Writing dynamo Kirsten Miller brings us How to Lead a Life of Crime, which draws from some fascinating and little-known New York City history. More on the work and this author’s tireless process below.
YOUNG ADULT: What is your earliest memory involving writing?
Kirsten Miller: I suppose I was writing before I could write. I have very clear memories of composing little stories when I was in preschool. One of my teachers would type them up—and then I would add my own illustrations. I still have some of those first stories stashed away.
By the first grade, I was penning tales of aliens and ghosts. By eighth grade, I was creating short, hand-bound books to which my father contributed some amazing artwork. So I guess you could say writing was in my blood from the very beginning. But I never expected to make a profession out of it. To be honest, I’d still rather write for fun.
YA: Tell us a little bit about your latest work.
KM: I love my Kiki Strike trilogy. But How to Lead a Life of Crime is my favorite of the six+ books that I’ve written. It’s the story of a young thief named Flick who sets out to avenge his brother’s murder—and finds himself trapped at a nightmarish academy in which young people are trained to be criminals.
The novel is very dark, angry and extremely violent—yet the relationships portrayed in the book are often quite beautiful. Flick and his brother (who returns from the dead in a rather unexpected guise) have a touching rapport. And the love Flick shares with Joi, the book’s butt-kicking female lead, feels very real to me. (I’m extremely proud of that particular romance.)
| YA: Take us through a typical writing day for you. KM: I wake up at the crack of dawn (usually around 6 am). I get a good ninety minutes of work in before I must pause to attend to other duties. Writing resumes around ten. I usually type—with few breaks—until four or five. It’s not glamorous work. It’s hard, painful and often quite lonely. Most writers would agree. That’s why it’s very important to show your enthusiasm if you like an author’s books. (I’ve been known to pen a few fan letters myself!) YA: Can you describe the path to getting this work published? What were the challenges? What was easy about it? |
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But in YA literature, there’s almost always a school. In fact, if a book’s heroes are teenagers, and there ISN’T a school, then the author must to go to great pains to explain why there isn’t. (Perhaps it’s summertime or the main character is a runaway—or maybe the novel is set in some future utopia in which high school has been recognized as a sadistic institution—and finally banned for good.)
The thing that makes my book different (actually, there are many things, but I’ll stick to just one) is that the school in my book is based on a real academy that once existed right here in New York City. In the late 19th century, a woman by the name of Marm Mandelbaum began plucking urchins off the streets of the Lower East Side and enrolling them in her Grand Street School. There, the children were taught how to be pickpockets, conmen and safe-crackers. Mandelbaum’s school for young criminals is said to have closed after the cops chased her out of town.
However the premise of How to Lead a Life of Crime is that the Grand Street School never really shut down. It simply assumed a new name, expanded its curriculum, and became . . . respectable.
YA: If you hadn’t become an author, what path would your career have perhaps taken?
KM: In an ideal world, I would have been an archaeologist. Or perhaps I would have chosen another career that involves a great deal of detective work. (Forensic scientist. Private investigator. Restaurant inspector.)
However, I was in advertising for many years before I started writing professionally. The truth is, I quite enjoyed it. And in reality, that’s probably the path I would have continued to follow. Who knows, I still might.
 
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“A meth dealer. A prostitute. A serial killer.
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