About
Clare B. Dunkle
Questions from readers
Readers have asked
questions about me and my work, and I have answered some of
them below. If you have a question of your own, please click
on the Contact the Author
button to the right, and I’ll do my best to answer it.
If you are having trouble reaching me by the above
methods because the email bounces back to you, look under
my contact page for an alternate email address.
WHY HAVEN’T YOU ANSWERED MY EMAIL?
ARE ANY OF YOUR BOOKS BEING MADE INTO A MOVIE?
DID YOU WRITE LITTLER BOOKS OR SHORT
STORIES WHEN YOU WERE YOUNGER, BEFORE YOU ACTUALLY BECAME
A WRITER?
WHICH CHARACTER FROM YOUR BOOKS DO YOU
FEEL MOST LIKE?
WOULD YOU SAY YOU HAVE MORE FUN WRITING
CHILDREN’S FICTION, YOUNG ADULT FICTION, OR ADULT FICTION?
DID ANY OF YOUR CHARACTORS REPRESENT ANYONE IN YOUR LIFE?
I WAS CURIOUS AS TO WHAT RELIGION YOU PRACTICED?
I KNOW SOME SCHOOLS USE YOUR BOOKS
AS TEACHING MATERIAL, AND I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF YOU KNOW
WHERE I CAN FIND THIS MATERIAL.
THE WEBPAGE SAID AT THE BOTTOM THAT
IT WAS OKAY TO PRINT IT FOR PRIVATE USE IF YOU WERE NOTIFIED,
SO I’M NOTIFYING YOU.
HOW MANY OF US DUNKLES ARE THERE??
WHEN IS YOUR BIRTH DATE?
WHAT ELSE DID YOU STUDY WHILE YOU WERE
IN COLLEGE AND GRADUATE SCHOOL?
WHAT DID YOU DO AS A MONOGRAPHS CATALOGER?
DO YOU SPEAK GERMAN?
WHAT ARE YOUR DAUGHTERS’ NAMES?
I SAW A COUPLE OF PICTURES WITH YOU
AT THE BOOK SIGNINGS, AND I CAN’T HELP BUT THINK THAT
MUST BE SO EXCITING.
DO YOU HAVE MANY FANS?
IS THERE A WAY I CAN BE NOTIFIED AS YOUR FUTURE BOOKS ARE
PUBLISHED?
WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE CHARACTER OF ALL?
WHAT IS IT LIKE BEING AN AUTHOR, KNOWING THAT
YOU’RE FAMOUS AND THAT YOUR BOOKS ARE SITTING ON SHELVES
RIGHT NOW?
ARE YOU REALLY CLARE DUNKLE, OR A FAN CLUB
LEADER?
NOW THAT YOU’VE FINISHED THE TRILOGY,
ARE YOU PLANNING ANY OTHER BOOKS?
DID YOU HAVE ANY SIBLINGS, AND DID YOU
FIGHT WITH THEM? I FIGHT WITH MINE ALL THE TIME.
YOU SAID THAT YOU DELETED SOME SCENES FROM
YOUR BOOKS AND THEN PUT THEM ON THE WEBSITE, BUT I WONDER
WHY?
I READ YOUR WEB PAGE ON AUTHORIAL INFLUENCES,
BUT ARE THERE OTHER AUTHORS THAT YOU READ/RECOMMEND?
WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO BECOME A WRITER?
WHAT GOT YOU INTERESTED IN FICTION?
HOW DID YOU MEET YOUR HUSBAND?
WHY DO YOU LIVE IN GERMANY?
DO YOU PICK THE ARTISTS WHO DRAW YOUR BOOK COVERS?
HAS ANYONE EVER TOLD YOU THAT
YOU ARE TOO OLD TO COME UP WITH THESE SORTS OF IDEAS?
WHERE DID YOUR EDITOR DISCOVER
YOU?
HOW MUCH MONEY
DID YOU MAKE FROM THE HOLLOW KINGDOM?
WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR BOOK
IDEAS?
WHY HAVEN’T YOU ANSWERED MY EMAIL?
I personally answer every email that comes to the website
within a couple of weeks (sometimes longer if I am facing
a manuscript deadline). If you haven’t received an answer,
one of the following things has gone wrong: a) you filled
in the form and forgot to fill in your email address; b) your
email address is invalid; or c) your email account has blocked
my reply to you as “spam.” Unfortunately, the
last problem happens quite frequently!
If you haven’t received a reply, please email me again
from a different account and let me know it is the second
time you are trying to reach me. Perhaps another email address
will not be so picky.
BACK TO TOP
ARE ANY OF YOUR BOOKS BEING MADE INTO A MOVIE?
No. I enjoy watching
movies very much, and I have a lot of respect for certain
directors and actors, but I don’t ever intend to allow
one of my books to be made into a movie. A film production
company has to have complete control over the making of a
movie because a lot of money goes into the process. No one
can afford to give the author much of a voice in it.
But, as the original creator of my stories and characters,
I’m responsible for what they say and do. I’m
responsible for anything they may teach an audience, and that’s
something I take very seriously. I can’t risk letting
a director or production company have control over something
that I view as my own responsibility.
BACK
TO TOP
DID YOU WRITE LITTLER BOOKS OR SHORT STORIES WHEN YOU WERE
YOUNGER, BEFORE YOU ACTUALLY BECAME A WRITER?
I made up stories in my head for decades before I became an
author, but I never wrote any of them down. And when I did
start to write, I went straight to novels: I sat down and
started the first chapter of The Hollow Kingdom.
They say it’s best to start with short stories if you
want to learn to be a good novelist, but I had no ambitions
when I wrote The Hollow Kingdom. I was just having
fun. My mind is drawn to more complicated plots, so it was
novels for me from the beginning.
BACK TO TOP
WHICH CHARACTER FROM YOUR BOOKS DO YOU FEEL MOST LIKE?
That character would have to be Seylin. Like Seylin, I was
a little freak when I was young; my schoolmates were always
suspicious of me because of my book reading and the odd clothes
I wore. I was more comfortable with fiction than real life
when I was growing up, like poor Seylin in Book II.
I identify with the adult Seylin, too. Seylin sympathizes
with opposing sides, something a novelist needs to do. As
the King’s advisor, he doesn’t have much real
power: he can only present what he thinks and hope others
take him seriously. He wants the best outcome for everyone
involved and refuses to change his opinions to please others.
As a writer, I don’t have much real power, either. I
can only tell the story as I see it, knowing that I can’t
please everyone, not even my fans. In Book III, Seylin serves
his own sense of right and wrong, rather than blindly serving
his King. I think he makes the right decision, and I try to
do the same.
BACK TO TOP
WOULD YOU SAY YOU HAVE MORE FUN WRITING CHILDREN’S FICTION,
YOUNG ADULT FICTION, OR ADULT FICTION?
I have never written children’s fiction. I have never
written adult fiction, either, and I don’t think I would
care to, although some adults enjoy my books. I think that
good YA (young adult) fiction should be able to appeal to
any adult: that is, it should be sophisticated and interesting,
and it should assume that the reader is intelligent. YA writers
are producing literary works as worthy of praise as any adult
novel. Teachers and librarians as well as teens and parents
study what we write. I am proud to be a YA author.
BACK TO TOP
DO ANY OF YOUR CHARACTORS REPRESENT ANYONE IN YOUR LIFE?
My characters don’t exactly represent anyone from real
life, although I get ideas for aspects of their character
from the people I know. My characters live in times other
than ours, so they can’t be like us. They’ve had
a completely different upbringing. They have grown up with
different ideas from ours about what it means to be a citizen,
a daughter or son, a sibling, a parent, or a child of God.
But, in a way, my books are like my life. They’re
like parables: if things are going well, my books are happy,
and if things are going badly, my books are grim. I think
only a psychiatrist could tell exactly how and where they
resemble my life, though. They’re like a map of my subconscious.
There’s some comparison there, but even I can’t
sayhow much.
BACK
TO TOP
I WAS CURIOUS AS TO WHAT RELIGION YOU PRACTICED?
I am a Roman Catholic who attends the Latin Mass. However,
this does not mean that my characters automatically share
my views of God and of the world. Kate, for instance, is low-church
Anglican and has been taught that people like me are evil;
she would probably be horrified if she knew about her “popish”
creator. Marak and the goblins believe in God but believe
that God merely tolerates them; they believe that our religions
are just for humans. Maddie and the people of her village
share my religion, but they also believe in many pagan superstitions
at the same time. The Catholics in Maddie’s book are
like any group of people anywhere: some good, some bad, some
ignorant and poorly educated, and all of them dangerous when
they get together to form a mob.
BACK
TO TOP
I KNOW SOME SCHOOLS USE YOUR BOOKS AS TEACHING MATERIAL, AND
I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF YOU KNOW WHERE I CAN FIND THIS MATERIAL.
It is true that some schools are using my books in their reading
programs under the reading comprehension packages calledScholastic
Reading Counts, Accelerated Reading, and Lexile Metametrics.
Those programs include tens of thousands of books, though,
so mine aren’t unique in being included. I was contacted
to provide input on articles about me in the two reference
series Something about the Author and Contemporary
Authors, so those can give you information about my books
as well. Some online library catalogs, such as the Warren
Newport Public Library catalog, provide extensive book
review information for the books they hold, and since they
hold all of my currently available books, you can get accurate
review material there.
I try to provide anything a teacher might need on these webpages.
The best overview to the educational themes in my books are
the Librarians and Educators pages. You will find those under
the “Librarians and Educators” button in each
book’s section on my website. Here is the one for By
These Ten Bones.
BACK
TO TOP
THE WEBPAGE SAID AT THE BOTTOM THAT IT WAS OKAY TO PRINT IT
IF YOU WERE NOTIFIED, SO I’M NOTIFYING YOU.
You don’t have to let me know you’ve printed the
story for private use. Acknowledging the author on the printed
copy just means that my name is on it somewhere as the author.
BACK
TO TOP
HOW MANY OF US DUNKLES ARE THERE??
I had never heard of the Dunkle/Dunkel family before marrying
one. They’re not that common in the South, and I’m
from Texas. But my husband came from Ohio, and there are quite
a few of them there. And in Pennsylvania, someone told me,
they’re as common as Smiths.
Apparently, the Dunkles left Germany from the Palatinate region
(modern-day Rheinland-Pfalz) in the 1600’s, during a
devastating war with the French. (During that war, the French
blew up every single castle along the Mosel river, which is
a major tributary of the Rhine.) The Dunkles moved to Pennsylvania,
where they multiplied over the years, and successive generations
have seen them move west from there.
How we got the name Dunkle, I’m not sure. Dunkel is
simply the German word for “dark,” and the spelling
varies depending on how “English” the word has
become. But I’ve read somewhere that a group of Italians
had—long years before—emigrated into the Palatinate
region of Germany. These people were surnamed Dunkel because
they had darker hair and eyes than their neighbors. So that
may be how the name came into existence.
BACK
TO TOP
WHEN IS YOUR BIRTH DATE?
My birth date is June 11.
BACK
TO TOP
WHAT ELSE DID YOU STUDY WHILE YOU WERE IN COLLEGE AND GRAD
SCHOOL?
I went through college in three years because that was the
cheapest way to do it, so I took very little besides my major
and minor courses. I started in the Russian program for my
graduate degree, and this ruined my handwriting for good:
at one point, I could take classroom notes in Russian as quickly
as I can take notes in English, and now my brain never seems
to know which alphabet to write in. Then I switched to library
science, largely because the library science students seemed
so happy and normal (they are, too!) I studied all the courses
to qualify for children’s librarianship before switching
to become a cataloger. Those courses been very helpful to
me in my career as an author. Besides cataloging, I studied
indexing and classifying.
BACK
TO TOP
WHAT DID YOU DO AS A MONOGRAPHS CATALOGER?
During my time working in the Trinity University library,
I was the monographs cataloger. Monographs are anything that
is released just one time, in one complete package, like a
book or a DVD. Magazines aren’t monographs, they’re
serials: in other words, they keep showing up month after
month. Catalogers put together the description of the book
(or movie or game or whatever) that you read in your library
catalog. These are done according to manuals full of rules:
Exactly what is the title? What form of the author’s
name should be used? etc. We also use a special computer code,
so that the right fields will show up in the right places
in your online catalog.
Catalogers classify, too, meaning that we assign the call
number to a book, matching the book’s content to the
huge outline of human knowledge that exists in the classification
tables. Classification is fun, like a game of solitaire: where
does this item fit best? The scheme I used, the Library of
Congress Classification, fills about thirty books. You can
look at them here on the Library
of Congress website.
Among other special projects, I cataloged all the DVD’s
and VHS’s. Did you know that the “real”
title of a DVD (as far as library catalogs are concerned)
is whatever shows up on the screen? Not what’s on the
box, which is often different. For instance, the real title
of the thriller “Seven” is actually “Se7en.”
I’d swear that movie companies do this just to give
librarians a hard time.
But mainly, I worked with computers. In my days at the university,
libraries were slowly switching from having no computers to
relying on them for everything. When I arrived, we only had
two computers in the entire building, and when I left, there
were dozens and dozens of them, many of them having been replaced
several times.
I like foreign languages, and learning about computers was
like learning another foreign language: if youtalk to them
properly, they do things that make sense. So I became the
one who took the computers out of the box, set them up, helped
staff get comfortable with them, and taught people how to
use them. I went around and installed the patches and updates
when there were patches and updates to install (in other words,
all the time). I sat in on all the meetings about which programs
to run, which machines to buy, or which printers to choose.
I pioneered my library’s use of a special program that
could set up computers automatically, with exactly the same
options and programs on every one. That’s common now,
thank God. I liked my job because cataloging gets a little
boring, but the computers were changing all the time.
BACK
TO TOP
DO YOU SPEAK GERMAN?
You would think that I do. I can sit and chat in German for
hours. I can talk to my non-English-speaking friends, have
meetings with teachers, call up utility companies and find
out what has happened with my latest bill, or call my Internet
provider and follow computer troubleshooting directions in
German. The other day, my former landlady (who doesn’t
speak English) asked me to explain to her new tenant (who
doesn’t speak German) just where the two satellite dishes
are in the attic and how one has to stay turned so that it
receives her channels, and not our Armed Forces Network channels
instead.
This all means that I probably speak German better than many
college graduates who have majored in it. But that doesn’t
mean I’m fluent. I’ve never put in the time to
expand my vocabulary beyond what’s needed for everyday
use. I can’t sit down and read a German book with ease;
I need a dictionary at my elbow.
My daughters don’t need dictionaries. After three years
of German school, they walk around with massive German novels,
enjoy their favorite German television shows, and think that
my German is pretty pathetic.
BACK
TO TOP
WHAT ARE YOUR DAUGHTERS’ NAMES?
My daughters are Valerie and Elena.
BACK
TO TOP
I SAW A COUPLE OF PICTURES WITH YOU AT BOOK SIGNINGS, AND
I CAN’T HELP BUT THINK THAT MUST BE SO EXCITING.
Book signings are actually pretty dismal. I write terribly
(that is, I print terribly), and I’m always a nervous
wreck that I’ll misspell someone’s name. Writing
books is much more fun than signing them!
BACK
TO TOP
DO YOU HAVE MANY FANS?
I have a fair amount of fans, I guess, and they come and go
in my inbox. About ninety new people a day come to the website
(many more if you count repeat visitors). At the moment, I’m
answering between forty and sixty fan letters a month, and
the number keeps increasing. Sometimes a fan will read the
books and ask questions for several weeks in a row. I can
track his or her progress through the books from the questions.
Sometimes, a fan will write just once, disappear for months,
and then show up again. So there are all kinds. Reader letters
never annoy me, but sometimes I’m too busy to write
much. I try to write my letters on the weekends and answer
the week’s mail all at once. Fifteen or twenty letters
can seem like a pretty big stack!
BACK
TO TOP
IS THERE A WAY I CAN BE NOTIFIED AS YOUR FUTURE BOOKS ARE
PUBLISHED?
I’m afraid that I have no newsletter to send out to
notify you when books are published, but if you check on my
website periodically, you can easily find out.
BACK
TO TOP
WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE CHARACTER OF ALL?
It’s hard to pick a favorite character. Marak was great
fun to write, a real classic. I love Maddie and Paul from
By These Ten Bones because they’re so sweet
and humble and so much in love—brand-new first time
love. I’ve always been fond of Seylin because he’s
so honest, and Miranda was wonderful to write because she’s
so complicated: her upbringing has left her very guarded and
sophisticated, ready to say the right thing to the right person
and not even ask herself what she really thinks deep down.
But my favorite character of all may be Nir. It’s so
hard to do elves justice because they’re almost a cliché,
and that made Nir a very special challenge. Also, Nir’s
so badly damaged by his past and his magic. He’s seen
so much pain—caused it, too—and he’s morbidly
sensitive because elves are sensitive. He can’t
just tell himself to get over it.
Writing Nir was very difficult, like shining a searchlight
on a fox. It was touch and go whether I’d be able to
capture him on paper. He’s one of my problem children,
and that makes him special to me. But whenever Catspaw showed
up, it was such a relief to go back to writing goblins again—they’re
so wonderfully straightforward!
BACK
TO TOP
WHAT IS IT LIKE BEING AN AUTHOR, KNOWING THAT YOU’RE
FAMOUS AND THAT YOUR BOOKS ARE SITTING ON SHELVES RIGHT NOW?
Well, I don’t think I’m really famous. It’s
true that The Hollow Kingdom is going into its third
printing now, which is more than many authors ever get to,
but I’m over here in Germany, so I’ve never seen
my books in a bookstore or library outside of my own little
air force base, and it’s not as if people rush up to
me on the street like I’m Brad Pitt. And my teenage
daughters certainly aren’t impressed by me. “Look!”
I pointed out to them not long ago. “HK is on a list
of books that appeal to Goths! That means I’m cool!”
Valerie ran an appraising eye over me. “You’re
not cool, Mom,” she said kindly but firmly.
So there you have it. That’s what it’s like being
famous!
BACK TO TOP
ARE YOU REALLY CLARE DUNKLE, OR A FAN CLUB LEADER?
I really am Clare Dunkle! I do all my own web work, including
answering the email, and my husband does all the camera work
for the site.
BACK TO TOP
NOW THAT YOU’VE FINISHED THE TRILOGY, ARE YOU PLANNING
ANY OTHER BOOKS?
I’ve already written another manuscript called The
Sky Inside, a futuristic Pied Piper story, and a Wuthering
Heights prequel. I went to England to do research for
that book, but while I was there, I got interested in a charming
Victorian ghost story that seemed to go with a house I visited,
so I’d like to write that book, too. And my daughter
Valerie is annoyed that I’m only one-quarter finished
with a fantasy set in ancient India about a guild of wandering
storytellers. So there are lots of things to write about:
more ideas than time for them.
BACK TO TOP
DID YOU HAVE ANY SIBLINGS, AND DID YOU FIGHT WITH THEM? I
FIGHT WITH MINE ALL THE TIME.
I have two older brothers and two sisters (my brothers’
wives). Christopher is five years older than I am and is a
computer science professor specializing in graphics. Christopher’s
wife Millie, my goddaughter, is the one of the few women and
possibly the first Hispanic ever to receive a Ph.D. from the
computer science department of the University of Texas. Anthony
is four years older than I am and is both a master electrician
and an electrical engineer specializing in cellular communications.
Anthony’s wife Shadan, also an electrical engineer,
is rumored to have had an even higher GPA in their engineering
school than Anthony did. We are not the sort of family against
which you would want to play Trivial Pursuit, although when
we get together, we usually play Forty-two instead, which
is a Southern version of Dominoes.
When I was young, I didn’t fight with my brothers. I
was just too young; they more or less ignored me. Christopher
is the inspiration for the character of Marak: from Day One,
he has been a restless, energetic genius loaded with schemes
and absolutely the master of his destiny. No one could argue
with him, and no one has ever tried for very long. He simply
will not argue. He will discuss, calmly and rationally, and
then he will do whatever it was he intended to do anyway.
It always makes perfect sense. Anthony is less single-minded,
but he is quiet. He and I have always been quite close, and
I can’t recall a time when we argued, either. Perhaps
it was Christopher’s influence on the household because
he hated fights so much, but the way it worked was this: everyone
just did his or her own thing, and no one else really interfered.
BACK TO TOP
YOU SAID THAT YOU DELETED SOME SCENES FROM YOUR BOOKS AND
THEN PUT THEM ON THE WEBSITE, BUT I WONDER WHY?
Working on a book is like putting together a movie. Sometimes,
a great scene can still make part of a book drag on, even
though by itself, it doesn’t seem slow. Also, sometimes
a scene will change the mood at the wrong moment and dilute
the effect I’m aiming for. It’s something I can’t
always tell until I reread the entire draft at once. Then
I can see that the scene is all wrong for where it comes in
the book, and it needs to go.
As I learn more about writing books, I’m learning which
scenes to write down and which scenes just to leave in my
own head. This is why By These Ten Bones and In
the Coils of the Snake have no Deleted Scenes: I didn’t
wind up writing any extra scenes for those books.
BACK TO TOP
I READ YOUR WEB PAGE ON AUTHORIAL INFLUENCES, BUT ARE THERE
OTHER AUTHORS THAT YOU READ/RECOMMEND?
Aside from the influences I mention on those pages, I do have
many favorites, although not as many as you might think. Because
I tried for so long to control my imagination, I starved it
and kept it away from fiction; and now that I write novels,
I read very little fiction. But I can say that I love the
haunting description and very intriguing storytelling style
of Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen). Her prose style is so lovely!
I am just now becoming acquainted with Diana Wynne Jones,
whose writing I very much enjoy as a holiday from my own:
I love the different moods of her books and the affection
she feels for her characters.
I have frequently found science-fiction writers to be important
to my thinking—much more so than fantasy writers, to
be honest: Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov (who can’t
handle dialog or characterization all that well, but who really
knows how to work a fascinating idea to its conclusion), Harlan
Ellison, Orson Scott Card, and Ursula K. Le Guin. I love The
Hitchiker’s Guide books for their tweaking of science
fiction traditions. I’ve never really cared for the
bleak, grim SF worlds, though, so I harbor a real fondness
for the writing of Cordwainer Smith. Anyone who can conjure
up an immortality serum out of the secretions of mutated,
gigantic, and very unwell sheep has proven himself to be a
true creative genius.
C.S. Lewis wrote a series of science fiction books that I
love even more than I enjoy any of his Narnia books; if you
haven’t read them yet, you might enjoy them. The first
one, Out of the Silent Planet, is my favorite. I’ve
read it many times. The second one, Perelandra, has some lovely
moments, but I never reread it. And I’ve never actually
read the last one! Our library didn’t have it.
The Neverending Story is a magnificent book, although you’d
never guess that from the movie. It tells how a writer becomes
a writer--the white princess is the brand-new page with no
writing on it yet. Developing that idea, it spells out exactly
what dangers a writer encounters. We can become obsessed with
our stories and go crazy trying to live inside them, we can
use them to forget all about the real-life obligations we
have, or we can give our stories to others in order to bring
healing and happiness. We also have a grave responsibility
to the characters we create to view their lives fairly and
not try to force our own wills on them. That book is exceptional
fantasy.
BACK TO TOP
WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO BECOME A WRITER?
Honestly, nothing decided me. All my life, I’ve made
up stories for my own enjoyment (and wasted a lot of time
in the process, I might add). I just happened to have plenty
of free time when my husband asked me to write The Hollow
Kingdom, and I was lucky enough to find an interested
editor at the very first place I sent the manuscript. My writing
career has involved just as much discipline and effort as
good writing ever does, but it has not involved much hardship
on the “business” side. From the start, my editor
has been like a fantastic penpal: she reads my stuff, makes
sure I get regular checks, and mails my Microsoft Word files
back to me as beautiful hardcover books.
A writing career takes a lot of time away from loved ones.
When my daughters were in boarding school, writing was easy;
now that they are finishing high school at home, they need
my time. Each day, I have to decide whether I will “be
a writer” all over again. I try to write for a couple
of hours, but if my daughters need me—even just to talk—then
they get me first. I know that these are the last years I
will spend with these two bright young women. The writing
will still be there when they are gone.
BACK TO TOP
WHAT GOT YOU INTERESTED IN FICTION?
I’m a storyteller by nature. When I was quite young,
I read Marguerite Henry’s Misty of Chincoteague,
and in Chapter 4 of that book, Grandpa Beebe explains the
proper way to look at facts and legends: “Facts are
fine, fer as they go, … but they’re like water
bugs skittering atop the water. Legends, now—they go
deep down and bring up the heart of a story.” Those
words immediately hit home with me and have stayed with me
ever since because I was a big folktale reader even then.
I realized immediately that if we humans tell a certain story
over and over, it contains some truth that is very important
to us even if the facts aren’t quite right.
Why do we humans tell stories? Because they help us grow in
ways that we can’t explain. Why have we told certain
stories over and over for thousands of years? We can’t
explain that, although some people have tried. All I know,
as a writer and a storyteller, is that truth can come out
of fiction. When I have created “real” characters,
with strengths and failings both; when I have honestly recorded
what those characters could and would do in a difficult situation;
then I have created an experience that can help me and my
readers grow. I don’t have to face death myself to experience
courage if I can live through that experience in a book, and
maybe the memory of that “book” experience will
help me if I ever do have to become a real-life hero.
BACK TO TOP
HOW DID YOU MEET YOUR HUSBAND?
After I got my B.A. in 1985, I moved to Bloomington, Indiana,
to go to graduate school there. Sam, my next-door neighbor
in the apartment complex, was Joe’s closest friend at
work: they were both young engineers working for the Navy,
their first job right out of college. Sam showed up on my
doorstep the day I moved in to offer me a ceremonial “welcome-to-the-neighborhood”
beer, and he introduced me to Joe soon afterward. At 21, I
thought I was too old and cynical for love at first sight,
but I was wrong. Joe and I got married four months later,
and we’ve been married for almost nineteen years.
As an author, then, I have a real advantage—I’ve
lived through mutual love at first sight. This means I can
write about it fairly, and I do just that in By These
Ten Bones.
BACK TO TOP
WHY DO YOU LIVE IN GERMANY?
My husband Joe works for the Air Force at Ramstein Air Base
in Germany, so we are living here for seven years. You can
find out more about Germany if you click on the button to
the right called Photos
of Where I Live.
(Note: this is an old question. I no longer live in Germany.
We came home in 2007.)
BACK TO TOP
DO YOU PICK THE ARTISTS WHO DRAW YOUR BOOK COVERS?
No, I don’t have any say about who
draws the book covers. My editor takes care of that, working with the
art director and the publisher. But because my editor is very good about
including me in everything, she always sends me an email telling me whom
they have in mind and asking me for my thoughts. And she sends me the
artist’s sketches, too, and listens to what I think.
I try not to get too wrapped up in this aspect of publishing. After all,
the cover isn’t there for the writer, it’s there to hook the
brand-new reader, to make someone pick that book up for the first time.
I’m not a marketing expert. I respect those people at my publishing
house who deal with this kind of thing.
One reader asked me if I have ever been angry over what has appeared on
a cover. No, I haven’t. I enjoy seeing what the artists create from
my words. I think it’s interesting that there are works of art in
existence now based on things that have come out of my own personal head.
BACK TO TOP
HAS ANYONE EVER TOLD YOU THAT YOU ARE TOO OLD TO COME UP WITH THESE SORTS
OF IDEAS?
Not so far; but then, not very many people
who read my books know how old I am! I don’t like to put photographs
of myself on my website or in my books. What comes out of my brain doesn’t
have much to do with how I look, after all. And even though some of my
characters are young, others are not. Marak is much older than I am.
My teenage daughters think that I am ancient, but they still enjoy my
books—sometimes. Although they have never told me that I am too
old to write them, my daughter Valerie was rather shocked when she read
By These Ten Bones. “I didn’t want to know that my
mother could create things like that,” she said.
BACK TO TOP
WHERE DID YOUR EDITOR DISCOVER YOU?
I love this question because it makes me
sound like a lost continent, or possibly a missing set of luggage. But
it’s a fair question, and it has a fair answer. My editor discovered
me in the “slush pile.” Charming, isn’t it? I hadn’t
yet chosen an agent, and I learned that Holt was willing to evaluate a
manuscript that came straight from the author. So I sent The Hollow
Kingdom to that publishing house while I was researching literary
agents. Six weeks later, my editor contacted me about the manuscript.
BACK TO TOP
HOW MUCH MONEY DID YOU MAKE FROM THE HOLLOW KINGDOM?
I don’t know the answer to this one
yet. An author earns a percentage of the cover price on each book that’s
sold—this percentage is called a royalty. In addition, the author
also earns money when a right is sold: these may include the right to
bring out an audio edition, the right to reprint a book chapter in an
anthology, or the right to publish a translation of the book in a foreign
country.
Because I keep earning money as long as people keep buying books or rights,
I won’t know how much money I have earned from The Hollow Kingdom
until my book goes out of print.
BACK TO TOP
WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR BOOK IDEAS?
My brain spends a lot of time telling stories
to itself. I entertain myself with little scenes and dialogs whenever
I have a few seconds’ peace—driving a car, waiting in line,
brushing my teeth, etc. Each of my book ideas has emerged in this manner.
Before it is a story for someone else, it is a story for me.
Usually, I start with one really exciting scene and a couple of characters.
I become interested in the situation and work out a little background
for it. Then I begin to get to know the characters and develop their ideas
and appearances. The plot progresses from that.
Thus, even though one of my written stories may appear to a reader to
start at one spot and move forward, like a line, that story has actually
formed from one central spot and spread outward in all directions, like
a puddle. J.R.R. Tolkien went through this same process in his own writing.
In the short story, “Leaf by Niggle,” he likened his creation
of The Lord of the Rings to a painter who first paints a leaf,
then a spray of leaves, then a branch, then the tree, and finally the
land all around that tree, both the foreground and the distant horizon.
BACK TO TOP
Webpage text copyright 2007
by Clare B. Dunkle. Permission is given to print this page
for educational or private use, provided the author is acknowledged
on the printed copy. It is forbidden to copy, distribute,
or use this text in electronic form. This text may not be
emailed or used on another website.
|
