Scar (14 page)

Q.
You also write middle grade novels about the adventures of a young girl and her sister. How is the writing process for
Scar
different?

A.
The day the idea of a young girl waking up with a head full of plastic flowers as per the diabolical plan of her younger sister popped into my head was the day I began writing
Sunny Sweet
. With
Scar
, it took months of research before I actually wrote the words, “Their screams blind me.” Although from the moment I stepped on the battlefield, I knew I wanted to write about it. I was not only attracted to the loneliness of the place, but also to the hopelessness of the battle's story. But before I could write, I had to learn everything I could about what happened in those woods. It was as if the story was buried under all the books and newspapers and letters and documents. And the more I read, the closer I came to
digging it up. Since I was basing the story on the legend—and the idea that Noah would be the soldier given the burial—I immediately began writing the novel in a nonlinear narrative, hoping to bend time and in essence “save” the two boys. Somehow I believed that if I patterned the story in a circle, all it would take would be the turn of the page to bring Noah back to life and running toward his friend.

Q.
How do you make the past exciting to modern readers? What do you want them to take away from reading
Scar?

A.
The past makes itself exciting. I can't take credit for it. Noah and Scar might be fictitious characters, but their lives were real. Real Colonial boys fought and died in the Revolutionary War. Real Mohawk boys fought and died in the Revolutionary War. And although they fought against each other, each believed he was fighting for freedom: Noah to throw off English rule, and Scar to halt the Colonists from encroaching into First Native/Nation territory.

J. A
LBERT
M
ANN
became fascinated with the Battle of Minisink when she happened upon “hospital rock” while hiking in upstate New York. She is the author of the Sunny Sweet series. Her short stories and poetry have been published by
Highlights for Children
, where she won the 2007 Fiction Contest. Born in New Jersey, she now lives in Boston.

boydsmillspress.com

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