By Cameron Glenn
I had finished my first
attempt at a children’s novel called “The Glow Worm Gang” and queried it to lit
agents and publishers. I had hope for it, as I had more fun writing it than
anything I had written in a long time and I thought it original and imaginative.
I’ve developed a tough skin and healthy perspective about writing, yet still
when the polite rejections boomeranged back they stung a bit more than usual,
leaving me in a bit of a discouraged and morose headspace for a little
while.
It was in this mood that
I came across two letters by one of my favorite authors, F. Scott Fitzgerald
that he wrote to his niece Frances about her story, in 1938. They’re excellent
written letters, of course, full of tough love, good advice and quotes, one
being:
“Nobody ever becomes a
writer just by wanting to be one. If you have anything to say, anything you
feel nobody has ever said before, you have got to feel it so desperately that
you will find some way to say it that nobody has ever found before.”
This quote is a variation
of his more famous quote: “You don’t write because you want to say something,
you write because you have something to say.” Such sentiments have become a bit
of a cliché since Fitzgerald’s time, but the truth of it impacted me. I wanted
to give writing a children’s, or “young adult fantasy” novel another try, and
it should be about something I feel and care about deeply.
I’m not usually a morose
person, and I think the best writing is light and vibrant, but what I was
feeling most profoundly in that moment was a sense of loneliness. It is a
universal feeling everyone, even kids, and maybe especially teens, can relate
to. I decided to make loneliness one of the themes of Delano. The theme came
before the characters and plot development.
Looking back, it seems a
bit strange that this was the genesis of Delano, as “loneliness” might not seem
as a major or obvious theme. Yet, I do think that it is there underneath
everything: not “loneliness” perhaps, as the desire to belong, to have friends,
to find yourself, your purpose, and your identity, the desire not to be lonely,
and then ultimately to accept loneliness as a sacrifice to a greater
purpose.
That’s a deep read
though, and it’s my belief and hope that a reader will still enjoy “Delano in
Hollyhook” without noticing that interpretation or coming up with his or her
own. I do believe, in the case with this novel anyways, that a reader’s
interpretation is just as valid as the authors are.
As for the plot and
characters: a lot of brainstorming and trial and error went into the planning.
At first Delano was a time traveler in an organization tasked with preventing
famous assassinations throughout history. I still think that idea may not have
been a bad one, just, going back to the Fitzgerald quote; I didn’t feel I had
the passion to develop it further than I did, although I did waste some pages
and time struggling with it. I came up with the name “Delano” after watching
the great Ken Burns documentary on the Roosevelt’s, and thinking “Delano” a
great heroic game that has really been underused. This was before I found out
there was a casino in Las Vegas called “The Delano”. Still, I think it’s a good
name.
In my brainstorming, I
wondered what some familiar themes in popular children and Young Adult novels
were. Two that jumped out to me were orphans and the groupings or ‘sorting’ of
young people. I wondered what it was about these two tropes that so resonated
with young readers, and then decided that I would try to use those tropes as
well, but in a way that subverted and commented on them, rather than simply
trying to follow a trend and be a part of a cliché. So that is where the ideas
of Delano being (or considering himself as) an orphan came from, as well as the
sorting of the campers of Camp Hollyhook into types.
For the plot much of the
inspiration came from mashing up the “Pleasure Island” aspect of Pinocchio with
the “forgetting their moms” Lost Boys of “Peter Pan.” The idea that the longer
one is submerged in a fantasy, the more one forgets “the real world” is an
interesting one to me. Trying to imagine the story as both a video game and a
movie (and sometimes even a Broadway musical) also served as goals and
inspiration in the plot. In the beginning stages, I was visited by my twin
sister and her two daughters Jane and Emma, ages ten and twelve and I bounced
ideas off them, which was fun. I just got an e-mail from my sister saying her
daughter had just read it and gave it “two thumbs up” which made me happy and
feel like anything else that happens with Delano in Hollyhook now will be
added gravy (although of course I do want it to be as successful as it can be).
Cameron Glenn grew up the third of seven
children in Oregon. As a child he dedicated hours to the pursuits of basketball
and cartooning, as well as waking up way too early for his paper route in order
to earn money to buy toys, candy and comic books. He also loved to read and
write, which he continues to do voraciously. He currently lives in Salt Lake
City after having earned a BA in literature from Boise State.
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