Author2Author: Chelsea Cain & Susan Kandel, pt. 2

Chelsea Cain: Have you met with any unusual reaction from the "Nancy Drew community" over Not a Girl Detective? And, not having read Nancy Drew as a kid (how does that even happen?), what is it about those books that made you want to incorporate them into the plot of your book? And on to the actual writing questions, can you talk a little bit about what it's like writing a series? Maybe it's the Nancy Drew reader in me, but I've always wanted to do that. It seems both really fun and really challenging to revisit a character over time and through different narratives arcs.

Susan Kandel: I'm glad you brought up the fan community around Nancy Drew, because I find that to be one of the most interesting aspects of this whole undertaking. I based my Chums on the Nancy Drew Sleuths, who have a website, a listserv, a magazine, and annual meetings (where they do things like make pilgrimages to Edward Stratemeyer's gravesite in New Jersey, have scavenger hunts, dress up balls, etc.). I was galvanized when I attended their convention in 2003, because I'd never really encountered fandom on this scale, by which I'm talking total obsession, total and unswerving loyalty to their Queen, and absolute command over an insane amount of information surrounding the many editions of the books. I'd also expected exclusively middle-aged librarians, but there's quite a range--and men, too! I did get a pretty nasty review on Amazon recently from someone who felt I showed disrespect toward Nancy, but on the whole, I've gotten a warm reception from the Sleuths, who invited me back this summer to read from my book, and who seem to be grateful to anything and anyone who keeps Nancy's name in the media. There was much brouhaha, for example, on the listserv when one of the accessories for one of the American Girl dolls was a teeny-tiny Nancy Drew book for the doll's teeny-tiny nightstand.

As far as writing a series goes, I am not nearly as organized as the Stratemeyer Syndicate. When I was doing research at the New York Public Library in their archive, I saw these incredible "bibles" where the Syndicate kept track of all the details around all the characters--tastes in food, hobbies (well, you name a hobby, and it's Nancy's), amount spent on winter wardrobe, city of birth, height and weight, of course, favorite perfume. I try to be consistent, but this is one of the hardest aspects: making sure that something that's a throwaway line in book 1 doesn't come back to haunt you in book 3. Then there's the question of aging: Nancy never ages, of course; I've been aging Cece a few months with each book. This was my editor's idea. If the series is a success and I write many of these books, do I want to be dealing with a saggy 60-year-old squeezed into sexy, vintage clothing? It's a conundrum. In the end, I decided that since my books were hardly realistic, I didn't have to feel too bad about fudging here and there. The really nice thing about a series like mine, though, is that you get to spend time with a character that is some version, however twisted, of yourself, and you get to totally control her destiny--make her boyfriends say what you want them to, make strange men fall at her feet, make her immune to death. Talk about sci-fi.