Nan Cappo

I was born on March 5, 1955, in Traverse City, Michigan, the fifth of six children. The only indication I might someday be a writer was my constant reading--my parents thought I might become a librarian, or a book critic. I didn't write, though--I just read. We moved to Pittsburgh, I majored in English at Notre Dame, and married Dirk Cappo in 1983. We moved to Michigan in l985.

After our second daughter was born I stopped selling computers for IBM and tried my hand at writing picture books. It was disastrous, but informative. Picture books are harder to write than they look. I got better results when I wrote for young adults. Cheating Lessons was published in 2002 by Atheneum/Simon & Schuster. It came out in paperback in 2003 and has sold over 30,000 copies.

What I tell people about Cheating Lessons: The plot came from my love of English literature and my fascination with cheating. The characters are blends of my relatives and made-up people. Bernadette sounds very much like my daughter Emily (though Bernadette's memory is better), while her table manners are pure Ellen, my oldest daughter. David and Anthony remind me of my son Mark and his friends. Mr. Malory's Porsche is identical to one my husband owned when we met, though Mr. Malory himself is pure make-believe. And no, Martha Terrell is NOT my mother.

I’ve recently finished a second YA novel with the working title of Natalie Wishbone. (I’m still brainstorming for a jazzier title.) High school senior Natalie schemes to leave Michigan for college in New York, until her mother takes in a pregnant foster child who has ambitions of her own. While I wait to hear whether I’ve sold it I’m researching my next novel. This one’s got a male main character and a plot involving biomedicine.

In addition to making school visits and giving writing workshops, I work part-time at a bookstore. It’s given me a lot of ideas about how to blend my favorite topic—-moral dilemmas—-with what teenagers love to read about: other teens in big, big trouble.

On writing: I’ve read voraciously all my life, but to write something publishable I had to learn to read like a writer, not a reader; to figure out how favorite authors did what they did, then attempt the same thing--using their techniques on my own material. I still re-read Anne Tyler and Jane Austen and Anne Fine and Nancy Farmer and Eloise McGraw, who write of courage and love and clever conversation, in stories where the danger is as much to the character’s soul as it is to her body. Other favorite writers are Robin McKinley, Dick Francis, Nick Hornby, Lynne Rae Perkins, and JK Rowling. For me, reading books I wish I'd written and trying to crack the code remains the best writing instruction in the world.