Interview with Sydney Dunlap, Author of Raing the Clouds
Thank you so much for having me, Holly! It’s great to be back.
The story begins after 13-year-old Sage hears from her grandparents—her mom’s parents, who she’s never met—for the first time in her life. They invite her to visit, and she wants to fix what’s gone wrong in her family, so she flies to Ohio by herself as soon as school gets out for the summer. She feels an almost immediate connection with her grandfather, but her grandmother is so strict and formal that it doesn’t seem they’ll ever see eye-to-eye. Sage learns that family relationships—and people—can be much more complex than they appear on the surface. She also begins to understand more about the power of forgiveness and how to find her way forward during a difficult time.
I admire how you tackle such tough topics for young readers. Last time, it was child trafficking. This time around, you’re tackling addiction and family estrangement. What brought you to these topics?
I’ve always loved reading books about real things that happen to real kids—books that tackle subjects that are a part of many people’s lives but can be hard to talk about. My two favorite authors while growing up were Katherine Paterson and Judy Blume because they both showed so much respect for their readers in writing about life as it really is. As an author myself, I’ve found that the stories I most want to share with the world are about the hard stuff too. Books can be such great conversation-starters, providing glimpses into life experiences very different from one’s own, or offering a chance for self-reflection on more familiar events/circumstances.
Of course I have to ask about how you approach these tough topics. But I’m also curious about what you learned from the first book–through reception to the book, interactions with young readers. What did all that teach you before you drafted this book?
I try to approach tough topics in a way that leaves readers feeling hope as they see my characters finding their own resilience. I also like to include relatable situations—with family, friends, school, etc—along with the more difficult subject matter, so the readers will find familiarity within the pages. My books include light moments as well as animals such as dogs, cats, and horses, so there are plenty of warm and fuzzy parts too.
As far as the next part, I’ve learned that for me, the most important part of this whole process is to find and keep my joy in it. The publishing world is so full of ups and downs, and it can become easy to fall into the trap of feeling like you always need to be doing something more, checking one more item off your to-do list, then adding another—that you’re never doing enough. I think it’s important to remember to take a step back and just appreciate how amazing it is to have a story that is dear to your heart being read by people all around the world. And interacting with young readers is a wonderful part of it—my favorite type of event is a school visit where all the students have read the book—it’s really fun to hear their questions and comments since they know the characters so well!
I’m an animal person, and I’m always intrigued by the depiction of animals in literature. You use Nicky as a catalyst for connection between characters. What brought you to this?
I love dogs more than just about anything. As I write this, my dog is sitting on a couch a few feet away from me. Usually he’s underneath my desk when I write, but always close at hand. My own extended family includes people with very different outlooks and life experiences, but the one thing everyone has in common is a love for dogs. At a large gathering, the people sitting around the table may have different opinions on current events or other potential conversation topics, but everyone agrees about how great dogs are. I’ve been fortunate to have dogs in my home for most of my life, and their soulful eyes, tail wags, and the overall positivity they bring to any situation has always amazed me.
The theme of forgiveness is powerfully handled throughout. It’s depicted as an ongoing process here. You even tackle the idea of self-forgiveness (the hardest of all, it always seems), as Sage has to attempt to forgive herself for her mother’s accident. Did this thread come naturally? What made you want to address forgiveness specifically?
While writing Sage’s story, I was thinking about how we all make mistakes, and we all have things we wish we could have done differently. We can rehash them over and over, losing the peace of the moment we’re in, or we can pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and look forward, trying to take the lessons we’ve learned from the past with us to whatever’s next. Since doing that involves a degree of forgiveness of both self and others, it just came out of my heart as something I wanted to address in hopes that it could touch my readers as well.
I loved the multi-generational aspect of the story. How did you go about developing the parallel between Grandmother Marion's brother and Mom's addiction? How did you go about crafting Pawpaw as a bridge between the generations?
I knew that there had to be a reason that Grandmother Marion was so worried about Sage’s dad being a rock musician that went deeper than just not liking the music. Although she’s strict and formal by nature, Grandmother Marion isn’t a tyrant intent on ruining everyone’s fun, as she first seems to Sage. I think it’s important to take note that people’s actions usually have motivations that go a lot deeper than what’s apparent on the surface, and Grandmother Marion’s attempts to control so many things stem from anxiety and loss. I think it helps us all to think about the reasons behind other people’s actions to gain a better understanding of them. While writing the story, Pawpaw just came to me as this sweet grandfather who means well and really cares, but also has to work at finding the right thing to do. Sometimes trying to be the peacemaker isn’t easy either.
Music is woven throughout the story, from Dad's past as a musician to the concert Sage attends. What role did you want music to play in the narrative?
Music can really bring people together, or in some cases, tear them apart. Sage and her parents share a love of music and find attending concerts a great thing to do together. In spite of her love of and talent for the drums, Sage stops playing due to her guilt, but I think there’s a hint that she might resume in the future. My hope for her dad would be that he can gradually begin teaching music lessons and eventually spend more and more time sharing his skills and focusing on what he’s passionate about.
Throughout Racing the Clouds, we see different economic realities: the trailer park where Sage and her dad live, to her grandparents' large house with its Cadillac and fancy maple syrup. How did you approach writing about these class differences without making them the focus of the story, while still acknowledging their impact on Sage's perspective?
I tried to keep them in the background while still having them present throughout the book. I remember hearing the amazing Marcus Zusak speak once at a library event, and he talked about the importance of the little details in making a story feel real. That’s why small details—like how hard it is to get the water temperature the way Sage wants it at the beginning of the story, or the kind of glass the maple syrup comes in—matter a lot. In this story, they serve to show a contrast for Sage between the experiences she’s had and the way her mom grew up, and they also help her to realize that she wouldn’t have traded her life with her parents for anything.
What do you hope young readers take from Sage’s story?
I hope they can gain some perspective on the importance of taking a moment to sit in other people’s shoes and see things from their point of view, and to think about the power of forgiveness and the importance of having the hard conversations. I also hope they learn some things about what drugs can do to a person’s life and how to stay safe.
What’s next?
I have a lot of book-related travel and many author events planned for 2025. As a teacher for 18 years, I love doing school visits and talking with students, and I also love any and all events that bring together teachers, librarians, and authors.
Where can we find you?
I’m on Instagram at @sydneydunlapwrites, Bluesky at @sydneydunlap@bsky.social, Facebook at Sydney Dunlap, and my website is www.sydneydunlap.com.
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