Ann M Martin
About Author
Ann M. Martin grew up in Princeton, New Jersey with her parents and her younger sister, Jane. Her father was the great cartoonist Henry Martin. After graduating from Smith College, Martin became a teacher and then an editor of children's books; she is now a full-time writer.
She is well known as the author of the internationally bestselling 'Baby-Sitters Club' which includes 35 titles and has sold over 176 million copies worldwide. Her stand-alone novels include A Corner of the Universe, which won the prestigious Newbery Medal in 2003.
After living in New York City for many years, Martin moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York. Her hobbies include needlepoint, fostering cats, and gardening.
Interview
HOW TO LOOK FOR A LOST DOG
USBORNE
JANUARY 2016
Bestselling US author Ann M Martin, who wrote the Baby-Sitters Club series, has held a long term interest in children with autism, both as a teacher and as an author, and her latest book focuses on an autistic child called Rose and the relationship she develops with her dog, Rain.
11-year-old Rose, who is autistic and obsessed with homophones (words that sound the same but have different meanings and spellings), struggles to understand the world around her. When her father brings home a stray dog, who she calls Rain, it becomes her first true friend. So when Rain gets lost during a violent storm, there is nothing Rose won't do to find her and in so doing, she changes all their lives.
Here, author Ann M Martin tells us more about her new book and her writing career:
Q: You're well known for your Baby-Sitters Club series, but you now focus on stand-alone novels, why is that and how different is the writing process for a stand-alone and a series?
A: I enjoyed writing the Baby-sitters Club books and other series for many reasons. For one thing, I like writing about large casts of characters. Also, I tend to become attached to my characters, so when I'm working on a series I know I won't have to say good-bye to them at the end of the book. I can plan further adventures for them.
On the other hand, my favorite part of writing is developing characters and story settings. When I had been working on the Baby-sitters Club books for fifteen years, I still enjoyed writing about Kristy, Claudia, Stacey, Mary Anne, and Stoneybrook, Connecticut, but I was ready to work with new characters in new settings; to delve into something different. And I did - I wrote about different time periods, I wrote fantasy, I wrote about dogs, and I developed characters like Rose Howard.
Q: How to Look for a Lost Dog in the UK is called Rain Reign in the US - which title do you prefer?
A: I like both titles for different reasons. How to Look for a Lost Dog is more fanciful and also gives more of an indication what the story is about. But like Rose, I have a passion for homophones, so Rain, Reign appealed to my interest in word play. Actually, I originally wanted to call the book Rose Rows, Rain, Reign Rein. Luckily, my editors convinced me that that was a clunky mouthful and we settled on the shorter title.
Q: Can you tell us about the storm that helped inspire How to Look for a Lost Dog and why you felt you wanted to cover it in a book for children?
A: I live in Ulster County, New York, about 90 miles north of New York City, at the edge of the Catskill Mountains - a very rural area. In 2011 Hurricane Irene swept up the eastern coast of the United States. Coastal areas prepared for the storm, but my area was not supposed to be badly hit. However, the storm caused major damage much farther inland than had been expected. In my county many homes were completely destroyed, towns were declared disaster areas, stores were buried under yards of mud.
In the days following the storm I would walk my dog Sadie up and down our street and look at washed-out driveways, and houses that trees had fallen on, and wonder about animals that might have become separated from their families during the storm. I was also starting to think about Rose Howard and what she might do if her dog had been lost during the storm. That was how the story began.
Q: The book features a girl, Rose, who is autistic. Was autism something you knew much about before you decided to write the book and why did she need to be autistic?
A: I've been interested in autism for many years. When I was in college I worked, during the summers, at a school for children with autism. Although I became a writer instead of a teacher, my interest in autism never waned, and the children I had worked with stuck with me.
I began thinking about a character on the autism spectrum before I had a story for her. I thought: This girl is fascinated by homophones (as I am!) and rules and prime numbers. She lives an isolated life and has trouble connecting with the people around her. At some point it dawned on me: Oh - she's on the spectrum. Then Hurricane Irene hit, and the story began to fall into place.
Q: How much research did you do into autism before or as you started to write the book?
A: One of my good friends is the co-founder of a school in Kingston, New York, called The Center for Spectrum Services. Jamey was a wonderful resource. I already knew something about autism from my earlier work, but things - from diagnostic terms to educational approaches - had changed dramatically in the decades since I was in college.
Jamey lent me resource materials, answered my seemingly millions of questions, and then let me visit her school. I was able to observe children in their classrooms and talk to the kids and their teachers and therapists. This was invaluable, and helped me develop the chapters that take place in Rose's school.
Q: You wrote the book in the first person, did that make it harder to write given that Rose is autistic?
A: I wanted the story to feel immediate - as if it's happening to the reader as it happens to Rose - so I knew I wanted to write in the first person. But finding an authentic voice for Rose was a bit difficult. I experimented with her voice for a while before I began writing. However, once I did start writing, her voice seemed to flow.
Q: Dogs feature in quite a few of your books and in this one, a dog called Rain takes a lead role. How did Rain's character develop and do some animal characters take as much figuring out as human ones?
A: I've only had one dog in my life - Sadie. I adopted her when she was just four weeks old. She'd been born to a stray dog and her mother had stopped nursing the puppies. Sadie was a lovely dog - very sweet, and she especially liked children and elderly people.
Most of the dogs I've written about have been inspired by Sadie, and also based on her. The first dog I wrote about - Squirrel in A Dog's Life - was the most difficult to find a voice for, in part because I also wrote that book in the first person, in Squirrel's voice. I wrote and re-wrote the first chapter many times before I felt I had found a proper dog's voice for her. So, yes, some animal characters take as much figuring out as human ones do!
Rain came to me somewhat more easily. I wanted a companion for Rose who would be utterly devoted to her, who would love and protect her, and from whom Rose could learn to show affection for another living creature. Sadie helped me in this process. She sat beside me as I wrote most of How to Look for a Lost Dog.
Q: Why did you want Rose and Rain to find each other and why do you feel pets are so important to children at this age?
A: The relationship between pets and young children is strong and can be very emotional. For most children, a pet is the first living creature for which a child is responsible. We all strive to be responsible and independent, and for children, who are used to be dependent and cared for by others, caring for a pet is that first step toward taking on a more mature role. But for Rose, the connection is even deeper. Rain is Rose's emotional anchor to a world that is often bewildering to her. I felt it was imperative that Rose be able to use her unique skills to find Rain.
Q: How hard was it to develop the key family relationships in the book, especially the difficult relationship between Rain and her father, and her father and his brother Weldon?
A: The relationship that was the most difficult for me was the one between Rose and her father. I felt much more confident about her relationship with her uncle, and with the relationship between her father and Weldon. However, not only was the relationship between Rose and her father difficult for me, but developing the character of her father was difficult.
When I handed in the rough draft of the story to my editors, the scenes with Rose and her father were the ones that needed work. In one scene, my editors even asked that Rose's father be portrayed as more angry. And that was just what was needed. The reader had to be able to see that Rose's father was doing the best he could, but also that he was not going to be able to continue parenting her much longer.
Q: Do you feel you'd like to follow up Rose or is her story done?
A: Although I've already received requests from readers for another story about Rose - particularly a story in which she gets another dog and we see her living happily with Uncle Weldon - and although I feel very close to and protective of Rose, I think her story has been told. But you never know. She might tug at me until I decide to write about her again!
Q: How do you respond to comparisons between this book and Mark Haddon's Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, which also features an autistic child?
A: I'm very flattered. I read Curious Incident years ago, shortly after it was published, and I loved it. But the truth is that there are so few novels with main characters who are on the spectrum that comparisons among them are inevitable.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I'm currently working on new books based on Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and the other fabulously magical characters created by Betty MacDonald. The first Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle book was published almost 70 years ago, and my publishers and the family of Betty MacDonald were interested in new books starring a younger, more contemporary heroine. Thus . . . Missy Piggle-Wiggle, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's great-niece! I loved the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books when I was growing up and am honored to have been given this opportunity. Not to mention that the books are great fun to work on.
Q: Looking back over your writing career to date, what has been the most fulfilling moment or period for you?
A: There have been many wonderful moments, but one of the best times was the period following the end of the Baby-sitters Club when I realized I could write series (two more followed after the BSC) and write novels. And not only write novels, but write many different kinds of novels - stories set in different time periods, fantasies (such as the Doll People books written with Laura Godwin), stories with a more serious bent, and now the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books. I feel extremely fortunate to have had such a varied career.
Q: Where do you do your writing and what sort of hours do you work?
A: I write at a desk in the office, which is on the third story of my house. The desk is away from the windows because looking out of the windows can be distracting. I never know what I'll see outside - foxes, deer, wild turkeys, even bears. There was a period of time when the neighbors' cow regularly escaped and came over to my house for a change of scenery. Occasionally their donkey came with her.
I used to have a gruelling writing schedule, but now that I'm 60 and semi retired, I work only about half the year. On a typical workday I rise somewhere between 5:30 and 6:00, work all morning and then spend the afternoon either catching up on mail or . . . sewing (my passion).
Q: What do you do to escape from writing?
A: Sewing and needlework are my main loves, apart from writing. I make all sorts of things: clothes (especially smocked baby dresses), pillows, Christmas tree ornaments, knitted sweaters, scarves, dresses, hats. I like to try my hand at new things. I also like to make greeting cards. And of course I like to read. In the summer I read on the front porch with a cup of coffee. In the winter I read by the fire with a cup of coffee.
Q: Do you read other children's writers and do you have any favorites?
A: I do, and my favourite children's books are the ones from my childhood - The Wizard of Oz books, the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books, the Mary Poppins books, the Doctor Dolittle books, Mr. Popper's Penguins, Understood Betsy, and the books by Beatrix Potter, Roald Dahl, Marguerite Henry, E. B. White. The list could get quite long!
Q: How would your favourite day go?
A: My favourite day would start early, work or no work. I love the morning. After breakfast I would read for a while (on the porch or by the fire, depending on the season), write for a while, and then go to the sewing room, which houses all my sewing and craft supplies. I would spend the rest of the day there, listening to classical music while I work. At some point I would take a walk. That's about it. I like quiet and solitude and being around nature.
How to Look for a Lost Dog
