Moving 06/17/2010
 
Finally, after years and years, we have bought a house.  We had a house in Zimbabwe, but lost it and everything else we owned when we came to the U.S.  We immigrated with only $500.  We were so poor we didn’t even have a bed.  Harold, Daniel and I slept on a mattress on the floor with second-hand dog blankets for covers.  When winter came we couldn’t afford to put on a heater, so we curled up together and I read library books aloud for entertainment.  We didn’t have a TV or a car.  In fact we had to think twice about taking the bus because it cost all of 25 cents.  So you can see that owning a house is a huge thing.

The house is wonderful!  It is made out of thick straw bales reinforced by steel girders and keeps the temperature inside just right without heating or cooling.  The ceiling is 25 feet high, perfect for desert living because all the hot air goes up and a fan blows it away.  It used to be an artist’s place and next to the main building is another building with a large studio, large game room and an apartment for visitors.  All kinds of wild animals come to visit – Harold saw a herd of 20 javalinas nearby.  They look like wild pigs and are very curious and also near-sighted.  One almost came up to him.  In the evening dozens of rabbits come out.  There are coyotes and coatimundis that look like skinny raccoons.

The house is in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona just a few miles from where El Patrón had his summer residence and where the Oasis described in House of the Scorpion lies.  Unfortunately, the Chiricahua Mountains are a major drug-smuggling route so everyone has to carry a gun for safety.  I can’t see well enough to fire a gun and will have to trust to luck.  The other hazard is the rattlesnakes.  There are rattlesnakes everywhere and on cool nights they like to lean against the house for warmth.  That’s another reason to carry a gun and also a good flashlight.
   
Now I will answer some questions.  Thank you for wanting another Troll book and I will ask the editor about it when I finish the sequel to The House of the Scorpion.  It’s very difficult to work on two books at once.  When I am in one story, my brain won’t take in anything else.  I can’t even read novels.  All I see is blah-blah-blah because my own story rejects anyone else’s plot.  This is extremely tiring.  Sometimes I would like to take a vacation, but my brain won’t cooperate.

Ashley asked whether Matt and María are in love.  Absolutely.  When people are in love they don’t always talk about it.  They just know it’s true.

Several people have asked how you can keep a story going.  When they try to write, they run out of ideas in a couple of pages.  I was like that, too, when I was young.  I would get bogged down describing stuff and had no idea what I was going to do with the description.  After two pages I was bored and wanted to go for a walk or call up a friend.  Some writers start at an early age, but many don’t.  You can’t really write about things if you have no experiences.  I don’t mean exotic adventures like exploring Antarctica, but the closer-to-home experiences of observing your parents or siblings, getting a first job, falling in love, making a fool of yourself, or doing something brave.  When you find something really exciting, it’s easy to write about it.  And like learning to be an artist or a top athlete, practice makes perfect.
   
I was working on the sequel to Scorpion, but was interrupted by another not-too-scary eye operation and by buying the house.  The first draft of the book will probably be very close to the final draft.  I can’t give an exact date yet.  When I am set up in the new house I will plunge into writing full time.  This means I won’t cook, clean house or answer the phone.  Now and then Harold will steer me toward the shower or put a sandwich in front of me.  Writing can be intense.
   
I wish someone would make a movie of one of my books, but so far no one has shown much interest.  I honestly don’t know why.  The movie companies throw money away on awful remakes of old TV shows.  They think old people will go to see them, but they don’t. 

Special thanks to Jaspreet for his lovely letter.  More kids than you might think feel like outsiders, especially the intelligent ones.  Being an outsider makes you strong if you can get through it.  It’s the people who are content to be like everyone else in a comfortable herd who are missing out on life.
   
Early tomorrow morning Harold and I will travel to the Chiricahua Mountains to look at our new house.  It will take months to actually move in, but we can visit.  There is a forest fire about five miles away and the town is full of fire trucks, but at least it isn’t boring.
 
 
April 21, 2010  

A LOT  of people have been asking me when the sequel to Scorpion will come out.  I’m writing it right now, but it takes time to do a really good job.  I don’t use outlines.  Every day is a surprise and even I don’t know what’s going to happen, except that I do know how the book ends.  Please don’t expect anything until next year.  For those who asked whether Matt and María are really in love, the answer is yes.  People can fall in love at a very young age.  And stay that way.  I’ve been criticized for saying this – everyone is supposed to drift from one relationship to another.  There are even classes to help you overcome co-dependence, sort of professional love busters.

But think about it.  You don’t drift from mother to mother.  You don’t swap brothers and sisters.  You definitely don’t discard children when they’re annoying or send your dog to the pound because you want a new one.  Love is something you don’t have to analyze.  It just happens and when it’s good it’s permanent.

And now, for Alicia Bloyd and the students at Illini Bluffs Middle School:  The sequel is being created.  I don’t like to reveal a story in advance, but I can tell you that both Aztlán and the United States want to invade Opium.  And that the drug smugglers worship a saint called Jesús Malverde.  Jesús Malverde really exists.  Look him up on the internet.  They also pray to Santissima Muerte, Most Holy Death, to protect their shipments of cocaine and heroin.  If you ever wondered how crazy drug dealers are, here is the proof.
 

We are looking for a house to buy either in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona or on the north coast of California.  I want a really big place so friends can visit and we can unpack our huge library.  Also, I want a greenhouse, an outdoor sauna, chickens, a cat and a border collie.  I love the psychotic look border collies get in their eyes when they herd sheep.  If we live on the coast I’ll get a Siberian Forest Cat because they have three coats of fur in different lengths and never get cold.  You can dip a Forest Cat into a lake (if you have strong hands) and shake the water right off.
 
 
Answers to a few questions:  Yes, there is a distant possibility that there will be a sequel to Islands of the Blessed, but not until I finish the Scorpion sequel and not unless the publisher agrees to print it.  Are Jack and Thorgil dead at the end of the book?  In one sense yes.  The Islands of the Blessed are a kind of afterlife, but they are also where heroes rest before being reborn.  King Arthur was taken there in a boat piloted by three queens.  The legend says that if England is ever in great danger, King Arthur will return to defend it.  Bards, like Dragon Tongue, go and come between the two worlds.  Remember that Gandalf the Gray, in Lord of the Rings, died in the mines of Moria.  I don’t think there’s any question of that.  But he was reformed and reborn as Gandalf the White.  It is perfectly possible that Jack and Thorgil could return.

The book, Islands of the Blessed, is about sacrifice.  There are unwilling and evil human sacrifices carried out by the Picts, the Northmen and King Adder Tooth.  There are also noble self-sacrifices by heroes and saints for the good of others.  That’s the kind that gets you into The Islands or into Heaven.

The deal for making the Ear, the Eye and the Arm into a movie fell through.  (Most Hollywood deals fall through so I wasn’t surprised.)  The people who were working on it were so upset they quit their jobs and moved to another company.  They are still trying to promote the book.  This was very courageous in these poor economic times and I am most grateful for their loyalty.

The Young Adult category was thought up by publishers to sell more books.  It doesn’t really mean much.  You’re supposed to limit the amount of sex and violence, but some YA authors pay no attention to the rule.  I like YA because people that age are still excited about life.  Later on, many adults turn into zombies.  They do the same thing day after day, hardly noticing the world around them.  They drug themselves with television, alcohol and Prozac to make up for their depressing existences.  Smart adults never grow up.

I am working on the sequel to Scorpion, and it is full of lovely surprises which I won’t reveal.  Thanks to everyone who sent me ideas.  I actually used a couple of them.  I probably won’t call it God’s Ash Tray now because it won’t take place in the Nevada desert known as God’s Ash Tray.

Harold and I are thinking about moving to the Oasis.  Yes!  The real Oasis in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona.  It would be taking a huge chance because we are too old to live so far from doctors, grocery stores and gas stations.  If you get bitten by a rattlesnake (and there are thousands of them) you have to be flown by helicopter to get help.  First you have to radio for the helicopter.  The Oasis is home to bears, mountain lions, snakes, tarantulas and, now and then, people carrying backpacks of drugs.  But it is very beautiful.  It is home to scientists and bird watchers.  Retired astronomers have built small, white observatories on lonely cliffs.  There’s nothing like it anywhere in the country.
 
On writing 03/03/2010
 

 As I said once before, I’ve had little experience with web sites.  And since my eye operations, it’s clear that I can’t keep up with all the nice letters people have been sending me.  Therefore, I am starting a blog.  Imagine!  A year ago I didn’t even know what a blog was.  (Was it something you found under the plug in the bath tub?  Or a creature that lived in swamps and carried off lady biologists?  I didn’t know.)  Now that the meaning has been explained to  me, a blog seems like a very good idea.  It’s like a diary one leaves open.
  First of all I need to answer a couple of questions.  Where, exactly, is the Oasis I write about in The House of the Scorpion?  There are two locations.  The place I was trying to describe was the Quitobanquito Oasis in the Organ Pipe National Park south of Ajo, Arizona.  Unfortunately, it was placed off limits because of drug smuggling activities.  When Harold (my husband) and I tried to sneak in via the Barry Goldwater Bombing Range, we discovered a man dying of cold and thirst.  And so we had to load him into the car and return to Ajo.The place I actually described is in the town of Paradise in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona.  It is on a major bird migration route and is very beautiful.  When I was a child there were old abandoned miners’ cabins there as well as a grape arbor.  Early one morning I walked to the old graveyard and saw a mountain lion suckling her two cubs among the grave stones.  On another occasion I saw a bear scratching his back against the rough wall of an old cabin.  There was also a wild burro that used to come into our kitchen and steal pancakes off the table.  It was, and is, a magical place.

Many of you have asked how to become successful writers, so here are the tips that worked for me.  (I learned to write novels in central Africa, 1,000 miles from the nearest creative writing teacher.)  First of all, don’t even think about going to college to get a Master of Fine Arts degree (or MFA).  All this gives you is a useless bit of paper. 
(1)You need to read a lot of novels.  Stephen King recommends reading a book you like three times in a row.  The first time you are swept away with the story.  The second and third times you begin to see how the story is arranged, how suspense is built, why you like certain characters and why the ending feels right.  When you read an excellent book several times, you are picking up a rhythm.  You’re learning how to pace your action, draw characters, how to bury hints and dig them up later.  It's like learning to talk.  You didn't worry about style as a baby.  You screamed, warbled, cackled and repeated meaningless syllables over and over.  Language was music.  All the while speech patterns were sinking into your subconscious.  Good writing skills are accumulated in the same way.
 (2) In the beginning it helps to retype scenes you like.  For some reason this trains you on a deep physical level.  It’s like playing pieces of music on the piano.  After a while you discover that you can actually write music of your own.  Raymond Chandler (a crime novelist) taught himself by using someone else’s plot and his own descriptions.  Unfortunately, he couldn’t publish his book because that would have been plagiarism.  Plagiarism is a HUGE no no.  You can learn from copying, but you can’t print it.  Artist train themselves in the beginning by copying paintings, but they can’t sell those either.
 (3) You should only write about things you find interesting.  Don’t write about what you think someone else wants.
(4) If you have trouble getting started, put a notebook by your bed and write the first thing that comes into your head when you wake up. It doesn’t matter what you write.  The point is to reach the subconscious mind, which is close to the surface at that time.  This is where creativity comes from.  You learn to recognize the mind-set so you can reproduce it at will.  I got this idea from Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande.  If you are connected to the subconscious (in a writer’s trance) you can effortlessly call forth whatever memories you need.  Time doesn’t seem to pass, although you may actually spend hours at the typewriter or computer.  You are also safe-guarded against writer’s block.
(5) Many problems with writer’s block are caused by self-criticism.  Here is a tip from the poet William Stafford:  If you find it difficult to write, lower your standards.
(6) Writing in a heightened state of consciousness is very tiring.  You will need to take breaks.  To keep the door to the subconscious open while one is resting, many writers play solitaire or do puzzles.  I do sudoku.  Playing a musical instrument is good, too.  The point is to avoid interaction with other people.
(7) Try to set aside a time and place to create every day.  This takes discipline.  Also, you need a place where you do nothing else but write.  I know this is difficult if you live in a crowded apartment, but it’s important.  Also, it’s good if you can lock the door to keep other people out.
(8) Some authors make careful outlines.  This is especially true of mystery writers who have to keep everything straight.  Ruth Rendell and P.D. James are masters of plotting and well worth studying for that reason.  Sometimes an outline can help you out if you have writer’s block, but I have found, personally, that my creativity dies if I try to follow a pattern.
(9) This is how I do it:  I write the first draft of a novel in one long sweep.  I don’t rewrite or make an outline until I’m finished.  One of the hardest things to keep going in a novel is the excitement and flow of the story.  If you stop to criticize yourself, or to let other people criticize you, you’re going to stall.  Don’t correct the spelling, don’t agonize over a metaphor.  Write.This preserves your unique personality, the quality that sets you apart from everyone else.  It can be destroyed by trying to please too many people.  I know authors who take their stories from workshop to workshop.  They rewrite constantly.  The product sounds like something written by a committee.
(10) Don’t be afraid to make a fool of yourself.  People who do new and exciting things are often criticized by idiots.  If we listened to critics we’d still be living in caves and eating raw squirrels.
(11) New writers are often afraid to pull out all the stops and go over the top with insane descriptions and situations.  It’s almost impossible to go over the top.
(12) Some people dread the first few minutes before they begin to write.  They are afraid nothing will happen when they sit down.  The door to the subconscious might not open.  Force yourself to try.  The fear passes after a few minutes.  You might not write anything good, but so what?  Shaquille O’ Neal doesn't hit the basket every time either.

 
Update 01/24/2010
 
Many thanks to all of you who have written me encouraging letters while I’ve been sick.  I really appreciate it!  I’m not yet able to answer each one of you because I’m only allowed up a few minutes each day, but I can answer a few questions.

   I’ve had two operations to try and save my eyesight.  Believe me, this is one activity you definitely want to avoid.  First of all, you have to stay awake the whole time.  You can actually see everything the surgeon does, including him cutting open the eye and sucking out everything inside.  Then you can see teeny weeny tweezers and hooks removing scar tissue.  They do give you medicine to calm your nerves, otherwise I would have been out of that operating room like a shot.  Last of all, the doctor fills up the eye with saline solution and a bubble of air.  You’re supposed to lie face down for weeks with the air bubble pressing up against the back of the eye.  This is supposed to make it heal, but the first time it didn’t work and I had to do it again.  The bubble gradually disappears, but while it’s there you can’t go up above 1,000 elevation or fly in an airplane.  I asked the doctor why and he said, quite cheerfully, “because the bubble will expand and destroy your eye.”

 Like I say, it’s an experience you can do without.

   During this time I have been thinking out the plot to the sequel of House of the Scorpion.  This is what I do before every book, before a single word is put onto paper.  Plot designing goes on constantly, but I never write anything down.  Somehow this works.  The whole novel exists in the subconscious like a piece of music.  When I am ready (and this will be soon) I will sit down and write out the whole thing.  The first draft is very close to the final copy.  The editor marks places where he thinks I’ve been unclear and the copy editor corrects my spelling (a huge job).  These days, with computers, it’s a lot easier and faster to print books.  With luck, the sequel will be out next year.

 I’ve been calling it God’s Ash Tray, which has upset some people.  God’s Ash Tray is what is called “a working title”.  The final title might be completely different.  The House of the Scorpion was originally called Mi Vida.  Ursula le Guin said that sounded dumb and so I changed it.

 Is there going to be a romance between Matt and María?  You betcha.  But I can’t talk much about the book until I write it.  I’ve got a number of nifty surprises up my sleeve.

   As for a sequel to The Islands of the Blessed, that depends on sales.  Unfortunately, publishers only buy sequels to books that do well, and Islands was pretty much ignored.  I don’t know why.  I think people wanted a battle between Good and Evil with lots of bodies piled up.  It seems books are getting a lot more violent and angry.  A lot of them seem like video games with super heroes that bear no resemblance to human beings.  Female characters generally despise the male characters, who are either sadists or wimps.  That’s not my view of the universe.

 For those of you who disapproved of stories about my childhood, let me say this.  I am not a role model.  I made tons of mistakes when I was young, and still make them.  I wake up in the middle of the night and remember awful, mean things I have done and can never undo.  The best I can do is pick myself up and try again.  Good deeds drive out bad ones.

 Again, heartfelt thanks to everyone who has written me.

 
Eye Surgery 11/05/2009
 
I have just had eye surgery and will have another operation in January 2010, so please be patient as it will be some time before I can answer letters.
 
 
The Islands of the Blessed has now been published.  Unfortunately, my husband accidentally deleted most of the letters posted under this heading and is struggling to restore them.  The replies  I have already written are still in Q & A and I think I have copies of all the letters.
 
 

Erin asked me how to cite this  source.  If you were referring to this page, the following should work:
      Farmer, Nancy.  Nancy Farmer's Official Home Page. 11-19-2009 (or whenever the site was updated).  <http://www.nancyfarmerwebsite.com/guestbook.html>.
However, it's a good idea to check with your teacher.

 
 

Most writers don't even come close to making a living with their writing.  Almost all of them have a day job or a husband or wife who supports them.  Many write for the joy of seeing their work in print.  Or they write because it feels wonderful to create something.  These people often don't mind giving away free books or to entertain an audience for free.  I envy them, but alas I am the other kind of novelist.  I depend entirely on selling books for my income.  When my family moved from Zimbabwe to the United States, we were only allowed to take $500 with us.  While we were very happy to be in the U.S., it meant several years of frightening poverty.  This ended when I began to sell books.

Yet we have never become rich.  We are like the people who run the mom-and-pop store on the corner.  Expenses are high and one bad year can ruin the business.  I am trying to explain why I don't give away free books.  Many people have written to me for them, expecting me to pay the postage as well.  I can't do this any more than a grocer can give away free hamburger.  So please don't think I am being heartless turning you down.  It's simply how the business works.

 
 

    I was probably the only author in the world, except those living in central Tibet, who didn’t have a website.  Until now.  There were a couple of reasons for it.  I didn’t understand how to make a website.  I didn’t know how to blog or to get onto other people’s blogs.  I didn’t know what a chat room was, except that people got into mischief there.  Let’s face it, I was firmly grounded in the 19th century.
    The other reason was that I am an intensely private person.  I have spent my whole life fading into the wall paper.  Protective coloring has saved me from many dangerous situations, and believe me I have been in them.  Nor do I like to talk about personal problems.  This seems to be popular now and is supposed to make you likable to other people with personal problems.
    One of the stupidest statements I ever heard as a child was this:
    I was unhappy because I had no shoes until I met a man with no feet.
All this meant to me was that there were two unhappy people out there, one with no shoes and another with no feet.  I have a very literal mind.
    I can’t think of a worse activity than a bunch of unhappy people getting together to share misery.  I do suffer from depression.  It runs in my family.  Through the years I have learned to recognize when I’m spiraling down and to stop the depression in its tracks.  I exercise, force myself to visit people (cheerful ones, that is), and to do things for others.
    When I was younger I used to break a depression by doing something dangerous.  You’d be surprised how a genuine physical danger sweeps away all the cobwebs.  When London was being bombed during the Second World War, the number of suicides went straight down.  It went up after the danger was past.  I learned this interesting fact when I was about fifteen.  I’m not going to tell you what I did because I don’t want anyone copying me, but I got rid of quite a few depressions.
    There.  I’ve told you one personal problem.  You’ll have to be satisfied with that.
    But just because I don’t reveal feelings doesn’t mean I don’t have them.  I have a crystal-clear memory of my emotions as a child and a teenager, which is why I can write the books I do.  Young people feel things more strongly than adults.  Their fears are more intense.  They have vivid nightmares.  They get into wild fits of joy.  They fall in love.
    An adult reader once criticized The House of the Scorpion because he didn’t believe that Matt and Maria could fall in love at age fourteen.  I don’t even know where to begin with that idea.  Dante (an Italian poet who wrote The Divine Comedy) fell in love with Beatrice when he was only nine.  And he stayed in love with her for the rest of his life.  Juliet was only thirteen when she met Romeo.  I know several people who fell in love deeply at a very early age.  It happens.
    I’m not talking about sex here, but love.  If it were up to me I’d keep a lot of people away from sex until they’re at least thirty-five.  It’s much more important to learn how to love and many people never figure it out.
    I want to thank all of you who have left a message on the website.  I am truly touched that you found it and took the trouble to write.  I have been terrible about answering letters and hope that I can make up for it here.  Most of the time I am so swamped with work I don’t have time for anything else.  Until two days ago I was writing the third Troll book, The Land of the Silver Apples.  This meant working every day without holidays or weekends for nine months and now I am so exhausted I can hardly see.
But I know I’ve been shirking my duty to you.  I will answer questions on this website and also provide more information about my books for those who are writing school papers.  I will label the topics and later figure out a better way to organize them.  Look for them on Q & A.
    P.S. I wouldn’t have a website at all if my husband Harold hadn’t worked out how to do it.  He’s as thoroughly stuck in the 19th century as I am, but he’s smarter.