N.Y. Times bestselling author to visit Marshall
MARSHALL — Minnesota children’s and young adult author Margi Preus says her favorite journey of all her travels is going to her writing house on a daily basis.
She may get sidetracked for a while, but she eventually gets down to writing and has produced several books throughout the years.
Preus, a New York Times bestselling author of several books for young readers, which includes the Newbery Honor book “Heart of a Samurai, and “West of the Moon,” which won a Minnesota Book Award, will be in Marshall today and Wednesday. She will speak to Marshall Middle School students today and Marshall High School students on Wednesday. She will also have a discussion at noon on Wednesday at the Marshall-Lyon County Library.
Although she had always planned to write serious grownup novels, Preus said she wrote for children’s and comedy theater beginning in elementary school when she and her friends made up plays and invited their parents to come and watch. Preus wrote and directed a couple of touring children’s theater companies and eventually ended up in Duluth directing a comedy satire company, Colder by the Lake, for many years.
“Somewhere in there I had kids and remembered that I wanted to write books, and the books that I was reading to my kids were so good, I wanted to see if I could pull it off, writing for young readers,” she said.
Thousands of ideas run through her mind every day, Preus said, most of them dumb. Sometimes an idea sticks and that is the one she will get around to writing about.
“I generally research as I write, mainly because I don’t know what I need to know until I need to know it,” she said. “If I do a lot of research first and get to be a real know-it-all, I want to cram all that into the book and suddenly my story starts sounding like a Wikipedia entry.”
As for her writing process, Preus describes it as “very messy.”
“Not terribly organized, hope for the best. Endless amount of revising,” she said. “Working in theater helped me learn how to put together a novel.”
Of all her travels, Preus said her favorite journey is the one she takes out to her little writing house every day.
“I make a fire in the wood stove, get sidetracked reading parts of the newspaper before I use them to start the fire, stare out the window at the creek, spend a fair amount of time seeing what the wildlife is up to, maybe sharpen some pencils…it’s lovely,” she said. “Unfortunately, eventually I have to start writing.”
When she visits schools, Preus talks a little about her books and about the true story behind the stories. Her historical fiction is for the most part based on or inspired by the lives of real and remarkable people, she said. She also discusses what she does for research, why revision reminds her of maple syrup and the importance of reading.
Her advice to beginning writers is to read a lot and read everything.
“Get used to revising,” she said. “It’s the most helpful tool in your toolbox, and you’re going to need it.”
Preus has a couple of upcoming novels she’s working on. She has a sequel to “Enchantment Lake, a Northwoods mystery, coming out in the fall. She is also working on a magical realism, leaning toward fantasy novel that will be out in fall of 2018.