Roderick Townley is a local author of novels for young readers and poetry for all. His stories, though diverse in their settings and plots, might overall be described as elegant fantasies that balance whimsical and unsettling elements while exploring the nature of magic, dreams, reality, memories, identity, and stories. Townley worked as a journalist in New York before moving to Kansas in 1990 with his wife, poet Wyatt Townley. He has been honored with the Governor's Arts Award, Thorpe Menn Award, Peregrine Prize for Short Fiction, Master Artist Fellowship, Fulbright Award, Academy of American Poets awards, and Kansas Notable Book citations.
Townley's latest novel, A Bitter Magic, will be released on November 10. School Library Journal calls it “An absorbing mystery. . . . both gripping and satisfying. Verdict: A magical adventure, a fascinating setting, and some chills that will please most middle graders looking for spooky fantasy.” The Kansas City area Launch Party will take place:
Saturday, Nov. 14
2:00 - 3:00 pm
In anticipation of this event, we approached Townley with a few questions about his work.
Your writing career has covered a broad range of forms and styles (children’s novels, poetry, journalism, ghost writing, criticism, etc.). How has that come about?
With the possible exception of dry cleaning and IRS forms, I’m interested in pretty much everything. And I discovered early on that every kind of writing that attracts me helps me with every other kind. Poetry (my first love) taught me about compression and economy—an essential quality of good journalism. And journalism—especially the ghostwriting I did at TV Guide for folks as different as Joseph Heller, Gloria Steinem, and Luciano Pavarotti—taught me how to inhabit the minds of others. That of course is what fiction is all about. As for children’s novels, I’ve always considered myself a “kidult,” so I’m simply writing for myself.
Do you have a favorite—or at least preferred—type of writing? How difficult is it for you to write outside of that preference?
We have two elderly cars in our garage. The license plate of one says “POETRY’; the other says “PROSE.” The cars handle very differently. I happily drive both.
Tell us about your path to becoming a writer: When did you decide to pursue that career, what steps did you take to get there, what detours and obstacles did you face, when did you begin to feel like you’d “become” a writer, and the like?
That’s four questions. Unfair. But to take a stab, I never decided on being a writer. Writing decided on me. I’ve scribbled since I was seven years old and never saw a reason to stop. There’s a great big world out there to write about, and an even bigger world inside. People call that world “fantasy.” I call it reality. It’s where I live.
What do you like most about being a writer?
Surprising myself with what I didn’t know I knew.
What do you like least about being a writer?
Doing all that comes after the writing: the publicity, trying to convince people of the amazing wonderfulness of my book.
If you could give advice to your inner young writer, what would it be? Is writing what you imagined it to be when you first decided you wanted to be a writer?
I am an inner young writer. I’m also an outer old writer. It’s the younger writer that gives advice to my older self. It tells him: Stop worrying. Breathe. Let me out!
If you joined the circus, what act would you most want to perform?
That’s easy: I’d be the daring young man on the flying trapeze. That’s how it feels when I’m writing a novel. I swing out on a slender premise, let go, panic, improvise in midair, and catch hold of the plot line as it swings toward me.
See Townley's responses to other interview questions and more at his website, then join us at the Launch Party for A Bitter Magic to meet Roderick Townley in person and find out all about the fantasy-reality where he lives.
As a bonus of sorts, since we have yet to read A Bitter Magic, here is our review of Townley's previous release, The Door in the Forest:
Not quite like anything else I've read, this book. It has an intentionally vague, historical setting, with an intentionally vague, ominous menace. It has magic of the subtle, almost magical-realism variety. It has mysteries and lies and secrets. And it has characters with grit and compassion, faults and limitations, fears and dreams, and bravery when it counts.
The captain pursed his lips, making his mustache bristle. "So," he said, "you are one of those nice people who like to look at the beautiful thing and not shoot it."
It was still hard to speak, but, "Yes,"
"I too like to look at the beautiful thing." He flashed a bandit smile, revealing a black space where a dogtooth had been. "Unless I can eat it. Then watch out!" He chuckled at his own wit. "By the way, to let you know, my men will be staying here a few more days. The tents have been sufficient till now, but others will be coming, so we'll be putting them up in farmhouses."
And that's how Daniel and Emily learn that soldiers will be taking over their houses for an indefinite short stay. The soldiers that everyone in their rural community hates, because they bring conflict and violence where people want to simply live their lives. Emily warns Daniel that Captain Sloper can't be trusted--that he recently arrested her mother in the city, which is why she fled to Everwood--and that they should avoid notice.
Unfortunately, neither one is able. Daniel, for reasons no one knows, is unable to lie. When the captain finds out, he adopts Daniel as adviser and informant in getting to know the townspeople, whom he suspects are involved in the rebellion. Emily's grandmother has always been the town eccentric, but Emily is gradually learning there is more to her odd ways than anyone knows. And it has something to do with the mysterious, impenetrable island on the river, the one Daniel has always dreamed of visiting. The one Captain Sloper becomes convinced hides secrets. The one, they say, that has a magical door that leads to . . . somewhere else.
At first glance this story seems like it might be idyllic and meandering. Then the first secret shows up, then the next and the next, and it quickly becomes gripping and suspenseful. Add in some evocative, lovely description and effective dialogue, the protagonists who surprise themselves and the unpredictable antagonist, and, of course, the mysterious magic, and this ends up a moving, highly satisfying tale.