3 QUESTIONS FOR MAILE MELOY

Maile Meloy

3 QUESTIONS FOR MAILE MELOY

The Apothecary

What's your favorite thing about your heroes, Janie and Benjamin?

I like the fact that Janie is curious about the world, and brave when she needs to be.  And I like Benjamin's stubbornness, even when it gets in his way.  They both face adventure with courage and with concern for their friends, which is a quality I admire in people.      

With which do you have the most in common?

I probably identify the most with Janie because I was writing in her voice, in The Apothecary, and I remember being 14 really vividly.  In college, I spent a year in England, and felt very out of place when I got there, so we have that in common.  I wish I were more like Jin Lo, who's tough and smart and always perfectly confident—but has gone through a hard time to get that way.  I don't envy the hard time.  

When you were a kid, who was your favorite mystery detective?

By quantity, it was Trixie Belden, who was tomboyish and intuitive and believable.  My stepmother gave me the books and I read a lot of them.  But I also really loved Turtle Wexler in The Westing Game, who's only a mystery detective accidentally.  (I guess that's true of most of them.)