Please welcome to the blog the awe-inspiring Katia Raina, who is here to talk about her young adult novel! Take it away, Katia!
I find myself at a thrilling turn of my life’s journey. Today, I am the debut author of Castle of Concrete, a young adult romance set in 1990s Russia, coming this June from Young Europe Books. Once a relentless journalist, now a goofy middle school English teacher, always a stubborn early morning writer, I am excited to share a bit of my story with you here on L. Marie’s blog.
My story starts across the ocean in a small Ukrainian city, then Siberia, then Moscow, Russia.
On the outside, I was a quiet Russian girl (photo at left), a shy one, an odd one. On the inside, I was Jewish, and proud, even though I knew early on it was not a thing to advertise. I didn’t have many friends, so I surrounded myself with dream worlds of romance, science fiction and fairy tales.
No matter the genre, it was easy to identify with outcasts and outsiders. I wondered what separated some people from others. I wondered why people did that—allowed some to belong, while pushing others away.
My story starts with lots of loneliness—lots of quiet, lots of missing of my dear mama, who was struggling to put her life together far away from me—as my grandmother did her best to raise me. Looking back, I recognize the quiet wasn’t always filled with loneliness. The quiet in which I grew up gave me the chance to look closely at the world and take note. It gave me lots and lots of space in which to dream and to wonder. Though I didn’t know it then, it seems so obvious now—it was this quiet that formed the writer I would become.
While I was growing up, my country, then called the Soviet Union, was crumbling under the Communist rule. Lots of resentment building, ready to burst out. Because my grandfather had left the country for the shiny America, we were considered to be in many ways a “traitor’s family.” This made things even harder for my mother, an aspiring journalist trying to get into a good university or land a solid job. Being Jewish didn’t help either.
I emigrated to the United States with my family just before I turned 16. That was when I knew I found my home at last, in this land of diversity and variety. As I grew up, became a journalist and started a family of my own, the memories and questions of childhood and adolescence rose back to the surface, and I began writing a romance novel about a shy Jewish girl in the last year of the collapsing Soviet Union, reuniting with her long-absent dissident mother and falling in love with a boy who may be an anti-Semite.
I didn’t set out to write historical fiction. I didn’t necessarily make a conscious decision to become an author for young adults, either. I just wrote the story that had been bursting to come out. Even so, it took me 15 years to get this story just right. Now I am overjoyed to share it with the world.
Many ask if Sonya Solovay, the protagonist of Castle of Concrete, is based on me, and if the story I wrote is based on real events of my childhood. It’s a surprisingly hard question to answer. While this story came onto the page straight from my soul, and while Sonya and I definitely have a lot in common, this story is fiction—bits of memory and reality intertwined so tightly with fancy and imagination, that at this point for me, it’s kind of impossible to tell the two apart. One thing about this story that is very real though, is my struggle as a teen to find my strength and my voice, and to learn to embrace all parts of me, including ones I understood so little about, such as my Jewish roots.
This is why I wrote Castle of Concrete, and this is what I hope readers take away from it. The inspiration to learn about the heritage and history that make them who they are. The courage to make their journey their own.
Castle of Concrete Synopsis: Set in the final year of Soviet Russia’s collapse, this stunning debut novel tells the story of Sonya, a timid Jewish girl reuniting with her once-dissident mother and falling in love with a mysterious muddy-eyed boy who may be an anti-Semite. All the while, Sonya’s mama is falling in love also⎯with shiny America, a land where differences seem to be celebrated. The place sounds amazing, but so far away. Will Sonya ever find her way there?
Bio
When she was a child, Katia Raina played at construction sites and believed in magic mirrors. She emigrated from Russia at the age of almost sixteen. A former journalist and currently a middle school English teacher in Washington, D.C., she has an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She lives with her family just outside of D.C., and still believes in magic.
L. Marie here. I’ll be giving away a preorder of Castle of Concrete. Comment below to be entered in the drawing. Winner to be announced on February 25.
Looking for Katia? You can find her on Facebook, Twitter, her blog (The Magic Mirror), and Goodreads.
Author, childhood photo, and book cover courtesy of Katia Raina. Map from maps.nationmaster.com. . Russian fairy tale images, including the Palekh miniature, are from rbth.com and russian-crafts.com.
Thanks for introducing us to Katia, L. Marie. Wishing her the best on the release. I’m sure her students are excited for her. I love that she believed in magic mirrors!
Me too, Jill! I appreciate Katia’s love for fairy tales. When searching for images to add to the post, I loved looking at the beautiful images of Russian fairy tales. Such a rich history! 😃
Thank you, Jill! My students are so, so excited 🙂
Reblogged this on Legends of Windemere.
Thanks, Charles!
You’re welcome.
Are you still looking to do guest posts on blogs? Are we to supply the topic to be covered?
I’m still looking, but I have you down already. Thanks.
Okay.
Good morning, Katia. Two items stand out in your post: You say you are a goofy middle school English teacher. I think my son would agree! Also, you emigrated from Russia as a teenager. A few years ago my husband and I visited Ukraine. Not to generalize, but Ukrainians (who speak Russian) love art. We saw fine art everywhere, even on the exterior walls of buildings.
I’m glad you still believe in magic.
Thanks for featuring Katia, L. Marie!
I feel privileged to do so, Marian! And how lovely that you were able to visit Ukraine. 😃
Hi Marian! I was born in Vinnitsa, a small city not far from Kiev, which I also frequented. Speaking of my love of art, there is a painting of my birth city hanging in my little writing corner, which I treasure.
Thank you for hosting Katia! Her novel sounds fascinating. Historical fiction is a wonderful way to learn about history and other countries. Katia’s belief in magic probably makes her an awesome middle school teacher 🙂
I would say so, Marie! Wish I’d had a teacher like Katia during my middle school years! 😄
So true about historical fiction. I like to think you’d pick up an interesting fact or two or three about Russia in CASTLE of CONCRETE 🙂 And thank you!
I’m so excited about this book and happy that you, Katia, kept going on it despite the obstacles!
I kind of felt like I had no choice, Lyn. I was compelled to. I am sure you know the feeling! XO
Me too, Lyn!
The story of both Katia and Sonya sound very inspiring. Congratulations to Katia on this wonderful accomplishment.
It is indeed very inspiring, Lori!
Thank you, Lori!
L.Marie: always a treat to meet someone on your blog.
Katia, wonderful to hear of your journey to discover your hidden roots…and then weave a story with (he)art…
Congrats!
Thank you! ❤
Laura, it’s always a treat for me as well! Thank you for coming along to meet Katia! 😀
oops PS- please take me off the give away list. I won the last one!
Thank you for stopping by though. 😄
Sounds great, Katia! And thank you, LM.
Katia’s statement (“The quiet in which I grew up gave me the chance to look closely at the world and take note.”) made me think of a favorite quote:
There is only one trait that marks the writer. He is always watching. It’s a kind of trick of the mind and he is born with it. ~ Morley Callahan
Good luck!
Great quote, Nancy! Love that! It reminds me to take time to observe more, instead of staring at my phone or having to be entertained. I need to embrace the quiet.
That is exactly it, Nancy. A writer is always observing!
L. Marie – thanks for this lovely post and introduction to Katia – and how nice to meet you here at El Space, Katia. Isn’t it amazing what we find out about ourselves on our way to something else? Best of wishes on the release of your book.
I’m always glad to feature authors here, Penny. 😄 Yes, it is amazing hat we learn about ourselves. There are many mirrors in life that help us.
Thank you so much! It’s been such a pleasure to meet everyone here as well. Such thoughtful questions and comments!
Mirrors scared me when I was a child, so I am in awe of Katia! Congrats on her book release. That’s quite exciting.
I would love to see a post from you on scary mirrors, Ally. 😄
Now there’s an idea. Will think on it, try to remember just why I was scared of them… 🤔
Yay!
Thank you, Ally. That is so fascinating — a fear of mirrors. I actually have a horror middle grade story in the works featuring mirrors. But I didn’t realize this fear was a real thing. I’d love to talk to you about it sometime!
My guess about my childhood fear of mirrors is that it stemmed from that Snow White magic mirror on the wall scene from the 1930s Disney movie. There was someone in that mirror and he was creepy and scared the snot out of me. After seeing that movie I became suspicious of all framed mirrors, never knowing who might be in one. However mirrors in the bathroom didn’t bother me at all, so go figure.
Wow. I see what you mean, Ally. The mirror in Snow White was creepy. I wonder if it gave a lot of kids nightmares (like the flying monkey in Wizard of Oz gave me).
Oh. Those. Flying Monkeys. They scared me, too. But I knew they weren’t real, unlike all the old antique mirrors we had in our home that might have something wicked inside them. 😳
Antique mirrors are creepy! Especially if they’re in old bedrooms. When I was a kid, I used to be afraid to sleep in old bedrooms with mirrors.
Exactly!
😀
Thank you, Linda, for introducing us to Katia.
Katia, you mentioned Siberia among other places. What part of Siberia do you include in your book. My daughter spent more than two years in Magadan starting in 1991. My husband and I visited her there in 1992 or 1993. It was definitely an interesting time in Russia.
I’m glad she could be here on the blog, Nicki! 😀
Siberia was part of Sonya’s childhood memories, it’s not really *in* the book, per se. But 1990-91 are the years I cover in CASTLE OF CONCRETE, so your daughter would definitely recognize the spirit of the times, for sure. I, on the other hand, spent some of my childhood in Barnaul, Siberia, which is a city on the banks of the Ob’ River.
Congratulations Katia on your debut novel, I love your story and the fact you took fifteen years refining the tale you had to tell.
Thank you, Andy. It’s crazy long, isn’t it? But that’s what this story needed! I love that you love that. 🙂
I think that’s awesome too, Andy!
This story recalls the antisemitism in Europe and elsewhere is like a snake whom we have never ended to crush the head !
Love ❤
Michel
I agree, Michel! It is time that snake was crushed!
Love to you and Janine! ❤️
Antisemitism is definitely still here, maybe it will be here for as long as some people hate “others.”
We need that to change!
Absolutely, all of that hate needs to go!!!