Margaret Willey

My editor at Carolrhoda Lab posted a wonderful blog last week about the special gifts of what he called "the long view," a nice way of commending older writers who continue bringing unique visions to their sometimes formulaic genres. He also commends The Horn Book Magazine for its historic reach and appreciation for good literature regardless of trends. The blog is here.

Thank you to Andrew Karre at Carolrhoda Lab Books. Read More 

I have posted a PDF of my Guest Column in the Fall 2013 ALAN Review on both the home page and the FOUR SECRETS page of my website. The essay traces the long and winding road that eventually led me to an illustrated novel for middle grade readers (a crime novel, some have said). It includes my own experience as the mother of a daughter who was bullied in high school and who didn't tell me what was happening (something awful) for a very long time.

"Why are they doing this to me, Mom. Is there something wrong with me?"

Proud of this essay & realizing that it feels in some ways like a goodbye to the process of writing FOUR SECRETS as I move into the territory of a different sort of bullying, the parental kind, and a very different novel. Beetles are coming. Read More 

I have been thinking a lot about conclusions and concluding chapters and final paragraphs and final sentences as I mentally prepare to revise and polish what will be my next novel, published by Carolrhoda Lab in 2014. I read a fine and feisty blog review of my novel FOUR SECRETS; the reviewer said, as many reviewers have said, "I could not put this one down." She also says in the review that "the ending wasn't 100% satisfying."

This got me to thinking about HOW MANY TIMES in my 30-year writing career I have heard this sort of remark about my novels. I would have to say that at least every one of my now nine novels has had a reviewer or a reader express reservations about the way I conclude a novel--saying that not every issue in the novel is clearly resolved. With this goes an assumption that I have somehow been careless about my ending(s). When in fact I obsess and revise and rework my final chapters to the word, making the story's ending EXACTLY as I want it--suggestive of resolution and transformation but not hard and fast. Not crystal clear. For some, not 100% satisfying. I find myself wondering if this will also be said about my new novel. It doesn't matter. My favorite novels always end mysteriously, suggestively, with subtle arrows pointing toward hope and new awareness. And this is the way I write them. This is they way I conclude them. This is how I roll.  Read More 

Wonderful recent news about my novel FOUR SECRETS. It was listed by Booklist reviewer Ilene Cooper as one of the TOP TEN crime fiction novels for young readers in 2013. The rest of the distinguished list is here. I am so encouraged and grateful for this distinction because I worked so hard on the plot of FOUR SECRETS and on the slow and methodical revelation of the secrets. The whole time I was doing it, I was wondering if it was working. If the plot would hold water. If it was the right balance of suspense and revelation.
It was like writing my first folktale (CLEVER BEATRICE), a time of uncertainty and self-doubt (which needed to be ignored), followed by true feelings of accomplishment.

FOUR SECRETS took me to a new place as a writer and this is the best thing about pushing your creative limits. Read More 

The Connecticut Library Consortium has recommended FOUR SECRETS as a Book for Holiday Giving. Hooray! See all the CLC's TOP PICK recommendations here

Last week visited South Elgin High School, Pleasantdale Middle School and Glencrest Middle School in the Chicago area. Hard to describe how it feels to have real students tell me that they were bullied and that my book helped them. Priceless. My thanks to all who helped organize these visits, teachers, librarians and Anderson Bookstore. But especially the young adults who welcomed me into their schools and their lives. Read More 

The Social Worker to Renata: "I noticed that there is a crow in each of your drawings. Is the crow another totem?"

Renata: "Crows symbolize bad luck, Mrs. Shield. I have had some very bad luck lately."

Renata to Mrs. Shield, the Social Worker: "I still dream about that hallway. I still see their terrible faces and still feel their angry thoughts around me. I feel how much they wanted to hurt me."

Renata to Nate: "Sometimes I see things that have already happpened. But it's kind of a jumble. It can be very noisy and confusing." She closed her eyes. "Please tell me that you believe me."

from FOUR SECRETS, Carolrhoda Lab, October 1


Illustrations by Bill Hauser  Read More 

Here are various topics that I have been sketching essays for: 10 Things You Didn't Know about Juvenile Detention, The Bullied Child as Hero, Bullies in Classic Literature about Growing Up, and Facing Up to your Inner Bully. This last one is based on my belief that we all engage in bullying behavior sometimes in the process of becoming adults and learning compassion. What's scary is how rarely adults reflect on their own guilt and cowardice when faced with the subject of bullying. Everybody has tough school memories: being bullied, observing bullying, ignoring routine cruelty, refusing to intervene out of apathy or fear. All stuff I am so interested in. Great summer project, along with writing autobiographical essays on the theme of various fairy tales that comforted me and freaked me out as a child.  Read More 

Discussion Guide recently created by Carolrhoda Lab for FOUR SECRETS:

see it here