Marti Leimbach is the author of several novels for adult readers, including the international bestseller Dying Young, which was made into a major motion picture; Daniel Isn’t Talking; and The Man from Saigon.
In 2021, Marti makes her YA debut with Dragonfly Girl, which follows Kira Adams who has discovered a cure for death—and it may just cost her life. We had the pleasure of chatting to Marti about her new release and the challenges she faced, book recommendations, and much more!
Hi, Marti Tell us a bit about yourself!
I’m a writer working in young adult fiction and general fiction. I live in Berkshire, England, with my family and a menagerie of animals including a small flock of Ryeland sheep (they are pets!).
After the chaos that was 2020, have you set any goals for this year?
I’m determined to become the healthiest I can this year, rework the sequel to Dragonfly Girl and send that off before the summer, and connect more with readers and writers.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that – good or bad – you can’t stop thinking about!
We were living in a rented house the summer after my father’s death. I was four years old, maybe five at most, and there was a children’s playroom with a wooden floor and many books that I puzzled over daily until, at last, I made out the word “jam” in a book about a boy who eats all his mother’s preserves and gets very sick. I don’t remember the title!
I don’t know if any one book made me want to become an author but reading the short stories of John Updike, Mary Robison and Ann Beattie made me think that I could enter the conversation.
I think a lot about The Hunger Games series, a literary work with enormous complexity and nuance that is also abundantly readable and accessible.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
I began writing stories when I was in elementary school but your question is about love, not about beginnings. I began to love writing when I discovered its transcendent character, how it could lift me out of my circumstances, no matter how grim, and into the world I was creating. I remember feeling this acutely as a teenager, living as an au pair after family circumstances meant I could no longer live with my mother. Early in the mornings, before any other duty forced my attention, I wrote poetry.
Your new novel, Dragonfly Girl, releases on February 23rd 2021! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
I’m going to let my early reviewers answer this question. Here are some words that have popped up frequently in their reviews: Compelling, thrilling, surprising, science, smart
What can readers expect?
In terms of plot, Dragonfly Girl is about a troubled high school senior who takes a big risk in order to get her mother out of debt, then lands an afternoon job at a major laboratory where she comes across a thrilling discovery that puts her at the center of an international rivalry. I can’t say much more without spoilers but readers can look forward to:
- Smart girls
- Dangerous men
- Handsome crushes
- Scientist-spies
- Strong friendships
- Secret laboratories
- Surprising twists
- Unexpected attachments
Now, this is your YA debut! What made you want to dive into the YA genre?
While I was writing Dragonfly Girl, I didn’t think about it being YA or any category. It was just Kira’s story. However, by the time I finished the first draft I understood this was a YA book and I was happy about that. It felt good to write about young people just beginning their lives, however difficult those lives were. I spent a lot of time thinking about how teenagers have to navigate the adult world, one that is so complex and corrupt and (in Kira’s case) actually dangerous. Oddly enough, most adults aren’t sure how to deal with the world either, so it’s not just a teenage problem.
Can you tell us about any challenges you faced and how you overcome them?
Word count. Being clueless about the conventions of YA fiction I imagined I could write 120,000 words just as I would in a general fiction book. Turns out, I was supposed to be aiming at 90,000. My editor let me go a bit beyond that, but cutting scenes was painful.
If it’s not too spoilery, were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
Anytime I could get Kira in the same room as Will.
What’s the best and the worst writing advice you have received?
I have heard so much whacky advice, but honestly, it comes from someone for whom it works so I guess it can’t be “bad” as such, just…odd. For example, one of my favourite writing teachers who was a successful, award-winning author himself, always wore a funny hat when he wrote. And he refused to go to films. He claimed seeing films ruined a writer.
Then there are those who insist you write out every scene on a file card or the equivalent, structuring your novel from start to finish before you begin. Is that bad advice? Not for some people! But for me it would be like killing the novel before it even had a chance to breathe.
I often hear people recommending to writers that they write as fast as possible to get through the first draft, lest the momentum is lost. You can’t edit what doesn’t exist! They say. Well, true enough. And I know several really successful writers who race through their initial drafts. But I also know many more who savour that first draft, before anyone else has seen it, while it still belongs exclusively to them, an audience of one.
My advice to any writer is to fiercely guard whatever spark inspired you to write in the first place. If you can hold onto whatever got you going, you won’t fail. At least not in the long run.
What’s next for you?
I’m revising the draft of Academy One, which is the sequel to Dragonfly Girl. I hope it comes out in 2022.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
Recently published in YA, I’d say Glimpsed by G.F. Miller, American Betiya by Anuradha Rajurkar and The Obsession by Jesse Sutanto.
I absolutely loved Lucy Atkins adult contemporary crime novel, Magpie Lane, published last year.
Like everyone else, I fell in love with Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
For poetry, definitely read Maya Popa. Her latest collection is American Faith
In audiobooks, I discovered the crazy talent of Chloe Massey who dazzled me in The Vintage Guide to Love and Romance by Kirsty Greenwood. I think Greenwood’s books lend themselves to terrific audiobooks because Emmy Rose does an awesome job with Big Sexy Love.
My favourite audiobook ever is sometimes difficult to get hold of. It’s the Dennis Olson’s astonishing narration of The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak.
I have already read “Dragonfly Girl” and look forward to the next book in the sequence.