Episode #157: Have you ever had problems finishing the end of a book? -with Lilliam Rivera

Welcome back to another episode of Kids Ask Authors! Grace and Lilliam Rivera answer a wonderful kid question: “Have you ever had problems finishing the end of a book?” Thanks for joining us!

TRANSCRIPT:

Grace Lin: Hello, I'm Grace Lin, children's book author and illustrator of many books including the middle grade novel When the Sea Turned to Silver. And the picture book, A Big Mooncake for Little Star. Today I am here with Lilliam Rivera, the author of the middle grade novel detective series starring Goldie Vance. Most recently Goldie Vance, and the Hocus-Pocus Hoax. Hi, Lilliam.

Lilliam Rivera: Hi.

Grace Lin: That last one was a bit of a tongue twister for me.

Lilliam Rivera: It really is.

Grace Lin: But thank you so much for joining me today.

Lilliam Rivera: Oh, thanks for having me.

Grace Lin: Are you ready for today's kid question?

Lilliam Rivera: I am so ready. I'm ready, ready, ready.

Grace Lin: Okay. Today's kid question is from Genevieve and Genevieve asks,

Genevieve: Have you ever had problems finishing the end of a book?

Grace Lin: Have you ever had problems finishing the end of a book?

Lilliam Rivera: Ugh, that's such a good question. Wow. Well, okay, so then this is the thing is that whenever I start a new book, I have to know the ending before I start. So that's the weird thing, so to me, it might take a long time for me to figure that out, but I just need to know what that might look like. It might be an image in my head that's two kids holding hands, or it might just be one kid slays the monster, whatever that image is, I always have to know how it ends.

And with Goldie Vance, I know that she's going to be watching a magic show. And I'm like, "Okay, it's going to end with her watching a magic show. It's going to be all her friends around her." And so, once I knew then that I could write towards that ending, I could write a lot of things happen in the meantime, a bunch of things happen to her, but I'm going to be writing with this idea of that's how the book is going to end. And for the most part, that's usually how I write all my books. I just need to know the ending. So it's a big spoiler alert for me.

Grace Lin: Well, there's two things I want to touch on about what you said because I work the same way where I have to know the ending of a book before I start. So I don't have trouble writing the end of the book, but I do have a lot of trouble getting to the end of the book because I know the destination, but I don't know how to get there.

Lilliam Rivera: Exactly.

Grace Lin: So that's what has been interesting that we work this similarly that way. But I was curious, because Goldie Vance is a detective series, a mystery who'd done it, do you have to be more specific, do you think, about knowing your endings? It seems like you just know one scene. I would think you'd have to know the whole reveal or the whole plot or something like that.

Lilliam Rivera: Oh yeah. I mean, writing a mystery is all about, you have to know who done it and you have to plant all the evidence beforehand and all the clues that might lead Goldie to find out who done it. She might be tricked into thinking someone is the criminal or what have you. And so with the mysteries, they're really tricky. But it's the same thing because I want to be as surprised as a reader is when they come to reading this mystery. I'm like, "What's going to happen? She's going to have to fight with a plant or some random thing." I want to be just as surprised, so the adventure of it has to really be compelling, and that's really fun for me. So that image of that last image is always just the image of she solved the mystery so her friends are going to be around her celebrating. It's the moment of celebration for the most part.

And so that's always like, if you see any kind of mystery, you get to celebrate. "Yes, I solved it. I was able to crack this mystery open." And so, I'm always thinking of that, of what's the celebration going will look like and we're going to drive towards that. But in the meantime, the mystery in the middle, it's going to be all adventure and going through secret tunnels and discovering clues and all that stuff, that's really the fun part.

Grace Lin: Have you ever thought about or have you ever changed the solution at the end of your mystery while you were writing it?

Lilliam Rivera: No, I'm very strict. I guess it's because I'm all about control, so I want to be able to control stuff. But for me, beginnings are hard. So I've changed my first chapter so many hundred millions times. I never really quite get the, how do we begin the story. To me, that's always the challenge. And so, the beginnings of novels are always, for me, I'm like, "I'm not sure if this is it yet." And it'll change so many times, but the endings are really set in my mind.

Grace Lin: The endings are ironclad.

Lilliam Rivera: Yeah.

Grace Lin: Well that's good. And I'm a little bit like that too with my endings. I feel like it's always tempting to like, "Oh, it'd be so easy if I just did it this way instead." But then I'm like, "No, no, no, I've got to get to the end." The correct thing.

Lilliam Rivera: It's true and you're in that journey as well. So it's just like, I know sometimes it seems like a really long journey, but you're going to get there. And if I know that there's a light at the end of the tunnel, then I'll keep going.

Grace Lin: I know,. I guess I just think it might be more tempting during a mystery. Like, the whole time Mr. X has been the villain and then all of a sudden you're like, "You know what? It'd be a lot easier if it was Mrs. Y."

Lilliam Rivera: Right. Well, I guess I love mysteries when they're like, "It's obvious` it's Mr. X," and then you realize, "No, it's always been this Mrs. Y." But that's the thing. You have those false clues that you throw in there.

Grace Lin: Yes. Well I love mysteries and I can't wait for all of our readers to read yours.

Lilliam Rivera: Thank you so much. It's always fun to write them.

Grace Lin: Yes. And it's always fun to read them. So thank you so much LilliaM, for answering today's kid question. And thank you Genevieve, for asking such a great one.

Lilliam Rivera: Such a good question. Thanks. Thank you.

Grace Lin: Bye.

Lilliam Rivera: Bye.

Today’s KID BOOK REVIEW comes from Kaia! Kaia is reviewing , Goldie Vance: The Hocus-Pocus Hoax by Lilliam Rivera.

Hi, my name is Kaia, and the book I would like to review is called Goldie Vance : The Hocus Pocus Hoax. this book is about a girl  named Goldie Vance and google her friends trying to solve a mystery about stuff belonging to magicians  disappearing in a hotel. The girl, Goldie, meets the son of the main magician and at first did not like him but then they solved the mystery together. I like this book because it has mystery. I also like it because it has to do with friends.

Thank you so much Kaia!

More about today’s authors:

Lilliam Rivera is an award-winning author of the young adult novels Never Look Back, a Pura Belpré Honor winner, Dealing In Dreams, The Education of Margot Sanchez, as well as the Goldie Vance series for middle grade readers, and the stand-alone middle grade novel Barely Floating. Her latest works include a young adult science fiction novel, We Light Up the Sky, for Bloomsbury (Oct 5, 2021) and a graphic novel for DC Comics, Unearthed: A Jessica Cruz Story (September 14, 2021), both named “Best Books of 2021” by Kirkus Review and School Library Journal. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, the New York Times, and Elle, to name a few. Lilliam lives in Los Angeles.

Grace Lin, a NY Times bestselling author/ illustrator, won the Newbery Honor for Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and her picture book, A Big Mooncake for Little Star, was awarded the Caldecott Honor. Grace is an occasional commentator for New England Public Radio , a video essayist for PBS NewsHour (here & here), and the speaker of the popular TEDx talk, The Windows and Mirrors of Your Child’s Bookshelf. She is the co-host of the podcast Book Friends Forever, a kidlit podcast about friendship and publishing (geared for adults). Find her facebook, instagram , twitter ( @pacylin) or sign up for her author newsletter HERE.

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