Hi, everyone! Today is the first interview of Yay For Middle Grade Books! 2020! I'm happy to present an interview with Diane Magras, author of The Mad Wolf's Daughter, and the sequel, The Hunt for the Mad Wolf's Daughter.
The bold font are the questions I asked, the regular font are her answers, and the bold italic font are my comments about her answers.
Would you please tell us a little about the Mad Wolf’s Daughter books?
The Mad Wolf’s Daughter and The Hunt for the Mad Wolf’s Daughter are books about identity, choosing the path you want to take and the person you want to be, and to consider different perspectives while making your choices. Both of these books are fast-paced adventures that star a girl named Drest. In the first book, she wields her big brother’s sword as she travels across an unfamiliar countryside to rescue her brothers and father’s war-band from being hanged. She meets many dangers along the way but stands up for what she feels is right, challenging some of the things she’s always thought she’d known. In the second book, Drest on the run for her life, unjustly branded as a traitor, and struggles with what it means to be a hero and a legend and what it will take to stop running away. With villains-turned-heroes, enemies who become friends, and swordfights, chases, and escapes (with heart and humor too), these were a lot of fun to write.
What was the inspiration for the books?
I’ve always been fascinated with the medieval world, both the castles and swords of history and popular culture, but also how people lived. I wanted to combine history and medieval lore in a middle grade action-adventure, and that made my setting and formed my genre. I also wanted to tell the story of a girl with a sword who became the hero in the kind of story we’ve all heard that usually stars boys. But I wanted to make her experience as historically accurate as possible. There aren’t girls like Drest in history books, so I created a world where her kind of person would be plausible: the youngest child of a ferocious war-band of brothers who had been training her all her life (that’s how she developed the arm to carry a real sword)—and who believed in her. I wanted to depict that especially: a group of uber-masculine warriors who felt that their little sister was worth as much as they.
I loved Drest's relationship with her family in the books, and how much they believed in her! :)
Random Question! What’s your favorite color?
Green. Wait, no: blue. Both. (And if this were Monty Python and the Holy Grail, I’d have been tossed into the Gorge of Eternal Peril by now.)
They are both good colors! (Though I must say I am very partial to blue!) :)
If you're able to talk about it, what are you currently working on?
I’m afraid I can’t share too much (apologies, but books can change a lot in the editing process) but it involves a contemporary setting in a slightly different world (okay, pretty different in one big way) with kids fighting monsters with medieval-inspired weaponry (but no blood). Add in big themes and some Shetland fiddle, and you’ve got a book that’s very dear to my heart.
What are some of your favorite MG books you've read? And what are some that you're looking forward to reading?
Some of my favorite books of all time are historical middle grade novels with vivid characters, tense action, and well-researched settings that wear history lightly and feel completely real: Here Lies Arthur by Philip Reeve and The Shadow Hunt by Katherine Langrish are my top picks. I’ll also always be in debt to Susan Cooper for The Dark is Rising since that was the book that inspired me to start my first novel when I was a young teenager. For more recent books, I absolutely loved Strange Birds by Celia C. Pérez. And I’ve really enjoyed A Wish in the Dark by Christina Soontorvat, The Witches of Willow Cove by Josh Roberts, and The Wolf of Cape Fen by Juliana Brandt (all three of which came out this year). One more I have to mention: Linda Sue Park’s Prairie Lotus, which I haven’t read yet, is at the top of my TBR pile.
Prairie Lotus sounds so good! I really want to read it! :)
Thank you so much to Diane Magras for participating in this event! :)
Author Bio: Diane Magras (pronounced MAY-gris) is the award-winning author of the New York Times Editors’ Choice The Mad Wolf’s Daughter, as well as its companion novel, The Hunt for the Mad Wolf’s Daughter. All things medieval fascinate Diane: castles, abbeys, swords, manuscripts, and the daily life of ordinary medieval people. Diane lives in Maine with her husband and son, loves Scotland, and finds inspiration in history and very old stones.
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