Book Lovers Life: The Wishing World by Todd Fahnestock Blog Tour and Giveaway!

Welcome to my stop on The Wishing World blog tour! I get to share an author interview with you but you can check out the rest of the stops HERE.

Title: The Wishing World

Author: Todd Fahnestock

Hardcover: 224 pages

Publisher: Starscape (October 25, 2016)

Synopsis

In the Wishing World, dreams are real. You can transform into your own hero, find wild and whimsical friends, and wield power as great as your imagination. But Lorelei doesn't know about any of that. All she knows is that a monster took her family.
It happened during a camping trip one year ago. Hiding inside the tent, she saw shadows, tentacles and a strange creature. By the time she got up the courage to crawl outside, the monster--and Lorelei's mom, dad, and brother--were gone.
Lorelei is determined to find her family. When she accidentally breaks into the Wishing World, she discovers a way. It's a land more wonderful than she could have imagined, a land of talking griffons, water princesses, and cities made of sand, where Lorelei is a Doolivanti--a wish-maker--who can write her dreams into existence.
There's only one problem: the monster is a Doolivanti, too. What he wishes also comes true, and he's determined to shove Lorelei out, keep her family, and make the whole Wishing World his. To save them, Lorelei must find the courage to face him, or her next wish may be her last.

"Whimsical and imaginative, with just the right mix of humor, heart, and adventure. The Wishing World is everything you could wish for in a story--and so much more!"--Shannon Messenger, author of Keeper of the Lost Cities

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | BOOK DEPOSITORY

Author Interview:

What is your latest book about?
In the Wishing World, dreams are real. You can transform into your own hero, find wild and whimsical friends, and wield power as great as your imagination. But Lorelei doesn't know about any of that. All she knows is that a monster took her family.

It happened during a camping trip one year ago. Hiding inside the tent, she saw shadows, tentacles and a strange creature. By the time she got up the courage to crawl outside, the monster--and Lorelei's mom, dad, and brother--were gone.

Lorelei is determined to find her family. When she accidentally breaks into the Wishing World, she discovers a way. It's a land more wonderful than she could have imagined, a land of talking griffons, water princesses, and cities made of sand, where Lorelei is a Doolivanti--a wish-maker--who can write her dreams into existence.

There's only one problem: the monster is a Doolivanti, too. What he wishes also comes true, and he's determined to shove Lorelei out, keep her family, and make the whole Wishing World his. To save them, Lorelei must find the courage to face him, or her next wish may be her last.

Tell us about the main character(s).
This novel was created as a series of oral stories for my children to get them to go to sleep. Back then, there was only Gruffy, Pip, Squeak and Ripple having adventures. There was no Lorelei. But when I went to write the story down, I struggled. It felt like I was walking in pre-made footprints, and my joy in rough drafting comes from discovery. Most times, I don’t know what’s going to happen, and that feeds me. I needed not only a bridge from our world to the Wishing World, but I needed a way to spark my interest. After almost a year of trying and failing, I finally made my daughter the main character and called her Lorelei.

Lorelei’s family is the most important thing in the whole world to her. Her greatest fear is losing them. I took this fear and made it the hook of the beginning of the story. Once I did this, I was utterly invested, because the last thing I want is for my children to be afraid; this gave rise to many noble qualities I wish for my children: courage, drive, compassion, creativity and problem-solving. Of course, Elowyn has never forgiven me for putting her greatest fear front-and-center at the beginning of the story. She loves The Wishing World, but to this day, she won’t read the first chapter or to be in the room when I read it aloud.

Another thing I love about Lorelei: She talks. Oh my gosh, she talks and talks. She has such a unique, imaginative way of looking at the world, and I find her commenting on things sometimes even when I’m not writing. When I’m writing her, I have ideas of what she should say, but she always grabs the wheel and drives. I find myself laughing aloud in surprise at the things she says, as though I wasn’t the one who created them, as if there actually is a little Lorelei in my head. She is a hoot to write.

What are your writing strengths?
Rough drafting. All of my natural abilities lay with rough drafting. First, I’m preoccupied with stories almost all of the time. My imagination wanders, and rough drafting is all about letting loose and jotting it down. I also have fast fingers. I type 120+WPM, so I can almost keep up with my imagination, and that makes things a lot easier. Lastly, I am euphoric after rough drafting. It can be exhausting, but the euphoria keeps me coming back to the keyboard.

What do you feel you need to work on as a writer?
Editing. I have no sense for when I am finished, and it drives me crazy. I will complete a draft, and I’m so high on the rush of creation that I sing and dance and celebrate because I’m done. Except I’m not. I think I’ve put what I want on the page, but I often fail to see what is actually put on the page. It’s frustrating. The imaginative part of sees only what I want to see. This makes it difficult for me to see what I’ve actually done. Fortunately, I work with two amazingly talented editors. Liana Holmberg, who I have known since college, is a phenomenal creative editor and she’s been with me since almost the beginning. She took the book from what I thought was the final draft to a draft that captured a contract with Tor. She sees what I’m trying to do, where I have achieved it, and where I missed the mark. She patiently slogs with me through the muck until I’m on firm ground. And after the contract with Tor, I couldn’t have been more lucky in getting Bess Cozby. I’m in awe of her talent and training. The “Loremaster” piece was something she pushed me to create. She looked at the whole puzzle, then handed me the final piece and whispered, “Right there. You need this right there.” Suddenly, the whole picture was clearer, and she unwittingly gave rise to the theme of the second book.

It took me twenty years, but I’ve finally admitted that I need a good editor (and in this case, more than one). I probably always will.

How do you motivate yourself to write?
This is not a struggle for me most days. I love to write. As I’ve mentioned above, it feeds me. My main problem is having time in my busy schedule to rush to the keyboard and put it all down. That said, there are days I struggle. When I absolutely don’t want to write, I think of something bestselling author Jodi Thomas once mentioned at the Pikes Peak Writers Conference. Essentially, she said sometimes when she writes it’s all brilliant. Diamonds glitter on the page as soon as they’re put down. Sometimes, it’s muck and mud. So during one manuscript, she decided to write, never stopping to revise the muck on-the-fly. So she didn’t even look at the words, she just kept moving for two months. After, she went back to shovel out the muck and mine the diamonds.

To her surprise, she couldn’t find the dividing line between the days where she thought she was horrible from the days she was flying high. This made me realize that what I think about my writing vacillates wildly from day to day. The quality of my writing, generally, doesn’t. So when I’m struggling to get to the computer, I just make my self sit down and start, even if it’s all just horrible horrible horrible.

Where do you find your ideas?
For The Wishing World, my family. This book has them all over it. The protagonist, the Mirror Man, the parents, Auntie Carrie and Uncle Jone. The themes of loyalty and importance of being together, interacting, knowing each other. And especially the goofiness. Example: We’re sitting at dinner. Elowyn tells us about her day at school, talks about an exercise in drama class where she sits still and another person tries to make her react and show any emotion – laughter, shock, embarrassment, whatever. They can try to surprise her, make goofy noises, whatever; they just can’t touch her. Elowyn is very good at this game, and she said there was no way I could make her react. So I made a constipated buffalo noise and twisted my face up. She admirably kept expressionless, so I had to stick a leaf of spinach up my nose. That did the trick. She lost it. We enforce fairly good table manners usually, so I think she wasn’t expecting that. This is the kind of goofiness one might expect at my house.

And, of course, all of the whimsical creatures could not have been made without my kids. We brainstorm for Flimflams and Robsombulous beasts during our “writing walks” and during moments when we’re all hanging out in the kitchen. My son Dash invented HuggyBug, the Ferbleticks (you’ll see them in book II), and Oofatruts. In fact, the HuggyBug/Spike dialogue in The Wishing World was lifted straight from a conversation in the car while returning from Tae Kwon Do practice. Oh, and the whole comet idea was Elo’s. She also came up with Sir Cuhl and Sir Pent (and many more that didn’t make the final cut). Kids are magic. Their imaginations are fresh and uncluttered by experience.

What is the most frustrating aspect of the publishing world?
The waiting. It can take years to bring a manuscript from completion to publication. I mean, it takes a while to actually have a good manuscript in the first place, but at least that’s work that keeps me occupied. I started The Wishing World on April 4, 2011 (then entitled Gruffy the Griffon). The first draft was completed two years later. In December of 2013, I gave it to Bill Golliher, my agent, and he agreed to represent me. In May of 2014, he sent it to Kathleen Doherty at Tor. By December of 2014, we heard that there was interest. In March of 2015, we signed the contract and they set the publication date, a year and a half later on October 25, 2016. Yay!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

TODD FAHNESTOCK won the New York Public Library's Books for the Teen Age Award for one of his short stories, and is the author of the YA bestseller Fairmist as well as The Wishing World. Stories are his passion, but Todd's greatest accomplishment is his quirky, fun-loving family. The Wishing World began as a series of bedtime stories for his children.