Cynthia Hand is the New York Times bestselling author of several books for teens, including the Unearthly trilogy, The Afterlife of Holly Chase, The Last Time We Say Goodbye, and My Lady Jane & My Plain Jane (with fellow authors Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows). She currently resides in Boise, Idaho, with her husband, who loves typewriters as much as she does, two cats, two kids, one crazy dog, and a mountain of books. Her latest novel is The How and The Why and she recently agreed to talk about it with Daryl Maxwell for the LAPL Blog.
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What was your inspiration for The How and The Why?
I was adopted when I was a baby, and when I was eighteen, with my parents' blessing, I searched for my birth mother. I never found her or even who she was, but it has remained an interesting and emotional part of my history. When I moved back to the Boise area, which is where I was born and where my birth mother lived at one of the Salvation Army homes for pregnant teens, that story started to stir inside of me again. I researched the Booth house (the home) and the more I found out, the more interested I became, not in just my own story, but anyone's—who'd lived in that place and had that experience. So the beginnings of an idea for a novel began to bubble up at that time.
Are Cass, Nyla, Bastian, S, or any of the other characters in the novel inspired by or based on specific individuals?
Not really. In some ways, Cass's experience is like mine. She's adopted, and so was I. She is a theater nerd in high school, and so was I. She has to pick between the same two colleges I chose between when I was a senior. But other than those few exterior facts, she was very much her own person, completely separate from me. Nyla and Bastian aren't based on people I know, exactly, but there are traces of several of my friends in both of them. S was more of an exercise in pure imagination: I could so easily imagine what it would be like to live at Booth and write letters to my unborn daughter.
How did the novel evolve and change as you wrote and revised it? Are there any characters or scenes that were lost in the process that you wish had made it to the published version?
My earliest draft of the novel was almost completely different when it came to Cass's story. In that draft, she was a college freshman on her own for the first time, and then she made the decision to search for her biological parents. Nyla was her new roommate and they really became friends through Cass's journey to find the answers. Bastian was a boy in her theater ensemble. There were a ton of scenes in that context that never made it to the final draft. I liked that version—in some ways, it was a simpler, cleaner story, because Cass didn't have as much back and forth with her parents and no agonizing over her future or her college plans. The current draft, though, allowed me to dig so much deeper into Cass' relationships—especially with her parents. With that change, it began a more heartfelt, emotionally complex story.
In the novel’s “Note From The Author” you state that you were adopted as an infant and that, despite a long search, you have not yet identified your birth mother. If you could talk to an eighteen-year-old that is considering beginning a search for their birth parents, what advice would you give them?
That's a tough one! I think I would warn my younger self about how emotionally-taxing it is to search and advise her to take care of herself and lean on other people. When I searched as an eighteen-year-old, I didn't really get anyone to help me, and I didn't talk about it with anyone. I was nervous to talk about it with my parents, because I didn't want to hurt them, and it was so emotional for me that I was a little embarrassed to talk to my friends about it, too. That time was needlessly lonely for me. I'm glad Cass has a much more active support system than I did.
What’s currently on your nightstand?
The Toll, by Neil Shusterman, which I am reading with my thirteen-year-old son, The Fountains of Silence, by Ruta Sepetys, and The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski, which is one of the Witcher novels. They are all very different reading experiences, but I am enjoying them all so much.
What was your favorite book when you were a child?
I was an avid reader. I devoured all of the Oz books, the Narnia series, The Dark Is Rising, and anything written by L.M. Montgomery, although the Emily books were my favorite. Another hugely influential novel was Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle.
Was there a book you felt you needed to hide from your parents?
I read a lot of Stephen King in fifth and sixth grade, which I knew my parents would not approve of. I remember specifically getting freaked out by Pet Sematary in the middle of the night and hiding it under my bed.
Can you name your top five favorite or most influential authors?
- L.M. Montgomery
- Harper Lee—she was the first author I read in which I understood what she was doing as "art" with her words
- Flannery O'Connor—taught me how to write about place
- Margaret Atwood—taught me so much about character and tension
- Carrie Ryan—wrote one of the first YA novels I fell in love with and contributed to me falling in love with YA as a genre
What is a book you've faked reading?
Ulysses. I was in a James Joyce class in college, which I loved. I adored his stories most of all. But Ulysses was such a slog to get through—I have to have a book open on either side of it as I read, one to understand the historical references and the other to understand what the words actually meant. I gave up early on and winged a paper on it without having read more than the first fifty pages. I will say that I got an A.
Can you name a book you've bought for the cover?
An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson. I thought the cover was simply lovely, but it turned out the book was even better than the cover. I am a huge fan of Margaret Rogerson now.
Is there a book that changed your life?
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. Reading this book made me think about writing my own young adult paranormal novel, which led to my first published book, Unearthly. I've heard that from so many other young adult writers, as well.
Can you name a book for which you are an evangelist (and you think everyone should read)?
- Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein.
- Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. It's just a book unlike any other I've ever read.
- Peter and the Starcatchers by Ridley Pearson and Dave Barry. Best middle-grade series ever.
- The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin. This got me reading adult fantasy again.
Is there a book you would most want to read again for the first time?
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. It was pretty much the perfect reading experience. Or, from way back, The Princess Bride. What a gift that book is to the world.
What is your idea of THE perfect day (where you could go anywhere/meet with anyone)?
I've been writing a book set in Hawaii, so lately I've been imagining a perfect day in Hawaii with my family—no phones, no work, no electronics, just swimming and reading in beach chairs and spending unhurried time together.
What is the question that you’re always hoping you’ll be asked, but never have been? What is your answer?
People often ask me how I became a writer, but they never ask me WHY I became a writer. I was pre-law in college, set to become a lawyer, and made a deliberate choice in my junior year to become a writer, even though I knew it would probably never lead to the financial stability and prestige of being a lawyer. I chose to be a writer because I had stories inside of me that I needed to get out, but also because I feel like I had things to say to contribute to the conversations of the world: thoughts and ideas that I wanted to share.
What are you working on now?
I am revising my next solo novel, With You All The Way, which is about a girl on vacation with her family in Hawaii who is forced to redefine what her family really means to her. That will be out in the spring of 2021. I'm also revising the first novel in the Mary series, My Contrary Mary, which I write with my co-authors Jodi Meadows and Brodi Ashton, about Mary Queen of Scots (out June 2021). And I'm doing pass pages for My Calamity Jane (also with Meadows and Ashton) which will be on the shelves wherever books are sold on June 2, 2020.
