TSD: Thank you! Mare is based loosely on my paternal grandmother, Mary Lee Davis née Rodgers.
Could you share about your creative process and discovery of Mare? She is one of my favorite characters of all-time. Then we see her through her granddaughters’ eyes. We get to see Mare as a young woman making high-risk decisions that set her on a historic course. GA: I so admire your characterization of Mare. I did that, but my editor felt that Octavia and Tali had more to say. I based the idea of swapping back/forth through time on a Richard Peck book called THE RIVER BETWEEN US, but he does it only at the beginning and at the end of three large sections. Having the familial link really helped those characters care about the old stories, and hopefully the readers cared as well. Of course, all of our best ideas meet reality, and then change… My editor felt that some girls would have a really hard time linking to the THEN parts without a NOW to ground them, and so I worked on creating two people who had lives and dreams and feelings and stories of their own, yet could cohesively pull together with a story from the past. Originally, MARE’S WAR was my MFA thesis project at Mills College in Oakland – and when a reader suggested that she really enjoyed the THEN portions, I worked to turn it into a full novel. I have to say I love writing older folk their interactions with young adults are often much easier to bridge than parent-to-teen, at least in my own experience. How did the story evolve into this form? Did you envision the story moving between Then and Now from the beginning? Being on this adventure with Mare, Tali, and Octavia was a rich experience. Gigi Amateau: Mare’s War has three qualities that I LOVE in a book: a road trip, a fantastic grandmother, and fascinating women’s history. The way she does when she knows she done good. Great characters.īefore I could enunciate the ers in characters, Diane placed Mare’s War by Tanita S. I was the customer who couldn’t decide and not much help to store manager Diane Black when she asked what I was feeling like reading that day. Last summer, I went into BBGB, our local indie children’s bookstore, looking for something to read. I learned to ask a few broad questions about taste and appetite and then to just go on and recommend an entrée. When I waited tables, it was not uncommon for customers to really just have no idea of what they wanted for dinner. She’s the author of HAPPY FAMILIES, Coretta Scott King Honor Book MARE’S WAR, and A LA CARTE. DAVIS’ summer job resume includes strawberry picker, laundress, clown, camp counselor, and, briefly, insurance office go-fer.
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