and do because it helped me to develop a tough skin, come in various shapes and kinds. It’s a luxury I’m which any artist needs to have to face the rejections mindful of often. I now get to go forward and tell (I had dozens of rejections before I ever received stories as though it’s always been this way. I get to my first acceptance) and reviews and slow sales . . . think of myself as a realist instead of as an aggres­ Regardless of the type of environment, I think sive feminist.

41

THE ALAN REVIEW Summer 2005

h41_47TAR_Summer05 41 6/4/05, 10:35 AM As a storyteller, I was have the one, or indeed this drawn to powerful girls who Although I think it’s fabu­ would be nearly impossible.) lacked masculine strength and Now the mania is firmly in interesting girls who didn’t lous that “girls with control, and I MUST write. I’ve swing a sword. Although I think always thought that the drive to it’s fabulous that “girls with swords” stories exist (at write was a form of mental swords” stories exist (at last!), I last!), I consciously chose illness, and in many ways it’s consciously chose to tell another helpful. When you have to do side of that—girls don’t have to to tell another side of something, like going to the fall into traditionally male roles bathroom, you’ll find a way. I in order to be powerful or that—girls don’t have to certainly can’t write as much as interesting. I’m not athletic, I’m fall into traditionally male I used to (the period when I not physically strong (and am worked full time and had a baby very aware of it next to my 6’3”, roles in order to be pow­ was very difficult), but I’m home 300-pound-bench-pressing now with Max. I wrote the first husband), and I want to shout erful or interesting. draft of Princess Academy during out to all my sisters out there maternity leave with him asleep that we’re just as good as the or playing on my lap. I did the marathon runners. I still stumble across the idea rewrites in the evenings and, when I got to quit my that the “cool” girls, the honorable girls, are the job, during nap times. When we have another baby ones that grew up wrestling in the dirt and eating someday, I imagine my output will greatly slow worms and never crying. Why? I don’t want to down, but I don’t think I could ever stop now. propagate that nonsense. TAR: What role do parents and teachers play in TAR: While you were writing Princess Academy you developing a young person’s love of literature? held down a full-time job, taught Sunday school, cared for a husband and looked after a son, and Shannon: Huge! I attend an inner-city church and those are just the things we know about!! Many teach 8- to 11-year-old girls on Sundays, and every people will say, “I am leaving my job to raise a week I ask them if they’ve been reading. The ones family” or “I am leaving my job to write a book” or that do are the ones with parents that read with “when my kids are grown, I will have time to pick them and take them to the library. The girls whose my writing career up again,” but not you. How do parents neglect reading and don’t read books you do it and what is your philosophy around all of themselves, almost never read. My own parents that? always read to us. I think teachers and librarians are so impor­ Shannon: I know lots of women who want to be tant too in pointing kids to books they’ll enjoy. In writers but can’t or don’t get started until after the my experience, kids who don’t like reading (barring kids are in school. I feel very lucky to have had a developmental issues and learning disabilities) just head start. A big part of it for me was the MFA. haven’t found the kinds of books that capture their Contrary to what I had supposed, the MFA program interest. I remember re-reading the same books did not hook me up with contacts in the publishing over and over because, in part, I didn’t know where world, teach me the secrets of storytelling, or help to go to find something else I liked. I didn’t even me produce the great American novel—but it did realize there might be more books out there for me. help me to fall into the habit of writing every day. What a tremendous gift it would be to give kids That was invaluable. monthly one-on-one time with a librarian or I had started The Goose Girl before I was reading specialist who could talk to them, figure married and sent off the final draft of Enna Burning out their interests, and place them with a hand- a week before the birth of my first child. (I just selected book.

42

THE ALAN REVIEW Summer 2005

h41_47TAR_Summer05 42 6/4/05, 10:35 AM TAR: What role does fiction reading TAR: What is left out of a play in a person’s life, young, old I had started The Goose as told by the ? or in between? Why were their tales so violent? Girl before I was married How do you decide what to Shannon: I’ve spoken to teacher keep and what to leave out, groups before who are passionate and sent off the final draft especially in regard to the about getting kids to read, and of Enna Burning a week violence? then I ask, “How many of you have read a book for pleasure this before the birth of my first Shannon: The Grimm brothers did past month?” The response is a service in recording those oral appallingly low. Adults start to get child. (I just have the one, tales, but they also permanently so stubbornly practical, we think or indeed this would be froze their version of the tales. we need to be constantly produc- How was “The Goose-Girl” tive, reading non-fiction and self nearly impossible.) Now different when a grandmother help and such, and believe that told it by a fire in Austria? What fiction is frivolous and a waste of the mania is firmly in happened to Little Red Riding time. Didn’t we do away with this control, and I MUST write. Hood according to some notion already? No room in the hausfrau 300 years ago? There’s Republic for poets? Yikes! I wish I no way we can know what was knew irrefutable scientific evidence to prove it, but lost—which is why I love that so many writers I just believe that our brains need great fiction books. retell the tales. That’s what they’re for! No one’s For me as a kid, reading was escape, adventure, version is the right one. relief, entertainment, confidence building, instruc- Violence is tricky, because it’s “bad.” I as a tional, character forming. . . . While those needs are more intense in children, they certainly don’t go away. Adults need fiction, too!

TAR: Does your use of fairy tales reflect any sort of beliefs in archetypes or stories common to the human experience across time and cultures?

Shannon: Absolutely. I chose to write a novel from “The Goose-Girl” because it had always been my favorite fairy tale, and I thought, if this is a story that survived decades and perhaps centuries in oral form, there must be some universal truth here. Little children will ask for the same book read to them again and again, night after night, because it satisfies something in them, soothes some need in their current development. Fairy tales are the stories we tell ourselves again and again. I love that we as readers have the same need for stories that people did hundreds of years ago. I love that “” has reappeared in dozens of forms in dozens of countries over the past 1500 years. It was around my eighth draft of Princess Academy that I suddenly realized, hey, this could be read as a retelling of Cinderella!

43

THE ALAN REVIEW Summer 2005

h41_47TAR_Summer05 43 6/4/05, 10:35 AM reader don’t like to read gratuitous violence, but I Shannon: No conscious construction, though I am did feel it was important to pay homage to the familiar with the theory. I think Campbell’s bril­ elements of the original tale. I decided, for instance, liance is he saw the pattern laced inside the world’s to keep the lady-in-waiting’s horrid fate but let it stories. happen offstage. As well, I didn’t want to see the horse die, though that event is essential in the TAR: (OK, this may sound silly, but) Does Enna princess’s development. Fairy tales are where we Burning have anything in common with the X-men experiment with the bad bits of life in a safe series? People with special powers who must face environment, and where we find out that there is many challenges above and beyond what non- always hope and always the possibility of a happy mutants face, including learning to wield powers ending. To completely Disney-fy them defeats the and learning to cope with being different? wholeness and brilliance of these tales. Shannon: That’s an interesting connection. I hadn’t TAR: Is there a purity or honesty about animals thought of it. I do love superheroes, comics, and I compared to the dishonesty and deceitful nature of do know the X-men series, so perhaps on an people? Why do animals so often play a role in unconscious level it slipped in. The type of “magic” fairy tales in which the protagonists are people? I developed to tell The Goose Girl came about from what I found in the original tale—there was a Shannon: I think animals are highly symbolic. You talking horse, a close connection to geese, and a can say, “fox,” “horse,” “lion,” “vulture,” and mystical power over the wind, and from there I immediately get a sense of character type. They created a magic system that would work for me. I certainly represent different aspects of personality had decided not to create a world where people and characteristics inside every human. I think it’s with superpowers run rampant or magic abounds. I also a study of agency, which is a major component wanted it to feel real and possible, our world with of fairy tales. People make choices while animals one step to the side, and not alienate non- respond to instinct. readers. So the stories do deal with people who have abilities that are not common. TAR: Ani was headed for an arranged marriage to someone she has never even met and meets with TAR: What went through your mind when you were an obstacle of gigantic proportions. You knew your announced as being in YALSA Teens’ Top Ten for husband for 12 years before marrying him. Any­ The Goose Girl? thing going on under the surface here? Shannon: Surprise, delight, relief, elation…some mix Shannon: Ha. Yes, I suppose there might be, though of all that, I think. The Goose Girl hadn’t been not consciously. While writing, I tried to do justice included on any ALA lists, so it was especially nice. to the original tale, keep what was essential to it, I love that the teen readers themselves get to and make it interesting and believable. But my own bestow an honor. Some of those authors on the list life experiences must play a role in how I interpret like Rowling and Cabot already have so many what the story is and how to tell it! Certainly I do honors and best seller status and on and on that it believe in life companionship, romantic love, and can’t be a big deal for them anymore, but for little happy endings after long struggles. people like me, these things are huge! My publisher forwarded me the announcement in email, and I TAR: You may have been asked this so many times was thinking, “Dang! Shouldn’t there be a parade you hate to hear it again, BUT, does Ani fit Joseph or something?” I doubt such awards and honors Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, and if so, was this a mean as much to anyone as to the novice novelist. conscious construction or just another evidence of the universality of stories, heroes and the human experience?

44

THE ALAN REVIEW Summer 2005

h41_47TAR_Summer05 44 6/4/05, 10:35 AM The Goose Girl Reviewed by Jean Boreen, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona

ans of retold fairy tales will when Selia, supported by the Bayern to listen to her claims. But it F enjoy Shannon Hale’s version captain of the guard, Ungolad, also takes the assistance of the of the Grimms’ story of the princess determines to kill the princess and young soldier Geric, who is, in who must endure life as a goose take over her identity. truth, the heir to Bayern and girl before she can become queen. It is here where Ani’s journey Princess Ani’s intended, to make Goose Girl introduces us to the to adulthood truly begins. Betrayed the king and his circle understand Crown Princess Anidori-Kiladra, by those she trusts, she turns to the the true intentions of Kildenree. otherwise known as Ani, who is animals of the forest into which Fairy tales were created to born with the gift of animal-speak. she escapes. She is also befriended provide children with some type of As a young child, she is aided in by the widow Gilsa and her son moral compass from which to make her learning by her aunt, who when she becomes desperate for decisions. As with most retold fairy shares the same gift as Ani; food and directions to the Bayern tales, The Goose Girl provides however, after Ani’s mother capitol; although Ani has been adolescent readers with much to becomes suspicious of her consistently betrayed by her consider as far as relevant life daughter’s relationship with her mother and other Kildenreans, she themes. In this novel, one of the aunt, she sends her sister away and is determined to continue on to the most obvious is the development of puts Ani under rigorous “princess city to reclaim her rights as one’s identity apart from others’ training.” As Ani grows older, she princess and wife-to-be of the expectations. As Crown Princess, comes to understand and somewhat crown prince. However, getting on Ani has had her life defined by fear her own mother’s gift of to the palace grounds and into the others’ expectations of what a “people-speak” (the ability to direct palace itself is not an easy task, princess is. More importantly, and other people’s actions through her and Ani takes a job as the goose probably more painfully, Ani has words). keeper to obtain access to the been impacted by her mother’s When Ani’s father dies, the grounds. The job is demanding, but disapproval of her ability to animal- sixteen-year-old crown princess through it, Ani learns a great deal speak. Ani also senses that people finds that her mother plans to about friendship, loyalty, and love. see her as clumsy, both physically usurp Ani’s right to the throne in With a new cunning born of and verbally. Her ability to work favor of her younger brother, Caleb. friendship as well as desperation, with the horses she and her father Questioning her mother, Ani finds Ani uncovers the whole of Selia’s love is dismissed as unladylike. It is that the queen has promised her evil plans: to encourage Bayern to not until Ani is forced to fend for daughter in marriage to the eldest go to war against Kildenree so that herself that she begins the neces­ son of the king of Bayern. Both Ani there will be no one to challenge sary process of self-evaluation. and the queen know that Bayern Selia’s claims to power. Gathering While becoming a goose girl is has turned its eyes to conquering support from the forest people— difficult, it is the manner in which Kildenree. With no recourse, Ani is those who are considered to be Ani handles the job and those with sent to Bayern with her lady-in­ second-class citizens in Bayern whom she works in the palace waiting, Selia, and a small troop of because they lack the opportunity stables/yard that gives her the Kildenree soldiers; her only true to earn a javelin, one of the confidence to begin asserting friend on the trip is her mount, mightiest symbols of power in the herself in those relationships and in Falada, the horse she has raised war-driven country—and those her relationship with Geric. These since childhood. And Falada is the with whom she has worked in the relationships are also influenced by only one who comes to her aid palace yard, Ani forces the king of Ani’s ability to animal-speak, the

45

THE ALAN REVIEW Summer 2005

h41_47TAR_Summer05 45 6/4/05, 10:35 AM talent she can actually develop Another important conflict in Bayern into a war on Kildenree is once she is away from the punitive this novel focuses on issues of key to consolidating her position attitudes of her mother and Selia. loyalty and power. Throughout the and making sure that no one can Ani’s confidence in working with novel, various characters—the question who she is within Bayern. Falada, the geese, and Geric’s Queen, Ani, the King of Bayern, While younger readers may not seemingly irascible horse grows to Selia—argue that they make their be as interested in the political the point that she is able to shift decisions based on the good of intrigues Ani uncovers, they should that self-assurance to her interac­ their countries. However, only Ani be interested in Ani’s developing tions with humans. This newly actually seems concerned with the appreciation of what true friendship mastered poise enhances the good of the people of her sovereign and loyalty really look like. When leadership skills Ani had never state, quite opposite of the machi­ Ani is forced to become the goose been allowed to develop under her nations of the Queen, the King of girl, she learns that she cannot take mother’s control. By the end of the Bayern, and Selia. In their various everyone at face value; rather, she novel, Ani is confident enough to cases, the good of the country is must get to know people as demand her rightful place as used as an excuse to bolster individuals. In her interactions with Crown Princess of Kildenree and to personal positions. The Queen of the Bayern forest people—those express her love for Geric. Kildenree retains her power after who are not considered the highest Ani’s growth and eventual self- her husband’s death by moving Ani class—Ani learns that they embody identification is an important out of the picture of favor of her the goodness, loyalty, and friend­ evolution for younger readers to more malleable younger brother. ship she thought she would never consider. All of us struggle with The King of Bayern rules a country find. In her friend, Enna, Ani finds identity; our contemporary society with very specific ideas about someone to whom she can turn to sends mixed messages to young military prowess and its impact on and confide her feelings about people all of the time, whether the class system within the coun­ Geric, her fear of losing her name through the advertisements on try; to consolidate his power, he forever, and her concerns about the television or in magazines, the pop- provides various opportunities to war against Kildenree. With Enna’s ups that blanket their computer his upper caste to war on others aid, Ani is able to rally the forest screens, or in the lyrics to the and reap the benefits. Selia, the people to her cause and confront music they sing. Reality shows like daughter of the Queen of the King with the truth about Selia “The Bachelor” and MTV’s “Real Kildenree’s key mistress (a formi­ and Kildenree. Life” present a way of life that dable personage in her own right), The Goose Girl is an excellent seems very less than real to many has been raised to think herself as story for those readers who enjoy a of us, yet they, too, influence how good as the Crown Princess; Selia fantasy firmly grounded in a young people think about them­ finds that easy since she is more at character who is easy to relate to selves and others, and often lead to ease with those in power than Ani on a number of levels. Ani’s a kind of ruthlessness in how we seems to be. Indeed, Selia also has experiences and journey toward view people who aren’t “perfect.” the same gift of “people-speak” self-identity provides a wonderful For those reasons alone, it is Ani’a mother has, although she has blend of escapist literature with life imperative that younger readers not honed it to the level of the truths that make this book a have access to texts that encourage Queen. Selia’s usurpation of Ani delightful read. them to consider how other and her portrayal of the Crown people/characters define them­ Princess to the Bayern people Hale, Shannon. 2003. The Goose selves within social and societal solidifies Selia’s grasp for power; Girl. New York: Bloomsbury. 383 situations. her further willingness to trick pp. ISBN: I-58234-843-X. US $17.95.

46

THE ALAN REVIEW Summer 2005

h41_47TAR_Summer05 46 6/4/05, 10:35 AM Enna Burning Reviewed by Lori Atkins Goodson

n Enna Burning, Shannon Hale’s by all living things, just as the to use language to persuade and the Isequel to The Goose Girl, Enna, words on the vellum had ex­ medicine are interfering with her prompted by the illness of her plained. While trying to keep her own judgment. mother, has left the city and abilities a secret, she finds the urge Eventually, Enna breaks free returned to the Forest to live. After to start fires nearly unavoidable. from the enemy and joins efforts the death of her mother, Enna and She finds herself setting flames to with her friend, Isi, who is married her brother, Leifer, carry on their help her friend win a duel, which to the deceased king’s son and rather simple lives. But their Forest eventually leads to her joining the becomes queen of the land upon life shifts drastically when Leifer army’s efforts to defeat the invad­ the death of her husband’s father. brings home a mysterious piece of ing Tiran. She has her own special ability— vellum he has found buried As news of her fire-starting commanding birds and the wind. beneath the ground. That vellum abilities moves through the land, Both find their powers debilitating, gives him insight into a new Enna becomes a target for the to the point that Enna is herself talent—starting fires from a power Tiran, who seek to use her power burning to death inside. The two within him. for their own advantage—to help journey to another land, where they Enna first senses the danger them defeat the King’s army and hope to find a way to save Enna when, in a fit of anger, Leifer sets Enna’s homeland of Bayern. In a from the same fate as her brother. the edge of her dress ablaze during rage to save her country, Enna Hale provides an elaborate tale an argument. Aware of her races through enemy territory, of adventure and bravery, where brother’s volatile abilities, Enna setting places ablaze to help defeat the heroine seeks a happy-ever­ then watches as Leifer uses his the Tiran. And her gift of fire- after ending on her own terms, newfound ability to help the King starting becomes more than an knowing that such an ending battle an invading army. With the unusual ability—it becomes a force wasn’t possible for her brother and king killed in battle, Leifer helps of its own that Enna can barely may not be for her, as well. She the King’s army push back the control. The heat builds up within must decide just how—if at all— invaders by setting the enemy and her, and she must find somewhere she is to use this unusual gift of the battlefield afire. Once again, to send that flame. fire-starting. Enna battles herself, Enna has seen the power—and the Eventually, a leader of the just as much as she takes on the destruction—the language of fire Tiran orchestrates Enna’s capture, Tiran, as she struggles with can bring. where Enna is given strong remaining loyal to her country and With her brother’s death on medicine that keeps her fire- friends while also demonstrating the battlefield in his heroic efforts, starting abilities in check. When loyalty to her own beliefs. Enna takes the undamaged vellum two of her dear friends from from her brother’s charred corpse Bayern are captured, she is forced Hale, Shannon. 2004. Enna Burn­ and begins to discover her own to use her powers for the good of ing. New York: Bloomsbury. 300 fire-starting abilities. Enna notices the Tiran. She gradually recognizes pp. ISBN: 1-58234-889-8. US that she can feel the heat given off that her main captor’s own ability $17.95.

47

THE ALAN REVIEW Summer 2005

h41_47TAR_Summer05 47 6/4/05, 10:35 AM