{"id":19066,"date":"2013-06-06T06:00:24","date_gmt":"2013-06-06T10:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/?p=19066"},"modified":"2013-06-05T21:31:29","modified_gmt":"2013-06-06T01:31:29","slug":"ten-questions-about-the-testing-by-joelle-charbonneau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/2013\/06\/06\/ten-questions-about-the-testing-by-joelle-charbonneau\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten Questions About The Testing, By Joelle Charbonneau"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Joelle is an agent-mate and a friend, and I gotta tell you, she’s written a helluva young adult book here — the marketing pitch is ‘Hunger Games<\/strong> meets the SATs,’ which is a pretty killer hook. But as hooks go, it only just scrapes the surface. Here’s Joelle to talk about the book:<\/em><\/p>\n

Tell us about yourself:\u00a0 Who the hell are you?<\/h2>\n

I\u2019m a very tall redhead who keeps making career choices that involve rejection.\u00a0 Lots and lots of rejection.\u00a0 So, I suppose that also makes me a masochist or someone who isn\u2019t very bright.\u00a0 Huh\u2026\u00a0 I started out as a musical theater and opera performer (totally secure field), did some modeling (an even more secure field that involves copious amounts of exercise and small quantities of food), before teaching voice lessons while performing dinner theater.\u00a0 After being rejected from a show that everyone else in my dressing room was cast in (true story), I was struck with the opening line of a book.\u00a0 A book NO ONE should read, but it lead me to keep writing.\u00a0 So, now I teach voice lessons and write books\u2026which allows me to work with kids (which I love) and get rejected in totally new ways (which I\u2019ve gotten really good at!).<\/p>\n

Give us the 140-Character Story Pitch:<\/h2>\n

The SAT from Hell in which our heroine works to pass The Testing and become one of the next leaders of her country.<\/p>\n

Where does this story come from?<\/h2>\n

Over the years, I\u2019ve worked with lots of students as they go through the college acceptance process.\u00a0 Each year the bar is set higher.\u00a0 The pressure to be the best gets more extreme.\u00a0 Some of my students handle the pressure better than others.\u00a0 The parent and teacher can\u2019t help worrying about the future and whether this process will become even more difficult.\u00a0 The writer couldn\u2019t resist the challenge of seeing how difficult it could become.<\/p>\n

How is this a story only you could\u2019ve written?<\/h2>\n

My fingers.\u00a0 My computer.\u00a0 And no one else was willing to do the work.\u00a0 So\u2026I guess unless a ghost took possession, the only way the pages were going to get filled was if I filled them.\u00a0 Here\u2019s hoping I did a good job!<\/p>\n

What is the hardest thing about writing The Testing?<\/h2>\n

Aside from dealing with my computer crashing?\u00a0 I would say The Testing pushed me to examine some less than happy ideas about the lasting changes modern warfare could cause and our society\u2019s need to test students.\u00a0 Thinking about how easy it would be for our world to be corrupted by weapons is frightening.\u00a0 Examining how our education system has truly shifted its paradigm so that almost all lessons are geared toward better test scores was depressing.\u00a0 Up until writing The Testing, my published novels have all been lighthearted mysteries containing camels that wear hats.\u00a0 The Testing pushed me to confront some darker issues and the fears that I have about education, war and the way we chose our leaders \u2014 which is interesting, but never comfortable.<\/p>\n

What did you learn writing The Testing?<\/h2>\n

That I never have a clue how a story is going to end.\u00a0 Not even when I REALLY think I do.<\/p>\n

What do you love about The Testing?<\/h2>\n

I love the characters. Especially my heroine, Malencia Vale.\u00a0 Cia is smart, and comes from a wonderfully loving family.\u00a0 That gives her a solid moral foundation, which is one of her strengths.\u00a0 However, depending on the circumstances, that strength can also be one of her greatest weaknesses.<\/p>\n

What would you do differently next time?<\/h2>\n

I\u2019d love to say that I would have outlined the book, but I\u2019ve learned that I can\u2019t outline to save my soul.\u00a0 Um\u2026I guess I probably wouldn\u2019t have let one of my students read some of the early pages because then she wanted to see the rest.\u00a0 Which, of course, had yet to be written.\u00a0 The enthusiasm was great, but she ended up asking me about the book during every lesson\u2026which made me feel like I was writing at a glacial pace.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t, but boy I felt like the tortoise from that fable.\u00a0 The good news is that I finished the race!<\/p>\n

Give us your favorite paragraph from the story.<\/h2>\n

Oh\u2026well, my favorite is one that technically contains a spoiler.\u00a0 So, I\u2019m not going to give you that.\u00a0 However, here is one that I have a great fondness for.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy heart races with excitement even as it is torn in two.\u00a0 I can see the same conflicting emotions on the faces of the other Five Lakes candidates.\u00a0 Our graduation ceremony changed our status from adolescent to adult, but this journey makes it official.\u00a0 We are on our own.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What\u2019s next for you as a storyteller?<\/h2>\n

Revisions!\u00a0 I am currently in the middle of reworking Graduation Day, which is book 3 of The Testing Trilogy.\u00a0 Once that is done…um\u2026.well, I do have a new idea I want to ply with that I\u2019m not sure I can pull off.\u00a0 But I really want to try!<\/p>\n

Joelle Charbonneau: Website<\/span><\/a> \/ @jcharbonneau<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Testing: Amazon<\/span><\/a> \/ B&N<\/span><\/a> \/ Indiebound<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joelle is an agent-mate and a friend, and I gotta tell you, she’s written a helluva young adult book here — the marketing pitch is ‘Hunger Games meets the SATs,’ which is a pretty killer hook. But as hooks go, it only just scrapes the surface. Here’s Joelle to talk about the book: Tell us […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19066","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-theramble","8":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pv7MR-4Xw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19066"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19070,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19066\/revisions\/19070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}