Margaret Willey

This is the crux of my writing life; sharing stories for children, bringing to life the power of books and words and poems and stories. This is my granddaughter Beatrice, named after my husband's mother, who was the inspiration for my CLEVER BEATRICE books. No matter what I write, no matter how it is received, the moment captured in this photo in August is at the beating heart of all my work. It is fleeting and ordinary. It means everything to me. Read More 

Publishers Weekly has given Beetle Boy a starred review. "A potent story about the power that the past exerts on the present." A young man haunted by flashbacks of his powerless childhood. And by his nightmares. Struggle and redemption. No easy answers. Read the review in its entirely hereRead More 

My new YA novel BEETLE BOY belongs somewhere between what we know as young adult fiction, and literary fiction that deals with childhood trauma. Several friends who have read the novel--authors themselves--asked me why it was published as a YA novel. And part of the answer lies in the grey area of fiction for teens that is Carolrhoda Lab.

I am very lucky to be part of the Carolrhoda Lab family, and I use the term 'family' with intentional irony. Andrew Karre, my editor at CL (he also edited Four Secrets, 2012) has created a list of YA's that flourish in the aforementioned grey area, particularly the novels on the list that are realistic and contemporary (Carrie Mesrobian's SEX AND VIOLENCES, 2013 and Blythe Woolston's FREAK OBSERVER, 2011 are two highly acclaimed examples). Carolrhoda Lab is Karre's imprint and part of the umbrella publishing company that is Lerner Books, based in Minneapolis, and including many other imprints and presses. Here is their home page. More specifically, the home page for Carolrhoda Lab is here.

When people ask me this question (why YA?), I can't help but think that some readers assume I have a category firmly in mind when I write a novel like BEETLE BOY. I do not. A story germinates and surfaces and unfolds. The focus sharpens. The pages slowly become novel-length. I don't think about genre. That comes later, if at all. My recent work is alive and kicking the grey area between adult fiction and edgy YA fiction and I am strangely and ironically comfortable here, ironic because I am so much farther from adolescence than when I began writing for teenagers 30 years ago.

BEETLE BOY is necessarily harsh. Reviewers have described it as "demanding," "riveting," and "chilling." It is from my heart of darkness and is not meant for children or pre-teens or any reader who prefers fantasy realms and happy endings. But yes, absolutely, it is a YA novel.  Read More 

I have a few writer friends who say they don't read their reviews. Others who say they don't care about reviews and are not affected by them. I wish that I could adopt one of these two strategies. I must admit, the wait for my first review of Beetle Boy was stressful. I am not a stranger to critical reviews, even a few that I would characterize as brutal reviews--and these, I believe have strengthened my belief in the integrity of my own books. They are not for everyone. They are distinct and uniquely mine. This is certainly true of Beetle Boy. I don't think I have ever been so proud of a book--so sure that it is coming straight from my heart and my brain and my beliefs about what happens to children when their parents abandon and/or use them. But the book is a strong dose, full of harsh realities and human failure and may be problematic for some. So like I said...waiting for that first review...very hard. Now it has come and the matter is settled. I am very glad that it was a starred review, but beyond that, I am over the hurdle of the wait for the "first review," and so feel very free about what will come next. Let it roll. I believe in my book. No one else could have written it.  Read More 

Beetle Boy is available for reviews and ratings on Netgalley. Very exciting to know it's now being read. By readers. People. Not just me. It's out there. It came from a dark place in me, but I am so proud of it and I LOVE the spare and edgy cover. Perfect for the content. A book about Charlie Porter. A book about an unlikely friendship. A book about nightmares. A book of heartfelt and necessary bleakness. Also my funniest (I think) book to date.  Read More 

I have posted a PDF of my Guest Column in the Fall 2013 ALAN Review on both the home page and the FOUR SECRETS page of my website. The essay traces the long and winding road that eventually led me to an illustrated novel for middle grade readers (a crime novel, some have said). It includes my own experience as the mother of a daughter who was bullied in high school and who didn't tell me what was happening (something awful) for a very long time.

"Why are they doing this to me, Mom. Is there something wrong with me?"

Proud of this essay & realizing that it feels in some ways like a goodbye to the process of writing FOUR SECRETS as I move into the territory of a different sort of bullying, the parental kind, and a very different novel. Beetles are coming. Read More 

With the holidays coming, and BEETLE BOY finished (scheduled for release Fall 2014), I have decided to work on a few shorter projects, projects without clear futures, but that is okay with me. In some ways it is so freeing. No one waiting for, or asking to see, what I am up to.

I have returned to my essays about my own intense childhood relationships to certain fairy tales. I am sketching and mulling for an essay about why I was so drawn and held by The Little Mermaid. And I don’t mean the Disney version that came roughly 150 years after the original; I’m talking about the Hans Christian Andersen telling. The only similarity between these two stories really is the setting and the premise—the mermaid lore integral to both. In tone, plot and resolution, they are worlds apart. Oceans apart. And the child who was me was caught in the silvery net of the original, perhaps the saddest and most tragic of all the fairy tales I loved.

The Disney Empire recognized the story’s power to enchant—Ariel’s underwater world and the romance that awaits her as a human—and filled the 1989 animated version with bright colors, comical voices and calypso music. The original story, based on many ancient myths and legends about mermaids and sea sirens, featured a young mermaid, the youngest of 6 sisters, but she is nameless; Andersen calls her ‘the little mermaid’ from beginning to end. She alone of her sisters longs for connection with the human world, and in this state of longing, she rescues a drowning prince who has been tossed from his ship in a terrible storm, bringing him to shore. In the Hans Christian Andersen version, the mermaid goes through a terrible ordeal to obtain legs, so that she can be rejoined on dry land with her beloved prince. She must endure chronic pain in order to walk and she has given up her voice in exchange for her legs—she is mute and suffering.

But perhaps the most extreme difference between Andersen’s fairy tale and the Disney movie is the fact that the mermaid is never reunited with her prince. The story ends tragically with a melancholy and highly moralistic final paragraph. No calypso music here, no joyous wedding celebration. The poor girl dissolves into sea foam, and that is that.
And so in my essay, I am exploring elements of this amazing and powerful fairy tale, but also finding my way to some personal reasons, personal fears and wanderings from my Michigan childhood that would explain why this particular story had such power over me, despite its darkness and coldness, and the deep sorrow at its core.  Read More 

August has been memorable for me because unlike most Augusts, I have been working in my office full time. Even on the weekends, I worked hard and faithfully. Partly this was because I have been engrossed in a particularly meaningful editing job. But also I have been tinkering with my childhood essays for a collection. Each essay focuses on a particular fairy tale and how it connects to my very real childhood (how it took hold of me and didn't let go). These essays have been a joy to write and rewrite because they involve old obsessions, childhood fears and longings, some of which are still part of my day to day life. Here are a few of the tales I am drawing from: Thumbelina, Jack the Giant Killer, The Little Mermaid, The Handless Maiden, The Little Match Girl.

In my introduction, I discuss being the helpful daughter who cleaned the family bathroom for cash (a for-hire Cinderella) and how I am still recovering.  Read More 

This week I got the lovely news that The 3 Bears and Goldilocks, my take on this ancient story, has been reprinted. I had also recently received the news that all 3 Beatrice books have been reprinted and are thus, "still alive" in the children's book world Even though I am so involved now with longer fictions, including adult fiction, I am so grateful that these books are still out there, still being purchased by parents and librarians. Sometimes I will read an entry on a blog by someone who has just discovered one of my picture books and is responding to it as though it were just published! That is a treat beyond words. And being able to still connect with children, through these books, has never been more important to me.

And I know I have a few more good picture books in me. Just have a few good novels to finish first! Read More 

I have been thinking a lot about conclusions and concluding chapters and final paragraphs and final sentences as I mentally prepare to revise and polish what will be my next novel, published by Carolrhoda Lab in 2014. I read a fine and feisty blog review of my novel FOUR SECRETS; the reviewer said, as many reviewers have said, "I could not put this one down." She also says in the review that "the ending wasn't 100% satisfying."

This got me to thinking about HOW MANY TIMES in my 30-year writing career I have heard this sort of remark about my novels. I would have to say that at least every one of my now nine novels has had a reviewer or a reader express reservations about the way I conclude a novel--saying that not every issue in the novel is clearly resolved. With this goes an assumption that I have somehow been careless about my ending(s). When in fact I obsess and revise and rework my final chapters to the word, making the story's ending EXACTLY as I want it--suggestive of resolution and transformation but not hard and fast. Not crystal clear. For some, not 100% satisfying. I find myself wondering if this will also be said about my new novel. It doesn't matter. My favorite novels always end mysteriously, suggestively, with subtle arrows pointing toward hope and new awareness. And this is the way I write them. This is they way I conclude them. This is how I roll.  Read More