Response to Heroine Being Challenged

Q: As an author, what is your perspective on the banning of certain books in school libraries? Is there a greater significance behind banning books at schools?

A: “First of all, I want to say that a parent knows their child best. If a parent says, “this book is not appropriate for my child,” they are right. Bottom line. When a parent says, “this book is not appropriate for any child,” we’re in censorship territory. Yes, there is greater significance in a book being banned in a school. It’s a black mark, a patina of shame. It tells kids who are dealing with these topics – whatever they are – in their daily lives, that they are wrong, shameful, and dirty. This does not encourage anyone to speak up, or seek help. It encourages them to keep their heads down, bury pain, and live in emotional isolation as they pretend to fit in, be normal, and abide by a social code that others have pushed upon them.”

Q: Are there any premises in which certain books should be banned from the school library?

A: “Again, parents always have final say. If they believe that a book is inappropriate for their child, then it is. Their ethical code within their own household is their decision. It doesn’t extend to the public.”

Q: Who do you think should be responsible for these decisions? Teachers, Admin, Parents, Librarians, Students, etc?

A: “I think most schools have a great process for dealing with challenged books. Of course, all voices should be heard. Parents have real concerns about what their children are exposed to, and raising their children is their most important job. Listening is also critical, and in a time when most public discourse has been demeaned to slugging matches where the winner has the best one-liner and everyone has a pie chart to refute someone else’s bar graph, actually being quiet and considering the other person’s point no longer seems essential to arriving at a decision. That’s what I would ask – that everyone let everyone speak, and then actually think about what they said, not just reload the next quip.”

Q: Parents in the district have challenged your book, Heroine, claiming that it is not appropriate for high schoolers. How would you address the concerns parents have raised about your writing?

A: “The specific stated claims read as such:

1) The content of the book is inappropriate for children of school age through 12th grade. Facts and data here are from the CDC, link below, graphics attached. https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/heroin/index.html Heroin use has more than doubled among young adults ages 18–25 in the past decade. This means that real talk has to happen with teens about drug abuse, prescription drug misuse, and the very real dangers of casual drug use BEFORE they turn 18… exactly the period of time – and the window of opportunity – that the statement above would deny.

2) We should be trying to help the opioid crisis in our country, not contribute to it by putting books like this in our kids hands. Heroine is a cautionary tale about a gifted female athlete whose injury leads her to misuse prescription drugs in order to recover for her season, leading to reliance upon the drug, followed by a decision to turn to street drugs once she can no longer obtain them legally. This dead-ends her athletic career, ruins her personal relationships, and ultimately leaves her life in a wreck that she is unsure she can fully recover from. The statement above makes me question whether the entire book was actually read. 3) It tells students how to take oxycontin and heroin and it leads them to believe that these drugs can improve situations in their lives. The opening line of this book is, “When I wake up, all my friends are dead.” I don’t think this can be construed as a claim that drugs can improve their lives. Another example would be Chapter 51, when my main character literally poops her pants in public during a softball game, then vomits all over herself, and hides in a port-a-potty until the game is over. Everyone knows she is in there, covered in her own filth. Her team, the opposing team, her family, her friends, the entire crowd watches this happen to her in real time. Her utter humiliation and outing as an addict is very public, and again, I don’t think a word of it can be construed as leading a reader to believe that using drugs will improve situations in their lives. Once again, this statement makes me question whether the entire book was actually read. As far as Heroine being a “how to,” on taking drugs – much of the drug culture and language that I used in this book is pulled from the late 90s and early 2000s. Many of the methods used in Heroine would no longer be effective for a reader today — which was a conscious decision on my part. For example, in 2010, Purdue-Pharma, the makers of Oxycontin, discontinued the original formula for the drug, releasing a new pill that could no longer be crushed and snorted, as it would not turn into a powder (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/13/upshot/opioids-oxycontin-purdue-pharma.html). This also meant that the method of sucking the time release layer off the pill (also used in the novel) was no longer effective, as the time release characteristics were now infused throughout the entire pill, not in a simple covering. So… long story short – no. Heroine does NOT tell students how to take oxycontin, unless they read it a full decade before it was published, when those methods would have actually worked. As for shooting up heroin: no, my novel most definitely doesn’t walk the reader through how to do that. I can say that with conviction because I’m the author and I don’t know how to do it.”

Q: What audiences do you think your book Heroin is “appropriate” for?

A: “Humans. Anyone looking for empathy and compassion in the world. Anyone hoping to be understood. Anyone wondering how easy it is to fall down a rabbit hole, and anyone who has ever considered the fact that it could be them one day.”

Q: Do you think censorship of the youth is an important and relevant issue? How does banning books like Heroine contribute to this?

A: “It’s absolutely relevant, given our climate of everyone screaming at everyone else, and each side absolutely believing they hold the highest moral ground. Banning books like Heroine, which is an empathetic look at the emotional and mental state of an addict, means that we continue to stand fast on our side of the line, and hold tight to the concept that we could never, ever end up on the other side of it.”

Q: What power should parents have in censoring the reading of high schoolers beyond their own child?

A: “My honest answer is that adults need to trust educators, librarians, and other institutions. Junior Library Guild, Kirkus, Horn Book, and other professional review sites assign age categories to young adult books. But more importantly – trust the readers themselves. I worked in a high school library for fourteen years. Teens and young readers DO self-censor. I’ve seen plenty of kids pick up a book, page through it, and be like, “Woah! Okay… not for me.” They put it down. They move on.”

Originally published: https://marquettemessenger.com/news/2021/12/15/qa-with-mindy-mcginnis/

The Good Story Podcast: Episode 24

Mindy McGinnis, mystery, suspense, thriller author and dog haver, joins the Good Story Podcast to talk about her upcoming work with James Patterson, shit-shoveling, book snobbery, and showing characters' humanity.

The Inside Scoop On The Initial Insult With The Bookish Box

Thanks to The Bookish Box for hosting this IG Live chat where we talk about The Initial Insult, cats, dogs… and of course my Dalmatian Gus makes an appearance.

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Resurrecting Edgar Allan Poe While Continuously Disappointing My Mother

by Mindy McGinnis

The germination of a story can be hard to pinpoint, even more so if the seed was planted over 30 years ago, as I suspect is the case with my newest release, The Initial Insult. I can’t say for sure that I’d been introduced to Poe before my freshman year in high school, but I can certainly recall staring at Harry Clarke’s 1919 illustration of “The Cask of Amontillado” included in my English textbook and feeling—in a word—horrified.

And also—oddly elated. I ditched the pace of the always-painful class read aloud, finished Amontillado, turned the page to take in “Hop-Frog” and looked back up from my textbook with a single thought: I didn’t know you were allowed to do that in writing.

I’d only been subjected to safe, typically didactic classroom readings at that point in my life, but being exposed to Poe was a game-changer for me. Yes, you can bury people alive (can in fact, rely on that trick more than once, if you’re Poe). You can also set them on fire and let their pets eat their decomposing bodies.

It all made my own dark imaginings seem tame by comparison—but also valid.

I’d always known I wanted to be a writer, but I hadn’t seen the shadows that wandered my mind exemplified on paper, let alone be considered worthy of praise. Now, with ten books behind me and a reputation for killing fictional people while making real people cry, that not only can you do that in writing, but you can make a career out of it.

All that being said, I almost always get a phone call from my mom after she reads an advanced copy of my latest book. And while complimentary, these conversations tend to end with a sigh and the often-repeated wish that I will “write something nicer next time, maybe with a cat.”

I managed the second part. Only, the cat is an escaped panther wandering around a debauched high-school gathering while a virus breaks out among the party-goers and a murder goes down in the basement.

And yes, not only can you do that in writing, but you can do it in YA.

Moving Edgar Allan Poe into a modern, Appalachian setting was not something I’d ever toyed with. Yes, I loved Poe, but emulating others wasn’t a goal of mine… until a black cat ran across my path as I pulled into a service station, and, while pumping gas, I thought about how most people would hold to the superstitious view that bad luck would find me soon. I’m a fan of the Poe interpretation and assumed that the black cat was an arbiter of justice, late for his appointment to deliver judgement upon someone.

And instantly, there was a story in my head. The cat became a prowling panther, an abandoned house and known party-pad morphed into the setting for The Masque of the Red Death, underneath which I added a basement, a coal chute, loose bricks, a bucket of mortar and cast female frienemies in the role of Fortunato and Montressor. It happened in about seven minutes, which is how long it takes me to drive home from work. When something blooms into life that quickly, it’s either been percolating for a long time, or it’s pure drivel.

A series of texts with a fellow writer friend reassured me that it wasn’t drivel. In fact, she insisted that not only did my idea have legs, but they were sexy, sexy legs. All of this happened during the summer of 2018, and while I definitely thought the depths I was plumbing were worth the risks, I had reservations about diving in.

My usual creative process is to mull for a while, do some background reading, and then full-bore plow through a first draft at a chaotic pace. This time the mulling meant determining which Poe stories to use as a framework, the background reading meant learning more about Poe’s life itself, and the first draft came up in the form of what I politely like to refer to as a “word vomit.”

Also, my mom was not happy with the amount of actual vomiting in the book. She wasn’t particularly fond of the swearing and drinking, either. The violence she seems to have grown accustomed to, admitting to me that “I think people question my parenting.” The tension was what proved too much for her in the end, evidenced by the text I received one night letting me know that she couldn’t read the book before bed, because it was “just too much,” but that Game of Thrones was serving her nicely instead.

Everything my mother considered a drawback, I perceive as a strength. Poe’s work always carries with it the dark and macabre, but brings them forward with that touch of realism that makes it all the more believable. Family feuds, stinging rebukes that fester for years, lost dreams, buried pasts, and the bright flash of a familiar smile that leads you into the shadows are all elements of what makes Poe endure. 

As humans, we acknowledge the darkness that co-exists with the light, and while some of us may be more inclined to probe it than others, it carries with it an undeniable fascination. It has been exactly such subjects that have fired my imagination since I can remember and which served as a cornerstone for both my and Poe’s careers.

One of my much-loved coffee mugs carries quotes from famous writers, and I happen to be staring down one from Jane Austen as I write this: “Let other pens dwell on guilty and misery.”

To which I say—Don’t worry, Jane. I got this.

Radio Chat With DCDL: Initial Insult Inside Look!

Check out my radio chat with the Delaware Library about what I'm reading right now, a little about the inspiration behind THE INITIAL INSULT, and a sneak peek about what to expect from THE LAST LAUGH in 2022!

Author Of The Week: Author Chat with Mindy McGinnis →

 YABC:  What gave you the inspiration to write this book?

I can't always say for sure where ideas for my books come from. My new duology is no exception. There wasn't a single moment where I thought - hey, someone should combine elements of Poe short stories and set it in contemporary Appalachia. What I do know is that over a period of a short (7 minute) drive, and a flurry of texts with one of my writer friends as I aired ideas, (Is this too crazy? How much puking is allowed in YA?) I arrived home aware that I had a story with legs.

 YABC:  Who is your favorite character in the book?

One of the more fun elements of this book is that some of the chapters are written from the POV of a panther. Asking myself what a panther's internal monologue would look like was pretty fun.

YABC:  Which came first, the title or the novel?

The concept, for sure. But the titles followed very shortly. The first - THE INITIAL INSULT - is pulled directly from Poe's "Cask of Amontillado" and the line, "The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge."

YABC:  What scene in the book are you most proud of, and why?

Again, anything with the Cat as the narrator. Those chapters are written in verse, which was a new challenge for me, and one I'd like to explore further.

YABC:  What do you like most about the cover of the book?

A lot of the elements of the book are present in the cover - bricks, the shadow of the panther, and the ivy / vine that alludes to the isolated setting. It does a good job of preparing the reader for what we're rolling into - darkness, and bleak shadows.

YABC:  What new release book are you looking most forward to in 2021?

Honest answer - my own. I think it's the best thing I've ever written and I look forward to getting it out into the world.

YABC:  What was your favorite book in 2020?

Hard to say. 2020 was a difficult year for me with reading. It's unfortunate, as I usually turn to reading as an escape, but reality was so pressing last year. It was inescapable.

YABC:  What’s up next for you?

The sequel! THE LAST LAUGH will be coming in 2022! 

YABC:  Which was the most difficult or emotional scene to narrate?

There are various flashbacks throughout the novel, exploring the friendship of the two main characters and how some unfortunate events had unfolded in the past, specifically in their middle grade years. Writing with that young of a voice was foreign to me and took some adjustments. 

YABC:  Which character gave you the most trouble when writing your latest book?

A male character whose outward persona is essentially very different from his inward self. Actually, now that I think about it, there are two of those in the book!