The Writer Heir
An Interview with Best-Selling Author Cinda Williams Chima

"I don't write down to kids." Across the table from me, Strongsville writer Cinda Williams Chima was earnest. I sipped my Borders iced tea. She has been criticized for using language too sophisticated for young readers but she believes it's important for children to be challenged.

Chima's wizard-driven Warrior Heir young adult fantasy series, like J. K. Rowlings' Harry Potter series, is read by parents alongside their pre-teen children. One of the reasons why adults enjoy reading Chima's young adult fantasy novels is because the books are not just for kids. In Europe, the books are marketed to adults.

Writing wizard Chima's The Warrior Heir, The Wizard Heir, and The Dragon Heir, which have been on the ''New York Times best seller's list, are immediate and effortless. And timeless. As a writer, I wanted to know about the writing life, her craft, and the stories. I began by asking about the setting:

Cool Cleveland: I've heard you say Oberlin was your model for Trinity, but you placed it on Lake Erie. Was it always on Lake Erie or did you have to move it to make the plot of The Dragon Heir work?

Cinda Williams Chima: Yes, the town is based on Oberlin but set on the Lake, but its location had nothing to do with where the story ended up. At the end of The Dragon Heir, I needed a place to stash the townspeople. I needed to get them out of the story. I didn't know I was going to use the salt mines until I thought about how to get them out of the way.

The books were written as stand-alone books. I wanted to spend time with the characters after working on The Warrior Heir, so I wrote The Wizard Heir. After I sold the first two books, I started working on another series while waiting to see how the first two books did, then went back to finish the arc of the story in the third book.

Knowing you're from southern Ohio originally, was Booker Mountain based on a place you actually know?

A lot of the material in Coalton County is from southern Ohio. Although not specific, it's Jackson and Scioto counties, where I grew up. It's a rich part of the world, and has a strong tradition of magic, from Celtic roots. My grandmother had the second sight and read cards for us.

You're an Alice Hoffman fan, but this is true fantasy. How did you end up writing young adult fantasy?

When I started writing the first book my sons were 13 and 16, so I wrote something they would like to read. My kids saw early drafts. My older son is a good critic and was a computer science and journalism major in college. They're 20 and 23 now, not in my readership range anymore, but they can still read them.

It was very hard to leave my day job. I'd had an outside job since I was 16. My best writing time is in the morning, so when I was still teaching and trying to write at night, I ended up with face on the keyboard. I spent weekends that were supposed to be family time writing all day long. Now I write when fresh in the morning. On a good writing day, I work out, write until one or two, have lunch, then start in through e-mails, blogs, and scheduling. I don't open e-mail until after the writing is done.

The books are well plotted but character driven. Did you sort out the plot first and then figure out what the characters would do in those situations?

I take characters that I like, give them a problem, get them in trouble, and that's how I launch. I may have particular scenes in mind and I sometimes know what the ending’s going to be but don't know what's in-between. To build tension I think how can I make this worse and I make it worse and even worse and even worse.

The Warrior Heir is sometimes people's favorite because it's a hero story. In The Wizard Heir, Seph is more complex, edgier, worldly. The Dragon Heir brought everyone together as an ensemble at the end, and it was not so straight forward, more complex. In The Warrior Heir series the biggest challenge was not to bore people who have read all the books and not confuse people who are new.

The series ends with a battle and it's not all good, but not all bad either. Some of the characters have died, but some live on, with hope and aspirations and trying to figure out their futures, like life. Do you see the books as being about life in that way?

The reader has to believe in the story and get lost and caught up in the world. You can't have a huge battle without someone dying, its just not believable. In life, people have difficult decisions. Since I didn’t plan out the plot for the series, and didn't know they were even going to be a series when I wrote the first one, I wasn't able to set things up along the way. Once the surprise ending occurs, it has to make sense.

Seph takes a performance-enhancing drug in the third novel, but gave it up in the end. Ellen didn't like the idea of taking any kind of drug. Was resistance to drugs an intended theme or did it just work into the plots and the characterization?

It was not a major goal of mine to talk about drug use. When people are under extreme pressure, even if it seems harmful, that's when it's more tempting. It worked for the character and the plot for Seph to take drugs.

I was surprised that Seph's parents stayed away from the battle at the end of the third novel—you wrote them off. Why?

I wanted to put the fate of the town in the hands of the teenagers; even Nick was gone, dealing with his demons.

I find it fascinating that wizards have the power and have forced the other weir guilds into a caste system, which some want to change, others don't. This seems to be the root of evil in the books and establishes the good versus evil theme. Do you consider that to be the book's major theme?

Theme or message -- I rarely set out to have a theme. When you set out with a message, you can ruin the story. By the time you finish the book that will be the result. If you tell the story well, and it's a partnership between the reader and the writer, the reader gets whatever message the reader connects with in the story.

The book has intrigue and action and fantasy features, but we also have romance, the romances between Jack and Ellen, between Jason and Leesha, and between Seph and Maddie. How do teenaged boys feel about that?

Depends on the boy. A couple of guys have written and said it could have more romance.

Who is the publisher of your next series? How far are you into it?

Disney-Hyperion Books, the same publisher with a different name. The first book is edited, went into copyediting this week. I'm 180 pages into second book. Its main characters are a gang member trying to reform a week queen. It's more of a traditional medieval fantasy. In the next trilogy, I know how much room I have to work in because I know it'll be a trilogy. And it's not possible in this series to make each book stand-alone.

I want to continue to appeal to the audience that I already have. I'm committed to the notion of having girls in the books. In the new series, the viewpoint alternates between boy and girl.

Are you surprised at how well the Warrior Heir series has done?

Very surprised. The New York Times thing is what you dream of, "hope for" is too strong. I feel blessed and amazed. It was on the New York Times bestseller list for two weeks, off for a week, and then back on it. It was my editor's first book on the bestseller list and when she called me on my cell phone to tell me, she was so excited I couldn’t understand what she was saying.

What would be your advice for would-be writers out there?

Develop it by practicing, and do homework, the more you do it, the better you are. So much has to do with the execution of it. Read books on writing technique, read a lot. I'm never done polishing. The more you write the more you learn. It's hard for me to read what I wrote in print because at that point, I can’t revise them anymore. I tell everyone the first draft should not be your best work. I call that first draft a barf draft. Craft comes in with revision.

It's an exception for wizards to have a strong moral compass. But Cinda Chima peopled her Warrior Heir series with young wizard, warrior, and dragon heirs grappling with deference for their power. As readers, we become heirs to the bright magic of the writing stone close to Chima's heart.

Read the books with your kids. Read the books for fun.

Interview and photo by Cool Cleveland contributor Claudia J. Taller ctallerwritesATwowway.com
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