Author Patrice Kindl Author Jeanne DuPrau Author Holly Black Author Jane Yolen Author Annette Curtis Klause

And some more advice for authors gathered by Linda Joy Singleton...

SUCCESSFUL FANTASY/PARANORMAL AUTHORS SHARE ADVICE ON WRITING FOR YOUNG READERS:

PATRICE KINDL, Author of Owl in Love, The Woman in the Wall, Goose Chase, and Lost in the Labrynth
All fiction is fantasy. The stuff that "fantasy" writers create, when written with insight, imagination and attention to detail, often attains a higher standard of reality than any other form of fiction.

JEANNE DUPRAU, Author of The City of Ember and The People of Sparks
What's crucial for me is being able to see the place I'm creating--see it with my mind's eye as clearly as if I had been there myself. If I can't see it, I know I don't yet believe in it enough to write about it well.

HOLLY BLACK, Author of Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale, Valiant: A Tale of Modern Faerie, and The Spiderwick Chronicles, with author Tony DiTerlizzi 
Write to please yourself first. If you write the sort of book that you've been browsing for on your local bookstore shelves but never seem to find, I believe you will also write a book that others will love.

JANE YOLEN, Author and editor of over 200 books for kids!
People always ask if I've ever seen ghosts or faeries or angels. And I answer, I have written murder mysteries--and never murdered anyone. But belief is the core--belief in writing, in story, in metaphor. Belief in answering the question. . .what if?

ANNETTE CURTIS KLAUSE, whose new book Freaks Alive! will be out in January 2006, also the author of Blood and Chocolate, The Silver Kiss
All the elements essential to horror literature are the same as for any good literature. Realism is especially important. The more real the settings and characters are, the more believable the story, no matter how fantastic, and the more scary the horror is in contrast to the mundane.

One of the challenges of writing supernatural fiction, especially when you have the supernatural creature as your protagonist, is making attractive someone most people think of at worst as a monster, and at best as just weird—finding the human qualities that readers can identify with and so empathize with the character. But that is probably true of any character, really, no matter what the genre.

A protagonist that is all good is very boring. Characters should be a balance of good and bad, light and dark, else they won't be believable no matter how human the reader assumes they are. Even those who write truly evil monsters want to include enough ambiguity to make the reader vacillate, debate, and wonder. That’s what keeps us interested—the vague possibility that even we could become that creature.

Only write about the supernatural if you respect and love the genre. If not, your disdain will be apparent and turn your readers off. You need to love the monsters to make them come alive. Research the folklore and myth behind the stories to mine the parts of legends ignored; examine the psychological underpinnings of the stories and use this to make your tale ring true; be familiar with what has already been done in the field, and make your own niche.

Linda Joy Singleton's newest book is SEA SWITCH, the latest in the Strange Encounters series about Cassie Strange and her adventures with the supernatural, from Llewellyn!  Learn more at www.LindaJoySIngleton.com.