Purpleharp's Blog

Deborah Kerbel: Up close and personal

Deborah Kerbel is a Canadian Young Adult novelist.  Author of Mackenzie, Lost and Found, her new book Girl on the Other Side will be out in November and is already  receiving rave reviews, including this one from the Manitoba Library  Associaton: 

http://umanitoba.ca/cm/vol16/no3/girlontheotherside.html

 Here’s an interview I did with her:

How would you describe Canadian YA in your mind?

Maybe it’s because so many of our books end up in the school systems, but I think Canadian YA authors ask a lot from their readers.  A certain amount of entertainment is vital, of course, or kids would never get through the pages.  But the Canadian YA novel usually strives to offer some kind of moral, historical, or social lesson that leaves kids thinking after the book is over and done. 

What is it that compels you to write for Young Adults?

I don’t think it was ever a choice for me.  When I started writing manuscripts, teenagers just flowed out of my fingers onto the page.  Young adulthood is such an exciting stage of life.  Everything moves at high speed, emotions are felt so intensely and experiences are fresh and new. 

How long does it take you to conceive of an idea for a novel?

There’s no easy answer for that question.  Some ideas hit you like a pie in the face – fast and blinding.  Others take longer to form.  The idea for my newest YA, Girl on the Other Side, formed in stages.  At the onset, I started writing it with the idea of exploring the power of words and how they can shape a person’s life.  But throughout the process, the theme of the book evolved into a close examination of two very different individuals and how similar they were behind the mask they worked so hard to present to the world. 

Usually I work from a rough outline.  But with Girl on the Other Side, I had no idea how the book was going to end when I started writing.  At about the ¾ mark, the ending revealed itself to me very clearly.  When you read it, you’ll see that there was no other resolution possible for these characters.  Start to finish, the writing of the book took about 8 months.

What’s the best part of writing a novel? What’s the worst?

The best parts of writing a novel are those moments when the characters start to take on an energy of their own and you, as the author, have to take a step back and let yourself get carried away on the arc of the story.  That’s really magical.

 The worst parts for me are the revisions.  By that point, the magic is over and it’s time to clean up the messy parts.  Going back into the story, taking apart all the carefully woven threads, re-writing, and then tying all the threads back up again as seamlessly as possible.   It is painstakingly tedious.

 Did you ever regret having to say goodbye to a character when you finished a book?

Honestly, no.  After I’ve crawled through my characters’ heads and let them take over my life for months at a time, I’m happy to say goodbye and push them out into the world.  It’s the only way I can make room for the new cast of characters who will inevitably populate my next book.

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