Lesley Downie knows tunnels! TUNNELS (Astraea Press), her newest novel, based legends of ones beneath Redlands, California, where Lesley has lived all of her life. Her heroine, Kat Goldstein, is cheeky, brave, and has a nose for detecting mysteries, as well as a well-honed ability for getting into trouble with her best friend Evan. Their search for answers leads them into danger as they try to save an old man’s life while uncovering secrets buried since World War Two. Lesley works for Esri, a world leader in GIS technology which, in REVOLUTIONARY ADVENTURE, her first novel in her CHAOS CAVE series, provides a time travel ride to 1776 for a curious brother and sister.
- Katherine Goldstein, the 11 year-old narrator of Tunnels, is quite a character. Did you feel you were letting out your inner tween as you were writing the book? Absolutely. That’s the beauty of writing. You can be who you always wanted to be. As a kid, I was painfully shy. Kat is the kind of girl I admired and wished I’d had the guts to be. Determination, even in the face of the mean kids, or even just the other adversities we all encounter growing up, is a hard thing to muster. But Kat manages to do that. She’s the brave girl who I still want to be.
- Citrus Grove, where Katherine lives, is modeled after Redlands, California. I went to the university there but never heard about the tunnels! You explored them as a girl, the way Katherine did. Would you share some information about these mysterious underground pathways? Did you ever encounter anything like Lizard People or a Roosevelt Room? Well, of course, we’ve all heard about the underground tunnels at the university, so there’s that. And also the fact that Redlands is on the list of the most haunted towns in the U.S., so my imagination was always in high gear. The actual tunnels are in my head, but I do believe they’re there. Living in a historical town just lends itself to this stuff. So as a kid when I’d play in the Zanja (the irrigation channels the Native Americans built), I’d have the opportunity to explore other worlds in my imagination both above and below the streets of Redlands. It was beautiful as it set my writerly aspirations into motion. The tunnels are an extension of the Zanja, and I still love them today. Wish I had discovered the Roosevelt Room because my love of the 40s and Roosevelt era runs deep. I think the Lizard People come from two places: an urban legend my brother told me about the Grover bears who allegedly inhabited the orange groves; and the little people that escaped ridicule to settle in Redlands where they built a community of tiny houses that look straight out of The Hobbit stories. If I weren’t a writer, I’d want to be an archaeologist, so there you have it.
- What was the easiest part of writing this novel? The hardest? The easiest part was the story has been in my head since a kid, and I had the beauty of those years to shape the novel. The hard part was striking a balance to include what was interesting to more than just me. The novel was written. I considered it finished, but my agent suggested several changes that I initially didn’t want to make. To remove important elements that I wanted to hold to was hard. But she was absolutely right. The important thing when you’re a writer is to have a group of trusted readers and to remove your ego when considering the criticism. Your story can only get better if you do that.
- I really enjoyed your first novel Chaos Cave, which reminded me of Magic Treehouse Books, but for older children. You work for a company that makes GIS software. Would you tell us about this connection with the book?The story idea came from a dream. I was really dying to get back to writing at the time but had a family and was working full-time. I guess my day job seeped into my unconscious, and the universe said, “Hey here’s a fun story to get your writer-feet wet again!” I love the idea of time travel and historical fiction so it was great; here was a way to do that. A brother and sister, taking useful technology to the past to help famous patriots and historical figures…what’s more fun than that? Since the Revolutionary War time in the U.S. is fascinating to me, researching the story gave me a chance to explore that time more. And, most importantly, the germ of this story was in my head as a kid when we returned home to my birthplace and walked across the Lexington and Concord Bridge where the first battle of the Revolution began. I could hear the men, the shots being fired. It was magical.
- Do you have any sequels planned either with Tunnels or Chaos Cave? Any other writing projects in the works? I think Tunnels is a one-off, but I’d love to do another Chaos Cave. Right now, however, my attention is on another series, and I’ve finished the first novel. My FORTUNEate Life will hopefully be a three or four book series, and I just love it. The theme is about when life goes horribly wrong and the universe gives you a chance to fix things by granting a do-over. My character, Abby Howard, is another strong girl just like Kat in that she’s brave, but Abby has a true character arc that up until now I haven’t had in my stories. I love stories where you see a character at their lowest point and as a reader it’s hard to have empathy for them because they’re aren’t necessarily likeable. Maybe they whine, are mean, whatever. It’s important to show that in a story; it’s why the story makes sense, touches us as individuals when that character transforms. It’s that moment of epiphany when the character must decide to change or stay stuck. I’m super excited about this book because Abby makes a choice, and the story hinges upon what she decides.
