>> Diana Gibbs: Hello, everyone, and welcome to the
National Book Festival. My name is Diana from
the Library of Congress, and I am very happy to
be here this afternoon with K.A. Holt whose featured
book at the festival is "BenBee and the Teacher Griefer." If you'd like to see K.A.'s
presentation at the festival, please log in to
nationalbookfestival.com and find her previously
recorded on-demand video. This question and answer
session will be driven by your questions. So, please do populate the chat
box with questions for K.A. And I see them coming
in already. Excellent. So, let's begin the
conversation. Our first question for you,
K.A., coming in from Emily, "Did you ever play any
video games growing up? What video games are
your kids playing? And which ones are you
playing mostly with your kids?" >> K.A. Holt: Okay, well. So, I played Oregon Trail. That was the big one for me. I'm old, so we had, you know,
like one computer at our school. And if you got your
homework done or your schoolwork done early,
you could go play Oregon Trail. I loved that. I loved all of the
Carmen Sandiego games. I liked playing anything. We had a TI-49A computer
growing up, so I played Parsec. And my friend had an Atari,
and we would play, like, Dragon Slayer or
something like that. We -- so, I played all
of those kinds of games. And then, as I got
older, I couldn't keep up with the 360 whatever that
you have to be able to do. And so, I was out after that. My kids play all the games
that all the kids play. Right now, we were just talking
before we started filming that Animal Crossing was
using all of my bandwidth, so we had to go shut
that down for a minute. We have two islands. It's just chaotic. So, yes, we play a
lot of video games. And my -- -- my son who helped
inspire BenBee by playing so many video games that I had
to bribe him that I would play with him if he would read. He got me interested in
Skyrim, which is cool. There's like a big dragon. So, yeah, we're a bit of a video
game family, but I'm not really that good at any of them. >> Diana Gibbs: Excellent. Thank you, Oregon
Trail and Atari, bringing back fond memories. Our next question is from
Katie, "Have you ever thought about writing a book for young
adult kids, high-school-aged, who say they hate to read?" >> K.A. Holt: I have. It's funny because there are
often discussions between me and my editors when I -- when
I'm writing these books -- like, when I was writing "House
Arrest," I sort of intended it to be more YA, but
really just the voice that I have is a
middle-grade voice. And so, like "Redwood and
Ponytail" is another novel in verse that I thought
might be YA. But I think that the
topics that I am drawn to and the characters I am drawn to
tend to feel more middle grade, so even if I did write
a young adult novel, I think the criticism would
be that it feels middle grade because it's not
going to have some of the grittier things
that YA books have. That's not to say that I
wouldn't give it a whirl because I would like to and I really think those
high/low books are important. But I would encourage you that if you have high
school students -- like, if they read a
book like "House Arrest," one of my other books, or
"Redwood and Ponytail," they're not going to feel like they're spoken
down to, you know? I don't -- I work really
hard to make sure that kids and really people of all
ages can read these books and get a lot out of them. So, even though they're
technically, like, marketing has called them
middle grade, I don't think that they would be boring or too
young for high-school readers. >> Diana Gibbs: All right. Thank you. Our next question from Amber, "How does your synesthesia
influence your writing process?" >> K.A. Holt: So,
this one is fun because what happens is I
will write something like, "The teacher walked
into the room, and she clapped brightly three
times," [clapping] like that. Because to me, that's like a
flash of light, flash of light, flash of light, or like a yellow
flash or something like that, "Her yellow clapping." And my editor will be
like, "I do not think that this makes sense. I'm not sure that anybody knows
what you're talking about." And so, I have to think about
it more and figure out a way to phrase it in a way that
everyone will understand. I think it really helps write
poetry because it's kind of built in without even
realizing it, just the way that I see things or describe
things, it tends to come out a little more
poetically because there's -- people see it as an analogy
whereas sometimes I don't see it as an analogy, I just see
it as how it is, you know? If that makes sense. So, other than causing arguments
between my editor and I, I think that it's
nice, it helps. >> Diana Gibbs: Okay, thank you. And we have a question here
from Elan, "Did your son end up discovering a book he loved
when you bribed him to read? If so, what book or books?" >> K.A. Holt: Well,
it's really interesting. He goes through these phases. He really fell in love
with the "Big Nate" books, and he read every
single "Big Nate" book that he could get his hands on. And then, all he wanted to do
was find other books like that, but no other book could
live up to "Big Nate." And so, he just read those
over and over and over again. And so recently, I've been
-- he's in seventh grade now, and we've been reading
some graphic novels, and I've got "Flamer"
that just came out, and he's really loved that. And he and my daughter both,
they read "Lumberjanes." So, we've moved into
graphic novels, and he's moving a little
more into some novel novels, but he really will
find a favorite, and if he can't find
anything that's like that, he doesn't want to
read anything new, so he'll just keep reading the
same thing over and over again, which, you know, I understand. I do that -- I do that, too. So, as long as I can get him to
read a little bit, I'm happy. >> Diana Gibbs: Right. He is not alone in that. All right. Oscar would like to know, "Why did you decide
to become a writer?" >> K.A. Holt: Well, my -- so,
my jokey answer to this is that I'm not really
good at anything else, so I had to make it as a writer because professional roller
skater wasn't going to work. But I mean, what I really
like to do is I really like to tell stories,
and I really like to make people feel
seen and understood. And so, I had thought for a
long time I was going to go into art history or work
in a museum and help, like, create educational programs
and things like that, which I think I would
have loved. But then, I was in college, I took a playwriting
course, and I loved that. And so, I talked my way into a
job being a professional writer, which was working
in advertising. And I realized that that
didn't fulfill that same kind of feeling that you get
telling stories, you know? When someone else is telling you
what to say in advertising copy, it's just not the same. And I was good at it,
but I didn't love it. And then, I started
to really hate it. And then, I started thinking
maybe I could actually have a career as a writer and
how could I do that? So, I've always wanted to write. I think it took a long
time for me to realize that I could write fiction
and make a job out of it. And it's been challenging to
do that, but yeah, I'm not -- I'm not really good at many
other things, so I'm very, very fortunate that I've
been able to make this work. >> Diana Gibbs: We're
glad you're writing. Okay, Karen has a question. And, well, context here,
she says, "I am a third and fourth grade teacher, and
my student Samir wants to know, 'What works of fiction
are you working on now?' Because he is super-excited,
and he would also -- he also wants to know,
'If you were a superhero, who would you be?'" >> K.A. Holt: Okay, so, I'll
start with the first one. So, "BenBee and the Teacher
Griefer" is actually the first book in a series of four books. If you read BenBee, you'll
see that the story is told from four points of view. So, each character is going to get their own book,
which is very cool. And I've just finished going
over the copy edits for BenY, her book, and I think it might
be called "BenY and the Ghost in the Machine," but
I'm not 100% sure. I'm probably not even
supposed to tell you that. So, we'll see what that --
what that title ends up being, and it'll be out pretty much
like this time next year. And then, Jordan will
have his own book, and Javier will have
his own book, so those are keeping
me quite busy. And I have another
project that I'm working on that hasn't been
announced yet, so we can't tell you
anything about it, but it's going to be cool, too. So, yeah, I'm doing a
lot of writing right now. And I don't know about
the superhero thing. I'm going to think about that. Like, people always
want to know, like, what superpower would
you want to have? You know? And I think my
superpower would be stopping time is the one that
I would want. I'd want to be able
to pause, you know, to like really enjoy
a cool moment or if I have got stuff coming up
that I need to think about more or whatever, if I could
just pause things. I don't know what
superhero can do that. So, whatever superhero
can do that, that's the one I want to be. Or I'd just be myself
and do that. >> Diana Gibbs: Interesting
superpower. Excellent. Susan would like to know,
"What is your writing process?" >> K.A. Holt: My writing
process is like 95% laying on the floor, going "Argh." It's hard, and writing -- you
would think after so many books, it gets easier, but
it really doesn't. And so, what I tend
to do now is write that messy first
draft, and it is messy. Like, if you saw the first
draft of most of my books and then the final
published version, they almost are
indistinguishable. They're completely different
books a lot of times. I tend to get to know
my characters first. So, what happens is I work
really hard on a first draft and turn it in, and
then my editor is like, "I love this character. This is going to be great. And what we need to
work on now is a plot." And I'm like, "Oh, fabulous. So, I just spent like a
year writing this story with no plot." So, I -- it's pretty much
characters first, then story. I've started -- what I do is
I print out a lot of my work, and I lay it on the floor
so that I can get an idea of which chapters are too short
and which ones are too long. I like to assign any kind
of subplot with colors. So, when I lay it
all out on the floor, I will have like all these
different markers in my pocket, and I can assign each
one, like circle purple for every time I talk about
a spaceship or something, so I can see where
it fits in the story. I'm very visual. So, it's a big messy
wild process. And I've just switched over to
these sticky -- they're like -- it's like little whiteboard
sticky notes that you can put on the window or the wall,
and I'm trying to use those to help me figure
out my stories rather than printing out so much paper. So, we'll see how that goes. >> Diana Gibbs: Sticky
notes, excellent tools. All right, next question. "Do you think you would
write a graphic novel?" >> K.A. Holt: I would love
to write a graphic novel, but when I have sat down to
really think about doing it, like how it works, it's a lot
like storyboarding a movie, and that's a completely
different way to think about how a story is written. So, I feel like I might
need to take a class. I need -- I would need some
instruction on how to do that. That said, the character
in the BenBee series, "The Kids Under the
Stairs" series, there's a character
named Javier, and Javier does almost all of
his communication via drawings. And so, in "BenBee and
the Teacher Griefer," I did Javier's drawings,
which was really hard. And so, his book I don't
really know what that's going to look like yet. So, it might -- I mean,
it's ostensibly going to have a pretty considerable
graphic format to it. Now, will it be in
graphic novelly or novelly with graphics? I don't know yet, but I have
some time to try to figure out how to do it right. Because I don't really like to
do anything unless I know it's right, which is also
a hurdle sometimes. >> Diana Gibbs: Okay, very good. Our next question coming in
from Ashley, "What differences in learning are you
planning to incorporate in your future projects?" >> K.A. Holt: Well, right
now, BenY is a lot about -- -- well, not a lot about --
but so, we touch on dyslexia in her book, and we
touch on anxiety, and Jordan's book is going
to touch on what it's like to be one of these kids
who is ADHD and super-smart, but you just -- you don't
fit into that school system, you know, that's sitting
in a desk all day. "BenBee and the Teacher
Griefer" talks about dysgraphia. And Javier's story is about
how he stutters and the way that affects how he deals
with school and the way that it affects how educators and other students
deal with him. So, all kinds of different
learning differences are on the table right now that I've
been researching and talking to people with and just
things that I've experienced in my own life from my own
family that I could put in a book to help
some kids feel seen. >> Diana Gibbs: Okay, thank you. And next up from
Emily, Emily says, "My oldest loved
'Dog Man' books. What would you suggest
in order to get him to read more chapter
books and discover a love for reading broader
than 'Dog Man'?" >> K.A. Holt: See? These things are
hard because it's -- because, like, one of
the hardest parts is to find the books that
the kids love, right? And then, you have
to figure out how -- I hate the word pivot now. Everyone's ruined
the word pivot, but to pivot from those books. I don't know. I mean, the trick is to try
to find something that's -- that overlaps just a
little bit, you know? If you can find another Dav
Pilkey that's closer to more of a chapter book or if
you can find something -- like, if you go on Goodreads or
wherever, talk to a librarian who says, you know, "If you like
this, then you will like that." And then, just kind
of ease him into it. It's tricky. I mean, I don't think it's
bad for him to read the "Dog Man" books 50
million times. I grew up, I read all the
"Anastasia" comics over and over and over and over
again, all those books. I read "Harriet the
Spy" over and over. I was in ninth grade, and I was
teased for reading baby books because I just didn't
want to read Stephen King like the other kids,
where I wanted to keep reading "Anastasia." And at the time, it
was embarrassing, but I think it served me well. So, I know it drives
you crazy probably that he's not having a broader,
you know, reading whatever, but it's okay I think to
ease into what he likes so that way he doesn't feel the
pressure of, "This isn't okay," and, "This is what they want,
and I don't want what they want, and I'm not going
to do it," you know? >> Diana Gibbs: Thank you. Encouraging. Next from Laura, "For new
writers, what is the path to publishing a middle-grade
book once you have a draft written? Are there any pitfalls
to avoid?" >> K.A. Holt: Well, I think
the number one pitfall you have already avoided, which is
having a draft written. A lot of times, people really
just want to jump right in, and, you know, you've got
your three chapters, and you're querying
agents, and they think that that sounds great, and it's
exciting, and then they're like, "Send me the full," and
you're like, "Oh, no!" So, having a draft
written, good job. That is something that I didn't
know when I started writing and I was querying with only
three or four chapters written, and that was not a great move. But I figured it out. So, that's my -- the path
that I took, which is a path that I suggest, because it
worked, but it was hard, is, you know, you finish your
draft, you query agents. It's hard to know which agent
is the right one for you, so you look at other books
that you like and other authors that you -- you respect
and careers that you like the trajectory of, and you
find out who their agents are. And then, those are
the agents you query with a letter that's
like, "Hey, you know, I've been following so-and-so's
career for quite some time, and I love their books. And, you know, my books are
different, but similar in this and this and this or whatever." And then, you put your book. And luckily -- if you
get lucky, you know, if you're doing all
right, you find your agent, and then your agent
reaches out to editors. And it takes a long time. It took a long time for
me to find an editor that I really could click with. And now, I'm lucky to have a
couple editors that I click with so that we can
pitch them work and it's not just full-out the
whole industry all the time when you're on sub,
because that's hard. I mean, you just -- you have
to believe in your work, and you have to believe
in yourself. The pitfall is always trying -- always comparing yourself to
other people and thinking, "This person is doing
better than I am. Why is that?" Because you're not on the same
path as that other writer. You're on your own path to
success, if that makes sense. So, while you can say,
"I like the trajectory of this person's career,"
it's better for you to try not to compare yourself to them. That's the downfall. When you can start hearing
critics voices in your head and letting that get to you. You just -- it's hard,
but you have to -- you have to believe in yourself,
and you have to believe in the stories that you're
telling and then just push and push and push until
those stories get published. >> Diana Gibbs: Thank you. We will remember that. Our next question is from Jean. Jean says, "Banned Books
Week starts today." >> K.A. Holt: Today! >> Diana Gibbs: "Can you talk
a little bit about some schools that canceled your visits?" And if you can't, don't
worry, we will move on to the next question. >> K.A. Holt: Well, so,
here's the thing that happens with me is that my
visits get -- rather -- I mean, there have been some
that have been canceled that -- -- people have learned that
if you cancel an author visit by saying, "You are not
welcome in our school because you are gay," or,
"Your books are not welcome in our school because
of the LGBT content," people are learning
not to say that now because they know
there will be blowback. So, what they do is
they say, "We're going to truncate your
visit to only speak to five students instead of,
you know, a thousand students. Here's your check, goodbye." Which is different and
also terrible and kind of more terrible honestly. So, I've had both of those -- I've had many of
those things happen. And really, like, the only
thing I can do is to try to call attention to it. Not necessarily -- I mean,
depending on what happens, but not necessarily to call out
the specific school or educator, because I think a lot of
times it's parental pressure that they are afraid of, but
to just call out the situation. Because what I want is
for people to be aware that these things happen. And I think that a lot of us
live in a bubble where we -- we believe, you know, there
are bad guys who ban books by just piling them in the
street and setting them on fire, but what we don't realize
is that there are guys who are not bad guys, but who
are afraid of losing their jobs and who say, "I won't order
these books to put in my library because I don't want to deal
with the noisy parents." And so, drawing attention
to that kind of thing so that we can try to make
that stop is better, I think, than, like -- I don't know. It's not better, it's
just something that I feel that is important
that I want to do. I want to help schools
have books for all kids in their libraries, and
I want to help them feel like they have resources to
argue against the noisy people. Because the noisy people
are not the majority, but for some reason, they always
seem to win, and I don't want that to keep happening. So, being -- me being
noisy in kind of a broad way I think is
a way to combat these kinds of soft censorship, censorship
uninvited kind of thing. >> Diana Gibbs: Very good. Thank you for addressing that. Our next question is from Beth,
"Are there other fictional books about a character with
synesthesia that you feel like really get it or help
diversify the narrative? And do you think that those
authors need a personal experience of synesthesia
to share that experience with others?" >> K.A. Holt: That's -- those
are very interesting questions. So, I will say that -- -- I know there are
synesthesia books. I think there are some YA books
that have come out recently, but I have not read them,
so I can't really speak to how it's done in those books. I can say -- I mean, a person
not having synesthesia writing a book about it is kind of like
any other thing a person -- like, I'm writing a
character who stutters, and I do not stutter,
so I'm coming at it from a perspective
that's adjacent, right? And that's not always
the greatest place to be when you're a writer, so you
really have to surround yourself with people who have
that experience and have that lived experience, and you
need to have them read your work and tell you what you're
not doing right, you know? Things that you can change
to make it more realistic. I think a synesthesia
story would be the same as anything else. And, like, it's never going
to be the same as a story that is written by someone
who has experienced it. It's not. But I think as long
as your readers understand that you are coming at it
from kind of an adjacent thing and that you are doing the work
that you need to do to tell that story, then, you
know, it'll be okay. >> Diana Gibbs: Okay. Thank you. And Oscar would like to know,
"If I want to become a writer, what advice would you give me?" >> K.A. Holt: I'm going
to give you advice that Paula Danziger gave me
when I saw her give a speech when I was in middle school. And what she wrote on a napkin
for me was, "Dear, Kari Anne. Keep reading and keep writing." And I know that sounds
like really simple advice, but it is best advice I think
anyone has ever given me because I don't have an
MFA in creative writing, and I could go get
one, you know? I could -- you can
go through school, and you can take all the
creative writing classes you want, and I think
that's absolutely valid. I also think it's absolutely
valid to just read as much as you possibly can,
read books that you like, read books you don't like,
read books you've never heard of before, read magazines,
read newspapers, read sounds in the street, read anything you can
get your hands on. Because what that's
going to do is it's going to teach you how stories are
structured, and it's going to teach you how you can learn
the rules of how to tell a story and not even know that
you've learned them because it just becomes
part of you, because you've read
so many stories. And you are influenced by
things that you never knew that you would be influenced by. So, just always keep reading. Get a pen pal. That's another thing. Like, when I was a kid, we
didn't have emails, so we -- I moved away from Florida
to Texas in eighth grade, and I wrote letters
to all my friends, and my friend Amy wrote me the
greatest letters, and she wrote, like, in the margins
and upside down. And I was still doing like I
had learned in school, you know, "Dear Amy, comma, space,
date," and I had no idea that you could do these crazy
things in these letters. And so, just getting letters from my best friend
was a huge influence on how I became a writer. So, read, read, write,
write, learn the rules so you can break them. Those are my -- that's
my advice. >> Diana Gibbs: And
get those in pen pals. Everyone has great
memories there. Katie asks, "As a parent
yourself, what would you say to parents who fear
allowing their kids to read 'banned books'?" >> K.A. Holt: So, here's a thing
I heard a librarian say a couple of years ago, and
what she said was -- -- "Parents ban books
ostensibly a lot of times because they're trying
to protect children." And we live in a
world where we -- we cannot really protect them. We can prepare them. And by preparing them for the
world, that will protect them. So, I say to parents
who are afraid of kids to read these books or
who want to ban books, what they're trying
to do is ban the world that we live in, right? And you cannot do that. You cannot send a child into
the world completely unprepared for what they are about to face. And a lot of times, there
are children in schools who have faced horrible
things, unimaginable things for young children, sixth
graders, seventh graders. So, books that privileged
parents try to remove from the library because
they are too adult or they are too graphic
or they are too whatever, this is the life
that those kids see, and these are books
that will save lives. So, I think it's
important to take yourself out of your own head, right? Pull it back, you know, look
down from the moon and try to see this town and this
school and this classroom of all these kids made up of
experiences that we have not had and think about, "How do we
support them and show them love and send them into a world
where they feel prepared rather than totally blind to
what's about to come?" You know? >> Diana Gibbs: Thank you. And, "What kind of books
do you like to read?" >> K.A. Holt: I like to
read all kinds of books. It depends -- it
depends on my mood, and it depends on
if I'm writing. Because if I'm writing a
book, it's really hard for me to read at that moment. So, I will read non-fiction
or essays. I really love going back and
reading E. B. White's essays that he used to write
back in the '40s and '50s. They're these -- he --
they're all still so relevant. Some of them, it's really -- he
has -- they're calming to me. I love those. And right now, I'm reading
Allie Brosh who wrote "Hyperbole and a Half." She has a new graphic book
out that's called "Solutions and Other Problems,"
and I'm making my way through that one right now. It's so good. >> Diana Gibbs: Very good. And that was Elan's question
as well, your current read. And with about one minute
left, a question from Emily, "What is your research process for preparing to
write your books?" >> K.A. Holt: My research
process is typically stealing things from my children. [inaudible] It is. Being fortunate enough to
visit middle schools all over the country, I
mean, that's slowed down tremendously right now, but
putting myself into the world of the kids that the
stories that I want to tell. My research process for my fiction a lot
is just my own life, taking things out
of my own life. When I have started researching
historical fiction books that I would like to write, I
get so mired in the research that I forget to write the
book, so that is something that I'm going to have to work on if I ever want a
historical fiction book. Really, my research process
right now is just opening my eyes and trying to be an
observer in this world. >> Diana Gibbs: Excellent. And one final question
that relates to the last question
you just answered. From Lisa, "What is your process
when you are writing books with characters using
different forms of writing?" >> K.A. Holt: Ahh, so like in
BenBee where I have characters with free verse, and I have
characters who are written in stream of consciousness
and illustration. The process is just figuring
out the voice of that character and how that character talks. People ask, you know,
"How did 'House Arrest' -- why did I decide to write
that in free verse?" And it's not that I decided
to write it in free verse. It's that that's
Timothy's voice. That is just how he
wanted to tell the story. So, BenBee wants to tell
the story in this way. This is -- this is an
immediacy in his brain. And Jordan talks in
stream of consciousness because that's just
how he talks. That's how he sees the world. Everything that he sees
comes out of his mouth. He doesn't think about it. So, I get to know
the characters, and then the characters tell
me what -- how I'm going to -- how I'm going to write them. >> Diana Gibbs: Excellent. And all right, we are
unfortunately out of time. It is 4:30. So, thank you, K.A., for so
generously sharing your time, your life experiences,
and your insights with us. >> K.A. Holt: Thank you. >> Diana Gibbs: We have been
speaking with K.A. Holt, whose latest book is "BenBee
and the Teacher Griefer." Thanks -- there it is! Excellent. Beautiful bee on
the cover there. Thanks as well to our audience. Please do stay connected
with the Library of Congress through our online resources, and everyone come visit
us when we reopen.
