The Nerd Daily recently had the chance to chat with Mark Oshiro, award-winning author of Anger Is a Gift and Each of Us a Desert. Mark’s debut middle-grade novel, The Insiders, which releases September 21st, features three kids who don’t belong and a room that shouldn’t exist but becomes the refuge all three need. We got to ask Mark about their favourite middle-grade stories, their writing process and so much more!
Hi, Mark! Thanks so much for joining us! Why don’t you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hello all! I’m Mark Oshiro, a kidlit writer who loves dogs, being outside, roller coasters, and good food. I tend to write stories that have a hidden punch-to-your-heart in them.
Lightning Round! Tell us a book that shaped your life, a book that made you feel all the feels and one you wish you would have written!
Oh, this is an easy one: The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. I was taught it at age 14, and it’s the book that made me realize that people like me could write. I love it so much that not only is a major character in Anger is a Gift named after the main character of Mango Street, but I like to think that Each of Us a Desert is my speculative fiction take on the book.
Now, onto The Insiders! What can readers expect?
Chaos. Lots of it. Magical travel. The greatest pre-himbo you’ll ever meet. Lonely, isolated kids making friends! Adult characters who will—surprise!!!—punch you in the heart. And like… five of my best jokes.
Héctor is such a vibrant, relatable protagonist. Where did you draw inspiration from for his character or did he pop into your head fully formed?
Okay, so, truthfully? I’ve never had a character pop into my head fully formed! My process simply doesn’t work that way. I might have an idea for how I want to write a character, like Taylor, my pre-himbo. I wanted to write a young character who will totally grow up to be the sweet-but-simple jock later on in life. But that doesn’t mean I knew every part of his characterization until I wrote him. So, with Héctor, I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but it took a lot of work. Thankfully, a good portion of it was already done before I wrote The Insiders. This book is based on the first manuscript I ever wrote, so I’d done a great deal of character work in this first story. I still had to change him a lot, and he changed even more during editing!
The Insiders is your middle-grade debut novel. How did writing this story differ from your writing process for you?
The process itself didn’t really change much at all; it was more about developing craft skills during the editing! I had a wonderful editor on this book (Stephanie Stein, HarperCollins) who helped me shape and carve out Héctor’s voice, which I found to be the biggest challenge for me. There were times in the early drafts where I led the reader on too much, or I was writing out these complicated emotional beats that really didn’t make sense for someone that age. So Stephanie truly helped me get back into the headspace of a twelve-year-old kid, and that part was the biggest shift for me.
The room Héctor and two others share is a magical place that adapts to their needs. If you had a room like that as a kid, what would it have turned into when you needed it most?
Actually, the answer to that is what I wrote for Sal! I’ve long been a huge bookworm, so the space I would have had as my Room would have been a comfy and cosy library. Functionally, that was my safe space in middle school. I lived in that library, as well as one of the branches of my local library in Riverside. There’s just something to me so comforting about a room full of books.
The room is also a place where Héctor finds a queer community that accepts and supports him, away from the bullying at school. What do you think needs to happen to create these safe spaces in real life?
I think some of that answer is in the book. What helps a lot of these kids is finding community in other people, as I believe one of the hardest things about being queer and in an environment like Héctor’s is the loneliness. At the same time, that’s a more personal angle to this struggle. It was very important to me to show how bullying can be accepted (and even encouraged) by other people. There’s a dark and traumatic story at the heart of this book, yes, and sadly, the real-life stuff it’s based on is even worse than what I put in The Insiders. In that sense, this book is a power fantasy. What would have happened if the adults in my life when I was in middle school had listened to me? What would my school have looked like if they understood power imbalances? A lot of schools and administration members tout a refusal to accept bullying, but they completely do not understand bullying in the context of bigotry. I wanted to show why that hurts in this specific case and why schools need to do more than run anti-bullying campaigns if they’re serious about supporting their students.
The Insiders is all about finding a place where you belong when you’ve felt like you never fit in anywhere. Growing up, were there middle-grade stories that made you find that space?
This is a hard question to answer because I’m of an age where there weren’t necessarily a whole lot of middle grade or young adult stories I was reading because a lot of kidlit as an age range wasn’t a thing? Plus, I read older most of my life, so I was reading what would be considered “middle grade” when I was in elementary school, and then reading what would now be young adult or straight-up adult in middle school.
That being said: I was taught The Giver by Lois Lowry in seventh grade, and that book had a HUGE impact on me. I had this idea at the time I read it (in 1997) that it had been out FOREVER, but it had only been published less than three years prior!!! So, it was pretty wonderful that I was reading a book that had been published recently. On top of that, it was the first real speculative fiction book I was taught in a school environment, and my teacher—Ms. Stearns—did a fantastic job guiding us through it. I haven’t re-read the book in a long time, but I was not at all surprised when folks started comparing Each of Us a Desert to The Giver. That book clearly imprinted on my subconscious, and the dystopian elements were clearly inspired by The Giver.
If The Insiders were to be turned into a movie, which scenes would you love to see on the big screen?
If I ever get the privilege of having this adapted, I will riot if Taylor’s Capri Sun theory is not included. I would also love to see how someone would portray the “magic” of the Room! And I think the funniest scene in the book (in my humble opinion) is the first major “travel” that the trio does and a chaotic interaction with a certain head of security. I want to see THAT in its entirety.
With The Insiders releasing soon, are you already working on another project? If so, can you share a tidbit about it with us?
So, I wrote The Insiders in January and February 2020, and then edited it throughout the year. Since the start of 2021, I’ve actually written THREE full manuscripts and am about to start my seventh novel. Publishing is weird! I’m so far ahead of what’s been released! I can say this: Book #4 is an open secret; Book #5 is my second book for HarperCollins, and it’s somehow even more chaotic than The Insiders; Book #6 is my third YA novel, and it’s a slow-burn thriller about a cult. Book #7… I am legally restricted from telling anyone about it, so all I can say is that every human will lose it when then find out what it is.
Last but not least, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
Yes! I love giving recommendations, and I’m trying to keep them all slightly different for these interviews. So, here’s what I’ll share with y’all:
- All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir is the best thing she’s ever written, and you’re not ready.
- Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye not only has one of the best covers I’ve ever seen, but the characters. The pacing. The thrills. THE PLOT TWIST THAT SHOVED ME OFF A CLIFF. I cannot wait for its release next year. Also, I need the next book as soon as possible!!!!
- The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes is just… CHEF’S KISS. I cannot stress to you what a delight this book is, and it contains two of the FUNNIEST protagonists I have ever read. I will literally go to war for Cesar and Yami in a heartbeat. I love a book that deals with such heavy topics as this one, yet manages to do so with humor, levity, and love.
