Wait! There’s More!

A.

It’s KEE-ra ver-MOND (rhymes with yawned). Like the state Vermont, but with a D on the end.

You’ve be surprised how often people have called me “Kyra Vermin.” And they’re not even trying to be mean.

You can hear me pronounce my name here.

A.

Oh, man. I’ve lost count. Over 15 times for sure. My least favorite time was while I was at camp and I got stung beside my eye. My face swelled right up and I couldn’t see. I had to wear an eye patch for a few days. But the most bizarre-o time?  Last summer a bee flew into my car while I was driving on the highway and stung me right in the eyeball. That. Was. Exciting.

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Yep.

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You got it.

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Hear that sound? That’s me laughing like crazy. No. Writing is not easy for me. Not at all. Although some articles, or parts of books, are more straightforward to write than others, most of the time I’m struggling over every word. Probably just like you do. There were a few times while writing Why We Live Where We Live, when I had to go rest for an hour after writing just a few paragraphs!

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Hard to say, but if I do the math—knowing that I interview at least three people in a typical week—it’s got to be around 3,000.

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Oh, it’s got to be the guy who owned a bomb disposal suit company. He was the president and in order to convince his clients that his suits worked, he’d wear one and get himself blown up. He told me he’d been blown up over a dozen times.

But I also liked talking to Manuel, who I interviewed for The Secret Life of Money. His first job at the Bank of Canada was throwing old and tattered $50 bills into a big furnace! Now the bank shreds old bills. Not nearly as dramatic, as far as I’m concerned. But at least the material can be recycled.

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My son? No way. Would you read a puberty book written by your mother? But his sister has read parts of it. She says it’s pretty informative, especially the part about bullies and cliques.

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I know, huh? Totally different. My ideas come to me from everywhere: things I read, podcasts I’m listening to, and conversations I’m having. But a lot of them come to me while I’m in the shower or when I’m just waking up. No idea why. My brain must be rested.

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In high school I took a career test to find out what I would be good at. Turns out I’m good at two things: Being a journalist and fighting fires. Writing is less dangerous, so I chose that.

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Absolutely. Parts get “killed” (what we call it in the business) all the time. Sometimes we can’t fit everything I want to say into the book, especially if it’s a spread-by-spread book such as Why We Live Where We Live and Half-Truths and Brazen Lies. (Chapter books often have more leeway.) So, even if I’ve done a ton of work on a section, if it doesn’t fit, it doesn’t fit. We kill it.

But I don’t just delete the work. It does get saved. you can read some of those “deleted scenes” right here.

A.

Read, read and read some more. That’s the only way to become a good writer. Read enough books and good writing will become a lot more automatic. Or read magazines online or in print, if that’s the kind of writing you want to do. I used to have stacks of magazines in my room and I’d read them cover-to-cover.

Every Thursday night my parents used to take me to the library and I’d grab a stack of books to read over the weekend. I moved around a lot when I was growing up, so when I was the new kid at school, those books were my friends. I still think of books that way.

Reading is only the first step though. Try to find an after-school writing class if you can, or ask your school to start a writing group for you and your friends. I like to go into schools to run writing groups because I belonged to one in grade 6 and it changed my life. I still use the skills I learned in that group today.

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Just wait and see.

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I’d love to! Meeting readers like you? That’s my hands-down favorite part of being a writer after actually writing the books. Ask your teacher or principal to visit this website and learn how to book me for an author visit.