The Book Cellar

I am super excited to have a guest post/interview from Kelly Milner Halls and Rebecca Fjelland Davis as a part of the Girl Meets Boy blog tour!

When the legendary Terry Davis (Vision Quest, If Rock and Roll Were a Machine) and his hand chosen writing partner Alex Flinn (Beastly, Breathing Underwater) couldn’t come eye to eye on their story pairs, I was faced with a duo of daunting problems. I needed a writer who would step easily into writing with Davis, and I needed someone who would do so quickly. The deadline was coming fast.
Enter Rebecca Fjelland Davis to save the project and the day.
Rebecca was Terry Davis’s ex-wife and loyal friend. She had a published YA novel (Jake Riley: Irreparably Damaged; Chasing AlleyCat soon followed) and she knew him as well as any person alive and could synch with him quickly to meet the deadline. Her invention of an Iowa farm girl in love with Davis’s gentle Muslim boy created one of the most critically acclaimed stories in the anthology.
I caught up with Becky to find out how she felt about being recruited for GIRL MEETS BOY. Her answers are as thoughtful as her short story.
KMH: Did you create your short story specifically for GIRL MEETS BOY or was it a work in progress that just fit the girl/boy ideal?

RFD: Neither. Actually I had written this whole story, and Terry Davis had read it. He approached me asking if he could write Rafi’s story to pair with it, so it might be included in the anthology. I was excited–but a little cautious at first.

KMH: How was it writing with your ex-husband, award winning novelist Terry Davis?

RFD: First of all, I have admired Terry’s writing from the moment I first opened Vision Quest, long before I met him, so that part was thrilling–to have my story published alongside his? Wow. But also, I know Terry well, and I know that sometimes he pushes the edges of “propriety” and sexuality and vulgarity; even though what he writes is always honest and rings true. So it was a little scary to turn over a character I created to Terry, to let him find and establish Rafi’s voice. I loved most of what he came up with right away, but some of it seemed over the top. I couldn’t reconcile his Rafi with mine. We talked about it, and we looked at it together, and he was willing to listen to ways to revise–and I revised a lot, too, to meet him halfway. As we finally finished the pair of stories, we both loved how Kerry and Rafi turned out. Interesting, that even the writing of the stories parallels the theme of the whole collection: we all see relationships differently, no matter how close we are to each other!

And on a side note, everybody asks, “With your EX-husband”? Yes. Terry and I remain wonderful and supportive friends, and we consider his kids mine, and mine his, even without any biological connection. It’s a strange and wonderful extended family. My boyfriend is man enough to understand and accept it, too. (Thanks, Tom).

KMH: Any plans to turn your story into a novel so we can get to know the characters better? If so, can you share any developments?

RFD: Yes, actually. Terry and I talked about doing it as a tandem novel, but the logistics of that seem too complicated. And I don’t want to be Michael Dorris and Louise Erdrich–too many possibly bad outcomes of that. I have been working on the story, starting at the beginning of their relationship, and how the whole thing developed in the first place. Kerry’s parents and her grandmother are ultra-strict and ultra-Christian like my mother was, so the complications are fun to play with. I also wrote several chapters developing what happens after this story, and that might involve some illegal activity on the hog farm site…but I have yet to decide where the novel will culminate.

Now that Terry’s in the hospital with a head injury, I have to think about revisiting working on parts of the story together…it might be a way to get him writing sooner. We’ll see about that.

KMH: How challenging was it writing about a Muslim boy?

RFD: Very. I spent an hour a week for nine months talking to a Muslim grad student from Bangladesh. I have an entire notebook of notes from those conversations. That gave me the groundwork, and the language to develop a “real” guy with his beliefs and cultural background.

I still got “stuck,” and I had to do the “how to develop a character out of thin air” exercise that I give my creative writing students. Then I finally understood Rafi on all levels. Remember, writing a good character is like building an iceberg. 90% is below the surface, and the readers never see that . But as a writer, you have to know the whole 100%.

KMH: I loved how you made Raffi so appealing and decent. Was he based on anyone real?

RFD: I actually met a man from Bangladesh named Rafi. I instantly liked him–and he was married to a midwestern Caucasian Protestant woman, who had converted to Islam. I couldn’t stop thinking about what that whole transition must have been like. And what if they had met when she was still in high school? What if her parents were super conservative Christians? How would Rafi have dealt with all of that? How do you conjoin and reconcile all of that?

Also, after 9-11, Muslims in general have gotten a bad rap and are subject to all sorts of prejudice. I have many, many wonderful Muslim students who are kind and sensitive and generous, and are the complete opposite of the radical stereotype. I want to do everything in my power to eradicate that misconception (like Kerry’s grandma holds).

KMH: You grew up on a farm, right? Did that influence your story’s major plot points?

RFD: Actually this is the first time I wrote a story in which I had an issue at the heart of what I wanted to write. I hate hog factories with a passion. I try to never, ever buy pork that isn’t free-range and organic. That’s because I raised pigs as a teen, and paid for my first two years of college with the savings. Pigs are smart. They’re full of personality. To confine their entire lives to a space barely big enough to turn around? It’s somewhere off the cruelty scale. I don’t mind eating meat that lived a happy life. But to live an entire miserable existence so I can eat? It’s like veal production. I think it’s absolutely inhumane. That’s a long way to say “Yes” to this question.

So–I had this idea to deal with hog factories–and I needed a girl who raised pigs to care about the issue. Kerry emerged. I also had Rafi in the back of my head as a character I wanted to write. Then I thought–what if?–what if Kerry fell in love with a boy who couldn’t eat pork at all? What sort of crazy conflict would that raise? The two of them took off from there.

KMH: You teach along with writing YA novels. How do you balance the two callings?

RFD: The two things are mentally mutually supportive since I teach English—Composition, Creative Writing, Literature (including Children’s and YA), and Humanties. The two callings are almost mutually exclusive timewise. Sometimes school takes so much of my time that I barely get any writing done in a week. I just keep plugging.

KMH: What advice do you have to writers hoping to follow in your footsteps?

RFD: To write because you love making stories out of words, not because “being a writer” looks appealing. And if that’s the case that you love to write, don’t let anybody or anything stop you from doing what you love.
My rules:
1. Live
2. Pay attention
3. Read
4. Apply the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair
5. Write it down

KMH: Can you tell us a little about your new novel?

RFD: The newest one is upper middle grade. It’s a murder mystery set in North Dakota during the depression. Grant O’Grady is the sheriff’s son, who discovers the body with his dad.

KMH: Any plans to write for another anthology in the near future?

RFD: At this point, I don’t know about any other anthology plans, but I would love to be part of another one. I’m so thrilled to be part of this impressive list of great YA writers.

Buy the Book: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository

Be sure to check out my review of Girl Meets Boy, which went up today as well. Follow the tour – the next stop on the tour is at Page Turners Blog!

Here is the trailer for the book

And here’s an excerpt for the book

Thanks to the lovely folks at Chronicle, I have a super exciting giveaway! One lucky winner will get a copy of Girls Meet Boy signed by ALL the contributors to the anthology! Ends of February 17 and open to US/Canada only.

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