Former doctor and mother of 14 year-old triplets (!) Maurissa Guibord takes us to Trespass Island in her new book Revel, revealing secrets along the way about her process when beginning a story, as well as her first bold efforts at writing as a child…
YOUNG ADULT: What is your earliest memory involving writing?
Maurissa Guibord: Earliest? I remember defacing favorite storybooks by scrawling my name on the inside covers in crayon. Only the ones I really loved though. I think I tried to illustrate a few too! Bureau drawers and bedroom walls also showed some of my early work.
The first piece of writing in which I really tried to tell a story, from my own heart, was for a high school English class. That probably makes me a late bloomer compared to others. I think the fact that the teacher read it to the class and people seemed to like it struck me as something marvelous. It still does.
YA: Tell us a little bit about your latest work. What is different about REVEL?
MG: In Revel I’ve tried to create a world that exists alongside our own. Trespass Island, if you can reach it, exists out there in the North Atlantic and is home to what we would see as everyday people as well as some that are not so ordinary. I wanted to create a fantasy that was as real as possible–if that makes any sense! I also wanted to create a romance that was believable–in others words, uncertain, awkward and a little painful. But beautiful.
YA: Take us through a typical writing day for you.
MG: How I wish I had a typical writing day. Having 14 year-old triplets leaves for very little typical anything! I write in spurts. Some days I don’t write anything at all–but I always seem to be thinking about the story, shuffling things in my head and looking at the plot from different angles. Some days I can’t tear myself away from the keyboard and will write all day long. When beginning a story I do a lot of writing by hand–jotting notes, research tidbits, character qualities, sketches etc. in composition books. When I begin writing it’s usually on the couch in front of the fire on my laptop.
There’s nothing like a flaming laptop to get one going!
| YA: Without giving too much away, what would you say are the top three things one would need to survive on Trespass Island? MG: 1.To survive on Trespass Island you have to know who to trust. 2. You have to believe in yourself and your own abilities. 3. Being able to swim fast helps. YA: Can you describe the path to getting this work published? What were the challenges? What was easy about it? |
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YA: If you hadn’t become an author, what path would your career have perhaps taken?
MG: Before I began writing for publication, I was a doctor–so I did have a career, a very different one than I have now. Medicine was wonderfully rewarding but I enjoy the freedom and creativity that writing allows me. If I wasn’t a doctor or an author I would have loved to have been a painter. Or an astronaut. I guess there are a lot of things I would love to try!
“There’s an island off the coast of Maine that’s not on any modern map.
Shrouded in mist and protected by a deadly reef, Trespass Island is home to a community of people who guard the island and its secrets from outsiders. Seventeen-year-old Delia grew up in Kansas, but has come here in search of her family and answers to her questions: Why didn’t her mother ever talk about Trespass Island? Why did she fear the open water? But Delia’s not welcome and soon finds herself enmeshed in a frightening and supernatural world where ancient Greek symbols adorn the buildings and secret ceremonies take place on the beach at night.
Sean Gunn, a handsome young lobsterman, befriends Delia and seems willing to risk his life to protect her. But it’s Jax, the coldly elusive young man she meets at the water’s edge, who finally makes Delia understand the real dangers of life on the island. Delia is going to have to fight to survive. Because there are monsters here. And no one ever leaves Trespass alive.”
Warped? http://www.maurissaguibord.com/