In Enna Burning, you confront several challenging themes through the title character, a teenager who finds herself in possession of an extraordinary power that she tries to use for good. You deal with addiction, emotionally manipulative relationships, unresolved grief, betrayal, and obsession. The descriptions of addiction are particularly powerful. Do you think that readers comprehend the situations and what they represent?
Enna Burning was an incredibly difficult and hugely rewarding book for me to write.

Here's the magic of fantasy--I get to write about a girl who learns the power of fire, and a reader gets to decide for herself what that fire means.

If I wrote a story about a girl who was addicted to drugs, or depressed, or obsessed with something, or struggling with burgeoning sexual passion, the story would always be about those things. Realistic fiction is so important, but it is by its nature limiting.

But when I write about a girl who learns to control fire and is almost overcome by it, each reader can read into that her own metaphor and take away from that story what she needs, based on her own life experience.

My job is to not do too much, not to tell the reader how to read the story. My job is to be true to the character and find her story. A good writer should only do fifty percent of the work.

Do girls need to read about strong females who take the lead? Determine their own destiny and the destiny of others? Confront and overcome internal struggles? All this happens in your books, and I wonder how carefully you place these messages of empowerment and self-determination.

I think girls need to read about all kinds of females. If we write them all strong (as once they were all written weak) we're still being disingenuous and limiting a reader's role in understanding the world through story. My goal is to write realistic characters, and they all have some kind of strength and power, because to me, that is realism.

As a side note, I think it's just as important for boys to read about strong females who take the lead as it would be for girls.

I am not smart enough to teach any lessons or morals. All I can do is try to find genuine characters and tell true stories. What I personally believe will naturally come through in the writing. I do purposely make sure I have a variety of characters who see the world in a different way and behave differently so I don't make readers believe that only one way is right.

The Goose Girl was about a princess betrayed by her maid. One reason why I chose to retell the tale of "Maid Maleen" (in Book of a Thousand Days) was to show another side, a story from the point-of-view of a maid, to make sure The Goose Girl wasn't the last word on the subject. I loved the way those two stories balanced each other and called each other into question.

Some have given you flak for the title of Princess Academy.It suggests a girly-girl book, yet anyone who reads your work knows you're not a girly-girl writer. The protagonist Miri does enter a school that teaches her (and others) the social and political graces necessary to become royalty. Yet she also endures hardships such as corporal punishment, emotional abuse, peer pressure, and kidnapping. Did you name it, and did you ever hesitate over the title?

I did name it. It was the first name I thought of. I expected my editor to suggest a change (my first title only sticks about a quarter of the time) but she liked it. I was surprised, but by then I'd thought of it that way for so long I was used to it.

It's been good and bad--good because apparently if you have princess in the title you have an instant fan base, a thing I'd never considered. Bad because that fan base is not expecting the story they got inside the title.

Good again because they usually end up liking the story and often (I'm told by parents) are now willing to read substantial books in the future. Bad again because others are turned off by the fluffy sound and won't pick it up at all.

Good because many eventually read it due to the shiny silver sticker [Newbery Honor Book] on the cover or because of word-of-mouth recommendation and end up begrudgingly liking it despite the title.

Whew! Who can decide these things?

The worst thing about the title is that parents and teachers are afraid to give it to boys. That is a real downer. Though I've had many teachers of 4th and 5th grade tell me they read it to the class and boys and girls loved it, and I've had many mothers tell me they've read it to their sons (usually 11 and under) and the boys have loved it too.

Do you see your work as countering some of the less positive images of girls in the media? Characters in books can be managed, but real girls whom we've watched grow up - like Miley Cyrus, Lindsay Lohan, and Britney Spears - all have faced a fall from grace. What do you want to convey about the struggles girls face - whether in the real world or in lands like Bayern (The Goose Girl, Enna Burning) or Mount Eskel (Princess Academy)?

I honestly can't think about any of that when I'm writing. I would be paralyzed and unable to type a word. Finding a story is hard enough without worrying about what important things I want to convey to girls.

However, I do believe that all girls are strong and full of potential, that everything they do matters, that they all have hidden talents and powers, that there is good and evil, that they're taking a journey with so many choices and they have the power to be victorious.