Marissa Moss
Marissa Moss has written more than seventy children's books, from picture books to middle-grade and young adult novels. Best known for the Amelia’s Notebook series, her books are popular with teachers and children alike. Her young adult novel, A Soldier's Secret: the Incredible True Story of Sarah Emma Edmonds, a Civil War Hero, won the California Silver Book Award. Barbed Wire Baseball, a picture book biography won the California Book Award, Gold medal and was named an ALA Notable Book and a Notable Book for Social Studies this year. Her books have been translated into French, Spanish, Chinese, Indonesian, Korean, and Polish. Her first adult book, Last Things: a Graphic Memoir of Loss and Love, won the Cowan Award.
Twitter: @marissawriter Instagram:@marissamossauthor
Favorite non-reading activity?
Besides drawing (which for me is a form of story-telling the way writing is), I love to swim. Normally that's what I do first thing, swim an hour with a master's team. There something about simply moving through the water that allows me to solve the knots in whatever I'm working on. I won't think about it consciously, but the focus on moving allows stuff to bubble up from deep inside, kind of like a waking dream, and suddenly I'll realize the transition I need or how to end a chapter. I keep a notebook in my swim parka so I can jump out and write down these ideas. Because ideas are fugitive, easy to lose. Simply the act of writing helps me remember -- plus I have a note to refer to.
Do you have another artistic outlet in addition to your writing?
Drawing has always been a way for me to figure out what I'm thinking, how I want to tell a story, and how I see the world. As a kid, I drew constantly. I still draw and when I travel, I bring a small set of watercolors so I can paint. It's a wonderful way to experience a place, to simply look. I've gotten my sons into the same habit. It's not about how good the end result is, but about the process, of seeing deeply.
Vacation druthers… City or Rural destination? Why?
While I enjoy nature, my favorite places have art, history, and culture, as well as natural beauty. When I was a teenager, I keep a notebook of all the works of art I wanted to see all over the world. I've made a good dent in the list, but there's still a lot for me to see. And there are favorites I return to over and over again -- the Vermeers in the Met museum in NY, the Caravaggios in Rome's churches, Velasquez and Goya in Madrid's Prado. Seeing a favorite work of art is like rereading a favorite book -- you always get something new out of the encounter.
Is there a work of art that you love. Why? Have you ever visited it in person?
I just named several, but I'll call Rome itself a work of art. I love how the city is a palimpset of layers, from ancient to medieval to Renaissance to Baroque, all sometimes in the same building. You can see the layers of humanity, of culture building on each other. Plus the Romans are down to earth, warm and friendly, despite the tourist hordes.
Not all books are for all readers… when you start a book and you just don’t like it, how long do you read until you bail?
I used to feeI I had to finish every book I started, but now I'll give an author 20 pages, fewer if it's clear right away that the writing is clumsy or dull. If the first page doesn't grab me, I'll often stop right there. If the first few pages keep me going, but then the writing starts to plod or a bit of shoddy research slips in, I'll stop. I'm especially sensitive to anachronisms, historical books that aren't based on thorough research. I recently was reading a book that was well written but when the author described a scene where a mosaic artist from the early Christian era used a living woman as a model for his art, the author lost me. That's such a modern concept, definitely not something an ancient mosaicist would do. To use it as a pivotal plot point made me question what would happen next.
