Featured Author: Holly Bennett

Bibliography at Orca

Shapeshifter: This is the turbulent and heartbreaking story of Sive, a girl of the Otherworld who must flee her world of plenty to live as a hunted beast. Surviving hardship, danger and crushing loneliness, she finally finds refuge—and unexpected joy—with a mortal champion, Finn Mac Cumhail, the great hero of Irish legend. But Sive's ordeal is far from over. She has a gift the Dark Man craves, and the smallest misstep will give him his chance to snatch her away from all she holds dear.

The Bonemender's Choice: A kidnapping and a deadly plague.

The Bonemender's Oath: The war is over, but the danger is not.

The Bonemender: Gabrielle knows that she must be present on the battlefield, but she never could have predicted why.

The Warrior's Daughter: Luaine must choose between the way of the sword and the druid's path.

Interview

What are the best and worst things about writing books? I was surprised to find that one of the hardest things in writing, for me, is finding names for all the characters and places. It's a minor part of crafting a novel, but it's important to have names that seem "right" and hard to define what, exactly, makes a name work. I often have a good third of the book written with XXs put in for all but the most important characters. Eventually it starts to get too confusing ("He handed the package to XX and rode of down the  XX Road towards XX") and I have to stop and spend a day or two with maps and baby name books and start filling in the blanks. Something I love is when the story or characters start to take on a momentum of their own, and it starts to feel as if I'm not just making up what I want them to do anymore, but more writing what that person would do (or what would happen) in those circumstances. That's when I can be surprised by my own story—I look down at the computer screen and see that a character has just done something I hadn't planned at all. It often causes me problems when that happens, but it's still a cool feeling.

What's the funniest or most interesting reader response you've ever had? When I first wrote The Bonemender I passed it around to a few family members and kids I knew for feedback. One girl wrote back to me that she really liked the story, but added, "there are just a few things I found confusing, like who are the good guys and who are the bad guys." Yikes! I have to admit that rattled my confidence a fair bit.

Do you put your family and friends in your books? Like most authors (I suspect), I don't take people I know, give them a new name, and plunk them into my story. But I definitely borrow character traits or interactions I've observed for my books. There's a bit of my brother Bob in the character of Tristan, for example, and a bit of our relationship as kids in Madeleine and Matthieu in The Bonemender's Choice. The character of Yolenka was inspired by a woman my husband met in Sweden who I never laid eyes on — I just heard about their conversations. But her direct, brusque way of talking was the beginning of that character. The Irish legends I've written about (The Warrior's Daughter and The Shapeshifter) are a little different because those characters already exist—so I have to take the little snippet of character I've read about in the legend and build on that foundation. I'm sure there is still borrowing from real life going on, but it's a little less obvious.

What is your favourite children's book? Let's see... The Dark is Rising, by Susan Cooper? No, wait, maybe Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne. Or no, wait, I really loved The Thief and its sequels by Megan Whalen Turner. I wish I had written those books! Ursula LeGuin's Wizard of Earthsea? It's one of my personality flaws. I just can't commit to a favourite anything. But it's pretty clear from this growing list that I'm a hopeless fantasy nerd.

Biography

Holly Bennett is the author of The Bonemender teen fantasy series (The Bonemender, The Bonemender's Oath, and The Bonemender's Choice), as well as The Warrior's Daughter—all published by Orca. In her "real" life Holly did stints as a researcher for Aboriginal organizations and as a youth employment counsellor before settling on writing and editing. She is now editor-in-chief of Today's Parent Special Editions, heading up the "birth and babies" beat. Holly loves to talk to kids about reading and writing and is happy to do school presentations if they can accommodate her work schedule. Born in Montreal, Holly lives in Peterborough, Ontario with a houseful of musicians (three sons and husband John) and a nice quiet dog. More information about Holly can be found on her website, www.hollybennett.net.