The Window (14 page)

Question:
How long have you been writing? Was there a moment when you chose it as your life's work?

Jeanette Ingold:
I've been writing as long as I've been reading, in the sense that all readers help complete a book by using their own experiences and understandings to flesh out the author's words. Writing became a career when a newspaper job taught me the excitement of searching out and interpreting a story.

Q:
What is your writing process? Do you work certain hours or days?

JI:
When I research, I hunt out primary source materials, go to where my books take place, and try to learn what my characters must face. When I'm writing, I keep a pretty set routine, getting up early and working for several hours five or six days a week.

Q:
How many drafts of a manuscript do you writer?

JI:
It varies, but several. I also do rolling revisions within drafts, working on structure, experimenting with voice and tense, worrying over scenes and sentences and single words.

Q:
Are your characters inspired by people you know?

JI:
Not directly, not usually, because if I base a character on one particular person, I'm limited by what I know and feel about him or her. More often, bits and pieces of many people join together in my characters.

Q:
How do you come up with story ideas?

JI:
It's more a matter of being open to them. Ideas lie in bits of history, in newspaper stories, unexplained pictures, overheard conversations. The're in the
why
and
who
and
what did it mean
questions that all sorts of things present.

Q:
Most of your novels are historical fiction, and even your contemporary stories incorporate past events and people into the story lines. What is it about history and historical fiction that intrigues you?

JI:
I like the context that history provides for understanding the present. And historical fiction is fun—a passport to time travel and a way for me to take part in exciting times that were over before I was born.

Q:
Which books or writers have influenced you?

JI:
There have been hundreds—or maybe thousands—beginning with the books I loved when I was a kid all the way to today's great writers. Together, they've taught me what story is and what language sounds like when it's used well.

Q:
In
The Window,
memories are important to Mandy. How have memories played a part in your writing?

JI:
Mandy sorts through her memories both to hold on to them and also to come to new understandings, and I do, too, recasting and writing my memories into my books. They keep me connected to people I don't want to lose.

Q:
Mandy is good at recalling vivid details. Has being a writer sharpened your own observation skills?

JI:
Writers are watchers and listeners by nature. Observing—paying attention—that's what we do. But I have gotten better at recognizing which details I need to write down, and I've learned to observe with all my senses.

Mountain Solo

A love of music links two young people

Sixteen-year-old Tess's life has been shaped by her violin.

From the moment she picked up the instrument, it's been clear she isn't like other kids. She is a prodigy, and her life is that of a virtuoso-to-be: constant training, special schools, and a big debut before an audience of thousands. When she blows her moment in the spotlight, she throws it all away and moves from the big city to small town Montana, where she joins her father and tries to lead a normal life—whatever that is.

But Tess has hardly arrived before she is drawn into a mystery: a hunt for the wilderness homestead of a lost pioneer who played violin himself—or fiddle, as he called it. Maybe, through his story, Tess will find the strength to pick up her violin again.

The Big Burn

Beware of the fire you can't fight

Jarrett is sixteen—old enough to reject the railroad job his father wants him to take, old enough to court Lizbeth Whitcomb, old enough to join the fight against the forest fires that are destroying Idaho and Montana. But the fires are worse than anyone dreamed, and when the raging blazes join, they become one vast inferno that threatens to destroy everything—and everyone—Jarrett holds dear.

This fast-paced story re-creates the heart-stopping drama of one of the biggest wildfires of the twentieth century: The Big Burn of 1910.

"Excellent ... The action builds
to a fevered pitch."
—VOYA

"Ingold captures the momentum
of a wildfire."
—Publishers Weekly

"An exciting tale."
—Kirkus Reviews

Gaining focus

Asia McKinna may live in rural Texas, but she's hot out of the reach of World War I. The strain of the raging war infects her town, her family, and her own life. She's doing her part for the war effort, but she feels overwhelmed. Each day her beloved grandmother grows more frail. Each day her friend Nick's departure—either to college or to war—nears. And the entire town is on edge from a rash of mysterious fires. Only through her growing passion for photography can Asia hope to gain perspective on the times—and on her place in the world.

A T
EXAS
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ONE
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TAR
R
EADING
L
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B
OOK

"An innovative novel [with]
believable characters and
complex, evolving relationships."
—Kirkus Renews
(starred review)

"Riveting."
—The Bulletin

"Endearing."
—VOYA

An aerobatic adventure

In the early days of aviation, Beatty and Moss hang out around the airport Beatty's uncle manages. Beatty's hoping to see her father when he flies in—and quickly out again—on a mail flight. And Moss is hoping his mechanical skills will help him to support himself. Neither anticipates their crucial roles in the airfield's survival—or in saving Beatty's father's life.

A N
EW
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ORK
P
UBLIC
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IBRARY
B
OOK FOR THE
T
EEN
A
GE

"Engrossing."
—The New York Times Book Review

"Beatty ... is a heroine of vim and vigor."
—The Bulletin

"Excellent."
—School Library Journal