A Review and Q with Saundra Mitchell, author of Shadowed Summer! As a special treat after the review, Saundra answered some questions about screenwriting vs. novelwriting, insider info on the book and her interests!




Title:
Author(s): Saundra Mitchell
Genre: Young Adult, paranormal, fiction
Publisher/Year: Delacorte Press/2009
-Webpage: Making Stuff Up For A Living
-Blog: Making Stuff Up For A Living the blog

Synopsis: Summer in Ondine, Louisiana, is always predictable: hot and boring.

Not this one.

This summer, Iris is fourteen. This summer, she doesn’t have to make up spooky stories for excitement. Because a real one falls right in her lap.

Years ago, before she was born, a teenager named Elijah disappeared. All that remains of him are whispers. Until this summer. A ghost begins to haunt Iris, and she’s convinced it’s the ghost of Elijah.

What really happened to him?

And why, of all people, has he chosen Iris?

Review: Anyone who has grown up in a small town will understand the frustrations and limitations that Iris and her friend Collette feel. For a teen its not fun to see the same people do the same things day after day. And a graveyard is a strong temptation (one that I found irresistible at their age and in their situation). I could, despite being a decade older then either Iris or Collette, easily identify with them. Mitchell writes their reactions believably and with honesty--who hasn’t gotten tired of their friend who is constantly flirting and dragging you into their busy ‘couples’ life only to make you feel like an outsider? Or anxiety that what you had with that friend is disappearing as you grow older and have less in common?

Mitchell’s history with screenwriting is especially apparent in her attention to detail with the characters’ responses and the surroundings. The use of ‘Where y’at?’, a common local phrase from New Orleans (according to my handy dandy slang dictionary) is perhaps the most chilling part of the book for me. Each time Iris would hear it, I just got a chill down my spine and goose bumps on my arms.

An important motivating factor for the book is the friendship between Iris and Collette and how turning fourteen changed things for them. Collette was on the verge of wanting to be treated like a young woman--she wanted to primp and preen herself on the off chance a cute boy would happen by. Iris was content to keep things as they were--making up magical stories, ‘talking’ to spirits and throwing stones at the boys. As the two of them dig deeper into Elijah Landry’s disappearance--with the help from Ben, Collette’s new boyfriend--they’re both forced to confront the truth of their friendship and its future.


Do you think your work with Fresh Films and that of working with teenagers, helped while writing Shadowed Summer?

I think it helped me center the characters in their ages, realistically. Pop culture gives us a warped sense of what fourteen is like, what fifteen is like- because 14, 15, 16 is usually played by actors who are in their early 20s. We get used to that, but it's not an honest reflection of who we are at those times in our lives.

Did you find writing a novel more frustrating or about on par with screenwriting? Any ideas you had to discard because they wouldn't transition well from a screenwriters' style to a novelists' style?

There are two sequences like that. One was a revelatory scene where Iris' imagination gets away from her while she's looking at the stained glass windows in church. It was just too hallucinogenic for the page, and it wasn't really necessary. So I cut it out!

The other is still in the book- Iris' dream about what happened the night Elijah Landry disappeared. When I originally wrote it, the sequence played backward. Even though I could clearly imagine how to write this for a screenplay, for a camera to shoot later, it was too confusing in prose. I ended up rewriting it so that time flowed forward, because I needed that scene!

But writing a novel is just different from writing a screenplay- neither more or less frustrating. They have different forms and different challenges. Although sometimes I do miss montages...

The resolution of the novel's mystery, that of Elijah Landry's disappearance, came with an unexpected price for many of the characters--did you intend for that originally or did it seem to evolve as the story went on?

I always knew what happened with Elijah. But originally? Iris never found out. It was a combination of excellent revision notes from my editor and a late realization on my part what the book was really *about* that allowed all of those connections to come together the way they did.

Looking back on Shadowed Summer--is there anyone or any plot element you wish you could have elaborated more on?

Shortly after I turned in my final-final-final revisions, I had this HUGE epiphany about something I'd unintentionally left vague. And you know what? I forget what it was! So yes, there's something I totally wish I had elaborated on, but I can't remember what!

In the book its mentioned that people looked into Elijah's disappearance many times--what did Iris, Collette and Ben do differently from those people?

Well, they had hints from beyond, for one! But also, Iris, Collette and Ben were removed enough from the Incident that it wasn't personal to them. Even though Iris expresses reservations about upsetting an old lady asking questions- eventually, she does do it. There was nothing personal in their search, so they weren't afraid to ask questions other people avoided out of grief or pain.

What drove you to write this as a book instead of as a screenplay?

I deliberately set out to write a book. I had written my first novel the previous summer, and in part, I was trying to find out if I could write a second!

Was it hard to mimic the nuances and idioms of a deep South town?


Do you like horror films like Freddy Kruger or movies like Psycho?
Both!

Last book read?
by Carrie Ryan.

Best foods to read/watch horror with?
Anything that isn't red and drippy!

Favorite quote?
My husband suggested "The way to a man's heart is through his ribcage." I'm going to go with my best friend's favorite quote, because she uses it to get me back on track all the time- "Everything will work out in the end. If everything hasn't worked out, it's not the end."

Writing Inspiration?
Anything. Everything. I get ideas from the newspaper or the cracks in the sidewalk with equal ease. :D

Thank you Saundra for answering my questions! And I agree about montages...I do wish books could do those. For more information about Saundra, her projects and her work with Fresh Films you can drop by her website Making Stuff Up For a Living, her livejournal or catch her in the livejournal community Debutantes 2009! Please go visit her and look for Shadowed Summer in stores February 10th!