Stephenie Meyer @ Comic-Con

Our dear friend Stephenie recently sat down with the people from Entertainment Weekly to discuss the upcoming Twilight movie, as well as the impending release of Breaking Dawn. For the hardcore Meyer's fans, I doubt there's going to be much new information, but how can you pass up a clip of Steph!

Oh.My.Gods.

I have been a very bad and negligent blogger recently. Not only have I not been posting, but I've had good stuff to post about that I haven't. For example, I met Tera Lynn Childs at her book launch party and (a) didn't have a working camera, and (b) haven't blogged about meeting her or about her book. Oh.My.Gods. was soooo cute! It is fun chic lit, but it has a very unique twist.

Phoebe is excited to start her senior year of high school. If she maintains her grades, she's been promised a great track scholarship to USC where she plans to attend with her two best friends. But her mother takes a summer vacation to Greece and comes back engaged to a a Greek man and announces to Phoebe that they are immediately moving to a tiny Greek island for Phoebe's senior year. Not only is Phoebe upset about this for all the obvious reasons, but when she gets to the island and her new school (of which her stepfather is the headmaster), she discovers she also has a rather evil stepsister, and the private, exclusive, super-secret boarding school has a huge secret (which the title might clue you into). I love the title, and I love that the book is totally appropriate for middle schoolers. (I think the worst word used was "bi-atch"). The only thing I didn't love was that I thought surely there must be some secret reason why Phoebe's mother took her out of school right before her senior year when she could easily have waited just one year. What mother, especially a psychologist, wouldn't do this for her daughter? But see TLC's response to this below.

I figured that since I was so remiss in posting about this that I should ask Tera Lynn to do a little interview for me/you, so here you go! (Don't read questions #4 or #5 if you're worried about possible spoilers.)

1. Someone at the launch party mentioned a Golden Heart Award. Explain!
The Golden Heart is the Romance Writers of America contest for best unpublished manuscript. I finaled with my very first manuscript, an historical romance titled Summer Sapphire, which was a Romeo & Juliet story set in Regency England (the era of Jane Austen). Sadly, I didn't win, but finaling in this contest gave me the confidence to keep writing.

2. How did you come up with the idea for Oh.My.Gods.? What about the title?
Oh. My. Gods. was born when I came up with the original title, Growing Up Godly--which was a twist on the title of the reality show, Growing Up Gotti. Since I'm not an inspirational writer, I had to come up with an alternate meaning for "godly." I've always been a myth and history nut, so the Greek gods seemed like the perfect solution. Since obviously someone would have to be "growing up," I knew this needed to be a young adult story. Gradually, the pieces fell into place until I had my premise and my main character, Phoebe. The story developed from there.

3. How did you become familiar with Greece and Greek for the book?
I acquired a library of research books. (I love any excuse to browse the bookstore!) Travel guides, like Greek Island Hopping and the Eyewitness Guide to the Greek Islands, help me get a feel for the landscape and architecture of that world. The Eyewitness Guide is great because it includes fully illustrated pages of history, cultural information, and local foods. Culture Shock!: Greece gave me some insights into modern Greek culture and daily life. Also, of course, I scoured the internet. I used online maps to locate the actual island of Serfopoula, Greek-English dictionaries to come up with my gods-related terminology, and tons of other sites to find everything from ferry schedules to the history of marathons. **

4. Why didn't Phoebe's mother wait one year to move to Greece???? I kept thinking it was going to be revealed that she knew about Phoebe before they moved, which is why she wanted to move there so soon.
I was so surprised when you told me you were mad at her mom about this! I never even thought about it, and here's why: Phoebe's dad died very suddenly six years ago. Since then, Valerie had thrown herself into her work and full-time focus on Phoebe, putting aside her own needs. When she finally had a chance at happiness, to do something for herself for the first time in so many years, it wouldn't have been fair to make her wait.

5. What can you tell us about the sequel?
Well, it's currently languishing without a title, though hopefully that will soon be remedied. It's hard to dish without giving spoilers, so I'll just go ahead and give (a cagey) one. The sequel takes place the summer after Oh. My. Gods. (between Phoebe's 12th and 13th years) and stars the same fun cast of characters, with a couple of new additions. She's having trouble adjusting to her new, ah-hem, life and has to go to a special summer program, affectionately known as Goddess Bootcamp, to improve her control. (Is that vaguely clear enough?) It will be available next summer.

6. What has been your best/favorite author experience so far?
I'm still in the honeymoon stage, so it's all great. If I had to pick one moment, though, it would be getting my first fan mail. It was from a teen bookseller in the L.A. area who'd gotten the advance copy from her boss. This was around three weeks before my release date, so at first I thought she had the wrong author. Or the wrong book. Or it was some kind of scam and I was going to have to send her my bank account number and first pet's name. But no, it was legit. This was my first response from an actual teen (you know, my target audience?) so it was a huge thrill. And a huge relief.

7. If you weren't an author, what would you be?
Miserable! Seriously, I've considered--and pursued--many different careers: science teacher, doctor, intellectual property lawyer, architect, actor, wedding planner, web designer, historic preservationist, theatre history professor, environmental biologist... I could go on, but you get the idea. Writing is the first one I've stuck with longer than a year or two (going on five, now). I can still indulge in all those other, fleeting passions...but now they count as research for a book!

** In my opinion, you should definitely take this opportunity/excuse to travel to Greece! Write it off as a business expense. Take lots of pictures of you there for your website. Or take pictures of the scenery and say this is where this or that from the book happens.

Interview with Adam Selzer

I recently read Adam Selzer's book, How to Get Suspended and Influence People. It was such a fun read. How to Get Suspended manages to get across a great message about censorship without sounding preachy. After reading his very humorous book, I was so excited when Adam Selzer agreed to let me interview him...

I am looking forward to reading Pirates of a Retail Wasteland when it is released in April. Can you tell me a little more about the other books you have coming out (ie. I put a Spell On You and Lost and Found)?
I Put a Spell On You is about a spelling bee, but it's based on Watergate. It has four main narrators - an overscheduled girl who wants to run away and be a hippie, a girl who uncovers a major cover-up, a class clown who spends his spare time planning his own funeral, and a home-schooled kid who has been enrolled in school just to compete in the spelling bee and becomes fascinated with heavy metal. It'll probably break the record for Most Jokes About Richard Nixon Ever in a Middle Grade novel. It'll be out in September. In the sequel, the principal will try to hold onto his job by throwing around words like "pride" and "values" like so much confetti.

Lost and Found is still in progress - it's another middle grade. Sort of a cross between Skinnybones and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

There's also The Wisenheimer's Guide to U.S. History, which has been a lot of fun to write. I spent much of last week on the phone with Billy Joel's people to clear some rights to use one of his songs in the book - just talking about that makes me feel like a real big shot. Sitting around making up funny captions for pictures of dead politicians is really a lot of fun.

Some other projects include:
- Weird Chicago: The Book (that'll be out soon)
- a couple of top secret YA books
- a graphic novel based on my songs "Friday Avenue" and "Pushing Cheerleaders Down the Stairs."

And, of course, there's "Pirates of the Retail Wasteland," which is barely two months away! I've been working on versions of that story for years now, and I'm SO excited that it's finally coming out! It's a bit of a risk - if the theme of HTGSAIP was censorship, the theme of this one is bad city planning, and maybe kids don't mind bad city planning so much as they mind censorship. They should, though - they're the ones who really get screwed by it!

Were you really a contestant on Double Dare?
Nope. That's one of the fake things in my bio. Same with having seen Ethel Merman naked. Never did that.

When did you start writing How to Get Suspended and Influence People and what was the inspiration behind it?
I first started writing it in 2003 after carrying around the first line in my head for about a year. Actually, it goes further back - I had the idea to write a YA/MG book that dealt with censorship issues when I was Leon's age. In college I got the idea to do something about a movie producer who tries to make an avant garde sex ed film. Somewhere along the lines I mixed those two ideas with the first line that I was carrying around in my head, and there was the book! And I'm certainly no stranger to censorhip - I went to high school in Gwinnett County, Georgia, where they were STILL trying to ban Harry Potter a year or so ago.

Did you attempt to make the avant garde sex ed video you describe in your book? (If not, you should!)
I haven't; I keep hoping someone else will (hint hint!)

What made you decide to write for the YA audience? Do you feel you are more restricted when writing for teens?
I didn't feel that I was enough of a grown-up to have any business writing adult stuff. I don't feel a whole lot older now than I did when I was 14. And when certain songs come on the radio, I could swear I was seven again. YA isn't very restrictive; you just have to cut out some swear words and keep the sexual references vague. Other than that, you can write in a pretty natural rhythm. Middle grade is MUCH harder, because you can't just let the characters ramble on. Getting the rhythm and pacing and timing down in middle grade is a whole different animal.

Did you read a lot as a middle schooler/teen?
Sure! That was the era when everyone read Christopher Pike and/or RL Stein. My friends and I preferred Pike - he had a lot of sex, drinking and smoking in his books, which we got a real kick out of. I went to Dean Koontz from that. Then one day I found a copy of "Paingod and Other Delusions" by Harlan Ellison in a used book store - a title like that was irresistable, and the book was a knock-out. It had the famous story "'Repent, Harlequin!' said the Ticktock Man" in it. That blew me away. And by high school, I had pretty much based my life on the teachings of Daniel Pinkwater. To this day I sometimes feel like I'm living in a Pinkwater book - and not just because locations from his books sometimes show up on the tours I run!

Do you truly believe in ghosts? If so, any encounters you'd like to share?
That really depends on what counts as a ghost! I mean, when we think of ghosts, we think of a transparent version of a person, usually wearing clothes that, while also transparent, still cover up all of the ghost's hoo-hoos. I've never seen anything like that. But I've seen some pretty weird stuff - part of my job is going on ghost investigations. But I'm not sure any of those weird things were actually caused by a dead guy. The other night I recorded a podcast at a hotel that's supposed to be haunted by Theodore Roosevelt to see if he'd endorse a candidate in time for Super Tuesday, but we couldn't get him to show up. Sometimes I think that if ghosts exist, they sure as hell don't want me to know about it!

What do you do in you spare time (you know, when you aren't ghostbusting, writing novels, or planning a wedding)?
I play music - not particularly WELL, but I have a lot of fun with it. I watch more TV than I should really admit, and take long walks around the city. I could walk around the city all day and all night and never get tired of it. I cook a lot and redecorate constantly. I follow politics like most guys follow sports - went to see Barack Obama last night!

Do you have to work for your geeky hotness or does it just come naturally?
The geeky part certainly comes naturally - I've spent a fair share of nights camped out waiting for Star Wars movies, and I'm sure ANYONE who knew me in school will tell you I was a big dork. If I can claim any hotness, it's just a result of working hard to impress my fiance, who is all kinds of hot. I'm resisting the urge to quote Juno right about now :)

Authors Wanted

I think it is time for another author interview. I attempted to get one with P.C. Cast, co-author of the most excellent Marked series, but she did not respond. The first author interview we had here at ATR came about through a rather embarrassing blog entry where I posted my wish list of authors I would like to interview. The google-happy John Green found my wish list and graciously offered to be interviewed. Since it worked once before, I have decided to try it again. So...I would like to e-interview the following people (who hopefully like to Google themselves and turn out to be as awesome as John Green was about being interviewed):

MEG CABOT (I have read every single book you have written...even the 1-800 series)
SARAH DESSEN (Love your books. Love. Them.)
STEPHENIE MEYER (c'mon, we are both BYU alums!)
SCOTT WESTERFELD (I met you at TLA...that bonded us, right?)
E.LOCKHART (any secret sister to B2O is bound to be AWESOME)

Daria Snadowsky

I "interviewed" Daria Snadowsky, author of Anatomy of a Boyfriend. I really liked how the book captured so many of the realities of dating and dealing with your first love and loss, and Daria seems extremely cool. She recently started working as a lawyer, and I found her comments about how law school influenced her writing of this book to be very interesting.

I love the cover! Did you have any input in that? How did you feel about its outcome?

I love the cover, too! Angela Carlino of Random House designed it, and I think she struck the perfect balance—it's funny and provocative, but the color scheme and font keep it understated and even dignified. And of course, it's totally illustrative of the title and story. I suggested just a couple of small tweaks—the original doll photographed for the cover has brown hair and brown eyes, but Angela gave him contacts and a dye job after I reminded her that the character of Wes, the main love interest, has blonde hair and blue eyes.

When I read the first e-mail from Wes, I noticed right away that it didn't look like most e-mails that teenagers send (ie. it was properly capitalized with correct punctuation, etc.). Although it definitely had the voice of a teenager, did you consider making it "look" like a typical teen e-mail?

Earlier drafts did have emails and IM chats that appeared more authentic, but I changed them since they just didn't feel true to these particular characters.

Wes didn't have many friends to IM or email until college, so he didn't have much opportunity to hone his textspeak and get used to writing ROTFLOL, IMHO, CYA or . Furthermore, he loved books and reading, so I just couldn't see him choosing to express himself with abbreviations or conveniently misspelled words.

As for Dom, the main character, she was constantly fearful of saying the wrong thing that might drive Wes away. Since a major part of\ntheir relationship existed solely over the computer, their emails took on (at\nleast to Dom) the same kind of significance and depth as the Beauvoir-Sartre\ncorrespondence; consequently, she was hyper-conscious about appearing smart and\nmaking sure that every word and comma was perfect.

I was reading previous interviews you did where you talked about growing up in the 80s, and we've had some discussions on A True Reality about generational differences between authors and teens. What do you think are some of the major differences between being a teen now compared to when you were a teen? (How) do you think that affects writing for a teen audience?

Certainly, one of the biggest differences between being a teen now and being a teen back when I had the (dis)pleasure is the communications technology available to us. I didn't have email or a cell phone until I was a senior in high school, I never used the internet or text-messaged until college, I never listened to MP3s until after I had graduated, and I hadn't heard of MySpace or YouTube until law school when I saw these sites on everyone's laptop screens during our lectures. But now that most everyone gets online well before their teens, YA writers, if they don't want to sound dated, have to constantly familiarize themselves with how young adults are communicating with each other and then weave that ever-evolving cyber-reality into their hopefully timeless storylines. But the nice thing is that *feelings* never become obsolete. Being dumped by the one you love hurts no matter if it's done over IM or a letter written with quills and ink.

When you were writing, did you worry that you would encounter objections or censorship because of the frank sexuality? What do you think is the value in this type of literature for teenagers?

I never worried too much about censorship. Over thirty years have passed since Judy Blume's Forever made its indelible mark, and it continues to be one of the most popular and celebrated YA books ever, so I knew Anatomy would have a solid foundation in the market to stand on. Luckily, the major reviewers recognized that Anatomy's love scenes are similarly meant to be realistic and informative rather than\nsensationalized and erotic. What's bewildering, though, is that over the last year I've seen other YA books face intense criticism for love scenes that are far, far tamer than anything in Anatomy.

This type of literature is valuable for teens because it presents much-needed unromanticized accounts of the highs and lows of love and sex. When we grow up on fairytales like Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, it's perfectly natural for us to expect that our first loves will last forever and that we'll know exactly what to do when the lights dim. YA books like Forever demonstrate to young adults that that's not necessarily the case, and they show all the humiliation and disappointment and awkwardness (as well as the magic and wonder and peace) that's part and parcel of falling in love and being intimate. This is a subject that is often embarrassing for young adults to talk about with their parents and even with each other, so it's important they have access to books that demystify love's emotional and physical roller coaster in a frank and nonjudgmental way.

I have to ask about living in Las Vegas. I know most people probably think it's really great and glamorous and imagine a Paris Hilton lifestyle. How do you like it? What do you like to do?

I love living in Las Vegas! Outside of The Strip, the city is a very typical, American, strip-malled suburb, and it's totally possible to live here and avoid The Strip and all the other tourist-traps if you want. I'm not into gambling or Vegas's infamous nightlife, but you can still find me cruising Las Vegas Boulevard every so often because the casinos simply offer up the best restaurants, shopping, spas, and shows in the city. Also, friends and relatives are always flying into Vegas for their vacations, so I'm on personal tour-guide duty quite a lot.

How do you like being a lawyer?

I've been practicing a few weeks now, but in many ways every day still feels like the first day since I'm constantly learning new things that we were never taught in law school. But that's part of what keeps the job exciting and challenging.

Going to law school turned out to be a huge help to the editing process for Anatomy. My legal writing classes stressed brevity and taught us how to trim fat, so that skill came in very handy when I found myself editing Anatomy down from 599 pages to 284 pages after every publisher in New York rejected the longer version.

My criminal procedure class was\nespecially helpful when I edited the scene where a cop catches Dom and Wes making out in the back of his car. In an\nearlier draft, the cop, upon finding Dom and Wes, immediately searches the car for alcohol and drugs. But criminal procedure taught us about unreasonable searches and seizures, and I realized that my search scene was unconstitutional because the cop didn't have enough probable cause. To fix it, I added a line where the cop asks Wes's permission to go through the car, so now the search fits safely into the "consent" exception to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement.

It was also law school that helped me come up with Dominique's last name, Baylor. In property class, we learned about bailors and bailees--the classic example of a bailor is someone who brings his watch to a pawn shop, and the shop owner (the bailee) becomes responsible for its safekeeping. I thought how when we love someone, we become "bailors" of our hearts and hope that the person we're entrusting them with won't break them.

Author Interview: Yvonne Collins and Sandy Rideout

Since I recently read, reviewed and loved Yvonne Collins and Sandy Rideout's new book The Black Sheep, I decided to write the authors and ask them to answer a few questions. Here's what the ladies had to say about The Black Sheep, writing together, and their future plans!


Where'd you get the idea for "The Black Sheep"?
Basically, it occurred to us that every teenage girl has moments of wanting to trade in her family and try someone else’s on for size. A reality TV show seemed to offer the perfect opportunity to do that. Besides, thanks to Yvonne’s work on movies, we know that the film business offers a never ending source of comic relief!

Like many YA authors, you began writing for adults. How do you feel your writing is different when you're writing for teens rather than adults?
Actually, our first book was for teens: Totally Me: The Teenage Girl’s Survival Guide. It’s non-fiction, but we enjoyed writing the fictional scenarios in it and decided to give fiction a try. Our first novel, Speechless, was inspired by Sandy’s experiences as a speech writer. After that, we wrote our first teen novel: Introducing Vivien Leigh Reid: Daughter of the Diva. Then we wrote another book for adults, then another for teens. Check our desk drawers and you might even find an abandoned screenplay. Obviously we didn’t settle on a blueprint for our career! Still we keep coming back to young adult projects and since we met at13 and 15, we don’t have any trouble tapping into our shared teenage experience. Our voice, style and themes are pretty similar whether we’re writing for teens or adults, but the situations are more mature in the adult books.

How did you two begin writing together? How does the process work for you (since you write as a pair)?
We met as teens while working part-time in a public library, but it wasn’t until 20 years later that we decided to write a book together. Yvonne’s teenage niece was asking a lot of questions and Yvonne couldn’t find a book that answered them. So we wrote a proposal for Totally Me. Neither of us took it that seriously—until we sold it and found we had about three months to write it! At first, Yvonne insisted that we sit side by side and write everyword together—a notion that didn’t survive our sample chapter. Our schedules are just too different. We quickly developed a way of working on projects independently that has carried us through eight books. First, we get together in person to brainstorm and create the chapter outline. Then, Yvonne generally takes a crack at the first draft of a chapter, and Sandy does next draft. Once Sandy has the full manuscript in shape, Yvonne reviews and makes minor revisions. Then Sandy fine-tunes and it’s off to the editor. We rarely see each other when we’re actually writing, but we rely on e-mail and occasional desperate voicemail messages to resolve unforeseen glitches.

You both seem to live very typical work lives (corp. communications and in television)…how does your writing career fit into your "normal"life?
Sandy works in corporate communications, which often means spending9-5 in cubicle. Yvonne works as a camera assistant, which often means spending 18 hours a day on a film set—say in a muddy field in the pouring rain. We work as freelancers, so our work fluctuates, with Sandy’s downtime being the summer and Yvonne’s the winter.It doesn’t sound conducive to writing novels as a team, but we make itwork. One advantage of teen novels is that they’re a little shorter,and fit more easily into the gaps in our schedules. Regardless, the writing always gets done—but not without a fair bit of whining an done-upmanship about our various scheduling conflicts. Needless to say, the people around us are very tolerant!

Are you currently working on any future YA books?
We’re putting the finishing touches on our next book for Hyperion, which will be published in May 2008. Although we’re planning to take a break for a few months, good ideas are already coming to mind, so who knows?

Author Interview: John Green

A few weeks ago, I did a (now embarrassing) post about authors that I would love to interview. I went on at length about John Green and how I would love to interview him, but listed several reasons why it would not happen. Well, imagine my surprise when Mr. I Technorati Myself Daily posted a comment saying he would totally answer any interview questions we sent him. We spent one very fun day at the library trying to come up with interview questions. Thank you, John Green, for answering them!

Have you thought about what your "last words" might be? If so, what are they?
I've always felt that "I love you" are the worst possible last words, because A. they are so trite, and B. they aren't memorable, and C. they aren't funny. Ideally, if you are looking to be remembered by history, you have to aim for funny last words. But trite and unmemorable and unfunny as it is, I think I'd like to tell my wife I love her.

How does blogging and/or the Internet affect your writing and your relationship to your readers? What is the coolest/best thing that has happened to you because of the Internet?
"An Abundance of Katherines" would not have been possible without the Internet. In some ways, the web has turned us all into child prodigies--suddenly, I can translate (albeit very poorly) from English into a dozen languages using Babel fish. It isn't difficult for me to determine who the Prime Minister of Canada was in 1913. I can use a web-based program to help me anagram long strings of text. So it has affected my writing in the sense that I think a lot about the Internet, and also in the sense that I use it almost constantly.

And it certainly allows me to have a relationship with my readers that was not previously possible. Readers can see me as a (hopefully) halfway normal person who has a halfway normal job. That's always been important to me, because when I was younger, I felt like books were created by people who were different from me in some fundamental way. I felt that I could never be a writer myself, because I did not have this magical gene that they had. So I do think the Internet allows us to demythologize the whole concept of an "author" a little, which is nice.

The best thing that ever happened to me because of the Internet is Brotherhood 2.0. It has been so cool to do this with Hank.

Other books similar to yours have been published as adult books. In your opinion, what makes a book "adult" rather than YA, and why did you choose to publish YA? Do you write differently (either creatively or in the editorial/publishing process) because you're writing for a teen audience?
"An Abundance of Katherines" was published in two editions, one for adults and one for kids, in the Netherlands. I like that model of publishing a lot, and I'd like to see it in the U.S. But until that happens, I'm quite happy publishing for teenagers, because I really want them to be my core audience. I like teenagers. I think they are interesting people as readers, and I also think they are interesting people to write about. That's why I publish YA--I believe in the importance of good YA novels in an annoyingly evangelical way.

I don't think I write differently because I'm writing for a teen audience, but I have no way of knowing for sure, because I've never written a novel for an adult audience. I am not interested in condescending to teens in any way, though. There is no idea too difficult for them, no narrative structure too inherently complicated. Look at "Octavian Nothing." Most adults think that book is hard as hell to read. But teens love it. I mean, I read "Absalom, Absalom" in high school, and I wasn't that great of a student, and I loved it. So I never worried about writing TO teens.

Guilty books question: What book(s) that you "should" have read have you not, and what book(s) that you "shouldn't" have read did you read and really like?
There are loads of classics I haven't read; I have a lot of embarrassing holes in my reading, so I don't even know where to begin. I've never read "Remembrance of Things Past." Or "War and Peace." "For Whom the Bell Tolls." I could go on, but I'll stop.

As for guilty pleasures: I don't like bad books. I really don't. I believe that books should be smart and should have ambitions. But some people dismiss genre books out of hand, and I love good crime novels. So I like a lot of crime writers, from Hammett and Patricia Highsmith to Michael Connelly and Henning Mankell.

You have a minor, druggie-type character named Hank in Looking For Alaska . Any relationship to your brother?
None whatsoever. The only two things we know about the Hank in "Alaska" is that he plays basketball and smokes pot. So far as I know, my brother Hank has never done drugs, nor has he ever used a basketball.

What interview question do you most wish you'd be asked but never have? And what's your answer?
Oh gosh, I don't know. I'm not a very good interviewer, so I can never come up with good questions.

Although I [Sheryl] don't like either of these men, one of my favorite interview question and answers ever was when Tom Cruise asked James Lipton what turns him on and he said, "Words." What turns you on (in a completely Tom Cruise/James Lipton way, not in a "Letters to Penthouse" way)?
Tom Cruise turns me on. Just kidding. I think the true answer is people's voices.

Is there anything you would like to ask us?
What classics haven't y'all read? I feel like the humiliation should be shared here!
Answer:
Sheryl - My guiltiest unread book and the one I most want to read but haven't is Animal Farm.
Holly - I don't really feel guilty about any of the great "classics" that I haven't read. However, I keep meaning to read Watership Down and Catch-22 (but I am having too much fun reading YA novels).
Cody - The Bible

By the way, if you haven't checked it out yet, John and his brother Hank have an awesomely hilarious video blog going at Brotherhood 2.o!

Author Interview: Hannah Rogge

About a month ago, I received a copy of Hardwear: Jewelry From a Toolbox for our YA collection. Sheryl and I were both intrigued by the fun projects in the book (you can find Sheryl's review here). One of our fellow librarians was so inspired by the book that she sewed washers to the hemline of her skirt! I contacted the author, Hannah Rogge, via her MySpace page and she very graciously agreed to an author interview (even though she was on vacation in Thailand at the time).

How many of your creations do you wear yourself and how often (from both books)?
I wear my own stuff a lot. The jewelry is the easiest to throw on with an outfit, and the shirts I wear when I feel like it is a good day to wear them. Sometimes I think I've abandoned my real jewelry (trading in gold for zinc) and I wonder if my co-workers and friends get tired of seeing my stuff, but I keep on wearing it. (My mom does too.)

Have people sent you pictures of their projects? Have you seen any particularly cool "twists" on your originals?
I haven't seen too many twists on my projects but I did host a workshop in Boston where I brought materials for the Hardwear jewelry and the participants ran with the basic ideas and made their own stuff. That was a great experience because I like inspiring other ideas. I have also seen some pictures of variations that were posted on a beading blog. That was also very cool for me as I have never met the person who was showing off their work.

What do you think makes your book and/or your designs different from similar books?
My craft book was actually awarded a spot on the American Library Association's "Reluctant Reader" list for 2007, so I would say that foremost my books are both attractive and clear. The format of each books are both attractive: Hardwear has a metallic cover with cardboard dividers sectioning off the book like isles of a hardware store. Save this Shirt comes with a nicely packaged T-shirt. I know from experience that it is very important for instructions to be very clear and I think that comes across in both the words and the illustrations. I also very much enjoy the idea of making something out of nothing, which is true for both the Jewelry book and the T-shirt book.

What do you do when you're not writing books?
I have a full time job working for a company that is a custom design and fabrication company. We do mostly animated Christmas windows (which takes about an entire year from concept to install), but we also do other visual merchandising windows, corporate parties and trade shows. I work in the design department but wear many other hats, from building props to bringing in new clients.

Have you had any craft project disasters?
When I was working on my T-shirt book and experimenting with new ideas, my boyfriend Kevin gave me a pile of his old t-shirts to work with. I had my pile and his pile and the scrap pile and the pile of designs I didn't like or didn't work, etc. There were piles everywhere. One day I wanted to show Kevin what I had been working on that day and when he looked at me his mouth dropped. Apparently I had completely cut up one of his favorite shirts. Oops. That was a bit of a disaster… until I decided to remedy the situation by buying him another shirt that matched colors of the logo on the one I had cut up. Then I cut out the graphic of the shirt he liked and used it as a very large patch on the new shirt. Ha Ha. He LOVED it. The new shirt was WAY cooler then the old shirt. Phew. I think there is even a photo of that shirt in my book, Save This Shirt- it is red with a flag of Thailand in the back, if you want to look for it.

Thank you, Hannah! We are looking forward to your next book, Save This Shirt: Cut It. Stitch It. Wear It Now!

E. Lockhart!

E. Lockhart answered these questions for me on K.L. Going's very cool "Author Interviews" forum section of her website. I'm posting them here for your further edification and enjoyment!

1) What was your dissertation about?
Late 19th century and early 20th century British illustrated novels -- their publishing histories and their reception. Sherlock Holmes. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. Trilby by George duMaurier.

2) Can you describe the process of making a novel into an audiobook? How is it decided whether or not a book will be made into an audiobook? How involved, if at all, are you in the decision process and then the production? How happy have you been with the audio versions of your books so far? [You know how I love audiobooks!]
It's pretty minimal, in terms of what an author does. The Boyfriend List and Fly on the Wall were audiobooks, but my other books have not been. Basically, the publishing house reps your audio rights -- and if they sell them, they inform you. You get some money, but not oceans of it.

I had a chat with the producer, but they hired actors without my input. I was invited to come and see the process -- which is pretty interesting. I mean, it's a woman reading your MS in a soundproof room, with a director and a technician telling her when to stop and start -- but it was interesting to me, to see how the director coached the actor, and to hear the actor reading my words. They had slightly early version of the MS for Boyfriend List, so people who listen to the audiobook are subjected to a few awkward phrases and irrelevant sentences that I axed from the final version!

In the end, I can't listen to the audios. I think the actors were probably great, but the text sounds so different inside my head, I couldn't deal with hearing it interpreted another way. It's a good thing I'm not a playwright!

3) What person(s) who has not yet contributed a boyfriend/girlfriend list to your site would you most like to see do one?
I love having YA authors I admire. I guess if I could pick just one it would be Louise Rennison, author of Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging, etc. I think she must have a doozy of a boyfriend list, and all her writing cracks me up.

The next questions were inspired by my recent reading of "Bake Sale: A Ruby Oliver Story," which is part of the short story compilation Not Like I'm Jealous or Anything.

4) What are you good at cooking?
I am a pretty good cook, if I do say so myself. I have people over for dinner every week. My mom taught me the basics, and I learned the rest from cookbooks. This week I am making a celariac salad from Julia Child, and a feta/watermelon/cilantro salad, among other things. I am not a sophisticated baker, but I do love to make cakes. Here is the most insane cake I ever made. It is a taj-mahal ice palace, with rock candy and gummy penguins.





5) What's something you've done that you otherwise wouldn't -- just to impress a guy?

I took scuba-diving lessons.

6) Fill in the blanks to these cliches:
The way to a guy's heart is through . . . well -- in The Boy Book, Cricket says "the nether regions!" But I think she is wrong.
The way to a girl's heart is through . . . Hm. I once fell for a guy because he sang songs outside my window in the middle of the night. He really did. It was very very silly. BUt it wouldn't have worked if I hadn't already liked him. THe singing just made me FALL.

7) I liked what Ruby has to say about the importance of thoughtful gifts. What is the best gift you've ever received? Given? (or at least one of the best)
Honestly, I like a love letter. I don't remember the presents. I remember the notes that went with them.

Author Interviews

I would like to see more author interviews on A True Reality. So far, we have only had one. I would love, love, love to interview John Green, but I do not ever see that coming to fruition for the following reasons:
a. He is much too famous now.
b. We have gushed over him way too much on this blog. It would be embarrassing if he ever read it. And my constant references to him as my boyfriend don't help.
c. Cody has written two very unflattering entries about him which I would also not want John to see. I feel that Cody is a bit jealous of John Green because John Green rivals Cody in geeky hotness.

I know that everyone (all three of us) here at A True Reality would love to interview Stephenie Meyer. Interviewing her would be like someone from my high school newspaper interviewing (insert famous movie star name here).

Maybe there won't be interviews with Stephenie Meyer or John Green on this blog. BUT, we will be doing some more author interviews (via email, of course). And we promise not to ask lame questions like "Who is your favorite character and why?".

Interview with Julie Blattberg

Interview with Julie Blattberg, author of Backstage with Beth and Trina: A Scratch-and-Sniff Adventure

We here at A True Reality are very excited about our first author interview. Although all communication took place via email, I found Julie Blattberg to be very sweet and accommodating and her interview responses funny and interesting. You can find Sheryl's review of her book here. I would like to add that we got such a kick out of Backstage with Beth and Trina when it arrived at our library. We (meaning Sheryl and I) immediately passed it around to all our coworkers to see their reactions (especially to the page with the scratch-and-sniff condom). One of my coworkers loved it so much that she purchased it that same day! So thanks, Julie, for livening things up at the library. Without further ado, here is the interview:

You said in an earlier interview with Jeffrey Yamaguchi that you wanted to create a scratch-and-sniff book for grown-ups. Were adults your intended audience when you wrote this? Do you think adults would experience the book differently from teens?
Yes, I set out to create a cool book for adults—as opposed to children. It struck me as unfair that little kids have all the fun--like scratch-and-sniff books and stickers and glitter! So I started with the format, then; came up with the characters: two cool chicks whose quest would lead them backstage at a rock-and-roll show; and the story, which had to be funny.
If you’re an adult and you pick up Backstage with Beth and Trina, I’d hope that you’d have the same reaction as a young adult: “This book is really cool, but it is fiction--and I probably should not try that at home.” Some may look back a decade or more into their own pasts to see a bit of Beth and Trina in themselves--and some might look as far back as last weekend to see how much fun the culture (I think we can call it culture) of live rock shows can be.

How did you pick the names Beth and Trina?
Beth is named after a song by Kiss. Though I was never a huge Kiss fan, this particular ballad, “Beth,” is one that every classic rock aficionado just knows. If you haven't heard it--it's on their Destroyer album (and while you're there, check out "Detroit Rock City" and "Shout It Out Loud," too). With all due respect to all of the charming and lovely Trinas out there (and I know that there are some out there!), that name came to me when I pictured the semi-trashy girls from my high school days who wore lots of makeup and were a little loud and fast in everything they did. "Trina" struck me as a great groupie name.

Is Beth and Trina's experience really your idea of the "best night ever," or is it more tongue-in-cheek?
For me personally, yeah, it would be super-cool to hit a club with my bestest friend and, uh, "get to know" the hot, hot, hot lead signer of my favorite band. (But I wouldn’t want my night to include burning hair and alleyway vomit.)

What is your most memorable backstage experience?
Sharing drinks and stories backstage with INXS (many, many moons ago) and seeing a pair of tight black jeans with white skulls all over them approaching slowly from a distance. Before I saw his face, I knew that it had to be Michael Hutchence. He was so incredibly beautiful, I couldn’t breathe. Or standing 8 feet away from David Bowie. OMG! But then again maybe the most memorable time was at the 2000 Millennium party at MTV where I did kiss a very handsome (and very wasted) lead singer of a very great band (who probably does not remember). Let’s not tell the guy who brought me to the show, OK?

Have you experienced any backlash or objections to your book?
None at all. Even my mom thought it was pretty funny. And I was thrilled beyond when I learned that it was an ALA Quick Pick. But then I read your A True Reality post about your library system and was a little heartbroken. Books serve many functions in our world. Of course there’s education and inspiration, and literacy and fantasy, but entertainment is important, too, and getting a person to pick up a book, despite the all of the other distractions out there… Some folks might find the content “racy,” but Beth and Trina practice safe sex and they don’t drink and drive. What more can I say?

Do you plan on writing more books? Will they be similar to Backstage or do you want to explore other types of writing?
Absolutely! I've got a few book ideas percolating right now—fiction and nonfiction. Topics include: nerds, Shakespeare, rock icons, photography, and ghosts. They won’t all be scratch-and-sniff books, but they are all a little visual and a lot of fun. Some are for teens, some are for adults, and some are for kiddies.
And, of course, I’d like to publish more adventures with Beth and Trina! Oh, the places they’ll go…