Author Interview with Mary Casanova

The DMS was lucky enough to interview Mary Casanova. We picked The Klipfish Code as one of our top books for 2013, and we are excited to learn more about her story. So, without further ado... take it away, Mary!

What inspired you to write The Klipfish Code?

Ever since I read The Diary of Anne Frank in 3rd grade, I’ve wondered how brave I’d be living under something as frightening as a Nazi occupation. Sometime in my adult years, I was surprised to learn that Norway, too, had been invaded by Nazi Germany in WWII. With Norwegian ancestry, and a keen interest in this time in history, I decided to tackle writing about Norway during WWII--a daunting undertaking, to say the least.

How long did it take you to write The Klipfish Code?

I worked on The Klipfish Code on and off for five years.

You must do a lot of research for your historical fiction books. What was your research process like for The Klipfish Code? Was there any aspect of your research that was the most interesting?

I always go to the locations I use in my stories. For this novel, I researched resistance activities and certain geographic hotspots of underground efforts, and then planned my trip accordingly, focusing largely Alesund and the neary islands on the western coast.

Where did you come up with the main characters: Marit and Aunt Ingeborg?

Marit presented herself from the moment I started writing. She’s idealistic about standing up to the Nazis, until she starts to understand how great a price she and others might pay. She learns that in war there are no easy choices.

Aunt Ingeborg serves two roles in Marit’s life: her classroom teacher, and her aunt (and mother figure while Marit’s own parents have stayed behind to help the resistance.) By increasing Aunt Ingeborg’s presence in Marit’s life, she is a character we care much more about when the Nazis round up 1 in 10 teachers, of which Aunt Ingeborg is one.

What are some of your favorite books from childhood? Were there any specific authors who inspired you?

I was an active, outdoorsy kid and struggled to finished many books I checked out from the library. I was smitten, however, by E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web as well as Nancy Drew books, Mr. Popper’s Penguins, and A Wrinkle in Time.

As an adult, I read Hatchet by Gary Paulsen and loved its northern setting, so  similar to where I now live. That’s when I shifted my dream of writing novels for adults to writing for younger readers. My first book, Moose Tracks, is about a boy in northern Minnesota struggling to save an orphaned moose calf from poachers.

If you could live during any time period in history, when would it be? Why?

I don’t believe there were any good old days. Just about any time in history has its intrigues and harsh realities. That’s why I love writing historical fiction. I get to “time travel” to a distant time and place, explore and try on its gritty challenges, and then return to my own bed each night.

If you could befriend a character from any of your books, who would you befriend? Why?

Marit certainly is a character I feel great empathy for, though I believe I feel similarly about all my characters. But there is something so utterly terrifying about living under Nazi power. As my friend, Johanna Moe said (who grew up in Norway in WWII and was exactly Marit’s age when the bombs first began to fall)... Johanna said, “for five years, I lived in constant fear.”

I would put my arms around Marit and tell her she will survive--even this.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? Why?

I live in northern Minnesota, which is frightfully cold this morning at 26 below zero, and yet it’s home.

When it warms to zero, we’ll hitch up one of our horses to our cutter sleigh and ride through the wintry woods, (think One-Dog Sleigh and Wolf Shadows) and then return to read for the evening by the woodstove.

And summers, there’s nothing like the mournful cry of a loon, the slap of a beaver’s tail, the playful antics of otters to keep me here . . . (think Utterly Otterly Day, or my YA novel set here in 1920 on Rainy Lake, aptly called FROZEN.)

Are you currently working on a book? If so, can you tell us a little bit about it?

I’m working on a three-book project for American Girl, but that’s all I can say about it.

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