Debut YA Novel Crosses Boundaries

October 04, 2005

Author Laura Whitcomb Photo Credit: Sorin Coughlin

When Laura Whitcomb, author of the Book Sense Children's Pick A Certain Slant of Light (Graphia), was a teenager, one of the reasons she and her friends "wanted to read 'adult' books was the impression that YA books were like medicine," she recently told BTW. "They were moralistic, and you were supposed to read them to learn something."

A Certain Slant of Light -- an atmospheric and intelligent young-adult novel about ghosts, love, high school, secrets, and forgiveness (not necessarily in that order) -- is an excellent example of a YA title that is not prescriptive or moralistic. Rather, it embraces ambiguity and lends credibility to the unknowable.

Protagonist Helen is a ghost who is herself haunted by a lingering guilt, a feeling that stays with her through 130 years of cleaving to various hosts who carry her through a strange, vicarious existence. When the story begins, she is attached to Mr. Brown, a high school English teacher struggling to write a book; she plays muse by whispering in his ear, and invisibly sits in on his classes.

Then, the unthinkable happens. Whitcomb said, "I thought, what would be the weirdest thing that could happen to a woman who knows she is dead? It would probably feel weird if someone looks into her eyes, because no one ever does."

And so Helen meets James, a fellow ghost occupying the body of a student in Mr. Brown's class, who becomes the first person to look her in the eye since her death. The two forge a strong connection and embark on a romance that stretches the boundaries of worlds surreal and real, long ago and wholly new. Whitcomb's approach to the characters, who are simultaneously young and old in ways not tied to age, will surely broaden the book's appeal -- just as people age 15 through 65 enjoy Catcher in the Rye, so too will they appreciate A Certain Slant of Light.

Noted Whitcomb, "When I wrote the story, I wasn't thinking of it as young adult; I was just writing a story I thought would be interesting." She added, "I like the idea of a book being a 'crossover,' because it gets young people and adults talking about the same thing."

When Whitcomb was a child, the adults in her life welcomed creativity. "I was always encouraged to write and create. I was told I could do anything." She studied music in college and spent a year abroad as a missionary. She also worked as a junior-high English teacher and preschool teacher in Hilo, Hawaii.

"It was very good for my self-esteem," she said with a laugh. "I'd think, 'Hey, I conquered the two most difficult age levels!' There were a lot of emotional similarities between the two ages -- they're trying to establish themselves in the world."

Whitcomb has also worked in the human resources field and was at a full-time desk job when she began to write A Certain Slant of Light. But that wasn't the author's first foray into writing: she wrote her first novel in high school, and finished four more in her 20s.

She said, "It got very tiring, sending out queries and getting rejections, and I stopped being interested in the process of sending out [query] letters. So, for more than 20 years, I wrote a novel or novella each year, and I didn't do anything with them. But I kept reading, watching movies and plays, and talking about them with my sister. I think it really helped my writing, having all those talks."

Ultimately, it was that sister, a screenwriter for movies and television, who suggested Whitcomb try again to publish a book. "She told me, 'You shouldn't keep hiding like that,'" Whitcomb remembered.

This time around, all the pieces fell into place. "When I was writing A Certain Slant of Light ... something shifted in me. When I started worrying about money or a backup plan, a voice would come into my head and say all I had to worry about was writing this story the best way I can."

Something else happened, too: "I took one little step up the ladder of skill ... the rhythm of reflection to action, of narrative to scene, the ability to choose the right kind of detailed description.... I suddenly understood it better."

Whitcomb was reading White Oleander by Janet Fitch and Barbara Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible and Prodigal Summer at the time she took that extra step in skill. "They're so good at detail, at simile, so graceful and vivid in their writing. I was inspired, and I aspire to that. I think it helps. You need to have people you think are better than you, and to want to improve so you feel anywhere near the same class they are," she said.

A Certain Slant of Light has been sold in Japan, China, and Italy, and an audiobook is forthcoming. In addition, movie rights were purchased by production company Plan B. Now, Whitcomb is working on a new novel, and coauthoring (with her agent) a book for Writer's Digest Books with the working title How to Write and Sell Your First Novel. Her first author event will be at Powell's bookstore, where she'll offer "Confessions of a First-Time Novelist."

Whitcomb said she'll talk about "what I jokingly call the quantum physics of breaking in ... positive visualization, acts of faith. They help once you have a piece of work ... that feels right. I'm not sure if it's subconscious or some sort of magic happens. I just tell people because it worked for me."

She added, "I think sometimes you have to believe it all the way through, and it will happen." --Linda M. Castellitto

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