Shana Burg: A Thousand Never Evers

Title: A Thousand Never Evers
Author: Shana Burg
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780385734707

1. First off, congratulations on the big novel sale! Give us the elevator pitch. What’s your book about? 

Thank you! A Thousand Never Evers tells the story of a twelve-year-old, African American girl named Addie Ann Pickett. She lives in small-town Mississippi in 1963. Up till now, Addie Ann has been busy teaching her cat new tricks and jumping double Dutch with her best friends. But after she attends a civil rights meeting with her family and the Klan threatens to attack her church, she’s thrust into a whole new world-the real world. The story follows Addie Ann as she awakens to the racism and violence around her and tries to make sense of the senseless. Ultimately, after a beloved family member becomes the scapegoat for a major crime in town, she must choose whether to be a bystander to events or someone prepared to take action, no matter what the consequence.

2. Most new novelists have an interesting story to tell about their journey to publication. What’s yours? Did you use an agent? Make sure to tell us about the day you found out you’d sold a book. 

While I was teaching sixth grade in Massachusetts, I took my students to hear author David Almond. I left that talk completely inspired to write my own book for young readers. A year later, I had the first draft, as well as a small grant from a local education foundation to hire my former students to be my first editors. We met four times during the summer at a pizza place near the school and these soon-to-be seventh graders critiqued my work. Their advice was right on the money. As these kids moved through middle and high school, I revised and revised. And now that they’re well into college, A Thousand Never Evers is finally coming out! 

I did use an agent–the fabulous Andrea Cascardi from the Transatlantic Literary Agency. She used to be an editor herself, so she gave me critical suggestions and I revised some more. One day, five years after I started writing, I was visiting my sister in Kentucky when I got a call from Andrea telling me several editors were interested. I wish I could say I was calm, cool, and collected, but I wasn’t. I screamed! I shook! I ran all around my sister’s backyard like a maniac! My five-year-old niece Sarah snapped several potential author photos on her digital camera. In the end, I chose to work with Michelle Poploff, editor extraordinaire, at Delacorte Press. After that, the manuscript was in editing for two years, during which time I added a hundred new pages. 

3. Do you have another book in the pipeline? What are you working on now? 

Yes, I’m working on another middle grade novel. 

4. What’s your writing process like? Morning writer, night writer, or something in between?

I write. Do laundry. Write. Bring the lunch I forgot to preschool. Write. Make dinner. Sometimes it’s frustrating to have real life get in the way of writing, and I yearn for long chunks of uninterrupted time. So about a month ago, I decided to go to a writing retreat in my own house. I told everyone I know not to call me because I wasn’t going to answer the phone for an entire week. My husband agreed to take over all the day-to-day chores. I started bright and early Monday morning. It was absolutely the best thing ever! I couldn’t believe how productive I was-until Tuesday, when my son got pink eye.

5. There seems to be an unusually high percentage of writers who own cats. Here at the The First Book, we’re doing a study to find out if there’s a direct relationship between writing success and cat ownership. Do you own a cat? If so, tell us about him or her. If not, tell us what you have against cats.

I had my perfect cat back in sixth grade. I loved her more than anything. We had a secret language. We told each other everything. (Okay, perhaps sixth grade is a little late for that type of thing, but that’s the way it was.) I was even planning to build her a glass version of the Guggenheim Museum with a spiral ramp. There were going to be glass cages with various animals all along the ramp, and at the very top was going to be a huge glass house for my cat with her name-Sunshine–in flashing neon lights above it. But Sunshine died before construction began. I immediately got another cat, but it was too soon after my loss, so I never bonded with the new cat. After that, I was off cats for a while. But now that a few decades have passed, I think I’m ready to love again. And I’m excited to report that your question has sparked discussion with my husband on the matter. We’ve even quibbled about where to put the imaginary litter box. I’ll keep you posted!