Interview: Sarah Beth Durst

Sarah Beth Durst is the debut novelist of Into the Wild, a story filled with fairy tale characters and exciting adventures. Read my review here. To gear you up for its release next month, here's an interview I did with the author.

How did you get the idea for Into the Wild?

The idea for Into the Wild grew from two separate ideas that I’d been playing with in the back of my mind since high school:

1) What if a girl had a monster under her bed, and her mother knew about it?
2) If Rapunzel lived in the here and now, she would own a hair salon.

From there, I had the idea that the girl was Rapunzel’s daughter (whom I named Julie), and the monster was the essence of fairy tales (the Wild)… and the rest simply evolved over the course of 6,523 drafts to become:

Long ago, the fairy-tale characters escaped the fairy tale to live in secret in our world. But now the fairy tale wants its characters back, and it’s up to Julie to save them.

Tell us a little about your journey from getting the idea to obtaining a publisher.

It was a long journey fraught with many dragons and witches and large snowy mountains… Seriously, I have wanted to be a writer since I was ten years old, so it really has been a long journey. I majored in English in college, and after I graduated, I spent a year writing a novel. And then I sent out query letters with sample pages to editors and agents… And then I wrote another, and sent out more query letters… Rinse, lather, repeat.

I also attended lots of conventions to learn more about the process. I read lots of how-to books. I asked a lot of questions. I did a lot of research. But mostly, I didn’t give up. And eventually, the stars aligned.

Once I signed with my current agent (the magnificent Andrea Somberg), it was only six short weeks until I had multiple offers for Into the Wild. But the road leading to those six weeks took quite some time to travel. My advice to anyone who wants to be a writer is this: don’t give up. I think the secret ingredient to the journey from idea to publication is sheer, pig-headed stubbornness.

What is your writing process like?

I kind of build a novel from the inside out. First, I write a really bad first draft that is basically just a skeleton, so that I can see if all the bones fit together. If I like the shape of it, I add the muscles, then ligaments, and then the internal organs. 6,523 drafts later (give or take a few), I add the skin, hair, and other flourishes. By the time I’m done, you can’t see any of the words that went into that original skeleton, but it’s all there deep inside.

Into the Wild is dedicated to your daughter and mother. Have they read it? If so, what were their reactions?

Neither of them have read the final version. My mom read an early draft and loved it. But my daughter hasn’t read any of it. She has, however, chewed on several of the pages and thinks it’s a tasty tale. (Yes, she’s a toddler.)

What is your favorite fairy tale?

Beauty and the Beast. In most fairy tales, the hero and heroine barely say hi before they’re married. (Sleeping Beauty = he watches her nap. Snow White = she’s comatose in a coffin for the whole courtship. Cinderella = one date.) But Beauty and the Beast actually spend time together. I love that they truly fall in love.

Which character from Into the Wild did you connect with the most?

Gillian, Julie’s best friend. If the Wild transformed my town into a fairy-tale kingdom, I’d totally react like Gillian: “Oh! Wow! Cool!” Probably right up until the moment I got eaten by a wolf.

What are some of your favorite books?

Off the top of my head, I absolutely adore: Beauty by Robin McKinley, Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce, Jack the Giant-Killer by Charles de Lint, Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede, The Monsters of Morley Manor by Bruce Coville, The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper… OK, I have a lot of favorites. :)

What can readers expect from you next?

My next book will be out from Razorbill/Penguin in summer 2008. It’s, um, a novel with, um, characters who do cool stuff, set someplace cool. (I know, I know, that’s incredibly vague, but it’s still in-progress, and it feels weird to talk about it in any detail. Ask me again in a couple months.)

What do you like best about being a writer?

I think being a writer is the closest you can get in this world to being a wizard. Books cast spells. For at least the space of a few hours, they transport and transform you. I think that’s the best thing about being a writer: when you write, you touch magic.

Thank you so much, Sarah!