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MEET J. L. POWERS
by Bonnie O'Brian

What did you most like to do when you were a child?

J. L. Powers

I loved reading more than any other activity when I was a child. Because I was homeschooled, I had more time than most other kids. I usually finished my schoolwork between 9 in the morning and lunchtime, and then I would spend all afternoon reading or riding my bike or playing with my brothers. Because of that, I read an enormous number of books. We would go to the library every week and I would check out about twenty books. Then I would read them all that same week. When I was twelve, I was already checking out Jane Austen books at the library. I told the librarian how much I loved Jane Austen. She just looked at me and said, “You are a very odd kid.”I guess she was right. She wasn’t the only librarian who thought I was strange. When I was about twelve, I started writing a book set in ancient Persia. It was actually a re-telling of the story of Esther in the Bible. I remember going to the library and asking the librarians to help me find books about “harems” because Esther was one of a number of women in King Ahasuerus’s harem. The librarian giggled the entire time she helped me find what I needed.

What books influenced you most when you were growing up?

The books that influenced me most when I was growing up were the Little House on the Prairie Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. For many years, I pretended I was Laura Ingalls Wilder. I dressed in calico dresses every day and grew my hair long, until it was way past my waist, so I could do it up in braids the way she talked about in her books. I couldn’t imagine that Laura could have done anything I might disapprove of or believed anything I disagreed with. I was particularly interested in the history of slavery and I used to ask my mom if she thought Laura was an abolitionist or not. I couldn’t bear the idea that maybe Laura was racist. My dad took me to De Smet, South Dakota when I was ten years old and I came home and told my mom that I wanted to be a writer just like Laura when I grew up. So she clearly had an influence on my life! The other books that influenced me a lot as a child were all of L.M. Montgomery’s books. I loved Anne of Green Gables desperately and her every heartbreak was my heartbreak, too. Because I grew up in the desert southwest, in a very poor part of the country, I longed to live in a place as beautiful as Prince Edward Island. I wanted to live someplace GREEN, where you could see the ocean. Ironically, I now love the desert southwest more than any other place on earth (it’s home!) and I realize that L.M. Montgomery’s love of place influenced my life more than any other. Because of it, I always write books set in places I know well. I feel like that’s an important part of writing—to be able to create a realistic setting.

Did you write stories when you were growing up? at school? Or at home as a hobby? As a young child, or as a teenager, or both?

I started writing novels when I was ten years old. They were very bad novels and I’ve never gone back to read them because, well, I’m embarrassed. But perhaps if I ever write a memoir, I’ll find all of that scribbling useful. Because I was always very interested in history, the first novel I wrote was about a runaway slave trying to escape to Canada. We had a baby grand piano and I thought that would make a great hiding place for a fugitive slave, so in my story, the fugitive slave would crawl into the grand piano to hide whenever the slave catchers arrived. After that novel, I started writing shoddy imitations of L.M. Montgomery novels, so they were all titled things like “Ellen of Runaway Farm” or “Judith of Green Windows Place.” Again, embarrassing now to think about it. Children and teenagers today seem far more sophisticated than I was as a child!

What audience did you have in mind for your career as a writer - adult or children?

I have always loved children’s and young adult books most of all. It seems to me that the best books for children and the best books for young adults are books that everybody can love and enjoy. Take Winnie the Pooh, for example. I remember my mother chuckling her way through that book. I didn’t understand why she found it so funny, although I admit that I loved the stories myself. Now, as an adult, I know exactly why she found it so funny! Although I have certainly written things for adults, they have mostly been non-fiction. To date, I have yet to imagine writing a novel for adults.

What was your first job when you graduated from college?

After I graduated from college, I actually went around the world acting in street theatre. It was a very fun experience but I must say that it’s a good thing I don’t have to rely on my acting skills in order to eat or pay the rent. One time, I was playing an evil person in a short skit. Later, I was told that I was the “happiest” evil person the audience had ever seen. Oh, and because I still had very long hair down to my waist (remember my Laura Ingalls Wilder obsession), I was told that I looked like a “hair commercial” while I was up there trying to scare the audience with my wicked ways and evil grimace. So I guess I was a truly bad actress.

How soon after that was your first book published?

My first book, a nonfiction hiking guide, was published in 2003, almost a decade after I graduated from college.

What are the topics of some of your books?

I tend to write very gritty, realistic fiction, at least to date. My first y.a. book, The Confessional, which came out from Knopf in 2007, deals with racial tension and school violence. My second y.a. book, which I just finished, deals with youth homelessness and teen pregnancy in San Francisco. My third y.a. book, which I’m writing right now, is set in South Africa and deals with H.I.V. and witchcraft. I guess you could say I like heavy topics. But I do try to infuse my books with humor. Kids are funny people. A book for teenagers that had no humor in it would be unrealistic.

Do you do other types of writing - for example, educational, nonfiction, magazine work?

I write book reviews and articles about publishing for New Pages (www.newpages.com). I also do some freelance work for various companies. It isn’t as fun as my fiction writing but it pays the bills.

What kinds of things inspire you to write?

I’m fascinated by the bizarre and the tragic. I like people who do desperate things in the face of evil. I like to write about flawed people who make a lot of mistakes when faced with life choices. I guess that means I like to write about real people who are sometimes heroic and sometimes tragically human.

What really triggers your imagination?

Other books! Also, the news. Stories about strange people who stand up for what they believe in against all odds.

Do you enjoy researching or do you prefer working totally from your imagination?

I really enjoy research because I love learning about the world and learning history. For example, right now, I’m writing a coming-of-age novel about an urban Zulu girl who becomes a traditional healer in her South African community. I am doing tons of research on traditional healing, witchcraft, Zulu culture, and other things. I LOVE that! However, I often wish I had all that knowledge already in my head so I could just spend that time writing creatively.

Do you work on more than one book at a time?

I usually focus on one book at a time, but I’ll be thinking about other books during that time period. If I find some information useful for another book, I’ll put it in a file to come back to later. But I do find that it helps to focus on one book at a time.

What are you working on now? When do you expect to start submitting it to publishers?

I’m working on a coming-of-age story set in South Africa where a young urban Zulu girl begins to become aware of her own sexuality at the same time her mother is dying of AIDS. She is desperate to find healing for her mother and so she begins to become very involved with a traditional healer that she knows through her grandmother. Ultimately, she becomes ill, which is the first step to becoming a traditional healer yourself. Zulu healers, it seems, believe you cannot heal unless you have been healed yourself. This concept of the “wounded healer” is one we can all learn from. I hope to have it finished by the end of November 2007.

Do you write every day and do you have set hours that you work?

I do try to write everyday, though some days, that’s impossible. I think it’s really important to have a routine. You can’t wait to write just when you “feel like it” because that doesn’t happen very often. I always “feel like it” after I’ve been writing for about an hour—so it helps just to set a daily schedule and stick to it.