BookView Review

Welcome to BookView Interview, a conversation series where BookView talks to authors.

Recently, we interviewed Caroline Fernandez, an award-winning author of children’s books, magazine feature articles, and blog posts.  

How often do you base your characters on real people?

For the Asha and Baz series, every book has a real life woman in history in it. Think: kid-friendly biography married with fictional adventure. For Asha and Baz Meet Hedy Lamarr, the two characters meet “real person” Hedy Lamarr as she was inventing frequency hopping (which she did in real life too).

What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?

For the Asha and Baz series, I do a LOT of research. Not only on the real person featured in the respective book but also on the time period, the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) aspect of the story, and politics. I find the STEM research the most difficult (because I’m not organically a STEM person) and I have to take “big discoveries/inventions” and explain it in kid-appropriate language and concepts.

How often you read?

I read for hours and hours most days…but not pleasure reading. I have “homework” reading (which is research). I have “work” reading (which are emails and social media). I have “home” reading (which is recipes, letters, grocery lists). So every day, I am reading. Now for pleasure reading…that is not nearly enough. I don’t start a book until I know I have a good chunk of time that week to finish it. Because once I start reading a book…I am committed to it until the last page.

How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?

The first book I wrote was the first book which got published. I’ve used that process as a template for every book that I have written ever since. I had a background in blogging, so I wrote my first book outline with post titles. This (which I didn’t know then but I do know now), is plotting a book. Today, I write chapter titles as my next writing to-do after research. Having the titles down helps me figure out flow.

How do you select the names of your characters?

For the Asha and Baz series, I used a baby name book!

Do you read your book reviews? Do they please you or annoy you? Do you think you can learn a lot from reading criticism about your work?

I do. And the positive stuff makes my day. And the negative stuff itches at me long after the review is published. Funny, how you can have 5 great reviews but the 1 negative sentence is the one which sticks the longest.

What makes Asha and Baz Meet Hedy Lamarr important right now?

Asha and Baz Meet Hedy Lamarr is an important book right now because it features historical women in STEM who didn’t get the recognition they deserved in their day. Young readers (girls and boys) will be inspired by the inventions and discoveries these real life women made. It has great themes of determination, creativity, and problem-solving which kids can implement in their own lives.

Tell us some more about Asha and Baz Meet Hedy Lamarr.

The three main characters in the book have a non-traditional family. I purposefully wanted the characters to be diverse. The two kid-characters are non-binary. The narrator is not named. So it’s not character A = girl and character B = boy.  This is because I wanted every kid to be able to see themselves as the characters in the book

Where do your ideas for this story come from?

My publisher was interested in a book which had dinosaurs and a grandparent (but of course, grandparents are not dinosaurs). I thought about the “magic” of grandparents. How it was always fun going out with a Grandma on an adventure. And then, I thought it would be interesting to have a role-reversal where the kids had to keep an eye on Grandma getting into funny business (instead of the other way around).

Is writer’s block real?

I think it is but fortunately I have never experienced it. I only write when I have an idea. It’s never forced. And if I come to a blip in the flow of writing I go for a walk or do the dishes and come back to it fresh the next day.

How do you begin a book?

I always begin a book by writing an outline. For a novel, I write chapter titles. For a picture book like The Adventures of Grandmasaurus At The Supermarket, I fill out a picture book thumbnail document of page turns. What’s that you ask? Normally, picture books have 32 or 40 pages. You create a document with the page spreads. Next, you fill in the pages with copyright info, title page, etc. Then, you create a dummy spread with the plot points. That way, you know how the plot flows through the page turns.

Are you a feeler or a thinker?

Definitely an OVERthinker.

What sort of a relationship exists between you and the characters you created in this book?

For whatever inner reason, I seem to always include an anxious character in my stories. Probably, because I’m an anxious person (see overthinker answer above).

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