Interview with Sylvia Whitman, Author of If you Meet the Devil, Don't Shake Hands

Welcome to Smack Dab in the Middle! Please give us a brief description of If You Meet the Devil, Don’t Shake Hands:

 

Twelve-year-old Gavin Baker, son of a warrior, is a born worrier. With his father serving in the Army overseas, Gavin assumes that he’s already imagined the worst that can happen—until he shakes hands with his best friend Javi’s long-lost grandfather and finds himself trapped in the old magician’s ailing body.

 

Help! As the trickster takes over Gavin’s life, fooling the girl of his dreams and even his own family, Gavin wonders if the imposter is a better version of Gavin than Gavin himself. He has to convince Javi that the real Gavin now has hairy knuckles and a love of Pablo Neruda’s poetry. Then the boys can try some tricks of their own. But will the two friends be able to reverse the old devil’s magic? Or will both of their families get their hearts broken?

 

As a child of the ‘80s, I had so much fun with this–I grew up loving the switching-body movies (Vice Versa, All of Me, Like Father, Like Son, etc.) Where did the idea of this body-switching story come from? 

 

Body swapping’s not a new story idea, but I think that’s because we’re all grappling with how to live within our bodies. They’re both us and not us at the same time. Think about children called “old souls” and seniors who are “young at heart.” The late cosmologist Steven Hawkins “embodied” this idea: He kept educating the world about the universe with intellectual rigor despite a body impaired by the neurodegenerative disease ALS. 

 

Anxious Gavin goes to extremes to try to control his environment in my novel. But when he finds “himself” inside an ailing old man, he confronts an existential question (if we want to get all philosophical): How much do we control our bodies, and how much do they control us—and how other people see us?

 

I teach a class about writing picture books, and when I do a brainstorming guided meditation with my students, I have them think about how their bodies changed in childhood—teeth falling out, scabs forming, arms breaking, hair coming in, etc. As I age, I notice my body changing too. In a sense we’re body-switching all our lives.

  

You write in a variety of markets, for a variety of ages–even academic work. Why MG?

 

MG readers combine the wonder of the picture book audience with more independent thinking. They’re willing to suspend disbelief—but also to question characters’ choices.

 

And screens haven’t totally highjacked the attention of tweens. The ones I know read for real pleasure.

 

 

I instantly fell in love with Gavin’s voice–I loved the facts he rattles off about insomnia, salmonella, etc., etc. I think MG-aged readers just delight in weird, random facts. They pick up so much (and remember it). Do you find this to be true as well? Did interactions with MG-aged children help shape Gavin?

 

Confession: I still love weird, random facts.

 

I have two kids, and although their middle-school years are barely visible in the rearview mirror, I do recall their curiosity, delightful for being unjaded. The world was still new and awaiting discovery. I’ve attended many a kidslit conference, and I remember hearing that boys really glom onto nonfiction. They devour encyclopedias cover to cover. That was somewhat true in my family. While my daughter leaned into human drama, my son pursued knowledge for knowledge’s sake.

 

Now that children’s books have taken such innovative approaches to nonfiction and worked against gendering children’s interests, I’m hopeful that readers can find something that excites them in almost every book—a narrative arc in STEM or history books and weird (but researched!) facts in a novel with some magic in it.

 

Speaking of voice, I know you’re set to teach a workshop on voice and AI in the coming weeks. Can you speak to this a bit here? 

 

I’m looking forward to speaking at Florida WritersCon 2023, both in a regular session and at the NextGen Writers Experience, “a conference within the conference” for middle- and high-school students.

 

I’ve heard agents and editors at conferences say that voice sells a manuscript. A compelling voice keeps them turning pages even if they foresee that they need to work with an author on developing characters or refining plot. Voice is almost synonymous with originality.

 

My college’s creative writing program is embracing AI as a tool, so we’re playing with various platforms in classes to see where AI might enhance rather than usurp human creativity. If you prompt ChatGPT with a story idea, for instance, it spews trite and generic narratives. More informed prompting can give more useful results for brainstorming, but I have yet to read something gripping. Voice seems intimately connected with emotion and identity, which chatbots lack.

 

Just for the record, I’m not creating AI-generated work, and the only assistance I’m considering at the moment involves research and revision feedback, along the lines of “summarize my key points.” I enjoy the process of writing, so I don’t want to outsource that or let my “writing muscles” go flabby.

 

I love the scene where Gavin tries to figure out what he wants most–how he goes through a list, and the first things that come to mind are some of the least important. He has to dig down the list to find the things that matter the most. It seems like a twist on the old phrase be careful what you wish for, yes?

 

For me, motherhood was one of the few experiences where the result surpassed the wish. I’ve felt that way traveling sometimes: I don’t know what to expect, so I enjoy happy surprises. So often we think we want something, only to find it’s not all that we imagined.

 

I love that the book ends with another wish scene–without offering too many spoilers, how is the last scene different from the earlier wishing scene?

 

Wishing often implies giving up your own agency. You beg outside forces to deliver gratification, even when you’re asking for the impossible. I’m proud of Gavin for discovering a balance between wild hope and realistic assessment. What can he really control?

 

What’s next?

 

I’ve got an interactive MG adventure coming out from Bushel & Peck Books in February 2024: Decide and Survive: The Destruction of Pompeii. I’m also working on a MG facty book about explorers of land and sea, a picture book about a famous squash player, and (slowly) a MG verse novel.

 

Where can we find you?

My website: www.sylviawhitmanbooks.com (There’s a contact page, and I love to hear from readers!)

Instagram: @writersylvia

FB author page: https://www.facebook.com/sylvia.whitman.author

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sylvia-whitman/