AUTHOR INTERVIEW
JANET LEE CAREY
DRAGONSWOOD
I have something special planned today to celebrate Dragonswood. Janet Lett Carey is answering my interview questions with quotes from the book. Cool, huh? Check out the sweet cover and a little about Dragonswood, then on to the interview!
Photo by Heidi Pettit
One Girl. Bound by Fate. Breaks Free
In a dark time when girls with powers are called witches, Tess escapes the witch hunter and hides with a mysterious huntsman until magical voices draw her deeper into Dragonswood where she learns the secret of her birth. Caught between love and loyalty, Tess chooses the hardest path of all – her own.
Painful, cathartic and cautiously hopeful; a fairy tale for those who have given up on believing in them, but still yearn for happily ever after. --Kirkus starred review
Tell me a little about your interpretation of the gorgeous Dragonswood cover.
The cover shows Tess’s longing for freedom.
Lines From Dragonswood:
Trying to keep away from Dragonswood only increased my longing. I could barely breathe in our house above the shop. At night I’d pace in my upstairs room with pricking skin, leaden lungs, until it was dark enough to flee. Then out my window, down the oak tree, I’d loose myself from town, racing hard till I reached Dragonswood sanctuary. Not even my closest friends seemed compelled to climb the boundary wall as I did night after night to run and run and run. Times I felt I must go in or die.
Tess has the power to see the future. How would you use this power if you had it?
I sometimes wish I had this power, but then again, I think there’s a reason why we don’t know what’s ahead. Tess finds the future visions in her fire-sight frightening. She wonders if it means she’s a witch.
Lines From Dragonswood:
[The witch hunter scanned the crowd] “Who is the witch?” she asked. “Could she be your neighbor, the girl at the well? A friend who has herb skills? Does she look innocent and yet she harbors secret powers?”
Sweat slicked my back. Only Grandfather knew I had the fire-sight, and he’d warned me to keep the power secret. The visions came when I was alone, so I’d managed to keep it to myself—until the day we buried my baby brother, Adam.
The Dragonswood story is set on Wilde Island. How does this setting affect the story?
The setting contrasts the beauty and power of Dragonswood where the fairies and dragons dwell with the filth, poverty, and violence of medieval village life. I believe scenes come alive when the author lets the setting speak.
Lines From Dragonswood:
I was taken to the pond where I would be cast into the water to see if I was a witch. The sheriff forced me through sucking mud, wet grass, and goose droppings. Rain pocked the gray millpond. I wept as he removed my cloak and tossed it by the tall rushes. He untied my wrists as another man pressed my arms down hard. The jailor wrapped a thick rope around my arms and waist, pinning my arms against my sides.
Writing that scene made my skin cold. I stood in the mud in the chilly rain. I felt as if I was about to be cast into the millpond.
Janet, you are active in the Plant a Billion Trees http://www.plantabillion.org/ and Water for People (http://www.waterforpeople.org/ ) movements. If you could start a movement of your own, what would it be?
Thanks for asking! I link each new book with a charity as a part of my Author Outreach. To celebrate the Dragonswood book launch, our family joined Defenders of Wildlife (http://www.defenders.org/index_v2.html) we adopted an arctic fox and snowy owl. You can swing by the “giving back” page on my website (http://www.janetleecarey.com ) to learn more about that.
But if I were to create my own charity, I’d want to combine caring for the planet and caring for the human family.
Earth is our home. We can’t continue to abuse our home, rape it for its resources, and pile it up with garbage. We are Family. We can’t continue to abuse our family, fighting endless wars, letting people live without enough food or clean drinking water. So I’d love something like Nature & Nurture. The Nature component would take care of the earth, support organic farming, and promote clean power sources (wind, solar etc.) The Nurture part would support World Family with an equal distribution of food and clean drinking water for all.
We are not alone. Each of us can do our small part for our Earth and our World Family by contributing to any charity that moves us in a global direction.
If you were not a writer, what sort of career would you picture yourself in?
I would love to be a visual artist. In truth, I can’t draw much better than the average nine year old. But Tess is an artist, or at least she wants to be. It wasn’t easy for medieval women to have such ambitions.
Lines From Dragonswood:
Poppy glanced at Meg. “Tess thinks to live alone and make a living scribing or with her artwork.”
“Poppy! That was between you and me.” I’d not told Meg, knowing what she’d say.
Meg cocked a brow. “Men paint and scribe for a living, not women. A young woman does not keep to herself and earn her own way. Do you want to end up burned for a witch like Jane Fine?”
“She sold artful candles, Meg. I draw.”
“What’s the difference? Living by your lonesome without a man to protect you? They’ll call you a witch and burn you.”
“Jane Fine stole into Dragonswood and danced with Satan there,” Poppy reminded. “Tess would never do that.”
Do you have any advice for your young readers?
Enjoy the gift of good tales, the scenes you see as you read, the sound and feel of words as the story unfolds. In Tess’s day, most people could not read or write. Each book was hand copied. Books were very valuable. In fact many books were chained to the walls to keep thieves from stealing them.
Tess is proud that she can read and write. Lines from Dragonswood:
I edged to the desk and touched the feathered quill.
“Do you wish to write something?” Garth Huntsman asked.
“Sir? No, I—”
“You don’t know how,” he said matter-of-factly.
Many people, even lords and ladies, did not know how to read or write, so I shouldn’t have taken offense; still, I barked, “Of course I know how! I can read and write and do mathematical sums. I used to keep my father’s accounts; the clodpole couldn’t do his own.”
What interview question do you wish someone would ask, but they never do?
I would love to be asked, “What surprised you when you wrote the story?” Since I just asked that, I’ll answer it. I was surprised when Tess pulled a knife on the huntsman. Looking back I understand why she did it, but when I first wrote the scene her action took my breath away.
Thank you for such a fun interview, Janet!
