Stone Soup Editors

Editor’s Note: Recently, Stone Soup blogger Thee Sim Ling reached out to us to ask if she could arrange an interview with one of her favorite authors, James Ponti. Luckily, the bestselling author of the City Spies series generously agreed! Below is their conversation, where they discuss writing about different cultures, literary influences, favorite characters, and more. Thee Sim Ling: I read that a vacation in Europe first inspired you to write this series on juvenile secret agents. How did that tiny idea develop into City Spies?   James Ponti: My wife and I went to visit our son who was studying in England for the year. We went to London and Paris and had the best time. Everything about the cities was exciting and it made me want to write an international story with kids from around the world. I also wanted to set it in great cities on different continents. The first part I came up with was give the spies code names based on the cities they were from and it just grew from that. The first thing I figure out when I write them is what cities will be in this story.   TSL: What authors or books have had the greatest influence on your writing, especially for this book?   JP: When I was growing up, my favorite book was From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg. That book as well as her others has always influenced my writing. I also loved Donald J. Sobol’s Encyclopedia Brown books. Currently there are many great spy and mystery writers who influence me. A good friend of mine is Stuart Gibbs, whose Spy School books are hugely popular. Stuart’s been very inspirational for me.   TSL: In every single one of your books, you are able to create dynamic characters with distinct personalities, making them so real that they almost seem to leap off the page. Not only that, but you also are able to have them interact with each other in an authentic way.  This is really crucial for your stories, which often require characters to work together as a team. What’s your secret?   JP: First of all, that is so incredibly nice of you to say. Even though the plots of my books are on the unbelievable side (zombie hunters, a 12-year old consultant for the FBI, and a team of teen and tween MI6 agents), it is my main goal for the characters to be totally believable and for their relationships to feel like the relationships of the readers. I think without that the stories don’t work. I also try to give them a mixture of strengths and weaknesses, insecurities and confidences.   TSL: You always seem to choose the best names for your stories. (Omega, T.O.A.S.T., Mother etc.) How do you come up with them?   JP: I really wish there was an answer for this. Sometimes names come easy – both Omega and T.O.A.S.T. are examples of things that came instantly. With T.O.A.S.T. that was crucial. If Florian and Margaret did everything they do in the books exactly the same way, but didn’t have a name for the skill they developed, I think the books would be only half as popular. Having something to lock onto is important. Unfortunately, many times titles and names take forever and there’s no set pattern to developing them. You just have to keep trying until something sounds right. TSL: Of the five city spies, who is your personal favorite: Sara (Brooklyn), Solomon (Paris), João (Rio), Amita (Kat), or Olivia (Sydney)? Why?   JP: I do not have a favorite. I think if I did, they would suffer on the page because I’d give better stuff to my favorite. As it is now, I find myself saying things like, “Rio didn’t get enough, let’s come up with something good for him.” I will say that it started with Brooklyn, because that’s where the story started and I had a vision of her first, but the others quickly developed. Instead a favorite character, I have favorite character traits to write. For example, I love to write the moments where Kat displays her incredible reasoning or the parts that really showcase Sydney’s sense of humor.   TSL: How similar or different was writing City Spies, set all across the world, compared to writing Dead City, set in New York City, and Framed!, set in Washington D.C.? JP: I do a ton of research with regard to setting for all of my books. I think it’s such an important part to make the story come to life. For Dead City and Framed! this was easy because I’ve been to New York and Washington so many times that I could give you a tour and you’d think I had lived there are one time or another. For City Spies this is much more a challenge. I’ve been to all the places in the first two books except for one (there are a couple chapters in book 2 set in Oxford and I’ve not been there yet, so I had to talk to people who went to college there), but as I start writing book 3 I am going to have to branch out and that’s coming to make it harder, but also more fun in a way. The really upsetting part is that Covid has made travel so difficult I can’t go do in person research.   TSL: I have noticed that as you were born in Italy, you often feature your Italian culture in your books. The narrators in your first two trilogies both have Italian heritage. Why is your Italian heritage very important to you in your books?   JP: I don’t think it’s important for them to have Italian heritage, although I like that. I do, however, think it’s essential for them to have heritage of some type. It’s easy for me to write Italian because that’s my experience and