Mindy McGinnis, an Edgar Award-winning author, visited South High this week to share a little bit about her books and her life.
McGinnis, a native Ohioan, still resides there with her dog Gus and cat Minnow. While McGinnis said she was never necessarily inspired by other writers, she did read a lot of Stephen King’s horror novels as a kid and liked his writing style.
McGinnis said that she used to be a librarian but always wanted to be a writer instead.
“As a kid, I always made up stories, and when I went to college, my class read a common book, and I hated it,” she said. McGinnis also said that after reading that book, she decided to draft a book and prove that she could do better. She added that she hated the first book she wrote more than the book she read.
Eventually, she started publishing books once she got better at writing. “I write books that I wish I had as a kid,” McGinnis said.
Her first published book was “Not a Drop to Drink.”
“I remember watching a documentary about not having any water, and my mind immediately thought the worst,” McGinnis said. That night, McGinnis had a dream that she was teaching her daughter how to use a gun to protect the pond McGinnis had in her backyard. When she woke up, she said she was inspired by the dream to write a book about a teenager who must protect her pond from people trying to steal water from it.
Another of McGinnis’ books is “Under This Red Rock.” McGinnis explained that she lives in the middle of nowhere in Ohio, and one summer a tornado took out their electricity. McGinnis said it was extremely hot, so she decided to take her daughters to the Ohio Caverns. She explained that it was nice and cool in the caverns, and the tour guides turned off the lights, making it pitch black.
“After about 20 seconds, they turned the lights back on, and I started to think the worst,” said McGinnis. She added that she thought about the tour guide being dead and also thought she would need to start figuring out who to eat if she had to eat someone to stay alive.
McGinnis said she turned around and realized a tour guide in the back was counting the people and making sure everyone was there. Then she started thinking, “What if we had an extra person with us, or what if someone went missing?”
After having these thoughts, McGinnis said she was inspired to write a story about a girl who hears voices, and the only place she does not hear them is in the caverns. The girl decides to get a job as a tour guide but starts to become obsessed with another tour guide. She asks out the tour guide, but the guide rejects her. The next day she has no memory of what happened and finds her crush brutally murdered. The character then tries to solve the murder to find out if she was the one who killed the tour guide.
“The characters in my books are not based on anyone,” said McGinnis. McGinnis also said that she doesn’t believe that anyone is good or bad; we all have a good side and bad side.
McGinnis’ books are available in the South library for any student to check out.
