| Interview with Siobhan Dowd |
First off, thanks so much for joining us for an up-close and personal interview for TeensReadToo.com! My
name is Jen, and I’ll be your server toda…oh, wait, wrong job! Anyway, thanks so much for taking time out
of your writing schedule—which I’m sure is busy!—and answering a few questions for your readers and fans.
Let’s get some of the typical interview questions out of the way first. When did you first know that you
wanted to be a writer?
When I was seven and wrote a very hoaky poem to the robin perched on our apple tree…The resolution
hardened when I was ten and wrote a “holey” story about a certain innkeeper’s daughter in Bethlehem…
Well. From unpromising beginnings…
Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?
I started out in the editorial departments of two publishing houses, but that side of the business just wasn’t
for me. I was too jealous of the wonderful writers that used to sail into those offices – people like Salman
Rushdie, Kurt Vonnegut… So I found work with PEN, the writers’ organization, and had a long career there,
spanning two decades and two continents, writing and researching reports, campaign materials and articles
about human rights. Aged 37, I returned from living in New York to my hometown, London, with an adult MS
I’d been penning for years. I did a master’s degree and set up a program in England bringing writers and
their books to underprivileged and struggling readers in schools, prisons and community centres.
Something about this work inspired me to return to my original aim, which was to write for children. I did –
and my first short story was published in Skindeep (Penguin, 2004). The editor of this anthology, Tony
Bradman, very kindly showed my story to his agent, with the result that suddenly I had an agent – but no
novel. So I got writing. My first finished novel The London Eye Mystery is actually being published second
(ie in June this year over here in England). After that I wrote A Swift Pure Cry. After a slow start, with a
hundred pages of a story that just wouldn’t take hold, I took out one page of the writing and abandoned the
rest. The page that I took out became page 94 of the new book. And the other 305 surrounding pages were
written in just over three months.
Tell us a little bit about either your latest or upcoming release. If you could only tell your readers one thing
about the story that had to convince us to buy the book, what would it be?
The book contains explicit, lurid sex scenes… only joking! I guess I could honestly say I wrote that book
(A Swift Pure Cry) as if it were the last thing I had to say before dying. If you love family, drama, mystery,
bravery, smiling through tears, having your heart broken and put back together again, this is for you. Not
that I’m boastful or anything.
What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?
My amazing husband, Geoff, who is an accordion-playing librarian from Wales. There is a bit of him in every
story I write and he is always my first but kindest critic. I always read my work aloud to him as a final check
before sending it off to my agent.
Let’s hear about your family, who I’m sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!
My family is gargantuan. My father was one of 14, my mother was one of six and I have 72 first cousins and
innumerable second cousins. Frankly, it is worth any publisher’s time publishing me because of the sheer
number of copies sold to my family alone. My mother and father were both Irish. We had a tumbledown
cottage in County Waterford to which we would repair for long, glorious summers (it must have rained a lot,
being Ireland, but somehow memory always paints a sunny picture). I loved my Irish cousins dearly and we
played long and complex games in the fields, the trees, the yards, with the animals. We were given a lot of
independence and freedom. This meant twisted ankles, bee stings, and some very naughty pranks but that
freedom is something I fear many children do not enjoy today’s more suspicious world.
Now for some fun facts. What’s your greatest comfort food?
Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate. Oh, and I make a GREAT omelet when the cupboard is bare of –
chocolate.
What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?
Turn off the alarm, roll over and go back to sleep.
If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what’s the one thing that would surprise
me the most?
The mousetrap (basement). The Donna Karan see-through black linen 1994 knee-length jacket (closet).
The dirth of books (attic/study where I work).
Everyone asks the question about “if you could be a tree, which tree would you be?” so I want to know: If
you could be a color, which color would it be, and why?
Colour: Don't know --does Chameleon count? Tree, I do know: a yew.
Who is your favorite cartoon character? Which cartoon character is most like you?
The horse in 101 Dalmatians. I even sound like him when I sneeze.
If you could beam yourself to anywhere in the world (“Beam me up, Scotty!”), during any time in history,
where and when would it be—and why?
I would beam myself to the baptismal font in London in 1951 where my parents first met as the Godparents
to their mutual friends' baby. I've always hankered to understand the world from their perspective, before
they met, before they became parents or even spouses. What drew them together? I would find this more
fascinating than observing strangers, however famous. (That said, I would mind being at the first
performance of Beethoven's Fifth symphony as well.) I'm not drawn to the future: I'm too cowardly for that.
So what’s your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while
you’re writing?
I find Bach's Goldberg Variations very centering when I'm preparing to write (I spend more time preparing to
write than writing most days.) Irish traditional music ( the band "Planxty" in particular) helps we when I'm
writing about Ireland. Recently, I've been hooked on the original Imagine album by John Lennon, as one of
my characters in my current novel (set in 1981, the year after John Lennon's killing) is obsessed by some of
the tracks.
Do you have any favorite T.V. shows? Movies you watch over and over again? What was the last movie you
saw at the theater?
I saw The Science of Sleep, a quirky, visual, adorable movie. No one favourite movie, although I love To
Have or Have Not, a classic Boghart/Bacall movie. My, a fabulous pair they were. My favourite TV show is
BBC's covering of election night. Alas that this only happens once every 4 years!
You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?
I'm useless at advice. But try this: You should only ever marry someone if you absolutely can't bear not to
marry them.
One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?
The London Eye Mystery (June 07 in UK, forthcoming in the US), a story about a boy who goes up the
London Eye but doesn't come down… it is up to his cousins Ted and Kat to solve the mystery of his
disappearance… and then a follow-up, which will take place in New York City. It is a new series for 9- to 12-
readers but I hope teens and others will give it a gleeful go! My next teen read is Solace of the Road
(January 08 in UK, not sure when in US), a kind of Jack Kerouac meets Jacqueline Wilson tale, about a girl
in foster care who takes to the road, with calamitous results. And I am currently writing an eerie thriller
based on the north/south border of Ireland called Bog Child. It's scaring the hell out of me anyway…
Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!
name is Jen, and I’ll be your server toda…oh, wait, wrong job! Anyway, thanks so much for taking time out
of your writing schedule—which I’m sure is busy!—and answering a few questions for your readers and fans.
Let’s get some of the typical interview questions out of the way first. When did you first know that you
wanted to be a writer?
When I was seven and wrote a very hoaky poem to the robin perched on our apple tree…The resolution
hardened when I was ten and wrote a “holey” story about a certain innkeeper’s daughter in Bethlehem…
Well. From unpromising beginnings…
Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?
I started out in the editorial departments of two publishing houses, but that side of the business just wasn’t
for me. I was too jealous of the wonderful writers that used to sail into those offices – people like Salman
Rushdie, Kurt Vonnegut… So I found work with PEN, the writers’ organization, and had a long career there,
spanning two decades and two continents, writing and researching reports, campaign materials and articles
about human rights. Aged 37, I returned from living in New York to my hometown, London, with an adult MS
I’d been penning for years. I did a master’s degree and set up a program in England bringing writers and
their books to underprivileged and struggling readers in schools, prisons and community centres.
Something about this work inspired me to return to my original aim, which was to write for children. I did –
and my first short story was published in Skindeep (Penguin, 2004). The editor of this anthology, Tony
Bradman, very kindly showed my story to his agent, with the result that suddenly I had an agent – but no
novel. So I got writing. My first finished novel The London Eye Mystery is actually being published second
(ie in June this year over here in England). After that I wrote A Swift Pure Cry. After a slow start, with a
hundred pages of a story that just wouldn’t take hold, I took out one page of the writing and abandoned the
rest. The page that I took out became page 94 of the new book. And the other 305 surrounding pages were
written in just over three months.
Tell us a little bit about either your latest or upcoming release. If you could only tell your readers one thing
about the story that had to convince us to buy the book, what would it be?
The book contains explicit, lurid sex scenes… only joking! I guess I could honestly say I wrote that book
(A Swift Pure Cry) as if it were the last thing I had to say before dying. If you love family, drama, mystery,
bravery, smiling through tears, having your heart broken and put back together again, this is for you. Not
that I’m boastful or anything.
What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?
My amazing husband, Geoff, who is an accordion-playing librarian from Wales. There is a bit of him in every
story I write and he is always my first but kindest critic. I always read my work aloud to him as a final check
before sending it off to my agent.
Let’s hear about your family, who I’m sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!
My family is gargantuan. My father was one of 14, my mother was one of six and I have 72 first cousins and
innumerable second cousins. Frankly, it is worth any publisher’s time publishing me because of the sheer
number of copies sold to my family alone. My mother and father were both Irish. We had a tumbledown
cottage in County Waterford to which we would repair for long, glorious summers (it must have rained a lot,
being Ireland, but somehow memory always paints a sunny picture). I loved my Irish cousins dearly and we
played long and complex games in the fields, the trees, the yards, with the animals. We were given a lot of
independence and freedom. This meant twisted ankles, bee stings, and some very naughty pranks but that
freedom is something I fear many children do not enjoy today’s more suspicious world.
Now for some fun facts. What’s your greatest comfort food?
Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate. Oh, and I make a GREAT omelet when the cupboard is bare of –
chocolate.
What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?
Turn off the alarm, roll over and go back to sleep.
If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what’s the one thing that would surprise
me the most?
The mousetrap (basement). The Donna Karan see-through black linen 1994 knee-length jacket (closet).
The dirth of books (attic/study where I work).
Everyone asks the question about “if you could be a tree, which tree would you be?” so I want to know: If
you could be a color, which color would it be, and why?
Colour: Don't know --does Chameleon count? Tree, I do know: a yew.
Who is your favorite cartoon character? Which cartoon character is most like you?
The horse in 101 Dalmatians. I even sound like him when I sneeze.
If you could beam yourself to anywhere in the world (“Beam me up, Scotty!”), during any time in history,
where and when would it be—and why?
I would beam myself to the baptismal font in London in 1951 where my parents first met as the Godparents
to their mutual friends' baby. I've always hankered to understand the world from their perspective, before
they met, before they became parents or even spouses. What drew them together? I would find this more
fascinating than observing strangers, however famous. (That said, I would mind being at the first
performance of Beethoven's Fifth symphony as well.) I'm not drawn to the future: I'm too cowardly for that.
So what’s your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while
you’re writing?
I find Bach's Goldberg Variations very centering when I'm preparing to write (I spend more time preparing to
write than writing most days.) Irish traditional music ( the band "Planxty" in particular) helps we when I'm
writing about Ireland. Recently, I've been hooked on the original Imagine album by John Lennon, as one of
my characters in my current novel (set in 1981, the year after John Lennon's killing) is obsessed by some of
the tracks.
Do you have any favorite T.V. shows? Movies you watch over and over again? What was the last movie you
saw at the theater?
I saw The Science of Sleep, a quirky, visual, adorable movie. No one favourite movie, although I love To
Have or Have Not, a classic Boghart/Bacall movie. My, a fabulous pair they were. My favourite TV show is
BBC's covering of election night. Alas that this only happens once every 4 years!
You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?
I'm useless at advice. But try this: You should only ever marry someone if you absolutely can't bear not to
marry them.
One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?
The London Eye Mystery (June 07 in UK, forthcoming in the US), a story about a boy who goes up the
London Eye but doesn't come down… it is up to his cousins Ted and Kat to solve the mystery of his
disappearance… and then a follow-up, which will take place in New York City. It is a new series for 9- to 12-
readers but I hope teens and others will give it a gleeful go! My next teen read is Solace of the Road
(January 08 in UK, not sure when in US), a kind of Jack Kerouac meets Jacqueline Wilson tale, about a girl
in foster care who takes to the road, with calamitous results. And I am currently writing an eerie thriller
based on the north/south border of Ireland called Bog Child. It's scaring the hell out of me anyway…
Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!
