Into reading novels as early as the first grade, author Anna Collomore spends part of her time as an au pair and the rest writing in Paris. Here is more on her process as well as her new book about a nanny driven to madness, The Ruining.
YOUNG ADULT: What is your earliest memory involving writing?
Anna Collomore: When I was in the first grade, my teacher instructed us all to write a short story. I happened to be reading a novel I was really into; so instead of writing a short story, I copied the first paragraph of the first page of the novel. “That’s…interesting,” I remember my teacher saying with a funny expression on her face, when I read the paragraph aloud in class. Later, my mom discovered what I’d done, explained why what I’d done was wrong, and made me re-do the assignment. (My eventual story wound up being about a bunny.) It was my first (and last) flirtation with plagiarism.
YA: Tell us a little bit about your latest work. What is different about The Ruining?
AC: The Ruining was a different process for me because it’s the first book I wrote using an outline. I was formerly opposed to outlines, preferring to ascribe to the theory that they hinder creativity. So this process was transformative, because I loved it! My outline was vague enough to allow me just the right amount of creative freedom; and yet there was freedom in the outline itself, because it streamlined the process. It also strengthened my plot. Rather than deleting 100 or so pages and starting over like I’d done in the past, I felt like my outline gave me direction and held my hand.
The story itself was also a really fun exercise in building tension! I had so much fun walking that tightrope as Annie’s mental state became more precarious.
| YA: Take us through a typical writing day for you? AC: This is going to make me sound slovenly and a little dull, and later I’ll be embarrassed. Okay, so I wake up a little late–say around 9 or 9:30. I put in my contacts and brush my teeth, but leave my pj’s on. I make coffee and soft-boil a couple of eggs. Then I climb back into bed, with my breakfast on the little table next to me. I answer emails and check out the news for a hal hour or so, then turn off the internet and get going. 4 or 5 hours later, I emerge for a break–a walk or run or whatever–to clear my head. Then I shower and get dressed and leave for babysitting around 4pm, because right now that’s my part-time job, and I need to pick up the kids from school. (I’m an au pair in Paris.) |
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YA: Can you describe the path to getting this work published? What were the challenges? What was easy about it?
AC: I was lucky to have a relatively smooth path to publication for The Ruining. I had worked as an editor in New York for about a year and a half before I moved to India (which is where I was living when I sold The Ruining). I’d kept in contact with my friends and colleagues back in the New York publishing industry, and eventually an editor at Penguin reached out to see if I’d like to write a book for them. We discussed topics of interest, and I wound up writing a sample–a sort of “audition”–that revolved around the concept of a nanny being driven to madness by her employer. The editor and publisher liked my take on it, so I put them in touch with my agent, and they signed me up. I had a lot of fun talking over the book with my editor and conceptualizing the remainder of the plot. We were a great fit.
I should mention that by that point, I had already sold two novels to Candlewick Press under a different name–and that publication process was more traditional. (I finished the manuscript, my agent submitted it to a handful of editors, etc.)
YA: What were your specific influences for this book? Travel experiences, films, literature, other stories?
AC: I had been babysitting on and off for most of my life–in high school, college, and even the first two years out of college. I can put a dark spin on almost anything; and since the role of a nanny is very specific, I thought it offered a lot of creative potential. As a nanny (especially a live-in nanny like Annie is), you’re almost a part of the family…but not quite. Boundaries can be blurred. You want to trust, but ultimately you’re at the mercy of people who have a lot of control over you. I liked the idea of Annie feeling trapped: of imagining a terrific new life but seeing everything fall apart around her. Thankfully, I never had any bad experiences as a babysitter–and I am currently a very happy (and live-out) au pair in Paris for a family I met six years ago in New York.
Specific chapter-by-chapter influences include The Yellow Wallpaper, a short story that Annie reads for her college lit class. It wasn’t initially included in the novel, but I later discovered it while researching and loved it, so I worked it in. I also had Shutter Island in mind, and I watched the movie Gaslight and read The Turn of the Screw before I began to write. Little pieces of my life worked their way into the text, too. For example, I was at the time dating a guy whose family breeds Rhodesian Ridgebacks, and one of their dogs was named “Zizzy” (hence, Owen’s Izzy).
YA: Aside from the classic ‘never give up’, what advice would you give aspiring young writers today?
AC: The best advice I ever received was a little more specific than “never give up.” It was “finish your manuscript!” Apparently a startling number of aspiring writers never finish their books. So finish it! That’s your best chance of getting it out into the world. I have a small handful of finished manuscripts that will never see the inside of a bookstore. But without those–that practice, specifically–the ones I have published would never have developed. Also, once you start writing 300+ page manuscripts on a semi-regular basis, it stops feeling so daunting.
“Annie Phillips is thrilled to leave her past behind and begin a shiny new life on Belvedere Island, as a nanny for the picture-perfect Cohen family. In no time at all, she falls in love with the Cohens, especially with Libby, the beautiful young matriarch of the family. Life is better than she ever imagined. She even finds romance with the boy next door.
All too soon cracks appear in Annie’s seemingly perfect world. She’s blamed for mistakes she doesn’t remember making. Her bedroom door comes unhinged, and she feels like she’s always being watched. Libby, who once felt like a big sister, is suddenly cold and unforgiving. As she struggles to keep up with the demands of her new life, Annie’s fear gives way to frightening hallucinations. Is she tumbling into madness, or is something sinister at play?”