Interview with G. Miki Hayden, Author of Strings

This is the latest interview on the Writer's Nest, with fellow CQ author G. Miki Hayden, author of the intriguing MG novel, Strings!

 

Tell me three interesting facts about yourself!

·         I used to be a trade journalist and wrote about subjects such as robotics/factory automation, solar energy, and much more.

·         I teach online at Writer’s Digest University and have two books about writing in print.

·         I’ve always lived on an island: I grew up on Miami Beach and live in Harlem, a part of Manhattan (NY, NY), an island.

The really interesting stuff is secret. :)

Summarize your book in one line.

When the everyday world becomes odd and irregular, Robert, an ordinary boy, must travel through alternate dimensions to help restore stability.

Tell me something cool/crazy/quirky about the book—it can be anything!

People have doubles and even triples, taken from…no, no, that’s secret, too.

Why did you decide to write this particular book?

I wanted to show that the universe is truly magical without anyone having to perform an incantation or spell. And I wanted to show that order can be restored by someone who merely means well, even if he or she doesn’t have any special skills.

Best part of the writing process?

The writing is the most fun, always, but doing the necessary research and learning things—for this novel some things about basic physics—is lots of fun, too. And I’ve started a blog for others of all ages who want to learn a little science: http://gmikihayden.tumblr.com/ 

Share one thing you learned writing this book.

Strings are thought by some physicists to form the fabric of the universe. Physicist Brian Greene of Columbia University says that if one atom was enlarged to the size of our solar system, a single vibrating string would still be no larger than a tree. So stings are unimaginably small. Smaller than small. 

Tell me about one strange experience you’ve had. Again, it can be anything!

I’ve had a lot of amazing experiences, maybe the most amazing of which was to “see” the potential in every moment for the miraculous to occur. Now obviously that’s an inner experience and not an outer one. I understand that as being what the world is to each of us—what happens inside of us is our “real” world. Luckily, it doesn’t take beauty or money or physical prowess to have an incredible inner life. We can all have remarkable experiences. 

Name one fictional place you’d love to visit.

How about Narnia, from the C. S. Lewis books? I hope everyone has read those—or will. The one difficulty with visiting Narnia, as with traveling to any fictional place, is that tremendous problems pop up everywhere. Sort of like life. Life doesn’t always glide along easily, and fiction certainly doesn’t. In fact, the author is instructed to heap as many complications on the hero and heroine as possible. That’s the cruel truth of the writer’s mission. Heh heh.

Name one real place you’d love to visit.

Oh, like my female protagonist in Strings, I’d like to visit the British Isles, maybe during the period when Queen Victoria reigned, the Victorian era. Oh, you mean a possible place. But no place is really impossible for a writer.

Share one sentence/mini-excerpt from the book!

Robert’s pocket pulsed as if he had a cell phone in it set on vibrate, and for a minute he thought he did have a cell phone. But he didn’t. He had a string. He took the supposed string out of his pocket as carefully as if he had a flea in there trained to star in a flea circus—something his father had once told him about. (Could fleas really be trained?)

Well, whatever Robert held in his hands gave out a powerful, radiant glow that cast a light over everything in front of the two travelers.

“Oh,” exclaimed Nila. “What in the world is that?” She peered into his cupped palm.

Holding his hand up like a lantern, Robert walked on. “I think you have one, also,” Robert recalled. “Didn’t someone give you something he called a stabilizing string?”

“No, never,” denied Nila vehemently. “That’s wonderful though. What is it, really?”

“I can’t actually be certain,” Robert said. “I think it’s a force from another dimension, possibly. Or not. But it’s scientific, anyway, and not magical.” He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye to see her reaction, which he then couldn’t read.

            In some way, Robert felt the piece of string was leading him, rather than that he was carrying the invisible, infinitesimal portion of the universe.


About STRINGS:

Robert, an ordinary boy, finds himself in a newly chaotic world. Buildings move when and where they please, and time jumps around according to no known laws of physics. For Robert, getting to his regular school in the morning is next to impossible. As for getting home...

But then, Holden - a boy he and his friend, Nila, meet in a cave - offers them a string. No, not twine, but a string of the kind that forms the universe. Teeny and tiny, and invisible to the naked eye, this string will take Robert and Mila to their homes and way, way beyond...

Accompanied by a memorable cast of characters, Robert and his friends follow the string on a journey across time, space, and dimension to discover the answer to a mystery: Who has caused the world to fall apart?

 Goodreads | Amazon US | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble

G. Miki Hayden, strongly believes in alternate universes and has written about them in her adult novels Pacific Empire (which won a New York Times rave) and New Pacific. “Nothing in time-space is fixed,” Miki says, a distant look in her eyes. Miki won an Edgar for an historical crime story and has a couple of writing books in print. At the moment, she generally lives with millions of other people in New York City in a three-dimensional, temporal world but is exploring other realms.