Pulse Point: Q & A with author Colleen Nelson

Written by Colleen Nelson with Nancy Chappell-Pollack

Yellow Dog (Great Plains Publications)
978-1-927855-97-3
192 pp.
Ages 12-15
May 2018

Yesterday I reviewed Colleen Nelson's newest YA novel, Pulse Point, which she wrote with Nancy Chappell-Pollack.  Today Colleen Nelson with input from Nancy Chappell-Pollack answers a few of my questions about the book, their writing process and the future for Pulse Point.

HK:  Pulse Point is totally unlike any YA novel you have written to date both in genre and in its collaborative authorship, and I’d really love to delve into this.  First, how did you come to write the novel with your sister and what did you find most challenging as well as most advantageous about writing Pulse Point as part of a team?

CN:  Pulse Point began as an idea that Nancy had for a screenplay. Her background is in screenwriting and theatre, so we pitched it to a screen writing contest. I wrote the ‘treatment’ which is a type of synopsis used in the television/movie industry. We didn’t win, but the idea was too good to let go. Nancy and I were both invested in the idea, so we decided to work on it together.

One of the challenges writers face is the isolation factor. For hours every day, I sit in a room by myself and tap away on my laptop. Sometimes writing feels like a very slow, uphill slog and what’s worse, I have no idea if what I’m writing is any good! It was motivating to send Nancy a chapter and get her feedback on it. She knew the characters as well as I did and knew the direction of the story. We collaborated on every aspect of the book, even though I did the bulk of the writing.

As for the genre, writing dystopian wasn’t as different from realistic YA as you’d expect. Pulse Point might have a different setting and the characters face unusual challenges, but they still have to be relatable. Just like in realistic fiction, Kaia had to deal with conflicts with friends, family and figuring out who she is. We tried to remember it is the characters, not their dystopian world, driving the story.


HK:  Second, have you always wanted to write speculative fiction or did the idea for Pulse Point originate with your sister Nancy Chappell-Pollack?

CN:  The idea was Nancy’s. It started with a ‘what if’. What if a pulse point, implanted in a finger and meant to control a person’s life, suddenly malfunctions? How would they react to this sudden freedom? Other than continuing on with Kaia’s story, I don’t have any plans to write other speculative fiction.


HK:  Speaking of speculative fiction, do you consider Pulse Point more science fiction or dystopian, and why?

CN:  Nancy and I talked about this and decided that it’s more dystopian than sci-fi. We wanted to create an alternate version of our world where climate change has made it impossible to live outside, or so Kaia thinks. I think in dystopian, a writer can play with politics and economics and world building in a different way than in science fiction. 


HK:  The scientists who created the City under a dome seemed to have good intentions after global warming brought disaster after disaster to their world.  But, like the saying goes about good intentions, their decisions about the nature of the City including who should be allowed in and how relationships are structured, seem to be discriminatory and harmful.  What message did you want readers to get about this new world?

CN:  The scientific minds that created the City were concerned with saving a species. They were intervening with natural selection, or maybe speeding it along, by only selecting people with disease- and ‘defect’-free genetics. We were thinking of a couple of things when we wrote Pulse Point. The first is the Spartan society where weak newborns were left to die because the city-state wanted to raise only the strongest soldiers (and have mothers who would breed the strongest soldiers). The second was the lack of humanity that a purely scientific-based community would develop. In the same way that AI (read Erin Bow’s excellent Scorpion Rules for more on this topic!) uses reason, not empathy, to make decisions, the City relies on efficiency.

While the City’s decisions make sense at a practical level, they are harsh and inhumane. There is so much to discuss about the morality attached to embryonic testing and selection. You might have also noticed that there is no dance, art, religion or literature in the City. All of those things are considered unnecessary and a waste of resources. I’m really glad I don’t live there!


HK:  Because Kaia’s world within the City is very much dictated by genetic rankings in which features like blue eyes and birthmarks are considered defects, there is much discrimination.  Even Kaia expresses this disdain for her newly-discovered brother who is blind.  How difficult was it to have your characters express such negative thoughts and for you to write those ideas?

CN:  Kaia is a product of her environment, so her prejudices are a result of what she has been taught. The flipside is that the people she meets outside of the City do not have those same discriminatory ideas. The conflict that results lets Kaia grow to accept differences and see the value that everyone brings to a community.


HK:  Many young adults will be delighted to know that there is frisson of romance brewing under Pulse Point’s main plot.  But with Lev and Gideon both in the picture, Kaia may have some choices to make. Did you always intend to have a romance as a subplot in Pulse Point or did it develop as your story took shape?

CN:  The truth is, I hate writing romantic scenes. There’s nothing more cringey than a cheesy kissing scene with awkward dialogue. It can kill a story and put a damper on good writing. Nancy was the one who pushed for more romantic tension and the creation of a love triangle between Kaia, Lev and Gideon. Like with most things, Nancy’s instincts were correct and I agreed to write it.

This book went through so many drafts, characters and plots changed drastically with each one. The one thing that never changed was Kaia’s strength and determination as a female lead. We did not want her to be focused on her hunt for a mate, or a potential romance. We wanted this book to be accessible to male and female readers and to make sure the romance furthers the tension, but doesn’t make it seem that all female characters need a male-focused romance.


HK:  Readers will recognize that Kaia’s story is not over at the conclusion of Pulse Point. When you started writing Pulse Point, was it always your intention to have a sequel? What plans are there for publication of a sequel or sequels?

CN:  At first, we envisioned Pulse Point as a trilogy, but our editor suggested we make some significant changes to the ending. Those changes altered our original plan from three books to two. I’d love to write a second book and find out what happens to Kaia and Lev and the Prims. I think there’s more going on in the City than we know about and I hope it doesn’t take us another seven years to find out what it is! 

Thanks to Colleen Nelson and Nancy Chappell-Pollack

for talking about Pulse Point with CanLit for LittleCanadians.  

It's always a pleasure to talk books with writers of wonderful stories 

and to learn about the creative process.

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Check out other blog tour stops for more about Pulse Point

Pulse Point

Written by Colleen Nelson with Nancy Chappell-Pollack

Yellow Dog (Great Plains Publications)
978-1-927855-97-3
192 pp.
Ages 12-15
May 2018

With global warming, many of us acknowledge that things in our world are going awry.  Scientists have been warning about its consequences that include increased flooding, droughts, fires, mudslides and more, though it seems too few are listening now and in the world from the time Kaia's elder Mae (whom we would call grandmother) was much younger. But, in their world, when those impacts escalated and became dire, the scientists had prepared and created self-sufficient Cities run on the energy of its Citizens.

Though the Citizens may not consider it to be a problem, happy to be safe under the dome of the City, the social constructs of their new home have been exclusionary and are discriminatory. Only people with the right skills and genetics are allowed to live in the City.  Those excluded, called Prims (for Primitives), retreated to the Mountain outside, and the City is constantly on guard and setting Prim Threat Levels. Within the City, each Citizen is connected via a pulse point or microchip implanted in a forefinger to allow for monitoring of energy generation to ensure balance with energy usage. Kaia, who lives with her birth elder Sy, a gardener, and Mae, works as a fetal assessment technician (where defectives are identified for termination) and endeavours to generate extra energy at the gymnasium to share with the elderly Mae.  Anyone who cannot produce sufficient energy must undergo balancing, the process by which the Council ensures the City stays in equilibrium.

But Lev, the progeny of an Overseer, Kellan, a fallen hero, and Tar, a Councillor, is smitten with Kaia, though her genetic ranking is far beneath him. With Tar manipulating people and circumstances to ease Lev's path to becoming a leader, and Kaia's pulse point no longer working, essentially taking her off the grid, Kaia makes a decision that will take her from the only life and people she has known into a wilderness and on the run.

Colleen Nelson is well known for her dramatic YA fiction (The Fall, 250 Hours, Finding Hope, Blood Brothers) and Pulse Point is no less suspenseful in its story nor less powerful in its delivery.  However, because it is her first speculative fiction and collaborative work with her sister Nancy Chappell-Pollack, Pulse Point reveals layers in characterization and world-building that are new.  It's a tense read with all the attributes of great YA: relationship drama, interfering progenitors (i.e., parents), burgeoning romance, secrets, confusion, and conflict. But, all that takes place in a world in which stasis is achieved through the generation of energy and elimination of the unproductive, in which blue eyes are considered a defect, romantic matches are based on genetics, and everyone is monitored (a.k.a. linked) through their fingertips, making Pulse Point a bigger story. Look carefully and you'll see how Pulse Point's worlds could be our own. The two communities, one outside the City and the other under its dome, are a sharp contrast of old ways and new ways and the distrust and clash between the two is inevitable. While Colleen Nelson and Nancy Chappell-Pollack resolve the story, revealing Kaia's origin story and secrets long kept hidden, they also leave a door open for a sequel. It's a good thing because there's still a whole new world that needs to evolve to make things right for Kaia and Lev, and Citizens and Prims alike.

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Check back tomorrow for my Q & A with authors Colleen Nelson and Nancy Chappell-Pollack in which they reveal much about their writing process and story lines from Pulse Point.  Always an insightful discussion when speaking with Colleen Nelson, we learn more than any blurb on a cover could reveal!

Here are all the stops on this blog tour:

• May 28: Stuck in YA Books
• May 29: CanLit for LittleCanadians
• May 30: Reading Maria
• May 31: Chapter by Chapter
• June 1: Biblio Virgo

Be sure to check them all out!

Family of Spies: Blog Tour

Today I'm reviewing Jodi Carmichael's newest middle grade novel Family of Spies as part of the book's blog tour.  Please check out the others stops on the tour as listed at Chapter by Chapter Blog Tours and Promotions and enter to win a free copy of Family of Spies here.

Written by Jodi Carmichael

Yellow Dog (an imprint of Great Plains Publications)

978-1-927855-94-2

288 pp.

Ages 8-13

April 24, 2018

Most people who delve into their family histories are hoping for the unusual like connections to royalty, a hint of scandal or extraordinary accomplishment.  But for most, the exercise of discovering family history details is more likely to be a slog and end in disappointment, since  most people in the past lived lives of work and family with few opportunities for the exotic or the mysterious.  Not so for the great-grandfather of thirteen-year-old cousins Ford MacKenzie and Ellie Whitaker and Ford’s older brother Gavin.  Great-Granddad’s story would be the stuff of legends, if it didn’t have to be sealed.

The MacKenzie and Whitaker families, from Canada and the US respectively, are meeting in Paris for a European vacation. Soon after their arrival, Ford begins to experience moments of déjà vu that seem to time-slip him into Nazi-occupied Paris during World War II.  These episodes are especially emphatic when he touches any of the personal effects–letters, photos, postcards, bookmarks, etc.– in his great-grandfather’s briefcase. A visit to a psychic confirms Ford to be a clairvoyant who is able to connect to the past. 

Using a letter his mother received denying them access to Edward Crawford’s service records,  Ford connects to that military office and sees his great-grandfather’s file identifying him as part of  Special Operations Executive, a top-secret spy agency in operation during the war. But the three teens’ search at the military library alerts other forces to their interest in E. H. Crawford and soon Ford’s “visions” are not the only worries they have.

Assessing the various materials in his great-grandfather’s briefcase, Ford determines that he can connect with Great-Granddad and would be able to envision what he was doing during the war by (re)visiting a café/restaurant, the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower and several more stops.  With each visit, Ford reveals more about his great-grandfather’s covert activities, as well as his fears and guilt for a mission gone awry.

The story is very loosely based on Jodi Carmichael’s own grandfather whose military records remain sealed.  By weaving family history with Ford’s supernatural ability to divine the past, Jodi Carmichael has created a multi-layered mystery that honours her family and entertains readers with intrigue, adventure, a bit of the fantastic and a history lesson like no other. Family of Spies also reveals much about family dynamics and reminds us that, like Great-Granddad’s records of spy activity, nothing is ever final, even in relationships modified by guilt or jealousy because forgiveness can unravel much.

For young readers who enjoy an action-adventure story with a bit of history and the supernatural, Family of Spies will completely captivate and satisfy, and leave them anticipating Ford, Gavin and Ellie’s next adventures (fingers crossed) as the family continues their travels to London and Cairo.

🌆🌆🌆🌆🌆🌆

Jodi Carmichael’s dreams of becoming an author began to come true when she attended her first SCBWI conference in Los Angeles in 2007 and was nominated for the Sue Alexander Most Promising New Work Award. A champion for the underdog and kids who think differently, she wrote Spaghetti is NOT a Finger Food (and Other Life Lessons) (2013) which won numerous awards including a Gold Mom’s Choice and a Silver Moonbeam in 2013. In 2016 her novel about relationship abuse, Forever Julia (2016), won the Manitoba Book Award, the McNally Robinson Books for Young People Award - Older Category and received a Bronze Moonbeam Award for Young Adult Fiction - Mature Issues.

When not channeling characters from her books, she can be found strolling Manitoba beaches with her husband, two daughters, and exceedingly scruffy Border Terrier named Zoe. 

Family of Spies: Book launch (Winnipeg, MB)

Join author

Jodi Carmichael

for the launch of

her new middle-grade novel

Family of Spies

Written by Jodi Carmichael

Yellow Dog

978-1-927855-94-2

288 pp.

Ages 8-13

April 2018

on 

Sunday, April 29, 2018

2 p.m.

at

 McNally Robinson Booksellers

Grant Park Shopping Centre

1120 Grant Avenue

Winnipeg, MB

I'm pleased to share that I'll be participating in the blog tour for Family of Spies on May 10, 2018 with my review of this action-adventure with a touch of the fantastic inspired by the author's own grandfather's rumoured espionage activities during World War 2.  But, until then, here is the blurb from publisher Great Plains.

When cousins Ford, Ellie and Gavin, discover their great-grandfather was a rogue World War 2 spymaster, they must outrun MI6 and the CIA through the streets of Paris, relying on their wits and Ford’s newfound clairvoyant skills to unlock Great-Granddad’s spy secrets buried in the past. Great-Granddad hid something important to the war effort and these agencies want it back! 

Retrieved from 

https://www.greatplains.mb.ca/product/family-of-spies/ 

on April 25, 2018.

Pulse Point: Book Launch (Winnipeg, MB)

Join sisters and now collaborative authors

From https://www.greatplains.mb.ca/product/pulse-point/

Colleen Nelson

and

Nancy Chappell-Pollack

for the launch of their debut collaboration

Pulse Point

Written by Colleen Nelson and Nancy Chappell-Pollack

Yellow Dog (Great Plains Publications)

978-1-927855-97-3

192 pp.

Ages 12-15

May 2018

on

Friday May 11, 2018

at

7:00 p.m.

McNally Robinson

Grant Park in the Atrium

Winnipeg, MB

In Kaia’s world, setting foot Outside can be deadly. The safety of the City has kept humans alive as climate change destroys the world. But the City has found a way to survive sustainably: it is run by the energy generated by its Citizens. The energy that citizens create is calculated and displayed on their pulse point, a transmitter embedded in their finger.

Kaia is a Citizen, one of the few deemed genetically perfect enough to live under the protective dome of the City with her grandmother and father. But when Kaia discovers her mother is alive and living Outside, she escapes the safety of the City and learns the truth about the sinister world she left behind.

From http://www.mcnallyrobinson.com/event-16306/Colleen-Nelson-&-Nancy-Chappell-Pollack----Book-Launch#.WoXZ1Hgujdk

How to Tend a Grave

by Jocelyn Shipley

Great Plains Teens Fiction

978-1-926531-19-9

178 pp.

Ages 14+

2012

Death stings the victim only once, but those left behind feel the pain of loss with every passing memory.

~ Unknown

The grief experienced after the loss of a loved one can be excruciating but if it is embedded with secrets and shame and confusion, it can be unmanageable and life-altering.  In How to Tend a Grave, two young teens, Liam Hall and Harmony Trahern, experience such grief and, though they are not acquainted with each other, grief will prompt their introduction and necessitate their interaction.

Though Liam knows his mother was an escort, it isn't until after she is killed in a hit-and-run accident and he must leave Toronto to live with his grandfather, Gully, in Dunlane, that Liam begins to learn how her choices have shaped their lives.  Though Liam's mom, Monica, hated Dunlane and had been ostracized by her own mother for having Liam out of wedlock, Dunlane is where Gully has his daughter buried, next to her mother at Mount Hope & Glory Cemetery.

Liam visits the cemetery daily to chat with his mom, to cry and to try to understand revelations about his mom that contradict what she had told him.  His cemetery visits, though, bring him under the scrutiny of local teen thug, Youth, and his nasty girlfriend, Crime, and their gang, Y4C, who claim the cemetery as their own.  Shrewdly, they will allow him to visit the cemetery if he joins their gang, thus becoming a 4, and following Youth's demands.  Though Liam recognizes their posturing as childish, their violent acts are very real and terrorizing the community. While Gully, a corrections officer, advises Liam to avoid the gang members, Liam, now called Ghoul Guy by Y4C, finds, "He's starved for belonging.  And hungry for the rush." (pg. 118)

Harmony Trahern, not yet sixteen, also visits the cemetery, recording in a journal the epitaphs on the gravestones of dead babies.  In this notebook, she also addresses entries to Rue, the baby she conceived with Jordan,  before Harmony recognized what a mistake it was hanging with him and his new group, Y4C.  It is during her visits to the cemetery that Harmony notices Liam and introduces herself.  They are instantly attracted to one another, though they share very little about themselves, both fearful that their choices related to Y4C and family history will come between them.

When Liam's and Harmony's stories merge, the progression of their grief to acceptance should not be taken as a conclusion to the process.  Liam's mother still lied to him and made choices that were perhaps suitable for her but definitely not for him, condemning him to much unresolved confusion.  He's fortunate to have Gully whose fortitude and experience, as well as gardening prowess, have prepared him well to help Liam through his grief.  Similarly, Harmony may be coming to terms with her grief for her lost child and even the nature of the loss of her virginity, but her parents will need to acknowledge their own grieving and role in their daughter's loss.  Just recreating earlier family activities, like an outing to the auction, is not sufficient to ensure their understanding of the loss.  As such, Jocelyn Shipley's title of How to Tend to a Grave is comprehensive in that tending to a grave can refer to caring for the grave, contributing to it (as in having a responsibility) or inclining to it (as in reaching for it).

By merging two different story-lines, Liam's told in third-person and Harmony's first-person journal entries, Jocelyn Shipley adds depth and texture to her plotting, allowing the reader to see Dunlane and Y4C from different perspectives at different times.  Perhaps because this reader finds the need for justice compulsory when dealing with criminal activities, the unknown fate of Youth and Crime is disappointing.  However, knowing that Liam has Gully in his life and they both accept each other as they are and that Liam has made a mature connection with Harmony, the promise that is Liam's future is sufficient to ensure a sense of resolution and hope.  Moreover, knowing that the threat to the community is something that must be dealt with from within, not by avoidance, Liam demonstrates that he is prepared to become part of the community that his mother forsake.  It seems, as many claim, that everything does tend to work out in the end.  Jocelyn Shipley ensures that it does appropriately in How to Tend a Grave.

Chance to Dance for You

Written by Gail Sidonie Sobat

Great Plains Teen Fiction

978-1-926531-11-3

172 pp.

Ages 14+

2011

Although Ian Trudeau has only outed himself to his family and best friend, Tilley, his dance skills, specifically ballet, make him a target of homophobic slurs, vandalism and violence in his very suburban high school.  Unfortunately, one of the worst offenders is Jess Campeau, a football and hockey athlete, on whom Ian has a crush.  Fortunately, Jess seems to have issues with his own sexuality, compelling him to take Ian aside on two different occasions and kiss him, while still denouncing being gay.

When Ian agrees to keep Jess' secret in return for Jess discontinuing his insults of gays and girls, he also promises to be his friend and sounding board if Jess feels he needs to talk.  That courageous offer opens a door for Jess, allowing him to get closer to Ian, while still determined to keep their relationship completely hidden.  After a romantic evening during which Jess asks Ian to dance for him, Jess discretely attends a dress rehearsal for a spring show of Ian's.  But, Jess' military dad finds a copy of the programme, furious at its implications (i.e., Jess isn't a real man) and beats up his son, who finds refuge for the night with Ian and his mom.  Surprisingly, the next day begins Jess' avoidance of Ian and his public dating of a girl, Brittany, to temper his dad's anger and drunken violence.

Hurt, angry and lonely, Ian looks for ways to reconnect with Jess.  And, although Ian is gently persuaded to recognize that he is very fortunate to have unconditional support to be himself, not everyone feels able or willing to fight for their rights to be different.  But, this lesson is a painful one for him to learn and then accept.

While many may emphasize the gay relationship in Chance to Dance for You, I see it as a love story wrapped in prejudice.  Jess learns from his father and his jock peers that he shouldn't be attracted to Ian, but he is, hence his conflict.  Ian knows the battles he faces daily, even with undeniable caring and support, but he is convinced that love can conquer all.  Gail Sidonie Sobat's storyline, so authentic in its voice and details, emphasizes the boys' attempts to resolve these conflicts while staying true to themselves and remaining unbroken, if possible.  First loves always have a way of taking a little bit away from you while almost always helping you gain something: maturity, strength, humility, insight, friendship, or wisdom. 
 
Read the book jacket endorsements by Brian Francis (author of Fruit, ECW Press, 2004) and Glen Huser (author of Stitches, Groundwood, 2003), Canadian authors of books in which male protagonists must deal with their differences, for their succinct and touching expressions about Chance to Dance for You.  Then, read this very real and bittersweet story that juxtaposes love with prejudice, courage with fear, and sensitivity with harshness, all to enhance our understanding of what it means to be a man.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dreamline

Written by Nicole Luiken
Great Plains Teen Fiction (imprint of Great Plains Publications)
978-1-926531-08-3
227 pp.
Ages 12+
2011

Being different, whether it be in books or in the “real” world, is not always appreciated.  Lissa Foster who can cross the dreamline into the dream world anytime has had to deal with her “difference", learning to accept being friendless, to keeping what she learns to herself and to fighting the formless shadows called wulfdraigles that prey on people’s fears and twist dreams into nightmares.   And now the wulfdraigles seem to be scheming something big for her town of Grantmere.

However, being a pariah in high school becomes more difficult after a new (very cute!) boy, Mitch Kincaid, and his wealthy, former software-developer, now motivational speaker, dad arrive in town.  First, Lissa realizes that Mitch is like her, a dream-come-true and one who can cross the dreamline (although he really doesn’t know it, believing he’s crazy instead).  Secondly, because of her reclusiveness, Lissa’s parents are forcing her to attend the charismatic Mr. Kincaid’s program, “Building Confidence, Building Dreams."  There she learns that Mr. Kincaid is a conduit, a human who acts as the wulfdraigles’ agent in the real world (in exchange for something he wished).

The network of intersecting plotlines (Mitch learning about his dreamline ability; Lissa trying to determine the wulfdraigles’ plan; Mr. Kincaid’s relationship with his son; Lissa’s encounters with the wulfdraigles; etc.) made for a thrilling read.  Knowing that the ending to the story would be complicated and worrying that it would not be satisfying (i.e., not happy), I was thrilled at how Luiken effortlessly plaited the storylines, while leaving the reader breathless through the final scenes.

Irrespective of the fantastical elements of this thriller, Lissa is a wholly empathetic character, enduring ridicule from her peers and adults’ misinterpretations.  But she carries on, finding the means to brave all agonies, physical, emotional and supernatural, even conceding to the rare pleasure of closeness. 

With such strong writing, both content and craft, evident in Dreamline, I look forward (or is it backward?) to reading Nicole Luiken’s Dreamfire (Great Plains, 2009), the prequel to Dreamline.