Alice returns through the rabbit hole via Amarillo author A.G. Howard’s goth-punk retelling of Alice in Wonderland in her popular Splintered series. The former school librarian took time out to visit with us last week via email about her path to publishing.

LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: It’s a long way from Amarillo to Alice in Wonderland. I’ve read that you were inspired by Tim Burton’s and Disney’s darker treatment of Lewis Carroll’s legendary tale, and when you began sharing some of your initial concepts with your writing critique group, you knew you were on to something. How long did it take from your initial concept until you had a finished manuscript? What year was that?

A. G. HOWARD: I started in April, 2010. Finished in October, 2010. So about six months.

For our readers not familiar with your series, would you describe it for them?

Splintered is a YA fantasy about Alyssa Gardner, the great-great-great granddaughter of Alice Liddell (the real-life inspiration for the heroine of Alice in Wonderland). All the females in Alyssa’s family are cursed to hear the whispers of flowers and bugs. While searching for a way to save her mom from shock treatments in an asylum to cure her “delusions,” Alyssa stumbles upon some family heirlooms that lead her to the rabbit hole. She’s accompanied by her best friend and secret crush, Jebediah Holt. Together, they meet creepy and violent counterparts of the original fairytale crew, including the mysterious winged Morpheus, who has his own personal agenda. Jeb and Alyssa soon realize this is not the fairyland of Lewis Carroll’s vision, and unless she fixes the things her great-great-great grandmother Alice put wrong, Wonderland will have their heads.

About writers’ critique groups, how did you find yours? How long have you been in this group? Would you recommend such groups to aspiring authors?

Yes, I do recommend critique partners. The most important step after writing a book is to let beta readers (other aspiring writers, preferably at the same level of writing as you) read it and help you polish it up. I found mine through a local writing group in my hometown. That’s a great way to go, because not only can you meet other writers, but they often have contests where you can enter your writing and get it read by published authors who will offer advice on how to improve your craft. There are also lots of workshops and the like available through writing groups. If you have trouble finding local authors, you can find critique partners through online venues. There's a Critique Group Central on the QueryTracker website (http://querytracker.net/forum/index.php?board=27.0), where you can search for crit partners who write in the same genre as you.

Which authors did you read growing up?

Lewis Carroll, Madeleine L'Engle, C. S. Lewis, Charlotte Bronte, and J. R. R. Tolkien were some of my favorites.

How does living in the Amarillo and the Panhandle influence your writing?

Amarillo thrives with artistic talent. Being around so many active and successful writers fuels my own personal drive and inspirations.

I’ve read that as a middle-school librarian you became a fan of young adult fiction because those books were fueled by passion and emotion. Now, as an author, you have created one of the more famous love triangles in YA literature. Can you tell us a bit about that?

There’s a complexity to the relationships between Alyssa and the two boys, which becomes increasingly symbolic of the yin and yang aspects of the story itself, and of Alyssa’s own identity, in each consecutive book. I believe the role the triangle plays in the broader scope of the story arc and everyone’s growth and self-discovery makes it stand apart from others out there.

How long did it take you from finished manuscript, to getting an agent, to getting a book contract to holding the first book in your hands?

October 2010, I finished the manuscript. February 2011, I signed with my present agent, Jenny Bent, who sent the manuscript out to publishers. August 2011, I signed with my publisher, Abrams. January 2013, the book was published. So a little over two years.

Now you have created a new world. Tell us about RoseBlood.

Much like Splintered was for Alice in Wonderland, this is a modern day spinoff / continuation of the original Phantom of the Opera, that follows a high school senior who is sent to RoseBlood Academy—a French boarding school for musical arts inside a renovated opera house rumored to have ties to the classic opera—only to discover a very real danger lurks within that has awaited her for over a century.

Who are some of your favorite Texas authors?

Linda Castillo, Jennifer Archer, Marcy McKay, Jodi Thomas, Kimberly Willis Holt, Katherine Anne Porter, Libba Bray (not sure if she still lives in Texas, but she did in her younger years), and Rick Riordan, to name just a few! There are many more, though. I can’t possibly name them all in such a small space. :)

* * * * *