Science writer Claire Eamer has some of the best titles in the business. Her four books for young adults are called Lizards in the Sky: Animals Where You Least Expect Them, Spiked Scorpions and Walking Whales, Super Crocs and Monster Wings and Traitors’ Gate and Other Doorways to the Past.
Her fifth book, out in spring 2012 and published by Annick Press, is likewise irresistibly titled. It's called The World in Your Lunch Box: The Wacky History and Weird Science of Everyday Foods.
Arctica wanted to know more about this circumpolar author who lives in Canada's Yukon territory. Here's some of what we found out: writing for younger audiences isn’t so different from writing for adults, you don’t need a science PhD to write about science, and we can rely on Eamer to tell us about the Most Marvellous Fact Ever.
Joanna: As author of four books and numerous stories and articles, you have become one of Canada's leading science writers for young people. How did you get into it? Did you plan for it or did it just happen?
Claire: I think you might be overstating the case a bit. A group of Canadian kids' science writers have set up an email network, and we had about 40 members at last count, some of them extremely well-known and frequently published—and there are more. Canada actually produces some very good science writing for kids.
I got into it almost by accident. I've written about science for adults since a radio series I developed for CBC Saskatchewan around 1980. I also write fiction, usually for kids or teens, and I submitted a fiction proposal to Annick Press, a well-respected Canadian children's publisher. This was about five years ago. Annick wasn't interested in the fiction, but the Vancouver-based associate publisher, Colleen MacMillan, called me up to see if I might be interested in writing non-fiction for them. I had written a book and edited about a dozen others for the regional publisher Western Producer Prairie Books years earlier when Colleen worked there, so she knew I could complete a book and deliver a decent manuscript. She also knew a bit about my science and other non-fiction writing. I thought it would be fun to try, and we batted around some topics and ideas for a while, finally settling on an idea of mine about evolution and some of the marvellous changes that have happened to different groups of animals. That turned into Super Crocs and Monster Wings.
So, long answer, I'm afraid.
Joanna: On that note, your books are on such great topics. Do you get the ideas for your books and then research them, or does the research lead to the book?
Claire: It's actually a bit of both. Since I do a lot of science writing and a lot of reading about science, I have a so-far endless list of things that fascinate me. Some of them just seem suited to kids' books. The animal books mostly grew out of weird and wonderful creatures that I find just as interesting as the kids do. I have a great enthusiasm for natural history and biology! I'm also interested in history and have done a fair bit of writing in that field too. My straight history book, Traitors' Gate and Other Doorways to the Past, was actually Colleen MacMillan's idea, although the particular doorways resulted from my research into the idea.
The book that's coming out in the spring is a mix of science and history. It's called The World in Your Lunch Box: The Wacky History and Weird Science of Everyday Foods. That one started when my husband began researching food in order to improve his diet and, therefore, his health. I got interested in some of the stuff he was finding out, both scientific and historical. Also, I feel very strongly about not treating science as separate from other kinds of knowledge. Increasingly the problems the world faces require us to think about their scientific aspects and their social and historical aspects. The more kids can preserve their natural sense that all knowledge is exciting, the better prepared they will be to solve the world's problems. Since the world's current crop of adults isn't doing a great job of solving those problems, the kids will probably have to!
Joanna: Your titles are terrific. Lizards in the Sky. Super Crocs and Monster Wings. Do the titles come first or last?
Claire: I claim no credit at all for the titles. I'm pretty good a subtitles, but I'm useless at book titles. I make suggestions, but then the clever people at Annick come up with something better. Way better! So the title tends to come near the end of the process, usually well into the editing stage, and most of the credit goes to Rick Wilks and Colleen MacMillan at Annick. Unless they have a secret title-generator that I don't know about....
Joanna: Your books have reached far and wide. Tell us about that.
Claire: They are available pretty much around the world, although only in English so far. Every now and then I do a very authorly thing—Google my name and a book title—and it's a thrill to see my books listed at libraries and bookstores in places like Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Italy, Germany. Definitely very cool!
Joanna: You always sound as if you're having such fun with your writing. Do you enjoy the research as much as the writing? What are the easy bits and the difficult bits for you?
Claire: I'm a research geek. I have to make myself stop researching and start writing. I figure there's always one more wonderful source out there that will tell the “Most Marvellous Fact Ever”. Actually sitting down (or standing up, since I often write at a treadmill desk) and starting the writing is the hardest bit. Deadlines are wonderfully helpful at times like that. In fact, I'd be pretty non-functional without deadlines.
Joanna: I don't like to say this, but you're not actually a scientist by training, are you? Do you think that's been a hindrance or, in fact, an advantage?
Claire: Nope—and it's nothing to be ashamed of. Honest! I have a Master's degree in English from the University of Saskatchewan. However, as I got more and more interested in science, particularly biology, I started taking university classes in biology, anatomy, and ecological subjects, so I do have some minor academic background in those subjects. I suspect that having only a limited formal training in science is a bit of an advantage. I don't have to unlearn a lot of scientific jargon that specialists need for their fields. Some science writers do have science backgrounds and can write for both worlds, but a lot of scientists have trouble transferring their knowledge to common language. My advantage is that I don't have a scientific reputation to uphold, so I can keep asking stupid questions until I understand the science. And then I can write about it. The important thing is not to be embarrassed about asking questions. Even when they feel stupid, they probably aren't.
Joanna: Do you find you need to keep in touch with young adults and children in order to write for them? If so, how do you go about that? Have you had to make any changes to your writing style over the years in order to connect with new generations?
Claire: I don't change my style much when writing for kids. The main thing I try to keep in mind is to make everything as concrete as possible, to bring the animals or the places alive for the kids—and to use comparisons that mean something to them. The things that crop up most are measurements and sizes. It's no good writing in a kids' book that the largest sea scorpion was two-and-a-half metres long because that measurement doesn't have concrete reality for a kid. (Actually, it doesn't for most adults either, but they won't admit it.) But if you say it could stand on its nose and touch the ceiling of your room with its tail, then they know how long it was.
One of the nice things about writing for kids is that you can let your enthusiasm run wild. I love all these strange and wonderful creatures and I'm amazed that I share their world—and I'm fascinated by what the world was like when some of the ancient creatures lived. When I'm writing for adults, I'm a bit more restrained and rational usually, but with kids I can write as enthusiastically as I feel about [the subject].
I don't actually make a conscious effort to keep in touch with kids. My son and nieces and nephews are grown up, but some of them are producing the next generation of family, so I have contact with those kids. I do some talks and workshops in schools, which is fun and provides another kind of contact. I read a lot of kidlit and YA lit because I enjoy it, not really as research. I dunno. I just hang out with people and tend not to think about what age they are. Maybe that helps. And I do tend to write things that would have engaged me as a child. I figure the slang has changed and the clothes, but enthusiasm for learning about the world around you hasn't changed all that much.
Joanna: You write non-fiction and fiction as well as journalism. How do you find switching from one to the other? Do you work on different projects simultaneously? Does one influence another?
Claire: Because I do contract writing and journalism as well as book writing, I'm usually working on several projects at once for very different audiences. I've been doing this a long time, and I have a fairly strong sense of my audience when I'm writing so I don't find switching gears very difficult. It can actually be quite a nice change of pace in the working day. I find it harder to switch from editing to writing—particularly from editing to writing my own fiction. I have trouble turning off my inner editor at the best of times, so it doesn't need to be encouraged. For me, the worst is teaching. I used to teach English in university and college, but that not only turns on my inner editor but gives her fangs. I can't do it.
Joanna: You live in Whitehorse, the capital of Canada's Yukon territory, north of the sixtieth parallel. Arctica is a circumpolar magazine. Do you think living in the circumpolar north influences your writing in any particular way? If so, can you describe how?
Claire: It influences my science writing in the sense that I'm very aware of northern habitats and northern animals, and I try to include them somewhere in my kids' books. It has had more influence, I think, in the contract writing I do. A lot of my contract writing is for science-based departments and agencies at all levels of government, including First Nations governments. They are grappling with major world issues, such as climate change, and ground-breaking social and political changes, mainly as a result of land-claim settlements and the new forms of governance and habitat management being developed. I've been able to work on reports, plans, and strategies that matter to people in the North and people well beyond the North, and I've contributed to them more substantially than I probably would be able to do in larger jurisdictions. Of course, the contract work I do influences my understanding of things like environmental change, and that understanding shows up on the other science writing I do, including the books. Sorry—not a simple answer.
Joanna: What are your thoughts on ebooks and Internet publishing? Could you see your books one day existing only electronically? How would you use the medium differently from print? I imagine you have views on this as your fiction tends to be in the science fiction or fantasy realm.
Claire: I'm “gadget girl.” I've got a Kobo, which I love for travel. Almost 10 years ago, I took my son to Britain for three weeks, and we both went off with our palm handheld devices loaded to the gills with ebooks, mostly fantasy novels. I've read books on my iPod and iPad too. He read on his computer, but I don't usually do that except for work. And we have a houseful of paperbacks and hardcovers and magazines—even a few cereal boxes. I'll read on any medium and I'm quite prepared to write for any medium. Have done, actually, for most media. Children's publishing has been relatively slow to move toward ebooks, partly because of the graphic content of books for younger readers and kids' non-fiction. I think most publishers are still trying to figure out what will work for them and for kids, so the industry is very much in a state of transition. Regarding how you use the medium, most ebooks today are simply print books on e-ink instead of paper. However, that doesn't mean that there won't be entirely new formats and writing styles developed for the new media. That's happened with other media. Writing for radio is different from writing for print, which is different from writing for a website, which is different from television, etc. I just find it all very interesting.
Joanna: What can we expect to see from you next on the bookshelves or on screen?
Claire: I currently have a fantasy story just published in Tesseracts Fifteen: A Case of Quite Curious Tales, edited by Julie E. Czerneda and Susan MacGregor. It's an anthology of science fiction and fantasy aimed at young adults, and there are some marvellous stories in it.
In the spring, my new book from Annick Press will be out. As I mentioned above, it's called The World in Your Lunch Box: The Wacky History and Weird Science of Everyday Foods. It's actually available for pre-order now, and you can see the great cover art at Annick's website and at the online bookstores. The illustrations are by Sa Boothroyd of Gibsons, British Columbia, and she's great. I first saw her work in a Whitehorse café years ago and have been wanting one of her prints every since. Now I get a whole book! By the way, she was the publisher's choice. They had no idea I knew anything about her, but I knew who the artist was as soon as I saw the first draft illustration.
Find out more about Claire Eamer at www.claireeamer.com.
