YABC Teen Read Week: Mindy McGinnis →

ABC:   What book or books were your go-to choice when you were a teen?

YA as we know it didn't exist when I was a teen, so I went straight from middle grade books to Stephen King. Learned a lot, real fast.

ABC:  What do you love most about the YA genre?

What I love most about writing for teens is the constant possibilities. Adults tend to lead somewhat static lives, usually moving in the same schedule and staying within the same social circles. Teenage live is much more volatile, for the good and the bad.

YABC:   What 3 YA books would you love to recommend to our readers?

MONDAY'S NOT COMING by Tiffany D. Jackson

ANGER IS A GIFT by Mark Oshiro

THE WEIGHT OF FEATHERS by Anne Marie McLemore

The InkBlotters: This Darkness Mine

Mindy McGinnis has been delivering badass (sometimes unlikeable) but definitely strong female protagonists since her early works. This Darkness Mine is no different from her previous novels in that regard. Sasha Stone is the epitome of perfection: first chair clarinet player, straight-A student, and also comes equipped with a “perfect” boyfriend who’s handsome, well-dressed, and doesn’t pressure her into sex. All of this slowly begins to erode once bad-boy Isaac Harver enters the scene. Soon, she begins to feel feelings towards him that she never did and recalling events she’s never taken part of. Or has she?

Some light begins to shed when we find out that Sasha had a twin that she ultimately ended up absorbing whilst in the womb (known as Shanna). Unlike Sasha, this twin despises control and perfection and begins to wreck havoc into her life once she starts to take over Sasha’s psyche. But is Shanna real or merely a figment of Sasha’s imagination?

The book flirts with the notion of unreliable narrator, much like Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan did with Natalie Portman’s character. Is what is happening real or is it all just a sign of Sasha’s ultimate madness?

McGinnis breathes life into the “dead twin” Shanna, allowing her to be the personification of Freud’s ID (meaning being a person who only lives for their own passions and don’t allow their brain to control their emotions). Sasha on the other hand is Freud’s EGO end of this yin-yang duo, the brain and captain of the ship. But what happens when the emotion-driven Shanna takes reins of the situation and how will that effect Sasha’s “perfect” world?

This book isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s dark. It’s gritty. It’s gory. (Yes, I L-O-V-E-D it!). And just when you think you know where it’s leading you, you’re completely blindsided by yet again another improvised detour that will leave you questioning your own sanity and judgment. McGinnis delivers a punch to the gut with her sharp writing and often ruthless character interactions.

So take the plunge, cause it’s one hell of a crazy ride.

Short Q & A With the Author:

When I started reading This Darkness Mine I realized that the book was based off of the short story that appeared in Among The Shadows, entitled Phantom Heart. When did you decide to further explore Sasha’s world and what was it about this character that compelled you to do that?

Great question, thanks for noticing! Yes, DARKNESS is based on my short, “Phantom Heart.” Originally, I had no intention of taking this any further. Then my fellow editors for Among The Shadows – Demitria Lunetta and Kate Karyus Quinn – insisted that there was a whole novel there. I wasn’t sure, but I pitched the idea to my editor at Harper Collins, who was like – Yes! Write it!

Sasha Stone is the typical overachiever. Do you think that her mental illness derives from expecting perfection out of herself and the pressures that come along with that, or does she suffer from multiple personality disorder?

I worked in a public school for 15 years, and I always thought it was interesting how black and white rules and programs were. Drugs are bad. Sex is bad. Smoking is bad. Period. In some ways, we’re telling the kids that even curiosity about our “darker” inclinations are plain wrong, and need to be smothered, not investigated. Perfection is impossible, yet many strive for it. I wondered what would happen if you took an already strained teen, trying to be the “good” kid, and had her repulsed even by any interest in doing “bad” things. Would she be able to accept that such urges can be normal? Or is that so far outside of what we’ve taught her is “good” that she has to come up with an alternative explanation?

For many years I’ve been very fascinated with the creepy phenomenon of Fetus in Fetu, where a twin ends up absorbing the other twin in the womb, and in some cases doctors have later found the missing twin inside of the living twin, usually mistaken for a tumor later on in life. When did you become interested in this strange phenomenon?

It’s actually not a rare event, it’s something that usually goes completely unnoticed. I can’t remember the first time I ever heard of it, because it is pretty pervasive in pop culture, but I did have a student years and years ago who had absorbed his twin. It’s something I collected in my lint trap of a brain, and it became paired in my mind with the mirror therapy that they use for phantom limb syndrome, which is how “Phantom Heart” came about.

In the novel, Sasha is a clarinet player. Were you ever in band in high school and how did that help with writing the novel from a musician’s point of view?

You bet!!! Trombone since 4th grade!!! I tell everyone this is my band geek book. I also took piano lessons throughout most of my childhood, so music has always been a part of my life as both a consumer and a producer. This was a chance to work that into a book.

This novel was exceptionally dark. It explored the trials of mental illness as well as what it means to be a successful girl. Which actress could you see in the role of Sasha if this were to be made into a movie?

Oh, I have no idea. I don’t ever do any fan casting.

(Editor note: I asked that question because I could totally see Emma Roberts portraying stone-cold crazy bitch Sasha to perfection.)

I often use music to get into a certain mood depending what scenes I’m writing. Since your novel was about a girl who was obsessed with music, did you use music as a way to aid you in the writing of this book? And which music/artist/or song did you listen to when immersing yourself into Sasha’s world?

I actually don’t listen to music when I’m writing because while it can be helpful to get you into one mood, it can also end up controlling you mood so that when you need to flip to something else when you change scenes it can be hard. Instead I have a white noise app that I keep on while I’m writing. It’s a back ground noise that lets my creativity be in control, not someone else’s.

An Afternoon with Mindy McGinnis

1. Hi Mindy! You’ve participated in both previous OAAA events, what have you been up to in the last year?

Everything, everything! I quit my day job to become a full time writer, which I don’t regret, but it does make financial life tighter than previously. I’ve been branching out to find other avenues for my creativity to see if they can be valid for revenue.

2. I am a big fan of your podcast, can you tell us a little bit about it and why you wanted to do one?

Oh, thank you! The podcast is something I’ve been wanting to do for awhile. I listen to them while on the treadmill, and often the content is good, but heavily editing is needed. I also notice that hosts don’t know when to stop talking and give the floor to their guest. I figured I could probably do one as good as what’s out there, and with my own background in publishing, it could be a good resource for aspiring writers.

So I went for it, not fully understanding the amount of work I was giving myself over to. I edit heavily, taking out all the things I hate to hear as a podcast listener – filler words, pauses, digressions. Most of the work comes in with me finding “um, like, you know” cutting them, then stitching audio back together. I put in about half an hour of work for every minute of airtime.

Right now it’s getting decent downloads and I do have the occasional donation (it’s crowd funded). I decided I would do it for a year, regardless of my time input, and see if I’m at least covering expenses at the end of that year.

3. What’s it like hopping back and forth between genres, from fantasy to contemporary and back!

I love jumping genres! I read widely, so my mind wanders to a wide array of stories. I’ve had a fantasy in me for 15 years, at least, but I was intimidated by it and wasn’t sure if I could execute it. When I decided to try, I did indeed find that fantasy is the hardest genre to write (that I’ve attempted). 

But I love to write all different kinds of stories, and if my readers will follow me from genre to genre, that’s wonderful!

4. What is the one bit of advice you wish you’d had before you got into publishing?

Don’t expect anything. We have this idea of red carpets and big money and hordes of social media followers. The truth is you can have 3 NYT Bestselling authors at a signing and only five people show up. Usually two of them are related to one of the authors. 

5. If you could say one thing to the 2013 version of yourself just before the release of DRINK what would it be?

Pack less. Check nothing. Only carry-ons, always.

6. Your next release is GIVEN TO THE SEA, what made you want to write a book that was so different from everything else you’ve published?

That story had been in me for awhile. I grew up on fantasies – Narnia, LOTR, The Last Unicorn, Flight of Dragons. This is my jam, or at least, one of them. So naturally a story set in that genre took hold at one point in my life, and I’d been looking for a way to get it out ever since.

7. Can you tell us a little bit about GIVEN?

It’s set on a small island continent that all of the four reigning cultures believe is the only land that exists. Then they discover that the seas are rising – and will not stop. So of course they are all immediately like, well, crap, we need to make sure we survive the longest so whoever has the most land wins. Let’s go kill everyone who isn’t us.

8. You have another book releasing this year, THIS DARKNESS MINE, how  has having 2 releases this year been different?

It’s a constant work schedule. At one point I was working on four different projects that were at different levels of completion. FPP’s (first pass pages) for one, an edit letter for another, drafting a third book that was contracted, and putting together a proposal for a fourth that I hope I can sell. 

9. Can you tell us anything more about THIS DARKNESS MINE?

It’s a contemporary psychological thriller where my MC, Sasha, is a very Type A “good” girl. She’s always done the right thing, but suddenly is having exploratory inclinations towards things like sex and drugs, and doesn’t understand why. She finds an ultrasound that shows she was supposed to have been a twin, and convinces herself that her twin – Shanna – was the “bad” twin, and she absorbed Shanna’s heart, which is now trying to place some claim on her life. Shortly after this discovery she begins to get communications from Shanna. So the question is – is she right, or is she crazy?