EXTRA CREDIT INTERVIEW WITH TAMRA WIGHT:

Visiting LitPick today for an Extra Credit interview is author Tamra Wight. Tamra lives in Poland, Maine, where she runs the Poland Spring Campground with her husband and two children. Every summer at the campground, she meets interesting families from all over the world. During the school year, she works as a teaching assistant at Whittier Middle School.  When Tamra isn't writing, she enjoys wildlife watching, hiking, geocaching, kayaking, power-walking and snowshoeing; most of these she does with her faithful lab, Cookie.

Tamra is the author of the Cooper & Packrat series of books published by Islandport Press. Book 1: Mystery on Pine Lake, Book 2: Mystery of the Eagle’s Nest, and Book 3: Mystery of the Missing Fox, which is due for release April 26th!

Do you have a solid outline before writing, or do you usually get ideas as you go along?

I'm a writer who needs a master plan before I get started. The first step in my process is to write a couple sentences of plot for each chapter, making sure I have a beginning, middle and end, characters who serve a purpose, and varied settings for interest. 

That all said, at some point deep in the writing of the story I'll ask myself, "What would Cooper do now?" and his answer will not be in my carefully constructed master plan. I'm stubborn, so I'll try to plow through with the original idea anyway. Cooper will resist. The words won't come, and I'll reluctantly go back to where I got stuck in the first place, only to realize Cooper's way would be more work but would make a better story.

I'll know when this happens, because I hear a soft, "Told ya so," in my head.

For example, in book two, Mystery of the Eagle's Nest, I'd written in a girl named Summer as a minor, interesting character. The scenes with her kept growing and growing, and I quickly realized her secret was way too big for that storyline. It barely went along with the eagle mystery! I cut lots and lots of words, trying to squeeze her in, determined to keep her, but it wasn't working. I finally had to give up and admit I had too many characters and too many layers to the story. I pulled Summer and her secret out and put her in Mystery of the Missing Fox.

And this time I heard two voices say, "Told ya."

Has someone you knew ever appeared as a character in a book (consciously or subconsciously)?

I get asked that quite often by readers of all ages. They want to know if Cooper is my son. Or if the loon hating camper really came to my campground. But honestly, the only character that is NOT completely made up, is Mom. She is me. Exaggerated a little, sure. But her coffee mug with the loon on it, her worry-wart character trait (over Cooper and Molly's safety), her sarcasm, her love for her kids and husband . . . that's totally me. 

The rest of the characters are a mix of descriptions and character traits I've picked up here and there.   Take Mr. Beakman –  I mean Bakeman.  The idea of his large nose came from a cartoon drawing I'd seen online. His dislike of the loons, but not the reason behind it, was created after a friend explained how nervous her kids would get while swimming when the loons came too near. (Their beaks are long and sharp, you know!  Especially when you're at their level.)  And Mr. Bakeman's grumpiness toward the boys is just a grumpy trait off the list of traits I give my middle school writing students. 

I think building a character piece by piece is a lot of fun.

What do you do when you get writer's block?

I wish I could say laundry and dishes, because at least I'd have a clean house! But no, my favorite way to get rid of writer's block is to grab my camera and head for the hiking trails on my property, or to climb into my kayak and paddle out onto the lake in search of new inspiration.

As I've begun the rough draft for Cooper's fourth adventure, I've been monitoring the fox den on our property. It's just about time for the first fox kit to appear from the den. To be sure I won't stress the fox family, I sit under my blind, which is just a camouflage cloth with a mesh window to look through and a sleeve for the camera to poke through. I sit as still and quiet as I can, hoping for an adult fox to come or go or for a kit to peek out. But I've also discovered the sitting still part is good for my writer's mind . . . it wanders and plans and dreams up ideas without those pesky piles of laundry calling my name.

If you could live in a book's world, which would you choose?

That's easy!  Little House on the Prairie.  The whole series, actually! I used to go deep into the woods behind my house, to sit in a tree that bent backward in such a way it was like sitting on a recliner. While the brook babbled to my left and the birds chirped above, I fell in love with Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family. I could pretend I was in Walnut Grove, Minnesota. I wanted to milk cows and make cheese from scratch. I wanted to hear Pa play his fiddle. I'd long to stand side by side with her as she faced Nellie at the General Store.

That time period and the family's challenges in it seemed so different from my own, yet similar too.  Especially when it came to the strong family bond they had, which helped them through the locusts and the blizzards and the death of her brother.

What is your favorite book-to-movie adaptation?

This is such a tough question. I skipped ahead and answered all the others first. Honestly, there haven't been many adaptations I've loved.  The first Harry Potter was pretty good.  As was The Hobbit, Hunger Games and Chronicles of Narnia.  Holes comes to mind, too. And while I liked them all, none of them stands out as a favorite. I have a theory about this.

I tend to dream vividly, in color, with lots of detail and emotion. And I remember those dreams, and how I felt "in" them, sometimes for days. When I read, it's much the same, the words and the images they create stay with me for a very long time. So when I see the movie, even though I try really hard to watch with a clean screen and no expectations, it's hard to do with my favorites. 

There is one I'm hopeful for.  I've been seeing snippets of movie trailers for a little while now. And every snippet falls very close to the movie in my mind created by both the original novel (by Donn Fendler) and then the graphic novel, (Lost Trail, by Lynn Plourde, Donn Fendler and Ben Bishop).  I can't wait for Lost On A Mountain in Maine.

If you could have lunch with one other author (dead or alive!), who would it be?

And now I'm back to Laura Ingalls Wilder. What I wouldn't give to sit and have tea with her. A camper of mine visited her home years ago and brought back a bookmark with Laura's portrait on it. It hangs over my writing desk still. 

I imagine Mrs. Wilder and I having tea at a table in a garden, and I'd ask what compelled her to write about her own adventures, later in her own life, her first book being published at the age of 65!  I'd ask if she'd had more time, what story would she have told next? Then I'd sit back, sip tea, and only listen as she told me. 

Wild Card Question: The photographs on your website are beautiful! We know you have taken all the pictures yourself. Do you have a favorite picture, and do you have a story you would like to tell us about any of the pictures? Maybe you got a great picture the first time you tried one of them, or maybe you spent an incredibly long time trying to get the perfect shot and ended up with a great picture, but not the one you were expecting, for example.

You'll think this is a lead in to plugging Mystery of the Missing Fox, but I swear it's my favorite wildlife story. 

Last thing I do before going out on the trails or to kayak, is to pop into my husband's office to say, "Be right back!"

He always jokingly replies, "See you in a couple hours."

And yes, sometimes my half hour turns into two.

Okay, a lot of times.

One day, late in April 2013, I put a lasagna in the oven and said, "Be right back!"

My husband said, "Now? But your Mom and Dad are on their way for supper!"  I assured him I'd only be ten minutes, because I was going straight to my trail cam and back to switch out the memory card.

You see, there was this hole in a hill, and it looked like it'd been dug out recently because the dirt was fresh on the shelf outside it. I'd been wicked curious to see what lived there, so weeks ago I attached a trail camera to a tree and pointed it towards that hole. Up until this day, the camera had only picked up video of a skunk, fisher, fox and coyote walking by, but not going in.  I needed to know what lived there, so I'd left it another week.

This day, as I opened the camera to pull out the memory card, I heard a rustling sound on the banking behind me. I froze. Of course, my writer's mind went right to the fisher. Or the skunk. Instead, what I found was a curious set of black eyes looking out at me from the den. Fox kits! 

You guessed it - I was very late for supper. Luckily, both my husband and parents are very forgiving, because they know what a nature geek I am. They even let me babble away over the slightly overdone lasagna, on how I would use those adorable kits in Cooper & Packrat’s third adventure. 

Now three years later, on April 26^th, almost to the exact day I found that one adorable kit staring back at me from its den, Mystery of the Missing Fox is being released at an amazing book launch in Poland, Maine. We're going to have fox face painting, campsite and lake scene photo booths, origami fox bookmarks, an ice cream truck, illustrator and author presentations, and much more!  You can find all the details on my website, www.tamrawight.com.  Come join in the fun!

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Tamra, what a great interview! We agree that hiking and kayaking sound like a much better way to combat writer’s block than doing laundry and dishes. We love the story you shared about finding the fox kits in the den! Talk about inspiration for a story! Congratulations on the release of Mystery of the Missing Fox!

 

 

SIX MINUTES WITH TAMRA WIGHT:

Stopping by to participate in LitPick’s Six Minutes with an Author interview is Tamra Wight. Tamra is not only an author, but she is a campground owner and middle school teaching assistant! Tamra is that author of the middle-grade eco-adventure series Cooper and Packrat. Book 1 is Mystery on Pine Lake, book 2 is Mystery of the Eagle’s Nest and book 3, Mystery of the Missing Fox, is due for publication in April 2016.

How did you get started writing?

For as long as I can remember, I've loved to write. I was that kid in class, you know, the annoying one who practically jumps for joy when the teacher assigns a book report or a writing prompt. I penned short stories for fun, poetry when I was sad, and wrote in my little locked diary constantly.

It wasn't until my daughter was born in 1989 and I began to revisit the children's books I loved as a child, that I decided I wanted to try my hand at writing with the goal of being published. 

It took time to achieve that goal. Writing and rewriting and rewriting again, I plodded on until I'd learned the art of storytelling. I took classes and attended conferences. After ten years, Bloomsbury Publishing published The Three Grumpies (illustrated by Ross Collins) in 2003.  But unfortunately, I couldn't find homes for my other picture book manuscripts. So I went back to experimenting, trying new genres, new subject matter.  I attended conferences. Joined critique groups. Over the next ten years, I almost stopped writing twice. I remember putting the manuscripts in a dark drawer, only to wonder if my big chance was around the next corner. So I told myself that I'd put everything I had into writing this next new idea that was so close to my heart, and if I hit the age of 50 without selling a second book, I'd put down the writing for good. Put my energy into something new.

Five months before my 50^th birthday, Melissa Kim at Islandport Press in Yarmouth, Maine called to tell me how much she'd enjoyed reading my Maine-based manuscript, “Cooper and Packrat: Mystery On Pine Lake”  Not only that, but she asked the question, "Have you thought of turning this into a series?"

I tell this story over and over when talking to student and adult writers. The lesson here is to keep learning and growing. Experiment. Write what you know. Write from the heart. As long as you still love the words, don't stop writing. You never know where it might lead you.

Who influenced you?

In looking back, there wasn't just one person who influenced me as a reader and writer, but a community of them. Our local librarian who knew me by name, and my reading preferences. My teachers along the way, too many to count, who drove my love of reading and writing up a notch at every turn. And my Grandma Piehl, who was given a complete set of gently used Bobbsey Twins books, and in turn, gave them to me. I thought I was in heaven, getting so very many books all at once! I read each one multiple times.

My parents, though, were the most supportive of my reading and writing endeavors. When I was a young girl in the 70's, books weren't bought to keep at home as often as they were borrowed from the library. Yet my parents never said no when I came home from school waving the book club order form. I'd circle ten books. They'd tell me to choose two, and I usually managed to wheedle three out of them. Then there was the Christmas I received a gray, metal desk, with a folding chair and a typewriter of my very own. It became my pride and joy. My special place to write, type and do homework.  

When it comes to my writing specifically, I believe a combination of the mystery in the Bobbsey Twins, as well as the family togetherness theme of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie books, helped to inspire Cooper and Packrat.

Do you have a favorite book/subject/character/setting?

You'll find all the genres scattered throughout my house. It's hard to pin down just one favorite. When I was young, I'd climb into the highest branches of the big, old maple tree on our front lawn, crawl under my covers with a flashlight or hike deep into the woods, bringing with me The Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, Little House on the Prairie, The Summer of the Swans, Tuck Everlasting, The Witch of Blackbird Pond and Are You There God, It's Me Margaret, to name a few. 

Lately though, the genre I seem to gravitate toward is action adventure. I'm reading The Blood Guard by Carter Roy to my students and The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare for myself.

What advice do you have for someone who wants to be an author?

Read everything you can get your hands on. In all genres. Study the books you love. What made the plot compelling?  What made that character great?   Write often. And don't be afraid to rewrite. And rewrite and rewrite if need be.

At Bruce Whittier Middle School where I teach, a colleague and I started an after school critique group for students. Each author brings a piece of work and has up to 10 minutes to read. Then they can only listen, as we go around the table giving specific feedback on things we liked and things which need tweaking. This is modeled after my own in-person adult critique group, and has been invaluable to me as an author.

Know, too, that writing can be a long process. Some days, I feel as if I second-guess every word and writing decision, especially when it comes to plot. When I see this happening, I deal with it by taking a long walk and giving myself a pep talk. "Just plow through," I say. "Can't see if it will work until you write it!"  Then I remind myself that if it all turns out badly, I can fix anything and everything in the next revision.

Where is your favorite place to write?

It depends on what stage I'm in.  When I'm in the beginning stages with researching or jotting down ideas, I'm usually at the kitchen table with my laptop and a crisp, clean, empty notebook by my side. This way, I can talk to my family as they pass through and keep tabs on what's happening while I work.

When I dig into the actual writing, I sit at my secretary desk in a little room in our house. I'm surrounded by loon sculptures and my wildlife photos. I'll have my laptop of course, and a couple different notebooks by my side, along with a cup of hot, steaming, loose leaf tea. 

Between drafts, I always read the manuscript through, beginning to end in one giant sitting, before I send it out to a trusted friend for a critique. After rewriting based on their comments, I read it aloud to myself again before sending it to my editor Melissa at Islandport. At these stages, I like to print a copy of the manuscript, put it in a binder and curl up with it on a comfy couch in my office, with a footstool, markers, my favorite blanket. And that cup of tea.

All that said though, I can and will write anywhere if a deadline is looming. Once, I wrote in the back of our car on our way to a family function! Three and a half hours down, three and a half hours back – that's a lot of revision time! 

What else would you like to tell us?

Writing the Cooper and Packrat series has taken my love of wildlife and turned it into a photography obsession. My family owns a campground on beautiful Lower Range Pond in Maine, which is home to loons, heron, eagles, muskrat, beaver, turtles and more. Wildlife watching is what inspired the series, and my first-hand research from the lake's shorelines and my kayak, makes its way into every book. 

In fact, the third book, Mystery of the Missing Fox (April 2016) was originally supposed to be about bears. Then one day in April 2013, I told my husband I was going for a quick walk to grab the memory card from my trail camera. There was this hole in a hill I'd been watching, with a newly made dirt shelf.  I was sooooo curious to see what lived there. So I attached a trail camera to a tree and pointed it at the hole. Up to that day, the camera had picked up photos of a skunk, fisher, fox, and coyote walking by, but not going in.

As I opened the camera, I heard a sound behind me at the hole. I froze. Of course, my writer mind went right to the fisher. Or the skunk. Instead, what I found was adorable, curious fox kits peering out at me. I just knew they had to be a part of the next Cooper and Packrat adventure!

 

Tamra Wight lives in Poland, Maine, where she runs the Poland Spring Campground with her husband and two children. Every summer, at the campground, she meets interesting families from all over the world. During the school year, she works as a teaching assistant at Whittier Middle School.  When Tamra isn't writing, she enjoys wildlife watching, hiking, geocaching, kayaking, power-walking and snowshoeing; most of these she does with her faithful lab, Cookie.

Tamra, thank you very much for spending six minutes with LitPick! Thank you for sharing your path to the publication of your second book, the first in the Cooper and Packrat series. You have inspired many people with that story.

We are looking forward to Mystery of the Missing Fox in 2016!