Monday, July 27, 2020
Q&A with Gretchen Anthony
From my Q&A with Gretchen Anthony, author of The Kids Are Gonna Ask:
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| Photo credit: M. Brian Hartz |
How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?Visit Gretchen Anthony's website.
I'm slightly obsessed with book titles because they're a first look into the book and they should draw you in. With The Kids Are Gonna Ask, I wasn't convinced I liked the title, but every time I said it aloud, people loved it. They found it intriguing, and that's what this book is at its heart -- it's a mystery about family, heritage, and belonging. In fact, the only reason ts secrets get uncovered is precisely because the kids, Thomas and Savannah, start asking for answers.
What's in a name?
I'm also very careful about naming my characters. Most of them just need to "feel" right, need to match the concept I have in my head for that character. But I'm strategic about main character names. I chose botanical names for the mother and daughter in my last novel, Evergreen Tidings from the Baumgartners because that matriarch believed in symbolism and loved that her husband's family name, Baumgartner, translates as "tree gardener." In The Kids Are Gonna Ask, I named one of the twins Savannah. On the surface, it's just a pretty name. But...[read on]
Q&A with Gretchen Anthony.
--Marshal Zeringue