New interview with MG author C.W. Allen

Middle grade author C.W. Allen joins me today to chat about her new MG fantasy, Tales of the Forgotten Founders. We chatted about The Secret Benefits of Invisibility a year ago.

During her virtual book tour, C.W. will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops and enter there, too.

Bio:
C.W. Allen is a Nebraskan by birth, a Texan by experience, a Hoosier by marriage, and a Utahn by geography. She knew she wanted to be a writer the moment she read The Westing Game at age twelve, but took a few detours along the way as a veterinary nurse, an appliance repair secretary, and a homeschool parent. She writes long stories for children and short stories for former children. When she’s not writing, she helps other writers hone their craft as a board member of the League of Utah Writers.

Her debut novel Relatively Normal Secrets is the winner of the Gold Quill Award, being named the best children’s book of the year by a Utah author. The Falinnheim Chronicles series continues with The Secret Benefits of Invisibility (Cinnabar Moth, 2022) and Tales of the Forgotten Founders (Cinnabar Moth, 2023). She also has shorter work published in numerous anthologies. Keep up with her latest projects at cwallenbooks.com.

Welcome back to Reviews and Interviews, C.W. Please tell us about your newest release.
Tales of the Forgotten Founders is the third and final installment in the Falinnheim Chronicles series. Tween siblings Tuesday and Zed are getting settled in the medieval-meets-modern world of Falinnheim, but the longer they explore the secret passages and hidden rooms of their new home, the more they realize everything they’ve been told about Falinnheim’s history might be a lie.

What inspired you to write this book?
Even before I wrote the first book in this series, I had a whole world of backstory living in my head, informing the worldbuilding details. Since this is the series conclusion, it’s finally time to spill all the beans and explain everything—how it’s possible for Falinnheim to exist and how Zed and Tuesday’s family connects to its history. I love story-within-a-story books like Louis Sachar’s Holes, so I decided the readers should get to learn all this backstory exactly as the characters do, by including chapters from the history book they’re reading right in the text. Here’s a sample:

Excerpt from Tales of the Forgotten Founders:
The tale of Cyril the Librarian begins with a library, a fire, and a daring plan.

This story is not about Cyril. But all stories are connected, just as all people are, so this is where we must begin. We’ll get to Selene in a minute.

Long, long before Cyril’s story began, a man named Alexander ruled the world. At least, that’s what Alexander decided to tell everyone. In reality, he didn’t even know about most of the world, let alone run it. But Alexander came from a long line of kings and was the student of a long line of philosophers and generals, each with their own roots in legendary tales of heroism and greatness. The only way young Alexander could see to take his place among their stories was to create one of his own. So when he’d finished taking over all the lands and kingdoms he knew about, he proclaimed those were all the lands that existed.

Alexander was an ambitious man, but not a terribly creative one, so the title he took to celebrate his achievements was simply Alexander the Great. (A better name than Alexander the Adequate, you must admit. But still—not the most original.) He became king of Macedon at the age of twenty, and by the age of thirty he was king of Greece, Babylon, Persia, and Egypt as well. And by the age of thirty-two, he was dead.

He was called Alexander the Great, not Alexander the Healthy and Long-lived.

This story is not about Alexander either.

What’s the next writing project?
My next book is slated for summer 2024, featuring a whole new world and cast of characters. Mellie Morton Is Not Imaginary takes a bunch of characters from international mythology and forces them to live in the same neighborhood. I had an absolute blast getting to work with an evil tooth fairy, a mischievous Japanese fox-spirit, a West African spider librarian, a legendary Chinese warrior, and fourteen Icelandic Christmas ogres all in the same story. So even though Zed and Tuesday’s adventures are coming to an end, there’s lots of great stuff to look forward to in my next series!

What is your biggest challenge when writing a new book? (or the biggest challenge with this book)
I find drafting new work is a slow, methodical process for me—I much prefer editing, and refining the words I already have in place goes much quicker. So the biggest challenge is just getting my word count in every day, letting the story build little by little, even though it feels like it’s going to take forever.

If your novels require research – please talk about the process. Do you do the research first and then write, while you’re writing, after the novel is complete and you need to fill in the gaps?
I knew even before I wrote the first book in this series that the backstory involved the ancient library of Alexandria, so when it came time to write this third book I searched online for articles about its history. I ended up finding a fantastic youtube video from TedEd that explained the mystery around what became of the library. I had imagined it had something to do with a fire or a war, but the truth turned out to be far more interesting—it was actually about political leaders fighting to control the flow of information. That conversation about book banning is incredibly relevant for today’s readers, but it wasn’t a theme I intended to explore until I was halfway through writing Tales of the Forgotten Founders—it emerged organically as I researched the real history of Alexandria.

What’s your writing space like? Do you have a particular spot to write where the muse is more active? Please tell us about it.
I write sitting up in bed using a laptop. I have small kids at home, so that’s really the only private, quiet space I have to work with. Not very interesting I’m afraid, but it gets the job done!

What authors do you enjoy reading within or outside of your genre?
There are a bunch of middle grade writers I look to for inspiration. Some favorites from my childhood are Barbara Robinson, E.L. Konigsburg, Louis Sachar, and Ellen Raskin. I was a big Agatha Christie fan as a tween, but I think today’s kids have a lot more current and relevant mystery authors to choose from. I discovered modern inspirations when I started writing: Garth Nix, Trenton Lee Stewart, Kate Milford, and R.A. Spratt. Even as an adult, I really do read Middle Grade for fun! It’s such a rich and varied category, and the stories are always hopeful and empowering. There’s usually a good dose of humor, too.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers today?
Thank you so much for coming along on this adventure with me! I feel like Zed, Tuesday, and the rest of the Falinnheim crew are people I got to know, rather than characters I invented, and I’m honored to share their stories with you.

Links:
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