Interview with
Ilsa J. Bick,
author of
White Space
"Light bloomed, hot and bright, and took him." --from White Space, by Ilsa J. Bick
Today I’m welcoming fellow Young Adult author Ilsa J. Bick
to The Happy Book Reviewer. The latest book from this critically acclaimed
author is White Space, which has been
listed as one of Teen Vogue’s 15
books not to miss this year!
Seventeen-year-old Emma Lindsay has problems, not to mention
all those times when she blinks away, dropping into other lives so ghostly and
surreal it's as if the story of her life bleeds into theirs. But one thing Emma
has never doubted is that she's real. Then she writes "White Space,"
a story about these kids stranded in a spooky house during a blizzard. Unfortunately,
"White Space" turns out to be a dead ringer for part of an unfinished
novel by a long-dead writer. The manuscript, which she's never seen, is a loopy
Matrix meets Inkheart story in which characters fall out of different books and
jump off the page. Thing is, when Emma blinks, she might be doing the same and,
before long, she's dropped into the very story she thought she'd written.
Trapped in a weird, snow-choked valley, Emma meets other kids with dark secrets
and strange abilities. What they discover is that they all may be nothing more
than characters written into being from an alternative universe for a very
specific purpose. Now what they must uncover is why they've been brought to
this place--a world between the lines where parallel realities are created and
destroyed and nightmares are written--before someone pens their end.
White Space is a spooky, horror-filled, surreal tale. Tell
me how you came up with the idea for this book (and did it give you
nightmares)?
Ilsa J. Bick:
Nope, believe it or not, nothing I write gives me nightmares, and I
don’t particularly write about what freaks me out either. I guess when you’ve been a doc and worked an
ER, or hung out with inmates as a prison shrink . . . made-up stuff doesn’t
really hold a candle to the real-life horrors out there.
Eek! I see your point!
As for the idea, one of my daughters gave me the idea when she asked
if I was going to kill her off in a particular book. Ever since I used her name
as one of the title characters of a short story, it’s been kind of this running
gag between us. (On the other hand, her sister is ticked that I have yet to use
her name in a story. Actually, I have, but she’s convinced that character is nothing like her and so that doesn’t count.)
Anyway, for my daughter, that particular character
in that particular story met a terrible end. Since then, she’s decided that I
actually kill her off by proxy somehow or other in everything I write. In some ways, she’s not far wrong. Just depends how pissed off I’m feeling that
particular day. (Honestly, you’d think
the kid would catch a clue . . . )
Still, I thought her comment was pretty interesting;
you know, that she would get so torqued and be convinced that somehow or other
what I did to a character’s story had a direct bearing or was a reflection
on/of her. It was as if by using her
name she somehow became part of the story and what I did to the character was
something that I did to her.
Was it difficult to keep track of what
was real and what was not in this oft-shifting book? Or did you know from the
start exactly what you were going to do and where the story was going?
Ilsa J. Bick:
Well, if you mean, was it tough to keep the disparate plotlines straight
. . . not really because they all converged eventually, and every story fed off
or sprang from another.
In addition, I’d
already had a lot of practice in two previous books of the ASHES Trilogy, SHADOWS and MONSTERS, where POVs and action alternated all the time. In addition, I always write an outline for
every book, if only to give me something to never look at again when I start. (wink) It’s something I began when I did
work-for-hire—stuff like Star Trek and
Battletech and Mechwarrior—where anything you propose has to be cleared by the
editor first just to make sure you don’t violate the universe’s laws or, say,
the series arc.
So, in theory, I’ve at
least told myself the story once before. What I’ve found as I’ve gone on
writing is that I often won’t consult an outline once I’ve started a book. Sometimes, it’s the actual writing and
getting the voices right that shows you where your outline’s on target or fallen
short. That’s actually happened with my
latest work in progress; had an outline and a great story but kept coming to
this screeching halt about a third of the way through because something was
wrong. I played with tense, POV . . . finally, on the fifth start, I think I’m
beginning to settle into the character’s voice, and she’s been one
uncooperative pain in the ass to boot.
What were you like at Emma Lindsay’s
age?
Ilsa J. Bick:
Me? Bookish, a nerd, pretty
friendless, rather geeky, not very attractive, and a tad argumentative (i.e., I
never could keep my mouth shut).
Did you draw on your experiences as a teenager as you wrote how Emma deals with the situation?
Well, as a writer, you draw on yourself all the time,
either what you’ve lived or what you wish would’ve been a better or more
exciting past. One thing I can tell you:
I’ve learned that you never get anywhere in life if you don’t suck it up and
deal.
Emma Lindsay is a writer. Did you start
writing as a teenager, or earlier?
Ilsa J. Bick:
Nope, I was not a writer as a teen.
I had too much work to do, and my dad was a maniac about chores, so I
was always outside giving the lawn a pedicure with nail scissors. I daydreamed a lot, though. You have to when you’re doing that kind of
mind-numbing work—and a very wise analyst once pointed out to me that all those
daydreams and made-up adventures where I slotted myself aboard the Starship Enterprise or the submarine Seaview were stories I spun. I just
didn’t write them down.
So what was the first creative piece you ever wrote?
The
only truly creative pieces I recall writing were some wretched epic poems and
an awful take-off/homage to A Wrinkle in
Time where some alien brain had taken over the school and turned everyone
into mindless zombies or something. Of
course, I saved the day, and the thing wound up in the yearbook.
What is the next book in the
Dark Passages series?
Ilsa J. Bick: Actually, that book, THE DICKENS MIRROR, is done. As for a hint, I’ll give you the publisher’s
blurb:
Critically
acclaimed author of The Ashes Trilogy, Ilsa J. Bick takes her new Dark Passages
series to an alternative Victorian London where Emma Lindsay continues to wade
through blurred realities now that she has lost everything: her way, her
reality, her friends. In this London, Emma will find alternative versions of
her friends from the White Space and even Arthur Conan Doyle.
Emma Lindsay finds herself with nowhere to go, no place to call home. Her
friends are dead. Eric, the perfect boy she wrote into being, and his brother,
Casey, are lost to the Dark Passages. With no way of knowing where she belongs,
she commands the cynosure, a beacon and lens that allows for safe passage
between the Many Worlds, to put her where she might find her friends-find
Eric-again. What she never anticipated was waking up in the body of Little
Lizzie, all grown up-or that, in this alternative London, Elizabeth McDermott
is mad.
In this London, Tony and Rima are "rats," teens who gather the dead
to be used for fuel. Their friend, Bode, is an attendant at Bedlam, where
Elizabeth has been committed after being rescued by Arthur Conan Doyle, a
drug-addicted constable.
Tormented by the voices of all the many characters based on her, all Elizabeth
wants is to get rid of the pieces under her skin once and for all. While
professing to treat Elizabeth, her physician, Dr. Kramer, has actually drugged
her to allow Emma-who's blinked to this London before-to emerge as the dominant
personality…because Kramer has plans. Elizabeth is the key to finding and
accessing the Dickens Mirror.
But Elizabeth is dying, and if Emma can't find a way out, everyone as they
exist in this London, as well as the twelve-year-old version of herself and the
shadows-what remains of Eric, Casey, and Rima that she pulled with her from the
Dark Passages-will die with her.
I collect bookish quotes. So, add to my
collection and tell me your favorite quote from White Space!
Ilsa
J. Bick: Gosh, that’s like
asking me to decide which daughter’s my favorite . . . well, okay, how about
these couple two, three lines:
"Bode
has less than an instant and barely a moment, but that was enough for him to
know that he was wrong. He was not going
into the black after all.
Light
bloomed, hot and bright, and took him."
Really, really love
that last line.
Thank you so much for talking to me today! Readers can find out more about you, White Space, the ASHES Trilogy, The Sin-Eaters Confession, Drowning Instinct, and Draw the Dark at your website: http://www.ilsajbick.com/.
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Don't forget to check out my latest Young Adult adventure/romance,
Deep Green,
available in Print & e-Book
*25% off with the promo code 20EPdb14
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