Paula Berinstein’s Amanda Lester novels introduce a new YA heroine. Teenage Amanda, a budding film buff, is reluctant to embrace the family business—detective work. She is descended from Inspector Lestrade of the Sherlock Holmes novels and stories. But when she is admitted to the Legatum Continuatum School for the descendants of famous detectives, she gets caught up in mysteries that need solving, with the help of her trusty video camera. Berinstein, who hosts the podcast The Writing Show and whose Amanda Lester books include Amanda Lester and the Pink Sugar Conspiracy and Amanda Lester and the Orange Crystal Crisis, talked to PW about how and why she created Amanda.
Can you say a bit about your history with Sherlock Holmes and mysteries?
If I hadn’t read Sherlock Holmes, Nancy Drew, and Trixie Belden when I was a kid, I don’t know what would have become of me. I’ve internalized them so completely that I’d be a different person without them. My favorite Holmes stories are The Hound of the Baskervilles and “The Red-Headed League.” In Hound, the setting—creepy, isolated moors with treacherous bogs and wild animals—practically tells the story. Add to that a mysterious curse, physical evidence to analyze, and Holmes’s signature use of disguise, and you’ve got the perfect gothic mystery. “The Red-Headed League” is a favorite partly because I once created a puppet show based on the story, and it’s a wonderful example of Conan Doyle misleading his readers.
Does using Inspector Lestrade—a minor character in the original Holmes stories—free you in ways that following Holmes might not have?
We don’t notice minor characters much, but they are stars of their own stories. The guy directing traffic, the kid who scoops your ice cream: these people might be utterly fascinating. I definitely feel that way about Lestrade. We see him bumble about, but how much do we really know about him? I’m just dying to hear his story.
You’re right: I could never write Holmes. He’s just too iconic. But Lestrade and his descendants are another matter. I also created a descendant of Holmes, but he’s far removed from Sherlock and a creature of his own time.
These books delve into worlds like those of classic mysteries and J.K. Rowling. Was it challenging to find your own ways of extending and inhabiting them?
I have been making up imaginary worlds my whole life. But now that there are so many famous imaginary worlds, such as the Harry Potter universe, I worry about being different as well as creative. I may be heavily influenced by Rowling—and I am in the sense that I’ve learned a lot from her—but each aspect of Amanda’s world is something I came up with independently. And yet one person said, “Your blah-blah is too much like Harry Potter.” But of course a lot of books are like Harry Potter because there are certain story conventions that are impossible to escape. For example, my series is set at a boarding school. Lots of kids’ stories are. Does that make me a copycat? I don’t see how. School is a huge part of kids’ lives, so it’s natural that it be a major part of kids’ books. A boarding school is just another kind of school.
Amanda uses portable video technology. With all the controversy about “screen time,” how do you feel your heroine is encouraging a positive use of this kind of tech?
I hope she’s doing that. Often when Amanda is looking at a screen, she’s creating a movie or learning her craft. She shoots and edits her movies using screens, she does research using screens, she communicates with the other detectives using screens: this is very different from frittering away her time. She’s ambitious. She knows she’ll never achieve her goals if she doesn’t keep moving forward. So, for her, devices with screens are simply tools.
Can you talk a bit about your self-publishing journey?
I’ve already published books through traditional publishers, so I know the process well. That’s really helped. I was also incredibly lucky to find a wonderful cover artist, Anna Mogileva. Here is Paula’s self-pub advice in a nutshell: be quirky; go for top quality; don’t talk at people—listen and be helpful.
What’s next for you and Amanda?
I like to throw obstacles in the way of my characters, and I will continue to do that. In book four, Amanda Lester and the Blue Peacocks’ Secret, an old enemy forces Amanda to make difficult choices, and one of her heroes falls off his pedestal. In book five, Amanda Lester and the Red Spider Rumpus, a new villain emerges. And of course, as always, there are monkeys.
This page is sponsored by Paula Berinstein
