Snoink, known for her quick wit, modding stick and an assonance that
won’t quit. Tell me, O Great One, why dost thou grace us with thy
noble visage upon yonder writing green?
Snoink: Forsooth, I talk happily with thee to better look at that mine screen.
Kit: You are a strong willed woman with a fine mind and bosom of your own,
how much of a factor is Catholicism in that?
Snoink: Well, first of all, Catholicism has no effect on my strong bosom! This is clearly the work of God, who has somehow worked through my parents in miraculous ways which can be somewhat (but not altogether) explained with genetics. As far as my strong mind and Catholicism go? Well... it's not like Catholicism is a factor in my mind, nor is it like my mind is a factor in my Catholicism. It's more in lock-step with each other, because (to me) Catholicism just makes logical sense in most every way. So, I suppose you can say that I kind of fell into it and decided it made sense. And, if I was being silly (which happens a lot!) Catholicism usually had five million arguments (based on logical reasoning) so that I would realize I was being silly.
Kit: Well, they do have the most impressive hats, so logic is not far behind.
Snoink: This is true. I always liked Seuss's "The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins" for this reason.
Kit: It was my favourite hymn too. If there was a religion whose hats were more impressive, would you convert?
Snoink: I seriously doubt this is possible! Our hats are awesome.
Kit: How do you see the role of the writer in today's society?
Snoink: I think the role of the writer is the same as it ever has been. A writer is an artist that sees the same old thing and then puts it into such a way that it takes your breath away. It is important to realize that all ideas are cliched. But, a writer takes these cliched ideas and breathes life in it so that it becomes real. And, by it becoming real, we find that we become a little more real as well.
Kit: So their role is purely within the realm of the art form? There is no social responsibility for example?
Snoink: No, because art, at its very core, is a revolution. It challenges society and breaks the norms all the time. It cannot follow society for this reason. After all, in order to make a cliche not a cliche, you must tweak something -- and by tweaking it, you bend the rules.
Kit: What do you hope to achieve with the YWS revolution? Will there be hats?
Snoink: Oh, definitely! Not as good as the hats in Catholicism, I am afraid, but there will be hats!
Kit: Poetry or prose?
Snoink: Prose should resemble poetry and poetry should resemble prose.
I think the biggest mistake that prose writers make is that they think their wording and sense of metering doesn't matter. In fact, it does matter a great deal. The way you stress the various words puts an impact on the reader. As a prose writer, you want to throw the reader in drama. To make it dramatic, you must use techniques.
Similarly, one of the most common problems with poems is that they lack a sense of conflict. Metering and rhyme and all these things are important, but a poem is frivolous without this sense of conflict. It must have tension... it must make a punch somewhere. It doesn't matter if it's a silly poem or a serious poem. If it doesn't take a punch at the reader, it fails.
Poets should strive to be prose writers and prose writers should strive to be poets. I know that some of the best lessons I learned as a prose writer was when I struggled with poetry. I am not the best poet by far. But, after struggling with poetry, you learn so much about writing. Similarly, poets should do their best to understand how to write a story, even if the story they tell is only their own. It will help them immeasurably in their own writing.
Kit: In Plato's ideal society, there were no poets. Do you mean to say they should not be shot on sight?
Snoink: Plato had some very good ideas and some very silly ideas! This is a silly idea. He believed that poets had no place in the ideal society because poets, as revolutionists, twisted the cliche and the normal into something else. However, in doing so, this helps reveal the truth. He thought it was dishonest, but I much prefer Aristotle's view on this subject: that poetry, as well as all art, had its place in opening the eyes of the people to a higher truth that they might have missed in their complacency.
Kit: Then who should be shot on sight?
Snoink: No one! We should all love each other. Peace and love, yo!
Kit: What if they destroyed the hats?
Snoink: We shall rebuild the hats!
Kit: Poetry, prose OR Halloumi?
Snoink: I have never had this food, however it looks delicious. I would probably go with halloumi, if I knew what it tasted like. Since I don't, I would probably stick with poetry and prose. With this said, if you want to invite me to a halloumi eating festival, I will be more than happy to come
Kit: How did you experience literature when you were a child? Were you read to, or did you read to yourself?'
Snoink: I remember being read to when I was very little. I remember begging my mom to read me Robin Hood, for example. It's quite a distressing book when you are younger since it pretty much starts with Robin Hood getting beaten. And the fairy tales were not so much better! Lots of torture in them too. There are several stories about Black Beauty being read to us as well.
We were also taught to read using scripture. During mass, the lector would read the scripture, and we would follow along with books. So, we learned stories that we probably shouldn't have learned, as the bible is a pretty graphic book! I remember that there was this story in Maccabees which was intensely interesting to me, as it pertained with these seven brothers who were killed because they wouldn't eat pork. And then their mother was killed too. It was pretty violent! But, that was okay because to us it was cool. I think there is this morbid like for violence for children. That would explain the fairy tales!
However, as soon as I could read, I was stuck in a book. And I read a lot. Our family didn't allow us to use computers for a long time (when we were 12 was when we finally got to use them), and then we only got to watch a certain amount of TV. So, we ended up reading a lot.
Kit: What literature had the strongest impact on you?
Snoink: Fairy tales, scripture, and mythology, definitely. I still can't get enough out of them. To me, it is the most beautiful thing in the world to see people explain the world through stories. As a writer, I get a kick out of it. Also, I love how the story is so simplistic, but is so deep. They don't need a lot of words for dramatic effect. They just tell it how it is and, even as a child, you KNOW what it is about. And, as you get older, you only appreciate it more. Life is contained in these little stories, and it is a beautiful thing. They also tend to mix poetry with it too!
Kit: Do you think about going pro?
Snoink: Not really. I mean, the main reason why I wrote the stories that I have is because I fell in love with them and had to tell them. If everyone hated them, that wouldn't change this fact. The fact that people like them is just coincidental. I probably will end up publishing my works because people have harassed me to, but otherwise I don't mind just keeping the story to myself. When I was younger, I wanted to go pro, but I've changed a lot since then.
Kit: If you had unlimited resources at your disposal but had to produce something literaturewise, what would it be?
Snoink: It would probably be the type of things that I have created in my head already, since I have a lot of material. I have a whole mythology I have created, in fact, which I've just started pointing in literature form (though it's admittedly a bit quirky and weird). So, it would probably be along those lines.
I also have a couple of stories on the line that are about people who find themselves forced in societies that they were thrust to by accident. That would include FREAK, of course, which is about a slave who finds herself in a position where she is allowed certain freedoms in her new home -- a fact which spirals out of control and ends up destroying the family dynamics of the home. Then, there is the story "Brains" and "The Unicorn Killers" which have not been written yet, but have that basic plot line. "Brains" is based on 1 Samuel 3, so it's about a boy who accidentally gets exposed to a very scary world with the help of a voice. And "The Unicorn Killers" is about a teenage girl from our world who gets trapped in a scary world in which she, as 16, is considered to be an adult and where there is this huge culture shock. Especially when she finds out they want her to work in a whorehouse...
Kit: Does your experience with people on YWS affect your portrayal of teens?
Snoink: It enriches it, I think, and makes me realize that they are as much of a human as any one of us. The teens have taught me much and also taught me how smart and resilient and strong they are. Sometimes, I admit, I mumble about how they are being silly, however they surprise me so much with their strength and kindness and dedication to doing what they believe is right.
Kit: Do you think that is why you continue to write about teens?
Snoink: I like writing about young people because they see the world in such a new way that it just fascinates me. It's easy to become complacent. But, they don't allow for this to happen. They are always questioning things. If art is an act of rebellion, teenagers are works of art.
Kit: What is your opinion of young adult fiction as a form and genre? Do you think it suffers from being written by people who are not young adults, or can you only be objective with time?
Snoink: I think crap can be found in all forms and genres. The fact that there are a lot of bad works nowadays in young adult fiction doesn't mean that there are not a lot of good books in young adult fiction. The bad books will eventually become thankfully ignored whereas the good ones will last. Some bad ones will likely last too -- but, this can be said about many other genres as well. Time will tell!
Kit: I remember there was a controversy a while ago #yesGayYA, where there were a number of authors who said that they were forced to remove content about LGBTQ relationships, did you hear about that?
Snoink: Nope! Though, unfortunately, that doesn't surprise me.
Kit: It is perhaps the most policed genre, in some ways. Likewise, people protesting the portrayal of witchcraft in Harry Potter. Are teens as impressionable as all that? How much do you think who you are as a teenager affects who you are as an adult?
Snoink: Of course they are impressionable! But, here's the thing... they know the difference between reality and fiction. With fiction, they usually know that it is (sometimes unfortunately) fiction, though they can daydream otherwise. Still, the book doesn't have extraordinary power over them because life is more than happy to provide a reality check.
But, with reality, it is a different story. These protests over books are awful because it gives teenagers the impression that so much hatred can be leveled to something as fanciful as a book. And this impresses upon the poor teenager's mind that, if not even a book can be accepted and instead be blindly hated by a bunch of bigots, then what chance do they have of being accepted? So, that's the impression I fear the most, because everyone should have a chance to be loved, no matter who they are.
And who I was as a teenager definitely affects me as an adult. I think that being a teenager is one of the scariest times in existence because this is the first time in your life that there is so much uncertainty and fear... it can be overwhelming. Now, I would like to say that the fear and uncertainty disappears once you become an adult, but that isn't true. Instead, confronting the fear and uncertainty as a teenager helps you confront the fear as an adult. And this makes it easier.
In any case, I do my best to help out with the teenagers here, because I know how hard it can be.
Kit: Unless it is a plot of the authors to make reading seem all dangerous and sexy...
Snoink: If the authors resort to those kinds of gimmicks, I can hardly call it good!
Kit: I don't know, if you're going to rebel, probably naughty naughty Nabokov is more beneficial than heroin in the long run.
Snoink: Hahaha... Lolita! It rolls off the tongue. That book is pretty interesting because it isn't ever explicitly sexual... and yet it is
Kit: I can't believe they thought Lolita and Peter Sellers would be a good match up, saying this as a fan of both.
Snoink: hahahahah
Kit: For me, becoming an adult was realising that pretty much everyone is as lost as I am, which was terrifying. I wanted adults to have all the answers.
Snoink: Well... this is true! Adults really don't know anything. But, this is why I love Catholicism so much, because it is such a guider for lost souls.
Kit: Finally, which author would you run away with?
Snoink: None! I have found a hot Catholic boy to run away with instead.
He is awesome in multiple ways.