Welcome Emma! Can you tell us briefly about your newest book?Hard to Get is a fun romantic comedy about Val, a girl who gets her heart broken and swears off boys. She makes a bet with her friends that she won't date anyone until the end of the school year. Little does she know she's about to meet the guy of her dreams. . .
What inspired you to write Hard to Get?
Well, I'd already written a couple of YA romances under a pen name and I knew I loved writing about romance and all its complications. I heard that my editor was looking for a story about a girl who swears off boys, so I wrote up a proposal for him. He liked it and gave me the green light to write the rest of the book.
When did you know you wanted to be an author?
You know, it just kind of happened by accident. I went to graduate school, thinking I was going to be a college professor and teach writing. Then, I wound up teaching horseback riding instead (it's a long story). I had some extra time on my hands and needed some extra money. I had a friend who wrote research books (like something you might read in health class) and she told me it was a great way to put my writing skills to use. So that's how I got started--writing serious non-fiction for kids about health and science.
But the other answer is that I always kind of knew I would do something with writing. I was an INSANE reader growing up--I still am. I just always thought I'd teach writing instead of actually doing it!
Why did you chose to write for young adults, and what do you like the most about writing for young adults?
I wrote for different age groups for awhile--little kids, middle-grade, and young adult. All kinds of books--novels, biographies, history. After awhile, I realized I really like writing YA fiction best and I was good at it too. I think a lot about my own high school days. There was a lot of craziness and a lot of agony--mostly agony. I feel like when I write, I'm talking to my own high school self. Maybe I'm working out issues I never figured out when I was seventeen.
What is the first thing you do when you begin a new book?
The very first thing I do is make a lot of notes--like pages and pages--on a legal pad, all about my characters: who their parents are, what they like to eat for breakfast, why they've decided to do certain things. I don't go back and cross things out or even think very much--I just write. Then I read it later and type it up. Those notes will form the outline that I'll use to create the rough draft.
One fun exercise--one of my favorites--I like to do when starting a new book is to imagine everything my main characters keep in their pockets or purse. People's pocket contents can say a lot about what kind of person they are!
I f you could have a dinner with a book character, who would it be and why?
Oh, what a great question. Probably Jane Eyre, from Charlotte Bronte's classic novel. I have a lot of questions to ask her about why she put up Mr. Rochester when he could be such a jerk.
Can you tell us what you were like as a teen? Does that influence your characters? How?
My teen self (which isn't that different from my adult self) is a huge influence on my characters. I was a big, big nerd. Basically, I read all the time, I wore glasses, I was painfully skinny, I never listened to the right music or had the right clothes. Things got a little easier for me after I started acting in school plays. Then I would hang out with the drama kids, who were cooler than me. At one point, I was in a little independent theater troupe that did plays in someone's garage.
I feel like a lot of my characters are trying to find their place in the world--just like I did.
Describe yourself as a reader. What books or authors influenced and inspired you as a teen and as an adult?
As a teen, I read a lot of Stephen King, I have to say. (I love horror). Dean Kootnz, Peter Straub--other horror writers. I would read classics like Catcher in the Rye, and To Kill a Mockingbird. I was always kind of disappointed when we'd read these in English class and talk about them. They never seemed as good as when I read them on my own.
In some ways, the books that were more formative for me were those I read as a young kid: ALL of the Babysitter's Club--and I owned them all too. Beverly Cleary, who I still adore. Laura Ingalls Wilder, whose books I've practically memorized. I can actually recite stretches of Little House on the Prairie aloud.
Now I like to read Jane Austen and Edith Wharton--House of Mirth is one of my favorites--and heavy-duty authors like Vladimir Nabokov. But I also like Jane Smiley (an amazing contemporary writer who used to teach at the Iowa Writer's Workshop), Lorrie Moore, Margaret Atwood and Anne Tyler. These are writers who tend to examine people's daily lives very closely and write about how people interact with each other. I also read way too many magazines.
Can we expect more books by you in the future ?
Yes! I hope so. I'm working on a top-secret project with my agent right now. I can't say anything about it, except that it's for teens and I'm very excited about it. Thanks so much for interviewing me!
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