Alexandria LaFaye: Dare to Be Different
By Becky Rodia, Senior Editor

The Guinness Book of World Records turned Alexandria LaFaye into a writer. A self-described "geek" who "didn't play by the rules" at school, young Alexandria would get up and leave the room if her teacher started talking about a topic with which she was already familiar. It didn't take long for her classmates to start shunning her.

"If I sat down next to another child, he or she would get up and move," Alexandria remembered. "So I thought, 'Well, I've got to do something big, so they'll want to get to know me.' I thought that if I was famous, I'd be 'in,' so I read the Guinness Book of World Records, looking for a record I could break."

Unfortunately, eight-year-old Alexandria couldn't even hop on one foot very well. Her chances of setting a world record looked bleak until she came across the fact that the youngest published novelist in the world was six years old.

Alexandria told us, "I thought, 'If a six-year-old can do it, an eight-year-old can do it.' So I decided to become a writer."

Reading for writing. Alexandria wrote her first novel, Phantom on the Terrace, at age 12. It starred herself and all her friends, investigating a haunted house. The handwritten opus was inspired by Scooby-Doo cartoon mysteries. Young Alexandria soon became so enthralled with writing that she didn't read as much as she used to. "It wasn't until I was in high school that I began to understand that I needed to read in order to write," she told us. "That rejuvenated my fascination with reading. I started reading books to find out how they were written." Authors like Patricia MacLachlan, Han Nolan and Olive Ann Burns became her "mentors" as she read their books and learned from them.

We caught up with Alexandria at the MidSouth Reading and Writing Institute at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she presented a session on using novels as models for one's own writing.

A different way of life. Alexandria's undergraduate major in college was history, a subject that has always fascinated her. "My grandparents lived in a time when there was no radio, television, remote controls or microwaves," she said. "Just because of a difference in time, a person's life can be entirely different from what we know. One of the things I want to do with my writing is point out that everyday people lived in the past."

She's done exactly that, in books like The Year of the Sawdust Man, Nissa's Place, Edith Shay and Strawberry Hill (all published by Simon & Schuster), the settings of which range from the 1860s to the 1970s. Even Strawberry Hill, which is set in 1976, reaches back to 1911 and features a young main character, Raleia, who considers herself a "historian" and wears dresses from the 1950s.

"A lot of people assume Raleia is me, because she's so fascinated with history," Alexandria explained. "But actually, the character in that book who represents me is her little brother, Tic, the little kook who dances when he talks and collects bugs and critters. I'm more likely to show up in peripheral characters rather than the main characters."

Though Alexandria's own personality does show up in her books, she says it's important for writers of children's literature to be in touch with what children are experiencing today, rather than relying on what their own childhoods were like. "It's very important to remember that your childhood was specific to you, and to a specific time period," she said. "So that's why it's so important for me to remain connected to kids as they are today."

Not the only one. One of the ways Alexandria stays connected to kids is through school visits. She describes herself as "a performer at heart" – as a child, Alexandria loved British books because she could practice her English accent while reading them aloud – so she loves getting up in front of children at schools. She remembered one group of first, second and third graders who "didn't stop clapping for the longest time. It was so wonderful because I knew it meant those kids knew the importance of reading and writing.

"Because I was such a geek as a kid, I also like going to schools and suggesting that they learn to value their geeks. I came out of one school visit and found an eighth grade girl spinning around the room, saying, 'I'm not the only one.' In other words, I let her know that it's a great thing to be a unique individual. I'm living proof that, whatever kids decide they want to be or do, they can make it happen."

Alexandria's most recent book, The Strength of Saints (Simon & Schuster, 2002) continues the story of Nissa, the main character in The Year of the Sawdust Man and Nissa's Place.

From dusk 'til dawn. Alexandria helps future teachers and writers "make it happen" at the San Bernardino branch of Cal State, where she teaches creative writing, children's literature and adult literature. When she's not teaching or grading papers, she's watching movies "for the third, fourth, fifteenth time."

She doesn't have a writing schedule, nor does she write every day, but she frequently stages writing "marathons" that last 10 hours or more. "The first time that happened, I didn't plan it," Alexandria told us. "I started at 8:00 p.m., and suddenly I realized the birds were making a lot of noise. I looked out the window and it was dawn!"

All of this writing requires a lot of research, which Alexandria does mostly in print, reading books, newspapers, magazines, diaries and letters she finds at the library and at historical societies. Her beloved movies also help out: "I watch movies that are set in the time period I'm writing about," she said. "I do as much as I can to be able to see the same historical period from different viewpoints."

Making progress. Though she has six books in print and a seventh on the way (Worth, which will be published by Simon & Schuster in 2004), Alexandria was quick to mention that she has written more than 20 novels. "For every book you see in print, there are three or four that will never see the light of day," she explained. "The thing I try to remember is never to compare my own writing to published writing by other people. You should always compare the writer you are today to the writer you were six months ago or six years ago, and you'll be astounded at how much better you've become. Any time I get upset with myself about the progress of my writing, I pull out something I wrote when I was 12 and say, 'Wow! I've come a long way!'"

That's good advice for writing geeks of all ages.