Erin Dealey

It’s the Book Birthday of Nicole M. Hewitt’s mg debut verse novel,

THE SONG OF ORPHAN’S GARDEN

(Feiwel & Friends) and we are so thrilled to celebrate with her on the blog!

About the book:

A Junior Library Guild selection

Combining the gentleness of Miyazaki, the wintry wonderland of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and the whimsicality of Newbery winner The Girl Who Drank the Moon, Nicole M. Hewitt’s debut middle-grade novel, The Song of Orphan’s Garden, is an enchanting fantasy tale with all the makings of a new classic. –Feiwel & Friends

“A free verse tale that’s shot through with DNA from Oscar Wilde’s The Selfish Giant. … Lyrical in both themes and language, with resonances both literary and ecological.” ―Kirkus

“This bold fantasy novel-in-verse feels both classic and entirely fresh, telling a rich and compelling story of two very different kids who find community and healing in unsuspected places. Inventive, exciting, and simply lovely.”

―Anne Ursu, author of Not Quite a Ghost

Meet Nicole M. Hewitt

Nicole M. Hewitt first had visions of a writing career when she won the third-grade Young Authors competition at her school. Readers may know her popular blog Feed Your Fiction Addiction. Nicole lives in Chicago where she also works as a bookseller and gets to spend all day telling people about books she loves. THE SONG OF ORPHAN’S GARDEN is her debut novel.

Let’s ask some questions!

Q 1. Where did the idea for THE SONG OF ORPHAN’S GARDEN come from?

Nicole M. Hewitt: As a child, I listened to a recording of “The Selfish Giant” by Oscar Wilde over and over again. The themes of this story and the image of a little boy crying in his one corner of winter while the rest of the garden is bathed in spring stuck in my head for a lifetime. Those themes and images eventually blossomed into this book. (Read more details about this over on the Middle Grade Escapades blog.)

Verse, Poetry, and Patterns

Q 2. What inspired the lovely, lyrical text of this verse novel?  Where did you hone these skills?

Nicole M. Hewitt: I’ve always been enamored with poetry. I can still remember in high school being assigned a project where we had to create a huge epic poetry collection in the style of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. Most kids hated it. I was in heaven. In college I was a theater major, and I was most drawn to Shakespeare. I just find poetry beautiful, and I’ve always loved writing it, reading it, and performing it.

I always knew I wanted to write a novel in verse, so I studied them. In addition, I took a few courses taught by verse novelists that helped me immensely. I’m partial to more lyrical verse novels and knew I wanted to write a novel that truly felt like poetry, which is why I incorporated some formal poems to go with the (already lyrical) free verse. This book is the result of all that lifelong preparation.

Q 3. Which was your favorite chapter to write?

Nicole M. Hewitt: This is a tough question because there are so many poems I loved writing, some for the emotion of the scene and some for the poetry style. I don’t want to talk too much about the highly emotional scenes, just in case someone reads this interview before they read the book (no spoilers allowed!)

Instead I’ll focus on a poetry style I loved writing, which is Brob’s blitz poem called “What It Takes.” The style of the blitz poem is short phrases with repeating words in a very specific pattern (even the title has to be made from specific words). The poem was incredibly challenging to write but also utterly satisfying. I love everything about the way it turned out.

Surprises and Detours

Q 4. Were there any unexpected detours in your story? Anything character driven that you didn’t initially foresee?

Nicole M. Hewitt: I originally planned a different climax where Zave was the one to “save the day” so to speak. I imagined it this way as a parallel to certain events in “The Selfish Giant.” But that climax just didn’t work with my story, and I had to remind myself that nothing from my original inspiration was sacred.

I also thought it was interesting when I recently went back and read my original notes for the book. I kept most of the overall plot, but I had done a decent amount of character work (via exercises from a writing craft book), and I apparently abandoned almost all the backstory I came up with. Most of it only sounded very vaguely familiar to me, so apparently my characters spoke to me a lot (and told me that my original thoughts on them were completely wrong!).

On Process and Chaos

Q 5. Did you have a playlist or routine to get you into this wonderful world as you wrote THE SONG OF ORPHAN’S GARDEN?

Nicole M. Hewitt: Nope. In fact, I always sort of chuckle when I see authors talking about their writing rituals and their playlists and their specific writing foods or drinks or whatnot. I am chaos. Routine is not my friend. Any time I’ve tried to nail one down, it eludes me, so I’ve basically given up.

Thank you, Nicole for joining us on the blog today, and

CONGRATULATIONS

on your gorgeous debut novel!

To learn more about Nicole and her work, find her at NicoleMHewitt.com or on Instagram or Bluesky!