I just finished a week of lying on beaches and listening to live music in Cape Breton, the beautiful Nova Scotian island where I was born and raised. I always love spending time in Cape Breton, but this year I had an especially fun trip because I got to revisit some of the places that inspired my upcoming middle grade release, TOTALLY UNRELATED.

TOTALLY UNRELATED, about a family of musicians living and performing on Cape Breton Island, is my contribution to “Orca Limelights,” a new series of books for kids and young teens who are involved in the performing arts.

Orca will be releasing the first three Limelights titles in October. The other two are ATTITUDE by Robin Stevenson, and CUT THE LIGHTS by Karen Krossing. Karen and Robin and I thought it would be fun to help spread the word about the books by doing mini interviews on each others blogs. Over on Robin’s blog, you can read about Karen’s inspiration behind CUT THE LIGHTS, and if you click through to Karen’s website, you’ll find out a bit more about TOTALLY UNRELATED!

I have the honour of hosting the wonderful Robin Stevenson, who answered a few questions about ATTITUDE, which is set in the dramatic and demanding world of ballet. Robin is a dear friend, who helped me a lot at the start of my writing career. We lived in the same city (beautiful Victoria!) for a couple of years, and we often met to talk about writing and books and life in general. She’s a fabulous writer with several great titles under her belt, and I’m thrilled to be launching a book with her!

So without further ado, here are Robin’s answers to a few questions about ATTITUDE.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

 Writing a one sentence synopsis is SO hard. But I will try…

“More than anything, Cassandra wants to be a dancer, but…” Okay, wait, that’s blah. Let me try again.

“When Cassandra arrives at the prestigious and highly competitive ballet school where she will spend her summer, she discovers that…” Um, well, she discovers all kinds of stuff—about dancing, about the other girls, and most of all, about herself. One sentence? Nope.

“There’s more to dancing than pink pointe shoes and tutus.” And that is totally cheating- my publisher came up with that cover copy.

“Ballet School meets Mean Girls.” Yuck.

“Cassandra has always wanted to dance, but when the girls at her new dance academy turn against her, she finds herself questioning her dream. ‘Courage, passion and dedication’ is the school’s motto. Does Cassie have what it takes to become a professional dancer?” Hmm. That’s three sentences. See what I mean? Writing a synopsis is way harder than actually writing a book. I give up.

Each of the Limelights novels is about a performing art. Why did you chose to write about ballet? 

When I was a child, I loved reading about kids who had a passion for something—anything, really– and were single-mindedly dedicated to their goals. I loved Noel Streatfeild’s novels about kids who were talented dancers and tennis players and actors and circus performers and skaters. My favorite of all her books was Ballet Shoes.

It has always seemed to me that ballet requires a level of dedication and sacrifice that few other arts demand- and that ballet demands this absolute commitment from dancers while they are incredibly young, at an age when most kids are many years away from needing to make decisions about their future goals. That fascinated me at least as much as the beauty of the art form itself.

Did you do any research about the performing art you chose to write about?

Yes, lots! This was one of the most enjoyable parts of the writing process. I did lots of reading, watched YouTube videos and dance documentaries—but what I really needed was help from young teens who could speak as insiders to the world of ballet.

Luckily my son has a friend whose thirteen year old sister is a very talented and committed dancer and choreographer. Sophia was involved right from the beginning, and if it wasn’t for her enthusiasm and encouragement I would never have got as far as submitting a proposal for the Limelights series. She demonstrated arabesques and attitudes, talked about the joys and challenges of ballet, shared insights that helped me develop my characters, and answered many technical questions.

A friend put me in touch with a slightly younger girl, Sasha, who is also a brilliant dancer. Sasha met with me, talked about her dancing, shared a project she had done on ballet, and invited me to watch her dance class—which I very much enjoyed. She also introduced me to her ballet teacher, Maureen Eastick, who very generously allowed me to watch as she taught and inspired a group of young teen dancers.

Sophia, Sasha, and a third young ballet dancer, Alyssa, also read and critiqued my manuscript and saved me from any number of errors. The book is dedicated to three of them.

How are you like (or different from) your main character?

Well, I’m unlike Cassie in that I have no talent for dance! But Cassie is from Australia, a country I love. I spent two years as a teen and young adult living in Adelaide, Cassie’s hometown. More importantly, I remember being a young teen very vividly and have a lot of empathy for girls this age. Cassie wants to fit in but also wants to be kind– and to do the right thing. Like Cassie, I very much wanted to be liked, to be accepted, to be part of a group. I felt tremendous guilt over treating others badly- but despite this, I didn’t always do the right thing. Navigating social situations as a young teen can be really, really hard.

Have you done any performing arts as a teen or adult?

No, none at all. At least not voluntarily. I still shudder when I remember having to sing a solo of Hey Jude in grade eight music class. In addition to being an introvert, I am a complete klutz: I can’t think of many things I’d hate more than doing something that involves physical coordination while in front of an audience. Despite this- or maybe because of this– I have huge respect for those that do

If you could be proficient at any one “performance skill” what would it be?

That is such a great question– so hard to choose just one but so much fun to ponder the possibilities! Maybe violin… I’ve always wanted be able to play a violin, though apparently not enough to do the work of learning. On the other hand, since this is pure fantasy, it’d be pretty cool to be a trapeze artist.

—-

Tom again – thanks a million to Robin for answering some questions about ATTITUDE! If you want to learn more about TOTALLY UNRELATED, check out Karen Krossing’s website, and if you’re looking to find out about CUT THE LIGHTS, Karen’s tale of a high school theatrical performance, head on over to Robin Stevenson’s website!

In the meantime, feel free to add ATTITUDE, CUT THE LIGHTS and TOTALLY UNRELATED on Goodreads. Happy Reading!Tweet

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