A Talk With Science Fiction Author Alethea Eason
Birth of Popular Middle Grade Chapter Book: Hungry
Dec 4, 2008
You wouldn’t expect an English teacher to write a comedy about a flesh-eating (and surprisingly likable) space alien girl, but that’s what Alethea Eason did in her science fiction book Hungry (HarperCollins 2007). Here, she tells Suite 101, via a December 1, 2008 email interview, about the unusual path that led to this hilarious first novel.
Suite101: Hungry began as the short story "Deborah's Choice" in Bruce Coville's science fiction anthology Alien Visitors. How did you get to work with Coville?
Eason: Fate. Jane Yolen, one of my literary heroes, was going to teach at Centrum Writer's Conference, so I set my sights on going there. However, I found out you had to have a book published to participate in her master’s class.
Bruce was also teaching there. I hate to admit I hadn't heard of him, but he liked my writing and asked me to submit stories to Alien Visitors, Strange Worlds and A Glory of Unicorns. It truly was a dream come true to be asked to write at that level of publication.
Suite101: How did you come up with the idea of flesh-eating space aliens?
Eason: Hungry started from an exercise I did years before. I just let myself write possible first sentences. One of them was: “I always thought my parents were weird, but Willy’s parents were stranger than mine.”
When Bruce asked me to write a story for Alien Visitors, I found the file on my computer and just let myself go. About three pages into the first draft, I realized I was writing about hungry aliens.
Suite101: What challenges did you experience in turning your short story into a science fiction novel?
Eason: When I started the novel, I thought I was just writing something for my husband, so I didn't feel any pressure. I have a marvelous writing partner named Mary Benson and when I got stuck, she asked the right questions to get me going.
Rewriting the book, once it was accepted by HarperCollins, was challenging as I had to do it quickly. However, Ruth Katcher, my editor, asked such great questions about the plot that I did it in a month.
The strange thing is my sister Gwyn was dying as I wrote it. She passed away about a month after I finished it. It was strange to write a funny book while this was going on, but perhaps this fueled a bit of the darker humor in it.
Suite101: Your space alien heroine Deborah is a math genius in Hungry. Were you good in math?
Eason: No. Next to P.E., math was my worst subject. When it comes time to figure out how much everyone owes for a meal, I joke that I'm a reading specialist and pass the bill to someone else to decipher.
A math specialist I worked with named Ami Barker has a daughter named Taryn with Ami’s math genes, though, and I often thought of her as the character of Deborah evolved.
Suite101: You’ve finished writing Starved, a sequel to Hungry. Will there be any more Hungry books?
Eason: I hope to write a third Deborah novel. I know how it will end. I know how it will start. I know a few things in the middle I want to happen.
Suite101: If Hungry was made into a science fiction movie, who would make up your dream cast?
Eason: Oh, my. That is a dream, isn't it? Maybe Robert Downey Jr. for Deborah’s math teacher, Mr. Bartlett? Glenn Close for her grandmother? Tom Hanks and Jamie Lee Curtis would do nicely for her parents. Drew Barrymore could be Margie.
Read Alethea’s new fantasy novel, Heron’s Path.
Learn about Alethea’s writing strategies at "Children's Author Shares Her Writing Process."
And read an interview with young adult sci fi writer PJ Haarsma at Young Adult Writer Excites Readers About Sci Fi.
