Visiting with Holly Cupala

by Claire Guyton, Art + Life Editor

Talk about your inspiration for Tell Me a Secret.

The inspiration for Tell Me a Secret came during a very difficult chapter in my own life—not long after a close friend’s sister died suddenly, my husband and I lost our first daughter at birth. It was devastating. I almost gave up writing altogether, but some very good friends encouraged me to keep writing. Then Miranda’s story just fell in my lap like nothing I’d ever written—a sudden flash of characters, arc, and emotional journey. I knew it was a story I was meant to write.

Tell us about your writing process—either generally or specifically with regard to the birth and development of this novel.

After the initial inspiration, I wrote notes for a few months and might not have gone beyond if two friends hadn’t called to say I had to write this. So I took it one sentence, one paragraph at a time. A real turning point was when the first line came to me. I remember it so vividly…our second daughter was two months old, it was 3:00 a.m., I was totally sleep-deprived, and she’d just fallen asleep. As I curled up in bed, Miranda spoke the first line: It’s tough, living in the shadow of a dead girl. I knew if I didn’t get up right then, she might never talk to me again.

Another signpost was receiving the SCBWI Work-In-Progress Grant from Judy Blume. It gave me light for the next steps and courage to take the manuscript to agents and editors. Through the experience, I realized many of the doubts and fears were of my own making. For the second novel (tentatively titled Street Creed, Fall 2011 from HarperTeen), I learned to outrun them by setting a kitchen timer and writing like the wind!

All writers have favorite words we have to guard against over-using. What are yours?

In Tell Me a Secret Miranda draws labyrinths, which signify the way through her past as well as her present. She doesn’t really see all of the paths and pieces until she gets to the end and frees herself. However, “labyrinth” is a pretty tanglesome word to repeat 42 times in a manuscript! So I had to find ways to convey that sense without getting cheesy with mazes, warrens, etc. Then there are the usual culprits: that…just… I proudly excised over 300 unnecessary “thats!”

What does your writing space look like?

I prefer to write with my laptop on the dining table so I can look out the window, but it’s terribly hard on the back and neck. So right now I write in the office… it’s quite a disaster at the moment. Maybe I’ll procrastinate and do some spring cleaning!

---

*Contact Claire with any questions or suggestions for Hunger Mountain’s Art + Life section at hungermtnal@gmail.com.

For more author visits, click here.

To read more YA and Children’s Literature, click here.