A Conversation with Megan E. Freeman: From ‘Alone’ to ‘Away’

A podcast interview with Megan E. Freeman discussing Alone and Away on The Growing Readers Podcast, a production of The Children’s Book Review.

Listen in as award-winning author Megan E. Freeman discusses writing her companion novels Alone and Away.

From discovering creative breakthroughs while swimming laps to transforming Alone from prose to verse, Megan shares fascinating insights into her writing process. Learn how she crafted Away‘s unique narrative styles—including screenplays, journalism, and poetry—and why young beta readers played a crucial role in shaping the story. With warmth and wisdom, Megan reveals her mission to empower young readers and help them fall in love with reading.

Subscribe to The Growing Readers Podcast to ensure you never miss an episode celebrating the creators shaping young readers’ lives.

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Bianca Schulze Hi, Megan. Welcome to The Growing Readers Podcast.

Megan E. Freeman Thank you so much. I’m so delighted to be here. Thanks for having me.

Bianca Schulze Such a pleasure. I am a big fan of your work, and having heard you talk before at a conference, I knew that I 100% wanted to have a more intimate conversation with you because I wanted all of our listeners to hear your wise and wonderful words. So, thank you again for being here.

Megan E. Freeman You’re very kind. Thank you.

Bianca Schulze I love having a first-time guest, and I know that you are a listener of this podcast. So, I have a couple of questions that I love to ask when someone is on here for the first time. I will start with one of those questions you’ve probably heard other people answer. What is one thing you do in your day-to-day practices that you feel would be either the most surprising or the most relatable to listeners?

Megan E. Freeman My gosh. This is a relatively new practice of mine, and it may not be obviously connected to creativity, but about a year ago now, I started swimming for exercise; it was a huge learning curve for me, and I had not, I’d swum as a kid, I knew how to swim, but I had never swum, you know, for duration, durations of time or anything like that, sort of beyond playing Marco Polo, you know, in the pool. And I started swimming three days a week.

And it has been extraordinary for me. Obviously, it’s physically wonderful, and I feel great afterward, but the experience of flow, I don’t know how else to say it. I get into a flow state when I’m swimming, and I have had so many creative breakthroughs, or creative solutions come to me, as well as ideas for new scenes, stories, or characters. It’s been really magical, quite frankly. And so that’s something that I was just texting with a couple of friends, and I said to them in this text string, I can’t believe it took me 56 years to figure out that I wanted to swim every week, three times a week, every week. So I don’t know, that’s the first answer that came to mind.

Bianca Schulze Yeah, I love that. And you know, other people have said that when it comes to creative ideas and when they show up for them, being in the shower is a popular place. And I wonder if it’s like a similar thing about being in a shower or being in a swimming pool is that you’re kind of you’re just alone at that moment, and it’s peaceful and like you’re open to receiving information, right?

Megan E. Freeman Yes, and I’ve had similar experiences walking. So I suspect that movement is a factor as well, that there’s something that literally unblocks or that can move through or movement is some kind of conduit to creative flow. But absolutely, water for me is huge. I’m a big bath person. My showers are too long. I love the experience of being in the water. So yeah, there’s something magical about it.

Bianca Schulze Yeah, I can hear my teenage girls cheering for you you’re saying that you’re a shower too long.

Megan E. Freeman Yeah, it’s my happy place for sure.

Bianca Schulze Well, to be a writer, they say that you must be or should be a reader first. Either you either agree with that or you don’t. But most importantly, was there a pivotal moment in which you considered yourself a reader?

Megan E. Freeman You know, I love that question. And I do not remember not knowing how to read. And my first memory of being a reader was actually in first grade with my first grade teacher, Mrs. Hawkins, Joanne Hawkins, who I’m still connected to, we’re still in touch. And she was talking to my best friend Monica and me at the time. And Monica had brought in a Nancy Drew book, so first grade, this is the early 1970s.

Nancy Drew and Mrs. Hawkins said to me, this is the book series that I was telling you about. And I took it home. Of course, Monica and I both started reading Nancy Drew and didn’t stop. But I remember that so distinctly. That tells me that, OK, so I was five or six. I was young for my grade, so I was probably five. And I was already ready to read Nancy Drew books.

I don’t know how old I was when I actually learned to read, I’ve never experienced life without reading and without being a reader. And my parents were both big readers and read to us. So I absolutely agree with that statement 100%.

Bianca Schulze Yeah, I love that. I mean, so many things were zinging around in my busy brain, right? Right then, when you were speaking, because there are people who just take to reading like a fish to water, right? And you were obviously one of them. And I was somebody who really struggled with reading. Like, I don’t think I was reading a chapter book until third grade, right? I mean, I have a vivid memory of an early reader in second grade that I loved the story, but I struggled to read it so much. But I had a best friend who was an avid reader. And I think just seeing a friend immerse themselves and reading like we’d be hanging out and like I’d just be playing with something and she’d be reading next to me. And I feel like that was so good for me to see because it made me want to be in her world. And I wanted to read just like my friend, Shelly. So.

Megan E. Freeman Absolutely. Well, as you were talking, my brain was pinging around because I remembered my brother, who really didn’t become a reader until seventh grade. And it was because in whatever class he was in, they read To Kill a Mockingbird. And he fell in love with that book. That book was the conduit to all of the other books that he then went on to discover. So sometimes I think it’s, I mean, obviously, all brains are different, and different brains need different things to learn different skills.

But I sometimes think it’s about providing enough choices so that readers can find books that they find engaging. Because the rest of the world is pretty darn engaging, right? So if the book doesn’t hook us, then maybe there are other things that we’re gonna find to do. I don’t know.

Bianca Schulze Yeah, absolutely. And that’s why one of my favorite things to say is that not every book is for every child, but for every child; I really do believe that there is a book, right? And sometimes, this is finding the right story. So I have to ask you then, what is it specifically that drives and guides you to create books for children? Like, what is it inside of you that makes you want to specifically write for children?

Megan E. Freeman That is a great question. And it’s hard for me to answer succinctly because it is so not intellectual. It’s not necessarily a conscious decision that I sat down and made one day. It is just who I think about when I think about telling a story. And it is the audience that presents itself most readily. And that’s not to say that I haven’t written for other age groups because I have, and I do.

But for whatever reason, and maybe it’s because I was a child reader and then I became a teacher, and so I continued to work with children and I’ve spent the majority of my adult life with children, and then I became a parent and so then I was raising children, and maybe that’s why, I’m sort of, I’m guessing. I love talking to young readers. I love being invited into schools and having conversations with them. If I’m at a party with multiple generations, I tend to be more interested in the other children who are there than the adults. So there’s just something about young people that I really connect with. And when I think about telling stories that are challenging or engaging or have opportunities for critical thought or imagination, I really wanna have that conversation with young people and with young brains.

I can’t explain it better than that, and I didn’t explain it very well.

Bianca Schulze Yeah. Yeah. Well, sometimes, there isn’t necessarily a specific reason. Like it’s just what you have to do, and you follow your instinct, and you do it, right? Yeah. Well, let’s kind of start to segue into talking about your newest book, Away, but it goes alongside the companion novel, which came out a couple of years ago, which is Alone.

Megan E. Freeman Yes.

Bianca Schulze And I have to tell you, since you talked about how much you love doing school visits, you actually visited my middle schooler’s grade last year. And I want you to know that you came and you spoke about Alone because obviously, Away wasn’t out yet. And she said that, like, she absolutely loved Alone. And what she told me specifically that she loved about it was how she could really imagine and visualize what was going on. And I was like, yes, this was the perfect time where we had a great conversation about showing versus telling in your writing. And she was like, yes, that’s what she does, mom. And it’s so beautiful. I wanted you to know that you reached and touched the hearts that you are trying to reach and touch. So well done.

Megan E. Freeman Man, thank you. That gives me so many goosebumps. And here’s what I want to say about that: Alone is a novel in verse, and there are so few words on the page, and there is so much white space on the page. And the secret magic about novels in verse is that they invite that engagement with the reader. So, part of the reason that your reader had such a vivid experience of it is because she co-created that experience with me, right? There are actually not a lot of descriptive elements on the page. And part of the trick of trying to write a really good novel in verse is giving the readers just enough so that they can fill in all the details.

Megan E. Freeman And traveling to different schools and talking with different readers, that has become so clear to me. And I’d love to tell you just a little story of how that came to my attention. I did two school visits within a couple of weeks of each other. One was in Colorado, here where I live, and one was in Texas. And the Texas visit was in a very agrarian school, lots of ranch kids, lots of Future Farmers of America, 4-H kids. And when I asked them, which is a question I love to ask kids who’ve read the book, who’ve read Alone, what choices does Maddie make that you disagree with or what would you do differently if you were in her situation?

And all the kids in the Texas school and sort of these ranch farm kids raised their hands and said, we don’t understand why she doesn’t just hook up a generator. And I of course am the product of urban and suburban landscapes. And it never even occurred to me that a generator was a thing, let alone how would a kid know how to do it. But these kids were obviously, I mean, that’s part of their vocabulary, right?

And they were setting the story in such a way and in such a place that of course she could have hooked up a generator. So then, two weeks later, I met this urban school, a bilingual school. I’m talking with these five girls who were all English language learners. They were all fifth graders and they were all of Mexican descent. And their first question to me was, okay, so she’s 16 at the end of the book? I said, yes, she’s 16. She’s 12 at the beginning. She’s 16 at the end. Okay, so then what happened to her quinceañera?

And I was like, oh, wow, that’s such a good question. And I said to these girls, okay, well, during COVID, what happened when girls turned 15, and they would normally have their quinceañeras, and everything was locked down? What did families do? And they said, oh, well, you we rescheduled, or we delayed, or we would have, and I said, so don’t you think Maddie’s parents would reschedule, would just have one for her when she’s 16 to make up for it. And they said, yeah, yeah, we think she would. I said, so there, I’m sure she has her quinceañera.

Megan E. Freeman So it was so eye-opening to me because I think something about the verse novel invites the reader and invites the children to make it relevant to their own lives and to fill in all those details with specifics that they connect to. And the story works no matter what, right? Every kid can make it unique to them. So I hope that that’s what your daughter’s experience was, that that’s what she was doing, which was filling in those details. So it’s nice that she gives me credit, but I suspect it’s really her vivid imagination.

Bianca Schulze I love that. Love that. Well, I can’t speak for her, but I will. She listens to the podcast, so she’ll probably come and tell me. Yes, yes, Megan had exactly right. Well, you have to tell us why you chose to write Away, which of course, I imagine means you’ll also be telling us why you decided to write Alone.

Megan E. Freeman Yes. So, so, so let me answer that in reverse, because Away absolutely grew out of Alone, even though it’s a companion novel and stands alone and can be they can be read in either order. Alone came from a conversation that I had with my daughter and our book club when she was in middle school. And we were reading Island of the Blue Dolphins. This was a parent-child book club. And I had read it as a kid and didn’t remember it terribly well. I reread it as an adult in that book club and learned that it was actually based on a true story, which I also had not been aware of.

So that was kind of interesting to learn. And I want to just say as a caveat I am very keenly aware that in contemporary 21st century America, Island of the Blue Dolphins is a problematic text. And there’s a whole other conversation we could have about that. But what came to light in the discussion in our book club…

And remember, we were in Colorado. These are Colorado kids who are landlocked and are not necessarily comfortable or familiar with the ocean and we don’t have islands and so forth and so on. So these kids in this club were really fascinated by the fact that this girl could survive by herself on an island. And they were wondering about food and shelter and fuel and all those kinds of things. And it occurred to me in our conversation that Blue Dolphins is a really different kind of survival story than a book like Hatchet, for example.

In Hatchet, the main character falls out of the plane into the forest and is completely lost, having to survive in this alien landscape. In Blue Dolphins, she’s left behind in her home in a very familiar landscape. It’s the only home she’s ever known. So she’s not lost the way many of the main characters in survival stories are. She knows exactly where she is, but the fact that she’s been left behind and she’s completely alone sets up the challenge. And the obstacles are specific to that situation.

And I said to the kids in this club, imagine if you went home tomorrow after school and everybody was gone and no one was in your neighborhood, nobody was in your house, nobody was in your town. What would that feel like? What would you do? And that changed the whole conversation. And I couldn’t get that question out of my head. And so I finally ended up writing Alone in response to this question: what would a 21st-century kid do to survive alone if she or he were left behind today? How would those obstacles manifest, what would her opportunities be, and so forth and so on?

So after Alone comes out, I start traveling and going to schools and talking with readers and everywhere I went, everyone had the same question, which had to do with the evacuation that I invented in order to get my character alone. I knew that she was going to be alone and I knew she was going to be alone for a long time.

But I wasn’t, it took me a while to figure out the device that would make that happen and that would make it plausible that her parents wouldn’t realize she’d been left behind and that wouldn’t come back for her right away and to set up all of those situations. And so I fictionalized this mass evacuation. And at the end of the book, there is a very small allusion to what the evacuation was about.

But I have learned in these conversations with young readers that a lot of readers are not satisfied with the little bit of answer that’s provided at the end of Alone. And I was not so interested in what that story was. I was interested in the story of the kid being left behind and ultimately, spoiler alert, ultimately reunited with her parents. But everywhere I went, they were asking me, what about this evacuation? What about this so-called imminent threat that causes everyone to have to leave?

And so when I started thinking about the possibility of writing a companion novel to Alone, it was really, there was no question, but that I needed to address that question. So, at the beginning of the book, there’s even a dedication that says for the readers who kept insisting there was more to the story because it really is, it really is for them. And it really, it really was they who inspired me to dig into that and figure out some of those answers.

Bianca Schulze Yeah, that’s so great. You’ve probably had some of your conversations with Kate DiCamillo, and she’s had stories like because of Winn-Dixie and people want to know about these characters, and she has said that those characters aren’t necessarily asking for another story, but yet some of her novels they have. So I almost feel how lucky you are that these readers asked you that question, and your brain had an answer for it, and you were able to work it out for the second book. So, was it tricky to do? Was it like challenging?

Megan E. Freeman Yes, it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done creatively. I will not pretend it wasn’t. And in part because I knew that I didn’t want it to be a sequel, and I didn’t want it to be a prequel. I knew that I wanted it to happen simultaneously with Alone, which is why you can read them in either order. And I decided that in contrast to Alone, which is really one character and one point of view, that Away would be four points of view and four characters and four different kids.

And so then I started thinking about how I wanted to play with that, which led me to write the hybrid forms. So we’ve got two different kinds of poetry and prose and screenplay and diaries and newspaper articles and so many different forms. So that was really challenging. It was really fun, but it was really challenging. And I remember telling my agent and my editor I felt like I was out over my skis, which is a Colorado metaphor. Like when you’re about to fall head-first down the mountain.

Bianca Schulze Yep.

Megan E. Freeman I felt like that a lot of the time because it was such a large undertaking. It felt so big to me, and it was such a steep learning curve because I was literally, I’ll switch metaphors here, but I felt like I was building the plane and learning to fly at the same time. So yes, it was difficult in ways that other projects haven’t been.

Bianca Schulze I feel like it’s almost like you knew what my next question was going to be. You already were phrasing some of my next questions, so I’m just going to read it word for word. I had written down, Away features different narrative styles, from Teddy’s screenplay format to Harmony’s journalistic reports to other characters whose narratives are in verse. So, do you want to speak to the special power that verse and hybrid novels have when it comes to really hooking a reader?

Megan E. Freeman I think that something about – and I would even add in graphic novels, I think fall into this category as well – something about the lack of huge blocks of text make it psychologically more accessible for lots of reluctant readers. I think the diversity of forms also make it really engaging for very enthusiastic readers. So I think that these alternate forms of storytelling, and by alternate, I mean other than prose, straight prose, really have the potential and the power to captivate a broad spectrum of readers.

Whereas a more traditional prose novel, and I have nothing against them, I have written multiple manuscripts that are straight prose, but I think that they can be pretty daunting to readers who may not be as comfortable facing that big block of text on the page. Whereas a page that just has a text message or 12 lines of poetry or an illustration and a caption is less intimidating and also maybe more familiar. We see lots of different forms of writing in our daily lives, from our telephones to being out in the world reading iconography in airports or restaurants. We encounter text in many, many, many different forms.

And we don’t think of that as necessarily daunting or challenging. And yet we then we hand a book to a student that is just thousands and thousands of words and expect them to be able to jump into it. So I think there are scaffolds built in to these diverse formats that become handholds for readers to pull themselves through the story that are not necessarily available in prose.

Bianca Schulze Yeah, I have no idea who I was talking to that told me this. And so it may not even be true. It might be something I’ve made up in my own brain. I feel like it was a SCBWI member, and they had said that Alone was maybe originally written in prose, and it wasn’t necessarily going to be a novel in verse. And I can’t imagine it, you know, not being a novel in verse. So, like, how did that happen?

Megan E. Freeman That’s exactly true. And it happened because when I sat down to write it, it didn’t occur to me to write it in verse. I literally sat down at my dining room table, and I started writing, and it came out in prose. And I wrote the whole thing in prose. Not only was it in prose, but it was also in the third person past tense. So it was sort of a very old-school traditional format. And I worked on it for several years in that format. I did multiple revisions and iterations. I subbed it to agents and got lots of rejections.

I actually had a lot of requests for the full manuscript from agents because I think the idea of a contemporary re-imagining of Island of the Blue Dolphins was intriguing. And so they wanted to see it. And then, when they get the whole thing, they would reject it. And I know now, hindsight being 2020, it’s because the writing wasn’t nearly as good as the idea for the story. And I was sitting in an SCBWI workshop with Melanie Crowder, whose book Audacity had just come out. It’s a fantastic verse novel, a young adult verse novel for anybody out there who is not aware of it. And she was taking us through her process and how she created the verse that she used in that book.

I was sitting there, and I had been a poet since fifth grade. I had a collection of poetry published. I had published poems in literary journals, anthologies, and magazines, and I had this whole other identity as a writer, as a poet. And I’m sitting in this workshop with Melanie, and I literally, it may be the only time in my life when I actually had an honest-to-God epiphany. And I remember kind of looking around the room to see if anybody else was feeling it because it felt like there was a bright light shining, and I was hearing angels sing, and I realized I needed to go back and rewrite the whole thing and start over in verse.

And that’s exactly what I did. And as soon as I started, I knew it was gonna work. And it was almost like I was back in my native language. I was so much more fluent as a poet than I was as a prose novelist in narrative forms that not only that, I changed it to first-person voice, and I changed it to present tense. So, I immediately invited myself into her physical, emotional, and spiritual experience. And I made sure that she didn’t know if she was gonna live past the bottom of the page.

So the tension immediately ratcheted up, the stakes ratcheted up. It took the book in places that the prose never even ventured because I was outside of her looking in. So it transformed the whole story and I felt so much better as soon as I started it.

Bianca Schulze That’s so cool. Well, can you talk about the distinct storytelling choices that you made specifically in Away and how you feel that they helped you develop each character’s unique voice? Because there’s very specific reasons as to why each character is either written as a screenplay or, you know, in journalistic reports. So why don’t you talk a little bit about your choices and how they relate to the characters?

Megan E. Freeman Yeah, so when I was thinking about each of these characters and one of the characters is very briefly mentioned in Alone. She’s one of the friends of the main character of Alone. And I knew I wanted to tie her in. I knew I wanted to have some little Easter eggs for Alone readers, even though I wanted it to stand alone. But I started, and I knew I wanted these distinctly different characters and that they would all have different personal experiences and life experiences, but that they would come together to solve this mystery of the imminent threat and save democracy.

Bianca Schulze Can it be saved? Can it be saved?

Megan E. Freeman That’s what I wanted to have happen. I’m still, you know, I’m putting my money on the children. Right? The great Katherine Patterson quote about those of us who write middle grade have a covenant to end in hope. We have to always end with hope.

So, I started by thinking about what might some of these characters’ special interests be. What might they be passionate about or curious about? And how might those areas of expertise, if you will, come into play to help tell the story and to make it a truly collaborative experience that they couldn’t accomplish their goal of solving this mystery and exposing this conspiracy without each of them there, that each of them brings this unique point of view or skill set that allows the whole thing to unfold.

And so then I just sort of thought about the different characters and what those might be. And I grew up in the theater, my parents were both in the theater, so I thought, okay. And then my daughter, who, when she was in high school, worked in a dinner theater as a spotlight operator and as a busser. And so I thought, okay, well, maybe one of them has a family that runs a dinner theater. And maybe this kid would be the cinematographer for the dinner theater and do all of the videography for the archives and things. Okay, that could be fun.

And then my husband grew up on a ranch in South Texas and was a rodeo cowboy and had this whole life before he became a CPA. And I thought, okay, well, so maybe one of these kids is a ranch kid and aspires to ranch with his family because so often those businesses are multiple generations over decades. And then of course, I’m a big fan of a free press. And so I thought maybe one of these kids aspires to be a journalist.

And I’m also thinking through all of this, are different forms that could be fun in the course of a hybrid novel. So, okay, what if she’s a journalist, but let’s also give her a correspondence with a mentor so that she has somebody she can be talking to even if they aren’t responding to her. And then Ashanti, because she is sick in the first book, in Alone, they can’t have their secret sleepover, which is the beginning of the end for poor Maddie because Ashanti gets sick and can’t come. And I thought, well, what if her mom’s a doctor? And she also aspires to be a doctor.

Let’s, if we’re gonna write her in poetry, let’s give her some allusions to mythology and give her this interest in the Greek goddesses and Greek myths. And so it was, and I’ve always loved mythology, and I used to teach mythology when I taught English to ninth graders, and we did a lot of Ovid and a lot of the explorations of the underworld and all that. So it was really me sort of embedding some of my own curiosities and interests in these different characters, or the interests of people who I had access to, who I could then call upon.

My brother is a little bit of a savant when it comes to movies and films. So I could, I would be writing Teddy’s scenes. He’s the kid who loves videography. And I could text my brother and say, hey, what’s a great movie where this happens? And he’d write back to me like four different things. And I could go look and see, this one would be perfect. So I was really trying to leverage my resources, my own areas of expertise, my own interests, and create characters that could have some of those and bring them all together. I don’t know if I even answered your question.

Bianca Schulze, I think you really did. And I, you know, when you’re talking about Teddy loving the movies, like this is such a random question that I want to ask you is, is there a list anywhere, or will there be a list of every movie that Teddy mentions in the book? Because I thought that’d be such a cool blog post somewhere.

Megan E. Freeman Yes, it’s so funny you asked that. I just added it to my website yesterday. I have a page on my website that’s specifically resources for teachers. And so I added it. And my brother in conversations as we were working on this, he said, and when you make the list, you should put an asterisk for every movie that was a book first.

Bianca Schulze That’s hilarious.

Megan E. Freeman So that people will, so there is a list of all the movies mentioned and then there’s an asterisk to show which ones were books first. So yes, there is, it’s hot off the presses, right on my website.

Bianca Schulze That’s so fun. And of all the movies mentioned, do you or your brother have a favorite one on the list?

Megan E. Freeman Man, I would have to ask him if he does, and I would have to go look at the list to see. But the one that I was really thinking about from the beginning, and it was the first movie that sort of was introduced, was All the President’s Men because there are parallels to the experience that the kids in this book are having to the experience that Woodward and Bernstein had during Watergate and the impossibility of tackling a conspiracy at that level and on that scale.

So I came back to that story a lot. I also really love the film Spotlight, which is about the Boston Globe’s efforts, the Spotlight team at the Boston Globe’s effort to reveal the scandal in the Catholic Church in Boston. Those stories of muckrakers and journalists and making the world a better place through the efforts of courageous people up against huge odds, that’s a trope that I deeply resonate with and really love to see.

Bianca Schulze Yeah. Well, so I don’t want to give any spoilers away. So there’s this collection of kids, right? They all have very individual character traits, but all of those traits kind of come together to solve whether their situation is real or if there is a conspiracy, right? So it’s kind of like an adult, but kids do hear about these days from news and things like, you know, like fact check. Is this a conspiracy, or isn’t it? So my question is now, like, what’s your approach to writing authentic tween and teen experiences while keeping the story really engaging for that specific audience, right? Because we hear conspiracy theories, well, that sounds like a kind of an adult topic, but you address it on point for the age group. What’s your approach to make sure that you know that your content is engaging and keeps them wanting to turn the pages?

Megan E. Freeman So I actually, I had six different tween readers read for me at different points in this process, because I really, you know, it’s all well and good to have my critique partners read and give me feedback, but they’re 45 years old, right? And this is a book for young readers.

So, I had two readers read an early draft and give me feedback. And then I had four more. I actually met them at a school visit, and I was talking with their librarian, and I was at the point where I was going to need some more feedback soon. And I said, you know, they kind of just stood out to me, these four kids in the group that I, groups that I met. And I said, do you think they would be at all willing to help me out and read? And she said I think they would. So, I sent them the PDF, and they read it. Then she set up a Zoom for us, and we had a big Zoom meeting where they brought their notes. I asked them questions, and they offered me unsolicited suggestions that I hadn’t thought about.

And it was so hugely helpful. And one of the things that massively changed as a result was I had originally introduced Ashanti, the character, she’s one of the four kids. I had introduced her after everybody got to the shelter. We met the three kids first in the beginning, and then they all got evacuated, and then they got to the shelter, and then they met Ashanti when they arrived. And these four kids who read for me said, we want a lot more of Ashanti, and we want a lot more sooner.

And I totally agreed with them. I had kind of fallen in love with her over the course of reading the whole book. So I went back and I rewrote the whole beginning and I introduced her. I think now she’s actually on the second page or something like she’s really early on, and she became a much, much richer thread through the whole thing. And I don’t know that I would have had that insight if they hadn’t brought that to me.

So that’s just an example of the kind of feedback that I got from them. But they also pointed out questions where they were confused and places where they weren’t sure what was going on or where they didn’t understand something. And, of course, that’s hugely helpful. And I did the same thing with Alone. I worked on Alone for so many years that I had different readers at different points, but it was really helpful because I worked with a fourth-grade class who read Alone and were very confused by one of the action scenes where she’s attacked, or she’s just a face off against a pack of feral dogs.

And they weren’t sure what was happening. And I said to them, it was so great. I said, you know, it’s really clear in my head, but I haven’t translated this picture in my head to the page yet. And thank goodness you told me that it’s confusing, because I need to know that. So I think that’s the closest that I can come to sort of having a test market.

Bianca Schulze Yeah, I love that. Now, I did read your acknowledgments and I believe that the school was Westlake. Westlake Middle School, that’s actually my daughter’s school. Yeah. She could be, I don’t know. I’ll have to ask her. I haven’t shared my copy with her yet, so I’ll have to show her the names in the back and the acknowledgement and ask them if she knows them. But I thought that was so funny.

Megan E. Freeman Oh my gosh. So she’s probably friends with some of those kids. Yeah. That’s so funny. I love it. I was actually just emailing Ms. Israelson today because I’m going to give them all copies of the book, and I was inviting them to the book launch event that we’re going to have at the Boulder bookstore. And yeah, I mean, I am deeply indebted to them. It’s, it’s, it’s a better book because they took the time and trouble.

Bianca Schulze That’s so amazing. Well, the story also touches on some kind of uniquely rural experiences like the birthing of a cow. So, I’m curious about what kind of research or personal experiences helped you craft those authentic moments for your characters. So what kind of research? I know in your acknowledgments that you gave some thanks to the people who helped you here.

Megan E. Freeman Yes, yes, I am so lucky to have generous friends who are willing to share their expertise with me. And, of course, the internet is deeply, deeply helpful. So I mentioned my husband grew up on a ranch, and he has they had thousands of heads of cattle. So I asked him lots of questions about calving and about calves being born. I went down the YouTube rabbit hole and watched all these different videos of calves being born. I mean, I could do that all day. I just thought it was so cool and so beautiful.

Last year, for Christmas, he actually gave me a visit with a calf. There was a rancher nearby who had posted on Facebook that she had a calf that had been orphaned and that they were bottle feeding it and that if people wanted to come and bottle feed the calf they could and they were accepting donations for the calf, you know, all this. So I actually got to like, you know, have a face to face with this tiny darling little calf.

And then I was actually teaching a workshop at one point and one of the women in the workshop was a ranch wife and a rancher. I was, we were talking about novels in verse. It was a whole workshop on writing novels in verse and ways to think about it. And I was using that as part of the workshop, and she was like, yeah, we do this all the time. And so I said, Luanne, does this ring true? Are there things I should change? She’s like, no, it rings true.

So, I’ve leveraged multiple resources for that particular part. But I spent a lot of time on the FEMA website reading primary source documents that are provided to municipalities on things like reactions after a disaster, emergency management plans for cities and towns, all that kind of language and documentation that’s provided so that people can have a plan in place when a disaster happens. I was actually an advocate with our Boulder County Sheriff’s Office for about eight years, responding on scene to different tragedies or emergencies and helping victims of traumatic events.

We worked the Marshall fires when they happened in 2021, and we were part of the disaster assistance center that was set up in response to that. So I’ve had some first-person experience in certain settings, and then I’ve been fortunate enough to have people reach out to me. I have a friend who was a career military officer and then taught at West Point in his later career. And he read the whole thing, and I did not know that, like if you’re naming military locations like a camp or a fort or a, I’m thinking of some of the other words that he used as examples, but a base, all of those words are very specific to either specific purposes or specific branches of the military or their federal or their state, you know, there are all these nuances—we lay people use them interchangeably, but military people don’t.

So things like that were super interesting for me to learn and also make corrections about. I think in the original draft that he read, was called Fort Rogers. And I ended up changing it to Camp Rogers based on the parameters that I wanted it to meet and the logistics that he was explaining. So it was a lot, I learned a lot going down these rabbit holes, but it was very much a collaborative effort for sure.

Bianca Schulze That’s so fun. I feel like when you read a book as a reader, and probably even if I think back to before I started to do writing myself, I’m sure the books that resonate the most with readers are the books where this much effort has actually gone in behind the scenes. But yet, as the reader, that’s unknown to you. But because of that research and the heart and joy that went into writing it. That’s what the reader receives, and that’s why it resonates. And so I love knowing like all of that kind of like more geeky scientific, like factual, like information that comes into something so creative and exciting and page turning with you. So that’s so fun.

Megan E. Freeman Yeah, yeah. I was in an SCBWI workshop years ago with Laurie Halse Anderson and it was all about research and writing historical fiction. And she showed us these great images of where she used colors to show these are the historical pieces that I put in for my research, and this is the fictional part and how it changed over the iterations of her drafts; a lot of the research got edited out, down to sort of the, it was distilled down to the essential pieces that helped create the world, but there was so much more to begin with for her to be able to then shape it and distill it down into something that worked narratively, you know? And it was exactly what you’re describing. It was a visual illustration of how that happens.

Bianca Schulze So fun. She’s such an amazing writer. Well, there’s a wonderful little detail about coffee cake making any situation better. When I read that, again, my entire family would be cheering on. For the absolute most random question of the day, do you have a favorite coffee cake recipe?

Megan E. Freeman I actually do have a favorite coffee cake recipe and it’s from the Vegetarian Times cookbook and it uses prunes. And I think that’s what makes it so delicious. I’ll see if I can find it and I’ll email it to you.

Bianca Schulze Yeah, amazing. We’re hands down the Ina Garten Barefoot Contessa Sour Cream Coffee Cake recipe. But I could probably convince my family to try a different one.

Megan E. Freeman Well, you could have more than one. You could have multiple options on the same table.

Bianca Schulze Yeah, exactly, exactly. Well, I listened to the audio version of Alone. So I actually didn’t read Alone; I listened to Alone. And hopefully I’ll pronounce her name correctly, but it’s narrated by Gail Schallon. And gosh, did she do such an amazing job. Like she had all the right inflections and tone that just like, you know, just really added to the emotion I thought.

And some authors say that listening to their audiobooks reveals new aspects of their work. So when they’re listening to it, they take away different things from their writing. So my question now is, have you listened to the audiobook narration of both Alone and Away? Because I saw that Away is also going to have the audiobook version. And if so, what was that experience like for you?

Megan E. Freeman I absolutely listened to Alone and reached out to Gail. And something that I didn’t know as a debut author was that the publishers actually sent me multiple audio files to listen to different narrators and asked for my input and my agent’s input. And my agent and I listened to, I think we had five different files. And we both agreed that Gail’s style and her performance and her voice were our first choice. And so then we were really excited when they were able to get her, and she was available.

Listening to somebody else read the book is always illuminating, always, because they will see and hear different things and emphasize different aspects of a thought or an emotion or a story. And in fact, reading it out loud or having it read out loud is a really great revision strategy that I use a lot. And there, I even have friends who will have a robot read it to them, speechify or Microsoft Word or one of those to read it out loud because you hear things that your eyes don’t necessarily see or hear.

And I’ve actually become friends with Gail online because I was such a huge fan of hers and I was so thrilled that she was able to do it. And incidentally, she’s an amazing artist in another aspect. She has a whole puppet theater life with huge, beautiful art, artistic kinds of puppets. So anyway, she’s a fascinating person. It’s so cool.

With Away, I just the other day heard the audio file that is on the Simon and Schuster website. That’s just a little snippet. It’s about four and a half minutes long. And I’m so excited about it because they’re using a cast of five actors. So, which I had hoped for, I had inquired about whether that would be a possibility.

And when they said that it was, then they sent me audio files of actors that I could listen to and say, I think this one would be really great for Ashanti, and this one would be great for Grandin. Once again, they were my first choice of all five actors. So, I just feel like I won the author lottery. And just listening to that first minute, four and a half minutes, I can’t wait to hear the whole thing. I cannot wait. I’m so excited.

Bianca Schulze Wow, I feel like just after reading Away and the fact I’m a huge audiobook fan, I love audiobooks. And I could just imagine how great that’s going to be with the different characters and perspectives and the way you’ve told it and hearing it in those different voices. Like, I mean, I kind of want to make a road trip for my family just so we can we can turn it on. I love it. I love it.

Megan E. Freeman Just drive around the state.

Bianca Schulze Well, now for the classic question. Well, no, actually, no, I don’t want to go there yet. I want to ask you first if you have a favorite part of Away. Do you have a favorite moment? And would you be willing to read a snippet if you have your copy handy?

Megan E. Freeman I would be happy to read a snippet. I don’t know if this is a favorite part because, honestly, my relationship with Away is still evolving. I feel like I understand Alone now so much better because I’ve had conversations with so many readers.

Megan E. Freeman And so my answer to that question might change in a year after I’ve had a chance to visit schools and meet kids and talk about the book. And I love all of the characters so much, but I have a special spot in my heart for Grandin. He’s the ranch kid who grows up in the mountains and ranches with his family. And I think it’s because he was inspired by my husband, and I quite adore him. So, I would love to read just a little section from Grandin. And this is early on in the story. This is after they have gotten the order to evacuate; Grandin’s father and mother are not happy about evacuating.

They’re not eager to go. Obviously, if you leave farm animals, domesticated farm animals, they’ll die, right? They depend on the humans to care for them and the stakes are very high. And so they are reluctantly evacuated by the sheriff’s deputy and they are mustering at the Timberline Regional Airport where everybody has been told to gather for further instructions for the evacuation. So this is from Grandin’s point of view.

[reading from Away]

“Saturday, 7:03 a.m. At the embarkation point, Dad refuses to give up his cell phone. People around us step back. Ma looks at Dad. Please, honey. He shrugs her away. Soldier doesn’t ask. This time, Soldier tells. Dad says, come and get it. Two huge men grab him, wrench the phone from his grip. He staggers backward. They turn to Ma and me.

We hand over our phones. Dad says no way is he boarding a plane, but there are no planes. Only personnel carriers painted camouflage along the runways. They herd us along an inch at a time. Bodies shift forward in waves. I’ve never swum in the ocean. After this, I never want to. Ma climbs up into a carrier. Then my turn. Foot on the step. Dad is behind me until just that quick.

He disappears, gone. Can’t see him anywhere, nowhere, all directions. The undertow pulls me deeper into the truck, a riptide of bodies pushing where I am away from where I need to be. Then Ma in my ear, let him go. Glances at the soldier up front, puts a finger to her lips, whispers, think of the stock, the calf. I can’t move, backward, forward, can’t move, trapped.

Dad’s not afraid to disobey, but I am. What if the threat really is imminent?”

Bianca Schulze Thank you for reading that. I love that bit because it kind of it shows like who Grandin is like you know just somebody who wants to do good in the world right but it also shows the drama of like what’s going on and it’s also you know again no spoilers but that’s a telling moment right there you know so I love that I’m glad you picked that spot.

Megan E. Freeman Thank you. Thanks for the invitation.

Bianca Schulze So, this is the classic question. What impact do you hope Away will have on its readers?

Megan E. Freeman You know, my answer to that question is almost always the same, no matter what book we’re talking about, whether it’s a book I’ve read or written or someone else has written. I want kids to fall in love with reading. And if they read Away and put it down and say, ooh, I want to read something else, then I will feel very satisfied. Of course, there are; I hope that they feel empowered as people the way these kids empower themselves in this story. I hope that they feel that they have something to offer the world, that their unique gifts and interests matter, all of those things. I hope all of those things. But really, I want them to fall in love with reading.

And when I do school visits, my one goal in every school is to get them excited to read. And if when I leave the school, they are saying to their teachers or their friends, I can’t wait to get my hands on that book or any book. You know, I like to introduce other books that I have nothing to do with as well. Then I feel really happy and satisfied. So that’s my wish for this book, that it will grow more readers.

Bianca Schulze Well, you know, I’m a fan of that—growing readers podcast.

Megan E. Freeman There you go. Exactly.

Bianca Schulze Well, Megan, thank you so much for taking us through the world of Alone and Away today and your commitment to crafting stories that make young readers feel seen and heard. I think it shines through in your really thoughtful approach to tackling the complex themes that you do and through all of these multiple perspectives. So, just in general, thank you for being so open about your writing process and for bringing us into the story behind your stories. I know that our growing readers listeners will be inspired by you today, just as I am. So thank you.

Megan E. Freeman Thank you. Thank you so much and thanks for all you do for readers and authors. We really, really appreciate you.

Bianca Schulze Mm, pleasure.

Show Notes

Away

Written by Megan E. Freeman

Ages 10+ | 480 Pages

Publisher: Aladdin | ISBN-13: 9781665959728

Publisher’s Book Summary: A group of children investigate the threat that prompted large-scale evacuations in this powerful and dramatic companion novel to the New York Times bestselling Alone told in multiple POVs.

After an imminent yet unnamed danger forces people across Colorado to leave their homes, a group of kids including an aspiring filmmaker and a budding journalist find themselves in the same evacuation camp. As they cope with the aftermath of having their world upended, they grow curious about the mysterious threat.

And as they begin to investigate, they start to discover that there’s less truth and more cover-up to what they’re being told. Can they get to the root of the conspiracy, expose the bad actors, and bring an end to the upheaval before it’s too late?

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About the Author

Megan E. Freeman attended an elementary school where poets visited her classroom every week to teach poetry, and she has been a writer ever since. Her New York Times bestselling novel in verse, ALONE, won the Colorado Book Award, the Massachusetts, Maine, and Vermont Children’s Book Awards, the High Plains Book Award, is an NCTE Notable Verse Novel, and is included on over two dozen “best of” and state reading lists.

Megan is also a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet and the author of the poetry chapbook Lessons on Sleeping Alone. An award-winning teacher with decades of classroom experience, Megan is nationally recognized for her work leading workshops and speaking to audiences across the country. Megan used to live in northeast Los Angeles, central Ohio, northern Norway, and on Caribbean cruise ships. Now she divides her time between northern Colorado and the Texas Gulf Coast.

For more information, visit https://www.meganefreeman.com/⁠