Q&A for Lisa Schroeder

[Tatiana]

Welcome Lisa!

Group members, please post your questions here.

[Angie, YA lovin mod!!]

I am so excited that you will be joining us Lisa! Welcome!!!

What was your inspiration for I Heart You, You Haunt Me?

[[deleted user]]

Hi Lisa!

Any new books currently in the works?

[Lisa]

Hi Angie (and everyone)!

Thanks for reading my book this month - I hope you like it!!

So, let's go back to spring, 2006. Melissa Marr had announced her big deal for Wicked Lovely, and Twilight was making a big splash. I felt like YA was on the verge of exploding. Previously I had written three middle-grade novels that had gotten many rejections. I wanted to try a young adult novel, and was thinking hard on an idea, but couldn't come up with something that excited me.

So, one night, I had a dream about a girl whose boyfriend died but loved her so much, he came back as a ghost. My subconscious had been working on the idea for me, I believe, and it finally came through in my dream.

I don't dream very often, so it was strange. I woke up and started writing. The book came out in this very sparse, poetic way. It sort of scared me! I had been a fan of authors like Sonya Sones and Ellen Hopkins, but had never tried to write in verse. But I kept going, because I liked what I had, even though I worried that it would make it even harder to sell it.

I didn't know a lot of things as I started writing. I didn't know how Jackson died. I didn't know why Ava felt guilty, only that she did. But I kept writing and let the story take me where it wanted to. The one thing I did know that ultimately, this wasn't going to be a scary ghost story. I wanted this to be, at it's heart, a story of love. :)

[Lisa]

Hi Brenda!

So, the three YA books I have out right now are:

I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME
FAR FROM YOU
CHASING BROOKLYN

This past spring, I wrote a new book called THE DAY BEFORE. It's about 16-year-old Amber who goes to the beach alone to spend one perfect day before her world is turned upside down, and meets and feels a strong connection to a boy, Cade, who she slowly discovers is looking for his own escape, but for a very different reason.

It will be out in June, 2011! :)

[Colby]

Lisa,

I didn't know much about your book except that it was written in verse and a little bit of what it was about. I fell in love with reading books in verse the second I laid my hands on Ellen Hopkin's fantastic book Crank, so I have been wanting to read your book for quite some time now. I just read the first few pages on Google, and I will probably look around for the book tomorrow. I had a question, though. You say when you wrote this, it just sort of came out like poetry. Would you say it is harder, easier, or just the same as writing normally?
Thank you for answering!

[Tatiana]

Lisa,

Did you ever write poetry before starting I Heart You, You Haunt Me?

[Tatiana]

Do you ever see yourself writing a novel in prose form? Or verse is the medium you are now the most comfortable with?

[Lisa]

Hi Colbz,

I think writing in verse has different challenges than writing in prose. For each person, what is harder or easier is going to be different.

Personally, I love writing in verse because long, beautiful descriptions in prose is not my strength. But in verse, you have to constantly be thinking of how to describe what you want to say in a poetic way - using poetic devises or imagery or whatever.

The main thing, with any book, no matter how it's written, is the story has to be one that keeps the reader engaged - keeps him/her turning the pages. So my goal with any book I write is always to tell a compelling story, first and foremost.

[Lisa]

Tatiana wrote: "Lisa,

Did you ever write poetry before starting I Heart You, You Haunt Me?"

I just realized I should be clicking on "reply" to reply to the individual questions. Sorry!

I did write some poetry before I started writing in verse. In fact, a short poem I had written about seagulls ended up in I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME.

I don't write stand-alone poetry as much anymore, because I don't have a lot of time.

[Lisa]

Tatiana wrote: "Do you ever see yourself writing a novel in prose form? Or verse is the medium you are now the most comfortable with?"

Hi Tatiana,

I actually have one novel for younger readers (ages 8-12 generally, although lots of adults have told me they enjoyed it) called IT'S RAINING CUPCAKES that is written in prose. And, I just finished revisions on a companion novel for this novel that will come out next September.

I like writing both ways. Not every book idea is going to work in verse. If there's a lot of dialogue that's necessary, it's just not going to work. Realistic dialogue isn't going to be very poetic, you know what I mean?

So, when the story calls for verse, I'll use it, but if not, I'll go with prose. It's just going to depend. :)

have a lot of reluctant readers who love my books, because they are generally shorter and fairly easy to read, so for them, I hope to keep publishing verse novels!!

[[deleted user]]

Thanks Lisa for responding,

I will have to keep a sharp look for your next book. The first three are on "hot demand" at my library.

[Angie, YA lovin mod!!]

Lisa, do you have any advice for people in the group who may want to get their first book published?

[Lisa]

Angie wrote: "Lisa, do you have any advice for people in the group who may want to get their first book published?"

The publishing business is a large business to learn about. I strongly suggest finding places on the web where writers gather and share things. Here's a great one:

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/

New writers usually have SO many questions, so a message board like this can be really helpful. Also check your library and/or book store for the section that is all about writing and publishing. For children's and young adults WRITING, there's a great book called THE IDIOT'S GUIDE TO PUBLISHING CHILDREN'S BOOKS by Harold Underdown. For YA specifically, you can check out WRITING AND SELLING THE YOUNG ADULT NOVEL by K.L. Going.

Besides all of this, my one piece of advice is to always keep writing. It wasn't my first or second or third book that was good enough to be published. I kept writing, learning, and growing, and even now, I feel like CHASING BROOKLYN, my 3rd published novel, is so much better than my 1st novel, the one you're reading this month. There's always room to improve, you know? So while you're sending the first one out to agents, get to work on the second one. Keep writing, always...

[Shelby]

Lisa,
I think you should keep writing in poetic form. Your book was a real crier. I also read every single one of Ellen Hopkins books. Have you read her book Impulse?

[Colby]

Lisa,
How often do you write? What I mean is, in a day, how much time do you spend writing? With school and things, I barely have time to write, so I wondered how much time you use to write. Also, how long, on average, does it take you to write a book?

[Lisa]

Shelby wrote: "Lisa,
I think you should keep writing in poetic form. Your book was a real crier. I also read every single one of Ellen Hopkins books. Have you read her book Impulse?"

Hi Shelby, I have read three of Ellen's books, I believe, but I don't think IMPULSE is one of them. Her writing and her books are powerful and amazing. I'll have to pick it up one of these days. Sounds like you really enjoyed it!

Lisa

[Lisa]

Colbz wrote: "Lisa,
How often do you write? What I mean is, in a day, how much time do you spend writing? With school and things, I barely have time to write, so I wondered how much time you use to write. Also,..."

Now that I am a full-time author, when I'm working on a new book, I try to write at least a few hours each day. When I worked full-time, which was the last few years as I had my first three books published, I would get up early and write for an hour or so in the morning, and I would write a lot on the weekends.

I think the hard part is there are always so many distractions, like the internet, to pull us away from the writing. If I have to, I turn my router off so I can stay fully immersed in the story and not get distracted.

I know the time thing is hard - especially when you're in school. But even if you tell yourself to write a minimum of 100 words a day, which is totally doable, it's amazing how quickly it adds up.

Good luck!
Lisa

[Angie, YA lovin mod!!]

Lisa, I noticed you mentioned above about writing books for young readers and writing for young adults. Do you have one genre that you prefer to do over the other?

[Lisa]

I really love writing for both. And the nice thing is that in writing for both, I can do really different things and feed my creative soul in different ways. For whatever reason, my YAs are sort of angst-filled, so it's nice to get done with one of those and turn to something a little more fun.

[Angie, YA lovin mod!!]

Lisa, do you have to do any extensive research when writing your novels?

[Lisa]

Angie wrote: "Lisa, do you have to do any extensive research when writing your novels?"

Some require more than others. I HEART YOU didn't require much, but for CHASING BROOKLYN, Nico competes in sprint triathlons, so I had to do some research on how you'd train for one of those. In my next novel called THE DAY BEFORE, coming out in June, the setting was really important and so I spent a weekend in the town and went to all the places my characters go to make sure I got things accurate.

~Lisa

[Lisa]

Hey everyone, thanks so much for having me here and for reading my book during the month of October. I know verse isn't everyone's thing, so to those who tried it, thank you!!

If you liked I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME, you will probably like CHASING BROOKLYN. Although there are all new characters, Ava makes a short but sweet appearance. A lot of people say they like CHASING BROOKLYN more than I HEART YOU. It's told from two POVs this time - a boy and a girl. I feel like I've grown as an author, and that's evident in CHASING BROOKLYN.

Thanks again and happy reading!!!

Lisa

[Miss Bookiverse]

Thanks for Shopping by, Lisa :) i'll check out chasing Brooklyn, i'm sure it will be Fun.

[Tatiana]

Lisa, thank you very much for visiting us and answering our questions!

[Angie, YA lovin mod!!]

Thank you so much Lisa! We have enjoyed having you. It can be so hard to get authors to join in Q&A with readers so thank you for taking the time. I wish more readers would get involved in the Q&A... it is so beneficial to the reading experience!! Thanks Again!