Author Spotlight: Maile Meloy

Maile Meloy's Instagram Profile

About a week ago, I emailed Maile Meloy’s literary agent. (Maile Meloy wrote The Apothecary Series—a review will be coming soon.) I was not expecting a response, but I got one. A detailed one at that! Here’s the scoop.

1.     What was your inspiration for the series and the characters?

I started the first book because my friends who are filmmakers wanted to make a family movie about a magical apothecary, set during the Cold War in the 1950s, and they asked me to write a novel they could base it on.  I’d only written books for adults before that, and I loved writing for kids right away—I loved that the plot had to go really fast, and that magical things could happen.

I also really remember what it felt like to be 14, and what it’s like to have adults make decisions that hugely affect your life, and how it was both scary and exciting to go to a new school.  

I wasn’t sure it would be a series when I wrote the first one, but it was really fun to do, and then I got very insistent letters from kids, asking what happens next.  So I wrote the second and third books to find out.

2.     What kind of research did you do for the books?

Before I started, I had read a book called Austerity Britain, 1946-1952, which was all real stories about what it was like in England after the Second World War, and how hard it was to rebuild.  And I listened to a collection of stories of British people who were children during the war—some living in London, some in the country, some with their parents in Germany or Japan or the Philippines.  That was all useful for learning about the world of Benjamin’s childhood. I read essays by people whose parents were on the Hollywood blacklist for their real or supposed political beliefs and couldn’t work in Los Angeles anymore—kids who had to suddenly move to Mexico or London, like Janie does.  I read about alchemy and apothecaries and medicinal plants. I went to the Chelsea Physic Garden in London, which is a real place with a mulberry tree in the middle, that you can hide inside. I went to the Imperial War Museum in London, which is one of my favorite museums. It had a whole exhibit about what it was like to be a child during the war.  And I cornered a friend at a party, knowing he was good at chess, and asked him for the opening moves of Janie and Benjamin’s chess game.

3.     What books do you like to read?

I read mostly fiction, but some non-fiction, too. I try to read lots of different kinds of books, and I read about one a week. I think my favorite middle grade novels are Philip Pullman’s—the Golden Compass books, and the Sally Lockhart novels.  As a kid, I loved The Westing Game, and A Wrinkle in Time, and the Narnia books.   

4.     When and where do you write?

I write first thing in the morning, at home, in a chair that tilts back. I used to write at night because that’s what I did in college and in high school, because of school schedules.  Later I realized that my brain is a lot fresher in the morning. It’s closer to dreams and the sub-conscious, so it makes more interesting connections. It’s not cluttered up yet with emails and chores and things that happen during the day.

5.     Are you working on a new middle grade book?

Not right now, though I probably will at some point.  My most recent book was for grown-ups. Right now I’m working on a picture book, which is really fun.

I am very thankful that Maile Meloy answered my questions so promptly and thoroughly.

Stay tuned for another author spotlight!