Justine Manzano Hi all!
Today, I’m joined by a guest author of Young Adult and Middle Grade writers, all with some super interesting premises. Get to know Marisa Noelle with me!
Justine: I love to learn about motivation other authors have. You write young adult and middle grade novels. What draws you to tell stories for these age groups in particular?
Marisa: My happy place is young adult. I don’t think I chose it, but it chose me. It seems to be the voice that comes out. It was a very emotional time for me when I was in my teens and I still remember trying to fit in, figuring out my boundaries, understanding who I was, unrequited love. It’s such an important part on the development of a person’s life and I love to explore these emotions – which puts me firmly in the YA category! And let’s face it, I’m still a big kid at heart!
Justine: I absolutely feel exactly the same way about YA. I remember the strength of the emotions in that time and how out of control the world at large felt like for me. It was also the time that my mental health started to suffer its worse blows. Your website says you explore mental health issues through your fiction. Can you tell me a little more about that choice?
Marisa: Mental health has always been hugely important to me. I never understood the bitchy phase at school and didn’t get why everyone just couldn’t get along. I struggled with an easting disorder when I was 15. I was having an identity crisis and looking for a way to control my life. When I was in my first year at uni, I lost 2 friends to Meningitis. It was a really scary time and I started to doubt my own health. Within the next couple of years I had developed an anxiety disorder with panic attacks and OCD. I no longer trusted my own body. It took me years to come to terms with what I was going through, to find the right help. Mental health certainly wasn’t reflected in literature back then and I felt very very alone. I couldn’t talk about it to anyone – I felt hugely embarrassed. It is this stigma that I strive to erase. I am much more open about my experiences now and hold my head high. I want our teenagers today to know that mental health is important, that it doesn’t define them, that it doesn’t make them weak, that it can bring great strengths. I want these teens to see themselves reflected in a book, not where the books is all about the issues, but where the character just so happens to save the world, even when they have anxiety.
Justine: I’m so sorry for everything you’ve gone through. I also struggled without having good representation in books regarding anxiety. Nobody felt like me. I’ve also been very open about my mental health journey in an effort to break the stigma. Thank you for what you do. It’s so important.
When I was young, I often tried to escape my current circumstances through books, yes, but also through television and movies. I just spotted a list of your favorite shows on your website. We
share Buffy and Stranger Things. Tell me what stands out to you about those particular shows.
Marisa: I love those shows! I recently re-watched the entirety of Buffy and loved it even more. Some of the attitudes are out dated now, maybe they’ll do a remake. Buffy represented everything I wanted to be. She was a kick ass vampire slayer who didn’t take herself too seriously. In the later seasons, I loved how her idea of right and wrong got very blurry. How she took more risks, and redefined who she was. Especially when it came to dating Spike. I’ve always been a sucker for vampires (excuse the pun), and horror in general. I loved that Buffy had her own Scooby Gang to solve all the supernatural crimes. And those one liners were hilarious. And I always fell in love with the men. Who doesn’t want a bit of Angel or Riley Finn? But it wasn’t just about Buffy either. All the side characters had their own amazing arcs that I fully immersed myself in. It was just such a fantastic show.
Stranger things. Wow! It’s such a homage to 80s horror. It encapsulates that period so perfectly. I love the supernatural so much, the fact that something is created in a lab, a whole other dimension with monsters – that is right up my street. The group of kids are so likeable and I wanted to be right alongside them helping them out. The fact that Eleven had super powers was incredible. I spent my teens reading Dean Koontz, all about the supernatural and so it fit right in to my top list of shows! The characterization and dialogue were done so well. When is the next season airing! Gah!!!! I love horror in general. I think it’s the idea of when the poo hits the fan, no matter how bad things get, good wins out in the end. I love that concept. Even when endings aren’t clear cut!
Justine: I totally agree on all of your points. I think I spent most of my teen years in love with Angel. 🙂 And I’ve been slowly going nuts analyzing every Stranger Things Season 4 Trailer that drops.
Okay, I’m going to bring this around to more writerly stuff again, because if I let myself talk about my favorite shows this interview will get very long. 🙂 Does your real life impact your fiction?
Marisa: Yes! Totally. As I mentioned previously about my anxiety, I draw on my own experiences to include those aspects in my book. I feel my characters are more rounded when they have these concerns in their life and are more relatable. My love of science also led me to write my dystopian trilogy, The Unadjusteds, which is all about the power of genetic modification. I studied psychology at university and find that I draw on a lot of that in other books. Especially the one coming out this December! Psychology is still a great love of mine. I had wanted to go on and continue with criminal psychology, but alas my plans were waylaid! I always fancied myself as Jodi Foster in The Silence of the Lambs (without the being in danger part!)
Justine: Speaking of The Unadjusteds, tell me about your most recent book release.
Marisa: My latest book release was this May. The Reckoning is the final part in The Unadjusteds Trilogy. These books were one of the first I wrote and as I stayed with the characters so long, they hold a special place in my heart. Silver Melody is a normal 16 year old girl who trains in karate as she knows there will be a day when she has to go up against the altereds (80% of the population who have chosen to change their DNA). It happens a lot sooner than she’d like and she finds herself crippled by self-doubt and anxiety, yet having to face her nemesis. In book 3, after she has been through so much, she has her own power struggles with genetics and we see her arc get very complicated and exciting!
Justine: I see you’ve worked as a mentor for Write Mentor before. What can you tell us ab
out that experience?
Marisa: I love Write Mentor! Write Mentor started off as a free summer mentoring program, much like Pitch Wars. My good friend set it up and I’ve been there since the beginning, taking an author or two over the summer months and helping them edit their book for an agent show case in September. It centers around kid lit, anything form picture books to young adult. Since then it has grown into paid mentoring services (I have a few regulars), the provision of regular workshops. There’s the learning hub, where you can access online lessons, find critique groups, and so much more. There’s also a yearly novel award that’s judged by kid readers and adults and the short list is sent to an agent for picking the winner. Write Mentor’s first online conference happened last year and the second is only in a couple of weeks. There is so much good content! I’m moderating a panel this year with author Sara Benard, who also writes about mental health.
Justine: That does sound incredible. What do you love most about writing?
Marisa: First drafts! I love when a new idea starts to take shape and I make notes and let it percolate. And when I organize those notes and start to work on the first draft. It comes to life. I figure out who my characters are and everything becomes real. I don’t worry about the editing or how good it is, but lose myself in the story.
Justine: Do you have any favorite writing tropes?
Marisa: I love love triangles. I’m such a sucker for them. I have one in The Unadjusteds, and I love to read about them too. To be honest, I love a dash of romance in all my books. I tend never to have it as the main plot, but always there on the side, often influencing the plot or character arc. I think at that age, teens and new adults are so full of the possibility of love and romance, that it’s great to read it in a book too! I do quite like a “chosen one” trope and have one in my mermaid series – but they need to be well earned these days I think!
Justine: I love romance plots in my YA fiction, too. Because my latest book was partly about ice cream, what is your favorite ice cream flavor?
Marisa: That sounds amazing! So when I have ice cream, it is a whole other thing. Ben & Jerry’s. A scoop of Fudge Brownie, a scoop of Cookie Dough, and a scoop of Peanut butter cup. A handful of dry roasted peanuts and a lashing of chocolate sauce. Sometimes I have it for dinner!
Justine: Yum! So, what’s in your writing future?
Marisa: Who knows!?? Well, I know some things. I’m self-publishing a new book this December. The Unraveling of Luna Forester is a dark fantasy/psychological horror with strong mental health themes. I have an agent and we are about to go out on our second round of submission with my middle grade novel, Spectrum. This novels highlights neurodiversity and is a great road trip adventure. We are also preparing my YA cli-fi, Plastic, to go out on sub. This one is about an 16yo sassy eco activist who lost her brother to the ocean 5 years previously. She blames a drinks company for contributing to the ocean trash that held her brother down. When the company releases a new technology to help clean up the trash, it backfires and something menacing is created. Sara struggles to convince people of what is going on and finds herself tackling the problem with her boyfriend and best friend. This one is all about grief, learning about yourself, and figuring out who you are and what’s important to you. And monsters. I like to think of it as Jaws meets the environment.
Justine: Those all sound very cool. I can’t wait to see them in print.
Marisa: Thanks so much for having me on. The questions were really fun!
Justine: Thank you so much for participating!
To follow everything about Marisa Noelle, you can find her on her website, on Facebook, on Twitter, on Youtube, on Pinterest, and on Instagram.