Blog Tour stop for UNWRITTEN, Tara Gilboy amazing debut

Can you imagine how excited I am to be taking part in Tara Gilboy's blog tour for her Middle-Grade debut Unwritten!? VERY. I'm very excited. 

I had a pleasure of reading an early digital advanced copy of Unwritten awhile back and I loved it. A lot. It's a very unusual book that deals with the matters of good and evil as well as our evolving identity. The book also asks the question of how much our nature and nurture define us. Plus, the protagonist's voice was absolutely mesmerizing - I simply couldn't stop reading!

So today, I'm so happy to publish my Q&A with Tara and share my ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review of her debut. Plus, I was so thrilled to read Tara's book that I became its official blurber! As authors, we get asked a lot to 'blurb' new books and, even though I'm a debut myself, I was asked to blurb four books already (and I was happy to do it), but - to my knowledge - Unwritten is the first book that actually contains my blurb's words on its back-cover. How exciting! 

About Unwritten

Twelve-year-old Gracie Freeman is living a normal life, but she is haunted by the fact that she is actually a character from a story, an unpublished fairy tale she’s never read. When she was a baby, her parents learned that she was supposed to die in the story, and with the help of a magic book, took her out of the story, and into the outside world, where she could be safe.

But Gracie longs to know what the story says about her. Despite her mother’s warnings, Gracie seeks out the story’s author, setting in motion a chain of events that draws herself, her mother, and other former storybook characters back into the forgotten tale. Inside the story, Gracie struggles to navigate the blurred boundary between who she really is and the surprising things the author wrote about her. As the story moves toward its deadly climax, Gracie realizes she’ll have to face a dark truth and figure out her own fairy tale ending.

My review:  

Unwritten offers a fresh new take on the old topics of good-vs-evil and nature-vs-nurture, focusing on that fascinating murky grey area that lies between the two extremes.

From the very first pages of her debut, Gilboy plunges the readers into the strange world of Gracie Freeman, a twelve-year-old protagonist of Unwritten, who lives a quiet 'normal' life with her mom while fully aware they both used to be characters in a fairy-tale story. Having never been allowed to read the story in question, Gracie wonders what has really happened in it, and whether the flashbacks ("story glimmers") she's haunted by daily are true and she was really meant to die in the story. Taking matters into her own hands, Gracie endeavors to find the answers, meet her creator (the story's author) and confront the truth about her character - and herself.

In this clever exploration of human nature, Gilboy masterfully delivers the message of complexity of good and evil, with Gracie learning that she is what she makes herself; in other words, her future is hers to write.

Q&A with Tara Gilboy!

What book influenced you the most when you were a child (and why)?

Probably Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel, A Little Princess. I loved the way Sara Crewe was always telling stories and imagining things, and when I read this novel, I felt like I had finally met someone like myself, someone as dreamy and obsessed with books and stories as I was. Sadly, I never met anyone who loved books the way I did until I was an adult. This always left me feeling a bit “odd” and different from other kids my age, and embarrassed of how much I read. Reading A Little Princess encouraged me to believe that maybe this wasn’t something that I needed to be ashamed of. And then, of course, I also loved the fairy tale elements in the book, the evil Miss Minchin, the poor suffering Sara, the dreary attic, the idea of transformation….

[Such a great example! And that's exactly why it's so important for all kinds of readers to be able to find themselves on the pages of books - it's critical to our sense of belonging]... Your 2018 MG debut UNWRITTEN takes on some of my favorite themes, like good vs evil and nature vs nurture. I absolutely adored how Gracie, the protagonist, embodies the dilemmas that come with these questions, and her inner struggle was fascinating to follow. If there was one idea you’d like your readers to take away from this book, what would it be?

The concept of good and evil is so incredibly complex, but I think as a society, we really have a tendency to simplify them into a kind of “all or nothing” thinking. I am so concerned by the labels I see thrown around lately, especially on social media. Any time someone makes a mistake, or does or says something bad, that mistake can immediately be made public, and more and more, I’ve been seeing people labeled as either “good” or “bad,” without compassion or consideration for “why” the person might have done the things they did. Everyone makes mistakes – we don’t say or do the right things all the time, but the important thing is being able to learn from those mistakes, move on, and try to do better next time. People are so much more complex than the labels we ascribe to them. Heroes often do bad things, and villains are capable of doing good. I hope readers will be inspired from my book to offer compassion and forgiveness when others make mistakes, and consider the whole person, rather than simply the mistake.

Finding the right voice for a book is so important – could you give some pointers on how to get the voice right, especially in a book for younger readers?

I think it’s really important to experiment with voice in the beginning of any new project. I am more comfortable writing in third person, and I usually start a project that way, but then after I’ve been working on a novel for a few weeks, I’ll often switch to first person just to get a feel for my main character’s voice. I inevitably end up going back to third person, but I think the experimentation phase is important. Don’t be afraid to try new things, even if it means you throw them out or need to revise them later. Another key is to be true to your own voice as an author. Some people are really good at writing a strong, first person narrator, but sadly, I am not one of them. I feel more comfortable writing in third person, and I don’t try to force myself to write in first person simply to try to fit with the market. I’ve met many new children’s writers who assumed that having a strong voice meant they needed to write in first-person, but that’s not the case.

I also think it’s really important to spend time around children and teens who are the same age as your protagonist, even if that means sitting in coffee shops and fast food restaurants and eavesdropping on their conversations. I read a manuscript recently that had a contemporary character using a phrase like “Gee, whiz,” which would probably be more appropriate for a historical setting. Children’s book authors need to familiarize themselves with the way today’s children behave and speak or the voice isn’t going to ring true.

Do you listen to music when you write? (If yes, what's been on your play-list lately?)

No, never! I know a lot of writers listen to music and even have specific playlists for each book they write, but I need quiet. Music distracts me.

What comes next? What are you working on at the moment?

I am working on another middle grade novel that I am really excited about. It has some gothic elements that have been really fun to play with. I just finished a very early first draft, and now I get to start revising and shaping some of the novel’s main conflicts and themes, which is my favourite part of the writing process.

Any advice for all the aspiring/emerging writers out there?

Keep at it! Writing is all about hard work and persistence. One of my writing teachers once told me something along the lines of: “I’ve taught a lot of great writers over the years, and in the end, it wasn’t the most talented ones who published books. It was the ones who worked the hardest and were the most persistent.” That advice has always stuck with me. I can’t control how much talent I have, or the publishing market, or a lot of other things about my writing career, but I can control how hard I work.

Bonus questions!

Your dream holiday?

A fall writing retreat at Colonial Williamsburg, preferably with lots of books, changing leaves, and hot apple cider.

In your writing process/routine, are you… a planner, pantser, or…?

A little bit of both. I try to outline, but it doesn’t work for me if I stick to it too much. I find my characters often act, react, and speak in ways I didn’t anticipate, and if I try to maneuver them to stick to an outline, the story feels forced.

Cats or dogs?

Dogs! (Especially my dog Biscuit. Isn't she adorable???)

[Oooooooh she's indeed the cutest!]

Coffee or tea?

Coffee in the morning, tea anytime after noon.

Thank you, Tara, for finding the time to do this interview with me.

Unwritten is out on October 16th, but you can support the author by preordering the book now. 

Book Links:

For signed copies, readers can order through Mysterious Galaxy, Tara's local indie

Also available from:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble

You can add Unwritten on Goodreads - and don't forget to support Tara by leaving a review, if you liked the book.

You can follow Tara on Twitter or check out her Website

More about Tara Gilboy

Tara Gilboy holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia, where she specialized in writing for children and young adults. She teaches creative writing for San Diego Community College District and lives in southern California with her husband, daughter, and dog, Biscuit. UNWRITTEN is her debut novel.