Author Candace Fleming on Falling down the Rabbit Hole- PLUS GIVEAWAY!

Hello world!!

Welcome to my blog, Blissfully Bookish. For this Q & A, I will confess that I’m having a full on fan girl moment. This award winning author is a master at writing nonfiction, but she writes equally stellar fiction. I still remember being blown away by her 12 x 12 webinar about writing across genres. It truly inspired me, to this day. So without further ado, please welcome the illustrious (and also very kind) Candace Fleming!! She discusses her new middle grade book, Crash from Outer Space: Unraveling the Mystery of Flying Saucers published by Scholastic Focus.

BUT first- YAY! Candace is generously giving away a FREE copy of her book and a very short critique (no longer than four pages). To be eligible to win, please enter the Rafflecopter contest by clicking HERE. Contest ends Nov 11, 2022, US only.

Please describe the journey to publication for Crash from Outer Space: Unraveling the Mystery of Flying Saucers, Alien Beings, and Roswell.

Hi, Lydia! Thanks for asking me to stop by and chat about Crash.  You know, I wish this manuscript had a dramatic publication story: multiple submissions, hard-fought revisions, suspenseful back-and-forth commentary between editor and agent.  In truth, Crash might be my simplest publication story.  I was struck with the idea while hiking in New Mexico.  That same day, after returning to my hotel room, I sent an email to my Scholastic editor Lisa Sandell.  I didn’t create an outline, or write a proposal.  I just explained in a couple short paragraphs what I had in mind and she said “yes.”  I went home and got to work.        

Where did you draw the book’s inspiration?

During a week-long hiking trip in New Mexico, I took a side trip to Roswell.  I wasn’t thinking about doing a book about saucer crashes or anything, I just wanted to walk through the UFO Museum.  I mean, come on, UFO Museum?  It was just too kitschy to pass up.  And you know what?  It is kitschy.  But then I noticed the other museum-goers.  Many of them were absorbed in the “facts” the museum presented about alien autopsies and abductions and government coverups.  And it struck me: Roswell is compelling, but there’s a bigger, more important reason for writing about it.  The Roswell myth is the perfect vehicle for exploring our fascination with UFOs. Why do we believe extraordinary claims without extraordinary evidence? How can we determine what’s legitimate evidence and what isn’t?  And how do we “unpack” conspiracy theories in a way that enables us to arrive at the truth.  It’s all about critical thinking.  And yes, believe it or not, all that came to me while wending my way through the UFO Museum.  It’s almost like a gift book, yes?  I mean, I rarely see a project so clearly. Hmmm…maybe it was alien intelligence.      

Please paste a short and compelling excerpt from your book.-

July 5, 1947 was oven hot, recalled Gerald Anderson.  He’d ridden in the backseat of his Uncle Ted’s Buick for what seemed like hours.  Eventually, they stopped and hiked across the plains of San Agustin—himself, his father and brother, Uncle Ted, and his cousin Victor—in search of moss agates.  Just five years old at the time, Gerald was tired.  He trudged along, wishing he had a bottle of cold pop.  Instead, he got something far more astonishing.

After hiking over an arroyo, the group came upon a crashed flying saucer, its silver metal glinting in the sunlight, the wide gash in its side exposing an interior of blinking colors.  In the shade of the wreckage lay three dead creatures.  Beside them, surrounded by several strange-shaped boxes, sat a live one.  To Gerald, it appeared to have been giving first aid to the others.  But when it saw the hikers approach, the creature froze.  It drew back in fear and covered its head with its hands.

What did the creatures look like?

According to Gerald, they were short, just 4 or 4 ½ feet tall with large tapering heads, and large almond-shaped black eyes that were so dark and shiny they had “a bluish tint when light reflected off them.”  The creatures had no visible ears, their noses were nothing but two holes, and their mouths looked “like a cut,” just a straight line.    

The living creature didn’t make any sounds, not even as they moved closer.  Anderson remembered his Uncle Ted trying to talk with the creature, first in Spanish, then in sign language.  It didn’t understand a word, but it calmed.  It laid its four-fingered hands in its lap and looked from person to person.

What I love about your books, especially with your nonfiction middle grade, is your attention to detail. You make scenes pop, almost as if the text was fictional, yet it’s all rooted in fact. Can you tell us a bit about your research process?

Oh, man, my research process in one paragraph?  That’s tough.  My process is long and winding.  I go down rabbit holes.  I investigate far afield from my initial subject.  Instead of searching for facts, I let the material speak to me.  It’s a very organic and very personal process. I follow my curiosity and intuition.  Why all this?  Because only through research can I discover what my story is really about.  I mean, sure, I know the topic.  But what do I really have to say with a particular piece of history or science?  I never really know that until I wallow around in the research.  That research takes me months, often years.  And it typically takes four paths: primary sources (including interviews and visits to archives) secondary sources (I use as few of these as possible), travel (I believe houses speak and landscapes hold memories) and experts.  All this wide and varied research leads to all kinds of tiny discoveries. These tiny details can be used when writing scenes to flesh out the moment, and bring it into sharp focus. 

Please share a few of your favorite books from 2021/2 that inspired you.

Is it a terrible thing to confess that I don’t use other people’s work as mentor texts?  I’m trying to be as wholly original and creative as possible when I write nonfiction.  I’m eager to discover new ways of telling, as I did in my picture book Giant Squid, with its cantilevered line breaks and lyrical text.  I worry that if I look too closely at others’ works, I’ll mimic.  And mimicry is not originality.  Besides, I don’t believe one can’t simply squeeze their story into a “found” structure.  Structure springs naturally from the research and how you see the story being told.  But I do deeply admire lots of nonfiction writers, talented creators like Deborah Hopkinson, Carole Boston Weatherford, Sarah Miller, Cynthia Levinson, Leesa Ransome, and Deb Heiligmann.  I devour their books, but NOT when I’m writing in the same genre.  I hold back on Cynthia and Carole’s picture books until I’m done writing my own picture book.  The same goes for Sarah and Deb’s books for older kids.  I can’t read them until I’ve completed my own middle grade or YA nonfiction.  Does that make sense?        

What is the best piece of advice you would give to other writers?

Follow your instincts and write the book you envision.  Break the rules.  Keep inventing and reinventing yourself as a writer.  Don’t just stick to what you do best.  Challenge yourself. 

And a bonus question just for kicks! If you could be any animal, what would you be and why?

An eagle.  I’d like to soar above the earth, and see it from an entirely new perspective.

BIO

Candace Fleming writes picture books, middle gradeand YA biographies. Among her nonfiction titles are Giant Squid, Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart, and The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion and the Fall of Imperial Russia.  In 2021, she took home both the Sibert Medal for Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera and YALSA’s Excellence in Nonfiction Award for The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh, marking the first time the same author has won both of these nonfiction awards in the same year for two different books. Additionally, she is the recipient of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, NCTE’s Orbis Pictus Award, as well as the two-time recipient of both the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award for Nonfiction, and SCBWI’s Golden Kite Award.  Her 2022 nonfiction titles include Murder Among Friends, Polar Bear and Crash From Outer Space.

LINKS

Website:  www.candacefleming.com

Twitter: @candacefleming

FB: candacefleming

Instagram: @candaceflemingbooks

Purchase the book: https://bookshop.org/p/books/crash-from-outer-space-unraveling-the-mystery-of-flying-saucers-alien-beings-and-roswell-candace-fleming/17896859?ean=9781338829464

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