On Thursday, Jan. 15th, Joelle Charbonneau, New York Times bestselling author known for “The Testing Trilogy”, held a video conference in the library with sixteen Canyon Vista students during 6th period. Sixth and seventh graders who submitted a Get Lost in a Lone Star form for “The Testing” before Dec. 31, 2014 were invited to attend this video conference, while some eighth graders who were in the Lunch Bunch Book Club participated as well.

Students asked several questions about writing, reading, and her novel during this video call. Mae Bruce, an 8th grader asked, “Who was your favorite author in middle school?” Charbonneau replied, “Stephen King. I read a lot of Stephen King, I started reading his books when I was 10. I also read a lot of mysteries.”

Another question came from Dinah Bray, a 6th grader, “How long did it take you to write “The Testing”?” Many were shocked when Charbonneau replied with a mere nine and a half weeks, as the quality of the book made it seem like the writing process would have taken much longer.

When 7th grader Olivia Du asked, “How do you find inspiration if you have writer’s block?” Charbonneau answered with a metaphor; “So in “The Matrix”, it’s a computer simulated world, so if you’re walking around in it and you were aware of it, then you could control it. So there was this kid who was doing weird things with a spoon. One character asked him, ‘How are you doing that?’ And the kid said, ‘I don’t believe it’s real.’ I don’t believe in writer’s block. In “The Matrix”, if you believe the spoon is there, you can’t make it do all those cool bendy things because it’s real. Writer’s block is giving yourself an excuse to not write, and then waiting for a cosmic thing to happen. If you give yourself permission to not write, you’re building up a wall and every day it gets higher and thicker. The more and more you tell yourself you have a problem, then the spoon gets more and more real to you.”

For those who are unfamiliar with the “The Testing”, Charbonneau’s young adult novel is set in a futuristic world where the Seven Stages War left most of our planet a barren wasteland. The few who are chosen from the next generation will rebuild Earth. However, they must first pass The Testing, which is their only chance of attending a college and being assigned to a career to help make the world a better place to live in. When Cia Vale, the main character, finds out she has been chosen to participate in The Testing, she is honored and excited. After all, she had worked all her life towards being a part of The Testing. However, her father’s sinister advice to trust no one suggests a hidden side to The Testing. Will she trust in her father, or Tomas, a childhood friend who proposes an alliance?

Charbonneau’s inspiration for this book came from one of her voice lesson students–she has degrees in Music Performance and Opera Performance, as she had always had a passion for singing and acting.  Her students had been going through the college application process, and when one of her students had a meltdown in Charbonneau’s living room, Charbonneau told her student it couldn’t possibly get any worse. This started the idea for “The Testing”. “All I knew was the opening scenario. There would only be one college, and for that to happen, the world would have to be destroyed.” she mentioned, and from that a bestselling trilogy blossomed.