Interview with Nancy McCabe, Author of Vaulting through Time

 

Thanks for visiting YAOTL, Nancy! And congrats on all the awards that Vaulting through Time has garnered. Please tell us a bit about the book:

Thanks so much! Vaulting through Time is the story of Elizabeth, a competitive gymnast who has developed fear issues, especially about throwing herself over the vault. She has also developed an embarrassing crush on her best friend Zach. But she soon discovers that she has much bigger problems: her mother has withheld from her a secret about her origins. And she also discovers that a watch she and Zach found in an abandoned house is a time machine, enabling her to travel to the past and find out the truth about where she comes from. But the time machine malfunctions, and then a thief steals it, threatening to strand her in the past and erase her existence. In the end, the only way for her to put things right is to face her greatest fears and perform a vault that she’s completely ill-equipped for at 1988 Olympic Trials.

I love the genre-bending here: sci-fi, history, and sports. What techniques did you use to balance these threads?

My favorite stories don’t fit neatly into one genre, but borrow from many (which is why I’m driven crazy by the increasing segregation into genres in bookstores like Barnes and Noble.) And as a writer, I think it’s important to go where the story wants to take me. There are elements of contemporary fiction and mystery as well as a little touch of romance in the book as well as the sci fi and historical elements and the aspects of sports fiction. My aim is just to tell a good story and not worry too much about how it fits into a genre.

I’m so intrigued by the time traveling in this book–the novel opens with a description of flying, and in so many ways, Elizabeth flies through the entire novel. You’re allowing Elizabeth to meet her biological mother face to face–at a similar age to Elizabeth, rather than in present day, which I find such an interesting choice. How did you decide to approach adoption and meeting one’s biological parents using time travel?

It seemed to me that Elizabeth can best understand her birth mother by first discovering what they have in common and why she makes the choices that she does. Becoming friends with her when they’re the same age ultimately is very bonding and healing for both of them. As an adoptive parent of a Chinese-American daughter, I’m constantly aware that even if my daughter can ever find her birth family, they won’t speak the same language or have the same cultural frames of reference, and such communication gaps can also allow adoptive parents to not see birth parents as full human beings. I wanted to write a story that portrays the complexity of the decisions that birth parents often make—and the ways in which circumstances can force their choices. To some extent, Elizabeth’s journey is a metaphor for the connection that I wish all adopted children and birth parents could experience.

I’m also really intrigued by the decision to include other time traveling family members, including a grandmother who traveled back in time and accidentally got stuck. This seems to be a metaphor to some extent for how we can find ourselves stuck in a place in time mentally or in our hearts, yes?

I like that interpretation! And of course also the grandmother is another birth parent who makes a really difficult, easily misunderstood choice regarding one of her biological children.

Are you a plotter? Pantser? Any tips for weaving together a book featuring different eras in time?

I think of myself as a hybrid of both! A plotser? I start off with an idea of where I’m going but I also leave the story open to what happens along the way. I thought I knew what this story was, but then all of a sudden a character made off with an identical time machine, putting Elizabeth in a danger I hadn’t anticipated. I tried to resist that plot development but finally I grudgingly realized that I was just going to have to follow it and see where it took the story. I think in a good process the subconscious takes over and can make stories much more interesting than what we originally intended. We have to be wiling to follow that.

Elizabeth is bi-racial, and this often plays a role in her feelings of not fitting in. This is only compounded by the realization that she is adopted. How did you approach weaving her background into the story?

Thank you for this insightful question. I found this to be a tricky part of the story. If Elizabeth, who is partially based on my daughter, had been fully Chinese, her mother would never have been able to keep her background a secret. Eventually, I decided that Elizabeth would start to find out the truth through a genetic test. In the book, she is only beginning to understand the implications of being bi-racial and her lifelong feelings of not fitting in, and meeting her birth father is a step toward gaining more of an understanding of her background. I think there could be a sequel to this book about Elizabeth exploring her heritage further, also through time travel.

I was also struck by the pressure to succeed here–and how an athlete has to find that balance (a center of gravity) between internal validation and external success. You say you’re a gymnastic mom in your bio–did your personal experience come into play here?

Very much so! And again, I love your eye for metaphor because in so many ways Elizabeth has to find her center of gravity. After eight years competing, my daughter reached a point where she was struggling with that tension between internal and external validation. She was getting good scores and a lot of approval, but she was also realizing that for her that was no longer motivating. She was very interested in current events and politics and and travel and literature and just exploring the world around her in a bigger way than a time-consuming life in gymnastics was allowing her. I related to some extent because I played the piano growing up and just reached a point where I wanted to do other things, not put the work into something that I felt I had limited talent at even if my teachers and parents had dreams for me that I didn’t share. Elizabeth inherited both my adolescent anguish over my decisions as well as my daughter’s very particular feelings and decisions about leaving gymnastics.

You have an extensive writing and teaching background, but I believe this is your first foray into YA. What drew you to YA? Why now?

I have always loved YA and have always read it along with many other genres. Sorting out my own identity as an adolescent was an intense experience that set the scene for so many other stages of my life, and I love the way YA literature tackles those identity issues. It’s probably no accident that I began writing Vaulting through Time when my own daughter was beginning to face those same kinds of questions.

Early in the novel, Elizabeth says, "If I could time travel, I'd go back to a week ago and never find out any of this." This is after her revelation that her parents are not her biological parents. What message do you hope young readers take away about uncovering uncomfortable truths and facing who you are?

We often resist grappling with uncomfortable truths, but Elizabeth is ultimately so much better off as a result of her journey. She grows and matures through her experience, deepens her relationships, and comes to a much greater understanding of who she is and what she wants. And again, I love the way you allude to the way time travel can serve as a metaphor for the kind of journey of discovery that can enrich our own lives.

What’s next?

I have a middle grade novel, Fires Burning Underground, coming out next April. It’s about a friendship, a Ouija board, and the tension between the creativity and imagination that comes so easily in childhood and the sometimes wrenching process of embarking on discovering who we are that initiates us into adolescence.

I’m also just getting started on another time travel story about Zach’s little sister Zara, who finds the watch and strikes out on her own adventure.

Where can we find you?

My website is https://www.nancymccabe.net

Thank you so much for this interview and these great questions!