Author Profile: Joan Bauer

Joan Bauer

BIO

Joan Bauer began writing her first novel, SQUASHED, as a screenplay. After getting into a car accident, however, Bauer couldn't work as quickly as the film industry demanded and decided to translate her story into novel form. A hilarious and compelling story, SQUASHED tells of sixteen-year-old Ellie Morgan, an ambitious teenager pursuing two passions: growing the biggest pumpkin in lowa and losing 20 pounds herself. Of her story, Bauer says "I've never grown a vegetable that lived, but I was fascinated by the symbolism of 'growing' a huge dream. I guess I have a small town heart." The format in which Bauer wrote SQUASHED ultimately proved successful, as her book won the Delacorte Press Prize for a First Young Adult Novel and set Bauer on the road to becoming a successful full-time author.

Born in River Forest, Illinois, Joan Bauer now lives in Darien, Connecticut, with her husband, daughter, and assorted animals. Her favorite childhood memory concerns her grandmother a storyteller who was quite famous in her day. She was very funny and her stories captivated and inspired Bauer as a young child.

Joan Bauer has worked in advertising, radio, television, and film, and credits her background in these fields for the determination and discipline with which she approaches her writing. "As a screenwriter," she says, "you have to know right from the start what the story is about. Having that skill helps me get started."

Her book, THWONK, is an imaginative and hilarious comedy about art, devotion, and a romance run wild. In it, A. J. McCreary, an aspiring photographer who's getting ready to go to college, discovers a cupid who can help her either artistically, academically, or romantically. But when A. J. compulsively chooses "romance" from her options, she realizes too late that the devotion of a gorgeous, popular guy might not be exactly what she's always wanted. It took Joan Bauer two and a half years to write this story. She was inspired by the fact that it's so easy nowadays for people to look at the outside of a person rather than spend time getting to know the more important inside.

In all of her work, Joan Bauer is very interested in using humor as a tool to discuss serious issues. She hopes humor will inspire kids to read about a subject they might not otherwise choose to read about.

INTERVIEW

October 13, 2000

YA author Joan Bauer impresses us yet again with her new novel, HOPE WAS HERE. Often Bauer's main characters have one important talent that singles them out and also sets up the novel. In RULES OF THE ROAD, Jenna is an amazing shoe seller; in SQUASHED, Ellie grows massively large pumpkins; and in HOPE, the title character is an incredible waitress. In this interview, our writer Audrey Marie Danielson asks the award-winning author about her new book, her quirky characters, her all-time favorite novel, and much more. Don't miss an update --- or your introduction if you haven't read Bauer before --- on this talented author.

TBB: Hope, in HOPE WAS HERE, is an intriguing character --- hardworking, resourceful, spunky and with a sense of humor. Is she patterned after anyone you know?

JB: Hope is a composite character --- she has some of me (I was a teenage waitress --- started at the IHOP when I was 15); she and I have similar feelings about comfort food; she has lots of traits I admire in other people. I formed her from her adversity --- that is the thing that defines her. I definitely wanted her to be an overcomer and I gave her quite a lot to overcome --- her mother deserting her; all her moves around the country; Gleason Beal�s betrayal; her need to find her real father and not having a clue who he is. What I love about Hope is how she is determined to live up to her name --- she, like me, has had to work at being positive. But she�s a survivor --- she�s determined to make things work, no matter what.

TBB: Do you feel that your characterization of Hope created your plot and moved it along or did you have the idea of the plot first?

JB: Great question! I created the adult characters first for some reason. The first was G.T. Stoop, the owner of the diner where Hope works, a man with leukemia who decides to run for mayor of his small town and help clean up the corruption in Mulhoney, Wisconsin with whatever time he has left. But Hope�s story linked with that --- her determination to be hopeful, to make a good new start, to learn how to trust again, her strength, her need to have a father, all linked to G.T.�s character.  Also, I found that Hope�s gifts as a waitress really could be used in this unusual campaign. She was good with people, she could handle herself when things got crazy, she had good focus, a wonderful heart. It�s fun to see links between what a character is good at when the story starts and how those things translate to new discoveries as the book progresses.

TBB: It would have been easy to portray both Aunt Addie and Hope as preaching, do-gooders. How did you manage to keep these positive women, who make such an impact on the lives of the townspeople, funny, and down to earth?

JB: Humor really balances personalities, I think. I can say all kinds of things from a humorous perspective and it just doesn�t sound preachy. I think that�s because humor acknowledges that things are hard and then spins it around in surprising ways. As far as their "down to earth" qualities go, I think that comes from seeing their strengths and weaknesses. Addie is a magnificent comfort food chef, but she is fiercely competitive and a card-carrying perfectionist about what she turns out of her kitchen. Everyone can relate to that. Hope has been burned too many times, but she still believes in people, she believes in food service which is a metaphor in the book for making a difference in other people�s lives. Showing a character�s strengths and weaknesses make them real and accessible, I think. Personally, I don�t like preachy people, so I try to avoid that in my books, but I�m still trying to talk about important issues like honor, hope, and learning to trust after we�ve been burned.

TBB: Each of your main characters in your novels has a special talent, usually inherited from a parent who failed as a parent or died, but left their gift to their child. Hope, in HOPE WAS HERE, is the best waitress in the world. How do you chose which talent each character will have? Are these skills you have or once had?

JB: When I write I�m always looking for symbols and talents that represent other things. So I look for these special talents and give them to my characters. Each of my characters has either an ability I possess or ones I wish I did. I, like Hope in HOPE WAS HERE, was a very good teenage waitress. I loved the rush of it, the money, the nutty people --- so I embraced all that and gave it to Hope. To me, being a good waitress, means knowing how to care for people and give them what they need. Hope is very much that kind of a young woman. I never sold shoes like Jenna in RULES OF THE ROAD, but I was in space sales for ten years and my father was a fine salesman, so I pulled from those experiences and stuck them in this unusual shoe business that not many people know much about. Selling happens all around us --- some of it is hype and some of it, like Jenna�s brand, is honorable. I wanted to show the difference. Also, I loved the metaphor of shoes taking us down life�s road.  Selling shoes doesn�t sound very exciting --- all those smelly feet --- but Jenna finds great excitement and passion in it. Ivy in BACKWATER is a budding historian just like my daughter who is at the University of Chicago. I love history --- it links us to our past, present, and future. Sometimes it�s thought of as kind of boring, but Ivy makes it come alive. So I took Ivy�s talent and love and used them to build the plot and the adventure of this story.

TBB: Necessity caused you to quit the film industry and convert the screenplay you were working on into the novel SQUASHED. Have you ever regretted going from writing screen plays to writing bestselling young adult novels?

JB: I did in the beginning because so much of my training had been in writing screenplays and to leave that business at first was very rough. I had to leave because of a serious car accident that made writing on deadline impossible. But, I�ll tell you honestly, that accident changed me as a writer. I found my humorous voice IN young adult literature, not before. And I can truly say that writing novels is profoundly more satisfying than writing screenplays. For one thing, the control over the product that a novelist has is so much greater. It�s not unusual at all for a screenplay to be rewritten by several other writers. You rarely have any say over those changes and that�s very frustrating. I will always be grateful for my time in screenwriting because it helped me learn about dialogue and pacing, but the novel is where my heart is. You can explore characters with much more depth. I do miss one thing about screenplays, though. Sometimes scene changes don�t have to make sense --- you just write CUT TO on the script, but in books, you better make sure your transitions from scene to scene make sense.

TBB: Did you have any problems getting your first novel published?

JB: Initially, I had problems with finding the right agent who understood it. The first one who saw it --- she was rather well known --- said, "It�s too down home. I don�t know what to do with it. There is no market for this." I was devastated, since I�d written it after this car accident, written it after neurosurgery, and I believed greatly in the story. The next agent I tried loved it and knew about the Delacorte Prize for a First YA Novel. We submitted it and had to wait nine long months (yes, like pregnancy) to find out if it had won. It did!

TBB: Your grandmother was a storyteller. What do you remember most about her stories? Do you ever use any of your grandmother's stories in your books?

JB: I don�t because she basically told stories about Norwegian immigrants coming to this country and all the mistakes and problems they encountered. Although when I created my character Yuri, the Russian busboy in HOPE WAS HERE, I did feel Nana�s spirit pushing through his character.

TBB: How old were you when you decided you wanted to become a writer?

JB: I�ve always wanted to write in varying forms for as long as I can remember. In high school I wanted to be a comedy writer, in my twenties I wanted to be a screenwriter, in my thirties for a while, I wanted to be a journalist. That seed has just always been there. When I decided to write professionally --- to really go for it, I quit my sales job, the whole thing. I was 30 years old, an age when people are known to do very unusual things.

TBB: What did you read when you were young, which authors inspired you the most?

JB: I remember reading TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD when I was 13 --- remember where I was, what I was wearing. That book just electrified me with its power and grace. My parents were divorced when I was eight and I�d been in great need of male father figures. When I came to Atticus Finch, the father in MOCKINGBIRD, I knew I�d found the dad I always wanted. As a writer I try to remember how powerfully that character touched me. I try to create characters who can be role models in my novels. It all started with that book.

TBB: What is a typical writing day like for you?

JB: I try to start early, read what I�ve written the day before to get the sense of where I�m going. Sometimes I won�t write much at all, just think my way through a character�s motives and needs. Sometimes, like at the end of a book, I can�t stop and I�ll go for twelve hours straight. My daughter calls it getting the writer�s flu. I write 5-6 days a week. I never wait for inspiration, I just go into my office and it usually comes. If it doesn�t, I try again the next day. I have lots of things in my office to make me laugh --- a rock with LAUGH carved in it, funny mobiles hanging from the ceiling. My office is a happy, riotous place.

TBB: Of all the books you've written, which one is your favorite? Do you have a favorite character?

JB: I think HOPE WAS HERE is my favorite at this point. I love the characters and the way they interact.  I feel they are my friends and it was hard to say good-by to them when the book was over (it always is, but this book was a little harder than most). I think that G.T. Stoop, the diner owner in HOPE who has leukemia and decides to run for mayor of his town, is my favorite character I�ve created. I think he has a little Atticus Finch in him, which is probably why I like him so much. He is a man of great honor who puts himself on the front lines to try to make things better. I learned a great deal from him.

TBB: Are you working on a new novel? Can you tell us a little about it?

JB: Yes I am, but I�m not sure how I�m going to develop it yet, so I�d probably confuse you if I talked about it, because right now I�m working through the characters and the plot.

TBB: In your opinion, is there a message carried through all of your work?

JB: I think it�s that adversity, if we let it, makes us stronger. And that humor is a bridge between pain and redemption.

TBB: What advice would you give to an aspiring writer?

JB: Risk yourself on the pages. By that I mean --- think about what you know, where you�ve been, what difficulties you�ve experienced, examine what you know about human nature (the good and the bad), give your characters dreams and nightmares, give them people who can help them along the way. Don�t be afraid to write about some of the rough things that have happened to you. That�s when power streams in writing, when we�ve touched those links to pain and real life. Also, it�s important to read quality writing, not junk. When I�m writing a book, I�m always reading several adult novels for inspiration. Write about things you care about --- passion will carry you through when the work feels stuck. Listen to criticism, try to learn how to make things better. Don�t be afraid to revise your work. Revision is the biggest word in my life --- I�m at it constantly. Know, too, that not everything you write will work, but it all works together to make you a better writer. Write your ideas down, take your desire to write seriously. Oh yeah --- and don�t forget to have fun, too.  Let your heart go wild on the pages sometimes.