Deb Aronson

Lois Duncan: A Born Writer

First appeared in Council Chronicle in November 2010 under Profiles

Lois Duncan is one of those rare creatures who knew from a very young age what she wanted to do.

“I was born wanting to be a writer,” she says. “I started composing rhymed verse as soon as I could talk. I submitted my first story to a magazine when I was ten.”

And a writer she is, to this day. Duncan’s first article was accepted for publication when she was 13 and since then she has written hundreds of articles and more than 50 books. She is best known as a writer of young adult suspense novels, though she also has published poetry, picture books with rhymed verse and non-fiction for both children and adults. Duncan has received countless awards, including ALA (American Library Association) Best Book for Young Adults several times and the Parents Choice Book award, not to mention the highly prestigious Margaret Edwards Award for a Distinguished Body of Work for Young Adults from the ALA and School Library Journal.

Two of her books have been made into big-screen movies. I Know What You Did Last Summer, which the producers turned into a slasher movie, much to Duncan’s disgust, and the humorous Hotel for Dogs. Many more of her books have been made into made-for-television movies. Duncan did not write any of the scripts for the movies based on her books, though she did get to be on set for the filming of Hotel for Dogs.

Not bad for someone who describes herself as a pudgy, shy child with braces.

Power of the Pen

Someone might see this list of accomplishments and feel envious, but Duncan also has experienced excruciating tragedy. In 1989, her then-18-year-old daughter, Kaitlyn, was murdered. The police determined that the attack was a random drive-by shooting, but Duncan and others found evidence that the shooting was not properly investigated. That led to her writing Who Killed My Daughter? (1992).

“The only weapon I had to prevent the facts of the case from becoming buried was ‘the power of the pen.’ So I used it,” she says.

Although intended as a book for adults, Who Killed My Daughter? received the School Library Journal Best Book of the Year award and the ALA Best Book for Young Adults award. In addition, after the book was published Duncan was interviewed on “Larry King Live,” “Good Morning America” and “Unsolved Mysteries.” Duncan is in the process of publishing the sequel, Tally Keeper, about both more findings on her daughter’s murder and other unsolved murders that were not properly investigated.

Polyester Pantsuits

In addition, Duncan is undertaking an unusual project. Little, Brown and Company, publisher of Duncan’s suspense novels, has asked her to update many of her books. Duncan, who is 76, wrote her first novel on a typewriter before liquid correction fluid (aka Wite Out) was invented, so it’s no surprise her novels have no cell phones, computers or other electronic gadgets, or that her characters wear polyester pantsuits. Still, Duncan was pleased that, for the most part, her stories have held up well.

“What surprised me when I reread those older books, most of which I hadn’t looked at in years, was how well the characters and plots had stood the test of time,” says Duncan. “The changes I had to make were superficial ones and had much more to do with the changes in the world around us, such as social behaviors and the development of technology, than the stories themselves.”

For example, in Summer of Fear (1976), Rachel’s mother is a photographer and scenes of her developing film in the darkroom occur several times. Duncan solved that easily enough by writing, “Mom disdained digital cameras and thought Photoshop was a cop-out. She loved the challenge of doing her lab work by hand.”

But in the same story, a key element of the plot involves the folklore that witches cannot be photographed and a character who was an alleged witch. Duncan has this character travel by airplane. That worked fine in 1976, well before 9/11 and the requirement of a photo ID to fly, but now Duncan had to find another way to get that character across the country. Duncan says you’ll have to read the new story next spring to find out how she solved that problem!

Despite her many commitments, Duncan says she relishes the chance to take a break to participate in the November NCTE convention. “The stimulation of being with a group of enthusiastic people who are teaching the very same students for whom I’m writing is a lot of fun,” she says of the NCTE convention. “I learn from them and from the other speakers. I also love the exhibits where I get to see what all my colleagues are doing.

“A writer’s life is solitary. Once in a while it’s great to be out where the action is,” she adds.

Praise Them in Private

While at the convention, she might speak to teachers about her own experiences as a teen. Despite her early success, Duncan was careful to keep her writing passion under wraps when she was in high school. Based on her own experiences, Duncan counsels teachers who have students like herself to “encourage them in private, not to embarrass them by making them stand out in class so their fellow students think of them as freaks or teacher’s pets. If the student is eager for constructive criticism, and the teacher feels qualified to give it, do so. If the students wants a mentor, become one. But if the student wants to be left alone, respect that.”

Duncan also balances her solitary writer’s life through Facebook http://loisduncan.arquettes.com/ and Twitter (http://twitter.com/duncanauthor). To read her tweets is to see Duncan’s sense of humor:

Today my dentist asked, “What shade do you want your new teeth to be?” I suggested pink. She did not think that was funny.

Like many authors, Duncan corresponds with students via Facebook and email. She says these letters come in two categories. The first is “I have to write a letter to my favorite author, and since I don’t have one I’m writing to you. I have to ask you three questions so here are three questions: How old are you? What do you weigh? How much money to you make? If you answer this e-mail I’ll get an A.”

“But then there are ones that touch your heart,” she says, “like this one from a girl who read Who Killed My Daughter. ‘Kaitlyn is a blessing god sent to me. I was in a situation similar. My boyfriend was involved with drugs and involved me too. I love my boyfriend but after reading your book I made my decision that I didn’t love him enough to put my mother through the pain Kaitlyn’s death put you through. Please, give Kaitlyn a message for me, she saved the life of a seventeen year old in Cleveland, Ohio.’”

It’s messages like the last one that make any writer grateful for their craft, whether, like Duncan, it appears to be inborn, or developed later in life. Her advice to aspiring writers is “just do it.”

“Just sit down every day and do it,” she says. “Writing is a self-taught craft. It comes with practice. There are no short-cuts.”

Little Sidebar (138 words) Updated versions of I Know What You Did Last Summer and Don’t Look Behind You are scheduled for fall 2010 release; Stranger With My Face , Summer of Fear and Down a Dark Hall will be released in spring of 2011; Daughters of Eve and Locked in Time will be out in the fall of 2011; and The Third Eye and A Gift of Magic will be released in the spring of 2012.

Although Duncan no longer does school visits, she has made a 35-minute DVD designed specifically for classroom use. She describes the ups and downs of her career and gives a tour of her home and office. Duncan also leads viewers step by step through her writing process, responds to the most frequently asked questions from readers, and shows what happens behind the scenes when a writer’s novel goes to Hollywood.