This interview was originally posted on The Elevensies March 2010

THE END OF THE LINE, Holiday House, Spring 2011

 Synopsis

Robbie is convinced his life is over. He is sent to Great Oaks, a school for troubled youth that is run like a prison. To get home he must follow the rules, face the past, and tell the truth. Otherwise, Great Oaks School will really be the end of the line.



Website: www.angelacerrito.com 
Blog: http://www.angelacerrito.com/jumping-off-cliffs
Twitter: http://twitter.com/angelacerrito 
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/angelacerrito

What made you decide to be a writer?

I wrote my first poem when I was seven and never stopped writing.

Favorite books/authors?

Markus Zusak came to Munich and did a one-day writers’ workshop for the SCBWI chapter there. In addition to being an amazing writer, he is a talented speaker and a gifted teacher. I learned a lot about writing that day!!

I have so many favorite authors! I hesitate to make a list because I’m afraid I’ll leave someone off.

I think KIRA-KIRA by Cynthia Kadohata is a perfect book for so many reasons – voice, story, truth, the way every character in the family has changed by the end of the book and most of all because I want to jump into the pages and play with Katie and Lynn during happy times and comfort them during sad times.

The last book of Pullman’s HIS DARK MATERIALS trilogy always  makes me cry when Will and Lyra have to part.

My girls and I are totally into THE HUNGER GAMES right now and can’t wait for book 3. I think I’ve lost a little clout with them. They know I’ll be at the Bologna Book Fair and seem to think I will be able to return with MOCKINGJAY. I’ve told them there’s no way. I even read them the PW article that bookstores and reviewers aren’t even getting ARCs. If that’s the case, I know I won’t rate an early copy!

Morning person or a night owl?

I’m writing this at 4:07 in the morning and haven’t been to bed yet! I’m a night owl. But I do wake early in the morning when needed and I tell myself “It’s still night” or “this is the other side of night” just to trick myself. (It works!)

PC or mac? PC

What did you have for dinner today?  Pizza



Quick! Share 11 random things about yourself.

1.       I work with kids every day as a physical therapist – I see children under 3 in their homes and travel to schools in the area to work with older students, age 3 to 21. I love it!

2.       I was born in Dearborn Michigan and lived there until I graduated high school. Since then I’ve lived in Oregon, Wisconsin and Georgia in the US. Outside of the US, I’ve lived in China, Germany and Italy.

3.       When I first started writing for children I sent more than 20 entries into the Highlights Fiction Contest. (I didn’t win!)

4.       In graduate school, I dissected a human cadaver.

5.       On a dare, I once spent the night in a haunted house with some friends (there was no paranormal activity that night.)

6.       I still remember the first time I visited Powell’s Book Store in Portland, Oregon. I didn’t want to leave!!

7.       I wish I were able to sing in tune.

8.       I am able to burp very loudly – really, I mean win-a-trophy-for-your-belch kind of loud –but not on command.

9.       My middle school English teacher required us to memorize the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales

10.   I can stand on my head for an extended period of time.

11.   Is it number 11 already? Some of my favorite things: music, driving fast, visiting new places, reconnecting with friends I haven’t seen in a long time, the view from the top of a tall building, taking photos, making my kids laugh, dancing, trying new foods and just being silly!

This interview was originally posted on Purpume's blog Jan 2010

This Friday’s Friend is Angela Cerrito, who combines homemaking and mothering with working as a children’s physical therapist and writing. She lives in Europe and does and is much more than that.

On her blog, her profile has a description -

“My youngest said she could describe me in three words:
1. stay-up-late-ish
2. curly-hair-ish
3. writer”


I first met Angela when we were both in an on-line critique group for writers of Children’s magazine articles.


Please tell us the status of the story you were creating then?
I’m not sure any of the articles I worked on with that group made it to publication. I just sent one off to the Highlights Contest this month and I’m working on developing another story into a picture book. I’ve had articles about children’s books and book fairs published in Stars and Stripes and contributed to e-zines for adults and kids. I think my article Creating a Perfect Bibliography first published by kid mag writers and now hosted by Fiona Bayrock gets a lot of hits.

Saturday, November 14, 2009 Angela announced in her blog, the news of her book contract with Holiday House for THE END OF THE LINE. She shares how she told the news in layers of loving waves out from herself.  She posted a link about touching circumstances with her father-in-law the same day as the book contract. Then she goes on to add links to other newly published writers to share the news of all of them. This reflects one of the things I like most about Angela, her oneness with all.

Please tell us about your soon to be published book.
THE END OF THE LINE is about a boy who is convinced his life is over. He is sent to Great Oaks, a school for troubled youth that is run like a prison. To get home he must follow the rules, face the past, and tell the truth. Otherwise, Great Oaks School will really be the end of the line.

And your poetry prize(s).

I’ve had poetry accepted by greeting card companies and a poem published in Once Upon a Time magazine. I’ve written a few songs for my daughter’s band but they haven’t written music for them yet. I recently entered a poetry contest on Donna Earnhardt’s blog and it was selected runner up.

What do you hope to accomplish with your writing?
Initially, I want to be true to my story, the characters. But when all of the revising and editing is done, I hope my writing connects with readers in a way that makes them want to share the story. Years ago I wrote a dark fairy tale and during editing I read the book onto a tape and used this to correct the manuscript. My youngest daughter began listening to the tapes repeatedly and then telling her friends at school the story during consecutive recesses (she recalled the novel from memory and translated it from English to German as she told them.) The fact that her friends wanted to hear the story day after day was such a compliment. Several boys and girls came to our house and wanted to see the movie. A few of them said, “the way Samantha told the story I could see it happening.” I was so surprised, I couldn’t speak (and that’s saying something!) It still makes me so happy to think about it. So, that is my wish for all of my stories –that they will find readers who connect with the story in a way that they want to share it with their friends.

What other writing projects are you working on?

I’m working on a YA novel, a middle grade novel about a boy who isn’t really as different as the world thinks he is, and two non-fiction picture books. Most of my writing time is spent working on revisions for THE END OF THE LINE. I hope to start a new website in the spring.

Besides writing what are some other things you enjoy?
I love music. This month I began learning to play the cajon drum, it is really easy to learn and a lot of fun to play. I’ve also started climbing the rock wall and bouldering at the fitness center near my home. Best of all is spending time with my family. We play cards and board games a lot, take walks with our dog Max (our cat Nero follows along on walks) and spend time outside even in the cold and snowy weather we have right now. We’re busy with work, school and other activities during the week (and the TV is off) so Friday nights are our movie nights. In addition to Max and Nero, we also share our home with an African Grey Parrot named Buddy.




What would you say is your greatest life lesson?

This is very difficult question. I think I’ve been learning life’s lessons since I was a very young child (some of them the hard way) and I’m still learning. Some of the most important lessons, my mother told me (again and again and again) when I was young, but I had to grow up to learn them for myself: pick your friends carefully, listen to your conscious, if it seems too good to be true it probably is, love isn’t two people giving 50 / 50 it’s two people each giving 100% and so on. A conversation that I replay often is one I had at the temple of heaven in Beijing with a genetic engineer from California who was standing next to me. Two or three tour groups came and went and we stayed, studied the temple and talked about the meaning of life. He grew up poor a few streets away from the Forbidden City where we stood and then went on to California and into the field of genetics. He and I came some conclusions about the meaning of life that day that still resonate with me today. I lived in China for a year; the day I left, a dear friend gave me a small cloth bag that she made for me. It was mismatched and oddly colored and I adored it so much I wanted to cry. She then paid me a wonderful compliment. She said she admired how I take great joy in small things. I think that is a lesson I try to live by every day.

Anything you want to add?

Yes! I can’t finish this interview without saying how amazing and wonderful the kidlit community is. I’ve learned so much from meeting other writers. Verla Kay’s message board is like an education in writing for children and Cynthia Leitich Smith’s blog Cynsations is even more comprehensive than an encyclopedia of the children’s literature world. And most of all, SCBWI. I’m so lucky to be part of SCBWI. I am the assistant international Regional Advisor and one of the organizers of SCBWI Bologna in conjunction with the Bologna Book Fair. SCBWI Bologna has a special place in my heart because it was my first conference, the first time an editor gave me advice about my work, and the start of my participation in. SCBWI

Thank you Angela, for sharing your full life with us. I’m looking forward to reading your book in Spring 2011.
All photos are courtesy of Angela Cerrito. Stay well and happy writing.

This interview was originally published on Chick Loves Lit in March 2011


Fun Five
Angela Cerrito, Author of The End of the Line 
1. If you could have an exotic animal as a pet, which would you choose?
Lion

2. What is your favorite aisle in the grocery store?
I was going to write that it is a tie between the produce section and the ice cream aisle, but who am I kidding? Ice cream aisle is my favorite, though I buy more produce.

3. When is the last time you rode a roller coaster?
Last summer

4. What movie theater concession is your favorite?
Nothing beats popcorn with butter and salt, but I also like hot tamales

5. How many different beverages do you drink in an average day?
4 or 5

This interview was originally published on Students Want To Know blog in March 2011

Summary: Robbie is locked in a room with nothing but a desk, a chair, a stack of paper and pencil. No belt, no shoes, no socks. He’s starving, but all they give him is water. Robbie has reached The End of the Line, AKA Great Oaks School, and at Great Oaks there’s no time off for good behavior. All good behavior will get you are points. Enough points and you get something to eat, a bed, bathroom privileges. Thirteen-year-old Robbie’s first-person account of his struggles at the school—at times horrifying, at times hilarious—alternates with flashbacks to the events that led to his incarceration. If Robbie is to survive The End of the Line, he must confront the truth: He is a murderer.
**Add The End of the Line on Goodreads**

Courtney:

• Is it difficult being an author?
  I don’t find writing difficult because I love it. Here’s how I know that I love writing – I often chose writing over sleeping (staying up until 2am, or waking up at 4am to write) and I really love to sleep!
  
  Getting published is a challenge, but just like any other challenge –learning a language, sport or instrument—the only way to succeed is to keep practicing and keep trying.
  
  
• How do you deal with writer’s block?
  I haven’t stared at a blank page and wondered what to write. If I’m sitting at a computer or holding a pen in my hand, I will write. But I have had other problems. I over write, I cut a lot out of my manuscripts with each revision. Three things I think help me avoid writers’ block: 1. I don’t outline so I’m always writing to see where the story will go. 2. Advice from Kathleen Duey (author of more than 80 books.) She said, “Never think ‘What will happen next in the story?’ Instead, ask you character what he or she will do next.” 3. I work on more than one project at the same time.
• What is your favorite book?
  I have so many favorite books. A current favorite is Casa del Tempa (THE HOUSE in English) with illustrations by Roberto Innocenti and text (in Italian) by Roberto Piumini is inspiring me. I have it on the bookshelf next to my computer and the illustrations take my breath away.

Taylor H.:

• What was your purpose for writing this book?
  I had Robbie’s story in my head and wanted to tell it. That was my original purpose and I think I stayed true to Robbie’s story through each revision. I think every revision had a purpose too.

Travis:

• What was your favorite subject in school?
  I loved science classes, biology and chemistry. I also really like math. I played the viola since third grade and was in orchestra through high school. I liked being in choir but wonder if my classmates enjoyed having me in class. It was years after high school that I realized I couldn’t sing in tune.

Hannah G:

• What was your life like before, and now after, writing this book?
  The thing that is most different now is that I have an answer when my friends and family ask “When are you going to publish a book?” I can say, “My book will be out in March 2011!”
  
  When I started writing THE END OF THE LINE, I was living in Italy and I was in between jobs. I had a lot of time to write. But I was all alone in my basement and trying to stay off the internet.
  
  One thing that is different now is all of the ways to be connected online. I love when people fill out a list on my website. I try to keep up on FB, twitter & tumbler. I just signed up to do skype author visits.
  
  

Paige M:

• Where do you come up with the characters’ names?
  Robbie and Ryan are the main characters and their names were the first ones I thought of and they seemed to fit. Usually, I think of the character and the name at the same time and it doesn’t change.

• When did you start writing?
  I have always loved to write. In 2003 I started writing every day, learning the craft of writing and learning about publication. That year I had my first sale as a published writer. I wrote poems, articles and stories for school tests for grades K – 3.

Andrea:

• Has anything in your book happened in your life?
  Two things that happen in THE END OF THE LINE were taken from my experience. One actually happened to me, the other I saw.
  
  In one scene, Robbie chokes on a sandwich. When I was ten, I visited my cousins in California. I was drinking water and something made me laugh. I choked. I could inhale but not exhale. In my panic, I took bigger and bigger breaths. My sister and cousins kept laughing; they thought I was joking. I must have looked pretty funny to them. My grandmother rushed in, figured out what was happening and squeezed my stomach until the water came out and I could breathe. She saved my life.
  
  In another scene, a student at Great Oaks School is held on the floor by 5 men as part of a behavior management program. He has to be still a certain amount of time and the person holding his head down will let go. Gradually, the rest of his limbs will be released. During physical therapy school, I was an intern at a small private treatment facility where they used a similar behavior management approach.
  
  

Natasha:

• What made you decide to put him into a room instead of some kind of actual jail cell?
  I knew from the start that Great Oaks would be a private school for troubled kids, not a jail. For Robbie, facing the past isn’t about serving time, but learning about himself. The strict guidelines of Great Oaks give Robbie a lot of choices. Like a video game, he can advance to the next level or start over.
• How did the idea for this book come to mind?
  It started with the first line. The original first line read: If you kill someone you are going to hell. I wasn’t planning anything so exciting, so I knew it wasn’t my conscience talking. It took a few months to figure out where that line came from and who was saying it and I discovered Robbie and his story.

Alyssa:

• How long did it take to write The End of the Line?
  It took about a year to write the first draft, longer to revise it. But I took a lot of breaks to work on other projects during the process of writing and revising The End of the Line.

Katelyn:

• Why did you decide to write the book from a guys’ POV?
  This story was always Robbie’s story.
• Did you have to do any research for this book (juvie, rehab, etc.)? 
  Great Oaks is my own creation and I didn’t research actual settings.  One of my first readers worked at a private camp for troubled youth and she felt that even though Great Oaks is fictional, the characters ‘rang true.’
• What would you say is your biggest goal for this book? 
  So many goals have already been reached –being published Holiday House, a publisher known for publishing books about serious subjects and working with my editor, Julie Amper who is amazing and insightful and added a great deal to this book. My next goal is that teens will read it and like it and tell their friends about it. And email. I hope to get a lot of email – I want to hear from readers!
• What has been the most memorable event for you since The End of the Line has been published? 
  Certainly the most memorable was when I told my family that I had an offer and my book would be published.
• Has writing this book taught you anything? If so what?
  I learned a great deal about writing and revising during this process. Another lesson I tried to learn was taking my time. I’m a person who tends to rush into things and use my first approach to solve a problem. Certain issues with the novel couldn’t be fixed quickly. Taking a few days to think over a problem or brainstorming five or six different ideas before starting to write really helped.
• For this book what came first: the characters or the story line?
  Characters. For me it is always the characters.

This interview was originally published on Cynsations in May of 2011

Angela Cerrito is the first-time author of The End of the Line(Holiday House, 2011) From the promotional copy:

Robbie is locked in a room with nothing but a desk, a chair, a stack of paper and pencil. No belt, no shoes, no socks. He’s starving, but all they give him is water.

Robbie has reached The End of the Line, AKA Great Oaks School, and at Great Oaks there’s no time off for good behavior.

All good behavior will get you are points. Enough points and you get something to eat, a bed, bathroom privileges.

Thirteen-year-old Robbie’s first-person account of his struggles at the school—at times horrifying, at times hilarious—alternates with flashbacks to the events that led to his incarceration.

If Robbie is to survive The End of the Line, he must confront the truth: He is a murderer. 

(Jacket photography by Edward McCain/Workbook Stock Collection/Getty Images.)

Looking back, are you surprised to debut in 2011, or did that seem inevitable? How long was your journey, what were the significant events, and how did you keep the faith?

Debuting in 2011 did not seem inevitable. There were times I wondered if this novel would make it at all and continued to work on other projects as I revised, re-revised and re-re-revised The End of the Line.

My journey started by subbing the first few pages to the (currently inactive) Smartwriters.com WIN contest in 2006. It was unfinished and middle grade, and I worried that it was just too dark. I was thrilled when the submission placed second in the middle grade category.

You were the judge, and you had the most encouraging words for the finalists. This inspired me to continue.

A few weeks later Roxyanne Young at SmartWriters.com wrote with the news that editor requested the full manuscript. I started waking up at 4 a.m. so I would have more time to write.

In addition to the WIN contest, some significant events along the way to publication were:

Reading the first few pages aloud at informal critique group meetings at SCBWI events (NY and Bologna, Italy). It was also significant to me that my friends who heard those early first pages continued to ask me about the project over the years.

An editor being totally honest with me –my setting was not believable and my climax was absent. She was 100 percent correct. I didn’t know much about revising at that point. I thought it happened after the contract and with the editor and author together. My writing was rough. Great Oaks didn’t come alive on the page. And I avoided writing the climax because it was too difficult for me. (This is explained more in the next question.)

An agent was totally honest with me and sent three pages of concerns about the manuscript. It was my first look at what a real revision would require. I actually highlighted the rejection letter and learned a great deal. Before this I’d only revised to chop words, strengthen sentences. I hadn’t ever taken the novel apart and tried to rebuild it. It needed so much work. But, thanks to this agent, I had a road map.

My critique groups – I belonged to an in-person critique group and online critique groups. The heartfelt critiques from these wonderful writers helped me a great deal with this novel and other projects too.

Continuing to learn from SCBWI conferences and workshops and being accepted to the Rutgers University Council on Children’s Literature One-on-one Plus Conference.

Whenever I got discouraged, I thought of the WIN contest, my SCBWI friends who heard the pages, my critique buddies and the encouraging words the first readers who read early drafts. They all wanted The End of the Line to succeed –and so did I!

The most significant step was connecting with Bill Reiss at John Hawkins & Associates. He liked the manuscript, wanted to represent it, and found a perfect home for the novel at Holiday House.

As a contemporary fiction writer, how did you find the voice of your first person protagonist? Did you do character exercises? Did you make an effort to listen to how young people talk? Did you simply free your inner kid or adolescent? And, if it seemed to come by magic, how would you suggest others tap into that power in their own writing?

The voice of Robbie wasn’t something I had to discover, I heard it in my head one day along with his greatest problem – he hated himself for his role in the death of his friend, Ryan.

It took me a lot longer to discover Ryan, and it was a long wait before I came to know him and could start writing the first page.

One day I was part of a conversation about several kids. One eight-year-old boy had been reported at school for not doing his homework. A month later, he was reported to social services for not being clean and for sleeping in school. They discovered the boy was the sole caregiver for his newborn sister. His father was not living at home, and his mom had postpartum depression and literally wasn’t getting out of bed to take care of the baby.

A friend told me about new kids in her neighborhood who were always hanging around her house. She was setting the table for dinner, and their eyes widened. The oldest said excitedly, “Look, she uses plates!” These were children whose meals at home were served in the can that was heated up on the stove. I knew by the end of the day that I had the building blocks for Ryan.

He would be a kid who pushed limits, broke a few rules, acted like he didn’t care. A kid who returned bottles to get money for food and tried (but failed) to take care of his newborn sister. A new kid who didn’t bother to fit in.

After I came to know Ryan, he told me his entire story. There is so much of Ryan’s past that didn’t make it into The End of the Line, an entire prequel. I love this kid as much as I love Robbie. Writing the scene of his death was one of the most difficult scenes I’ve ever written.

(And this showed in the novel for many drafts because I didn’t dig deep enough to write that scene. I kept glossing over Ryan’s death and writing it in a very distant voice.)

I don’t think finding the voices of Robbie and Ryan were freeing my inner child but rather striving to “become” the characters. Even if it wasn’t related to the novel, I often asked myself “what would Robbie / Ryan think about (blank)?” The blank could be anything from a town I was visiting to a news story or a piece of artwork I liked. This never made it into the novel, but it helped me understand the two boys better and helped make their voices distinct.

The final revisions with my amazing editor (Julie Amper at Holiday House) did take me back to my childhood. Julie added so much to the novel. She asked me to clarify if Robbie and Ryan were really friends. Reflecting on fun times spent with my best friend, Jane, when I was Robbie and Ryan’s age helped me answer the question: what does being "friends" mean to Robbie and Ryan?

Cynsational Notes

Follow Angela at Twitter