Thieves' Gambit, Ep. 1: Intro
Introducing Season 2! We're taking a deep dive into Kavyion Lewis's YA thriller THIEVES’ GAMBIT. Find out why we chose it and what we have in store for this season.
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Transcript
[00:00:00] Anne-Marie Strohman: What? Everyone doesn't instantly relate to this wild life of crime? What? That was a line I was not prepared to read!
[00:00:08] Erin Nuttall: I know!
[Music intro]
[00:00:26] Anne-Marie Strohman: Welcome to season two of the Kid Lit Craft Podcast. We had so much fun last season, deconstructing Martine Levitt's YA novel Buffalo Flats. We decided to do it all over again, and this season we're taking a deep dive into Kavyion Lewis's YA novel, Thieves’ Gambit.
[00:00:31] Erin Nuttall: It's been described as The Inheritance Games meets Ocean’s Eleven. So yeah, pretty much the opposite of Buffalo Flats and I am really excited to dive into it.
[00:00:42] Anne-Marie Strohman: I am Anne-Marie Stroman, and I write for children and young adults as well as short stories for adults, and I am here with…
[00:00:48] Erin Nuttall: Erin Nuttall. Hello everyone. I also write for children and young adults, and I like to focus on young adults.
[00:00:56] Anne-Marie Strohman: On Kid Lit Craft, we take a look at mentor texts to discover the mechanics of how writers do what they do, so we can apply it to our own writing. And if you're curious about our backstory and how this podcast came to be, you can check out the first episode of our Buffalo Flats first season, where we tell you all about how we know each other.
[00:01:16] Erin Nuttall: That's right. It's such a tiresome story. We can only tell it once.
[Laughter]
[00:01:23] Anne-Marie Strohman: The magic of recording. So, Erin, tell us about Thieves’ Gambit. What is it about?
[00:01:28] Erin Nuttall: Well, it is a really fun book and in Thieves’ Gambit, Rosalyn Quest comes from a long line of international super thieves. So not the girl next door. She's her mom's partner in this high octane life. But Ross wants nothing more than to be a regular kid doing regular things. Everything changes for Ross when her mom gets kidnapped and held for a billion dollar ransom.
[00:01:54] Anne-Marie Strohman: A billion dollars. That's a lot of dollars.
[00:01:57] Erin Nuttall: That is a lot of dollars, but everything in this book is pumped up and that is part of what makes it so fun. To save her mom, Ross accepts an invitation to join the Thieves Gambit competition where the winner gets a wish. And so, you can imagine she's going to wish for that billion dollars/her mom being free. It turns out that the gambit is a series of puzzles, tests, and heists, where she competes against the best of the best teen thieves in the world. And you might think, well, how many teen thieves are there? Apparently there is enough to have Elite Squad who compete in this gambit which is also super fun.
I always like it when you have a big group of kids. The competition takes the kids all over the world as they face off with lots of impossible tasks, each trying to outdo the others to win the coveted wish mix in with this fast-paced thrill ride. Ross is figuring out her wonderful and complicated relationship with her mom which adds a layer of complexity that deepens the story and makes Ross a more relatable character.
[00:03:00] Anne-Marie Strohman: What? Everyone doesn't instantly relate to this wild life of crime? What? [Laughter] That was a line I was not prepared to read.
[00:03:09] Erin Nuttall: I know. When I put it in there, I thought, oh, Anne-Marie's gonna love these little, these little interludes where she interjects her, her surprise.
[00:03:22] Anne-Marie Strohman: So this book, you've described it as high octane. We have extremes. We have unrelatable characters. Thief families. But Ross is at her core, a human teen who wants what a lot of human teens want, which is safety, family, love.
[00:03:43] Erin Nuttall: Oh, I was gonna say, to break away from their mom.
[Laughter]
[00:03:47] Anne-Marie Strohman: Oh. Yeah. Also that. Also that.
[00:03:49] Erin Nuttall: Yeah. 'Cause that's been my experience with my teens.
[00:03:54] Anne-Marie Strohman: So, Erin, why did you choose this book?
[00:03:57] Erin Nuttall: I read a lot of thrillers and I've started writing a thriller of my own. And selfishly I wanted to figure out what makes them tick so I can get better at writing mine. And when I read the Thieves’ Gambit, it was such a fun and exciting read and it ticked so many boxes in what a good thriller should be. So I think we were halfway through Buffalo Flats and I was already thinking about how we can take Thieves’ Gambit and tear it apart and figure out what makes it work.
[00:04:28] Anne-Marie Strohman: I took this book on my vacation and it was a perfect vacation read. It was so fun, so energetic. And I kept putting my own notes in the back of the book, even though you're the one who's leading the content on this, about things I wanna talk about in this book, because Kavyion Lewis does so many things in such an excellent way. So since you get to decide though, why don't you tell us about some of the topics we're gonna be talking about this season.
[00:04:55] Erin Nuttall: Oh, for sure. I'm glad I have that power. Some of the topics we'll be diving into in season two are introducing a big group of characters, shifting desire lines, complicated family dynamics, how to write an action scene, how to plan a heist. Which I'm super excited for those episodes because those make for fun reading, but only if they're done well. And a whole bunch more. There was so much to learn from this book. I'm super excited.
[00:05:24] Anne-Marie Strohman: So I hope you will also have a romance in the thriller episode as well.
[00:05:30] Erin Nuttall: Obviously we will be talking about romance because that is what makes teen literature tick.
[Laughter]
[00:05:40] Anne-Marie Strohman: So Erin, in the last season, we stayed away from spoilers in our first three episodes. Are we gonna do that this time?
[00:05:47] Erin Nuttall: Nope. Sorry. There's so much going on in this book that it was impossible to stay away from spoilers, so be warned. Starting next episode, we'll be talking about anything and everything.
[00:05:59] Anne-Marie Strohman: So should people read the book before listening? Or do they have to?
[00:06:03] Erin Nuttall: Well that's up to you. If it were me, I'd totally read the book first, just so I could get a baseline for my own opinions and generally know what's going on. And even though it's just over 350 pages (just over) it's, it's not short, but it is a fast read. It has a lot going on. It's paced for speed. There's lots of great page turners. But that's, that's me. That's, that's how I roll. It's completely okay to read at your own pace as we go, or even wait to read it until we're done. Whatever serves you best.
[00:06:34] Anne-Marie Strohman: So I'm really excited to talk about Thieves’ Gambit in detail, and I can hardly wait until our first official episode. Where will we be starting?
[00:06:43] Erin Nuttall: Get ready for theme! Theme is something that we don't often talk about as writers, but it's what helps a story to feel unified and cohesive. Books often start and end with them, so we'll start there too.
[00:06:56] Anne-Marie Strohman: Great! I'm ready for this. Are you ready Erin?
[00:06:59] Erin Nuttall: I am so ready. I am so excited. I just can't wait to nerd out with all of my writer friends here on the podcast.
[00:07:11] Anne-Marie Strohman: So consider this your invitation to Thieves’ Gambit, and we will be starting our first episode soon. That's it for today. If you're enjoying this podcast, you can find more content like this at kidlitcraft.com. Find us on social media @KidLitCraft, and you can support this podcast on Patreon. We've also got T-shirts, and drinkware, and tote bags. You can find them at Cotton Bureau. There'll be a link in the show notes.
[00:07:38] Erin Nuttall: Please download episodes; like, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen; and let your writer friends know about the podcast. We can't wait to nerd out with you.
[00:07:48] Anne-Marie Strohman: Thanks for joining us. See you next time.
[00:07:50] Erin Nuttall: Bye!
[Music outro]
[00:07:51] Erin Nuttall: Just so you know, it's not the Thieves’ Gambit, it's just Thieves’ Gambit.
[00:07:59] Anne-Marie Strohman: It's not? Really?
[00:08:01] Erin Nuttall: Yes. And yes. So I…
[00:08:06] Anne-Marie Strohman: Wow. Okay
