Gayle Forman's Blog, page 4

get your team adam on

Want your TEAM ADAM button? Of course you do! Here's how to get one.

1. Change your profile pic (Twitter, FB, etc.) to TEAM ADAM (use the image below) to show your love.

2. Email me your mailing address at info at gayleforman dot com. U.S. residents only. Sorry but my postage for the last international contest is out of control! French readers, I'm coming to Paris weekend of October 1st/2nd and I'll have some sort of Paris event so you can pick one up there if you're in the nabe.

3. Be patient. My life is a little loopy right now. But I am pretty sure I can handle putting pins in envelopes.

ackk!

Breathe.

I keep having to remind myself to breathe. I don't really know what happened to my lovely beach vacation where this was half a block away

and I saw dolphins swimming almost every day and rode my bike to the farm stand for watermelons that were addictive and drippy and perfect.

Oh, right, I know. IRENE happened. First she chased us out of town, mandatory evacuation, which would've been a lot worse had it not happened a day before our trip was due to end. But then she made us scramble back to New York to buy sandbags and barricade the apartment and shop for the apocalypse for what turned out to be basically a long rain storm.

So, I'm back. To reality. A reality that includes selling our apartment (yay) and buying a new place a whole block away (I will have an office, with a door that locks, and a fire-breathing dragon who blocks the door against any and all interlopers under five feet). Which is all yay, but also a massive amount of yikes. And paperwork.

And I have a book to write. A new book, a new two books in fact, the first of which will come out in about a year and a half but thanks to the craziness of publishing, I owe a draft in December. I will have the official announcement soon but I will tell you this: It's about a girl. And a guy. Who meet while traveling. And fall in love. Or do they? And then some stuff happens that I won't tell you about.

Anyhow, you know how obsessed I was with music and that sort of filtered its way into IF I STAY and WHERE SHE WENT? Well, I'm equally obsessed with travel. Don't believe me? Go here. And that's all over these books. And kissing. And heartbreak. And self discovery. And the magic that happens every day in real life, by chances taken, opportunities lost, connections missed. Connections made. Oh, and a guy so hot that some of you might switch your allegiance from TEAM ADAM.

Speaking of TEAM ADAM, the buttons. They are going into production THIS WEEK. And I know many of you (like, um 40) have free books coming. Along with the buttons. I will get to this. It'll just take time. Be patient. Because in addition to writing this new book, I have to research it (trip to Paris coming soon. French readers stay tuned for some sort of public event the first weekend in October). And you know, take care of my kids, who don't start school for another two weeks. All while calling lawyers and mortgage brokers and house inspectors.

Breathe.

Anyone have a paper bag handy?

Also, on top of all this excitingness/anxiety/insomnia, I have some upcoming events to tell you about, and lord knows when I'll get around to updating my events page.

September 18th is the Brooklyn Book Festival. I love my hometown literary festival and I'm especially excited to be on a panel with Jacqueline Woodson and Cory Doctorow. I don't have the specific dets yet but I'll keep you posted.

And then, for all your Southern folk the weekend of November 12th, I'll be taking part in the YALLFest, the Charleston Young Adult Book Festival. I'm going to be there with a whole host of awesome authors, and also my brother and his family, who live there. I plan to represent Team Contemporary with pride. I still have my t-shirt.

There are other things too. Like back-to-school orientations and back-to-school shopping to find the exact correct type of folder/pen/scissor and let us not forget the Odyssey for the Perfect Backpack, now going into its sixth week. But you don't want to think about that. I don't want to think about that. So much nicer to think about Paris.

Breathe.

Okay, that's all for a while. Forgive me if the blog stays quiet for a bit, but you know what I'm doing and who I'm doing it for. And I'll let you know about the TEAM ADAM buttons as soon as they come off the presses. Or whatever they use to make buttons.

Over and out.

xx

TEAM ADAM!!!

And the winner is….Our expert finalists were pretty much unanimous in their decision. This design was the favorite. Its simplicity. Its strikingness. And how well it evokes the character of Adam. So worthy of TEAM ADAM.

Congratulations, Connie, for her fabulous design.

Congratulations, finalists, for making it that far.

Congratulations to everyone who submitted. I am in awe of your creativity and talent.

Now, I'm going on vacation. When I get back, buttons for everyone. And books, for those of you who entered. So hold tight. And you French readers, I'm going to mail your books from FRANCE in September. Or maybe give them to you in person??? More details coming soon on that.

TEAM ADAM ALL THE WAY. You guys don't share him; you OWN him!

 

 

the finalists!

 

 

I am pleased to present to you the six finalists for the TEAM ADAM button contest. I know I said I'd pick five finalists but there were six clear favorites so I wanted to include all of them (you guys with your multiple votes—you're as indecisive as I am!).

 

Now these go to the crack panel of publishing experts. I will announce a winner soon—hopefully by the time I leave for vacation next week. And then I'll get these suckers made. And then all of you who have signed books and buttons coming, you'll get that in September! And we can all announce our TEAM ADAM allegiance with pride.

 

Thanks to everyone who submitted. And congratulations to our finalists!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

team adam button contenders

Behold, members of TEAM ADAM, the bounty of offerings for our official button! I was inundated with more than 40 button designs for the contest, so many designs that those of you who sent in multiple sumbissions, I had to pick one, lest we not get overloaded.

I am in awe of your creativity. These are incredible. I uploaded every single design except for a handful that wouldn't upload. These are in order of when I received them.

So, the voting. Here is how it works.

Round 1: You vote for your single favorite design in the comments section. Vote by saying your favorite design by number, which is ABOVE the button design on the left. We will assemble a group of five finalists. Then, a group of crack publishing and design experts (i.e. my friends and colleagues at Penguin) will pick the winner. The winner gets 50 buttons, 5 signed books, a video message. Everyone who entered gets a signed book and some buttons (and all you French artists, I might hand deliver those books in September when I come to Paris—more on that in a later post).

As you pick a design, think of one that will look good on a tiny little button.

Voting is open until August 10th.

Let the games begin!

 

 

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are you team adam?

A few weeks ago, I tweeted about having buttons made that read TEAM ADAM—well, actually, the whole story is I told my husband I'd wear a t-shirt that read TEAM NICK and he basically gagged, and then I happened upon the TEAM ADAM idea. Anyhow, I tweeted the possibility. A bunch of people actually emailed me asking for buttons. So I said I'd get right on them.

And I did.

But then I ran into the problem I always run into when I attempt anything visual. My ambition comes crashing up against my woeful lack of any sort of design/art talent. And I don't want to just have boring buttons that say TEAM ADAM because that doesn't really work. The buttons have to be deserving of Adam, and deserving of anyone who might potentially wear them, i.e. you guys.

So yesterday, while again perusing some web sites, I hit upon a brilliant thought: You guys are so much more talented than me! And you like Adam. So why not exploit take advantage of your talents!

Hence, The TEAM ADAM Button Contest was born.

Here's the deal. You design a TEAM ADAM button image. It should be simple, striking and worthy of TEAM ADAM, and workable on a 2.5 inch pin. I will accept entries through the end of the month. You can email me scanned images to info at gayleforman dot com. (Don't worry about res now. If you win, I'll need a hi-res image.) At the end of the month, I'll put up a post with the best of the best and we can all deliberate on which ones we want. And we'll pick a winner.

What will you, the winner, get, aside from my undying gratitude and bragging rights over having created the TEAM ADAM image? You will also receive:

50 free TEAM ADAM buttons!

5 signed copies of IF I STAY and/or WHERE SHE WENT in any combination, personally signed to whoever you want.

A personalized video of thanks that you can do whatever you want with.

Also, if you live near me or any of my future tour stops, I'll totally take you to lunch!

Okay, design people. Make it work. Wow me. Insert your own Tim Gunn-ism here.

I'm TEAM ADAM. Are you?

meghan, with all due respect, you're full of it

Oh, lordy. There is NOTHING I would prefer than to shut up about the boring YA-is-more-lurid argument. Whatever. Everything in our culture is more lurid and rising and sinking tides lift and sink all boats and some YA may be sinking but the majority of YA, including supposedly dark stuff like THE HUNGER GAMES is, when you get past the covers, provocative, deep, smart and thoughtful commentary on the world we live in. A lot better than the DRAGON TATTOO series where people seem to always be sticking things up people's nether regions and is truly lurid. But I digress.

 

If only Meghan Cox Gurdon would've shut up. But the thing is she keeps pedaling this argument, this from her latest diatribe in the Wall Street Journal:

It is true that so-called problem novels may be helpful to children in anguished circumstances. The larger question is whether books about rape, incest, eating disorders and "cutting" (self-mutilation) help to normalize such behaviors for the vast majority of children who are merely living through the routine ordeals of adolescence.

There are real-world reasons for caution. For years, federal researchers could not understand why drug- and tobacco-prevention programs seemed to be associated with greater drug and tobacco use. It turned out that children, while grasping the idea that drugs were bad, also absorbed the meta-message that adults expected teens to take drugs. Well-intentioned messages, in other words, can have the unintended consequence of opening the door to expectations and behaviors that might otherwise remain closed.

What she is strongly suggesting is that by reading about cutting or drug-taking or sex-having, "innocent" readers might turn into cutters or drug-takers or cutters. The is spurious, which is a fancy way of saying bullshit. There is NO RESEARCH to this, and the research Gurdon gives doesn't even back up her own argument! Still,  in spite of the dearth of research,  social conservatives have, for years now, tried to make the case this case. It is the reason that sex-ed in school is such a hot-button issue. Teaching kids about how to use condoms or how not to get pregnant or get AIDS will ENCOURAGE THEM TO HAVE SEX. Never mind that the opposite is true as evidenced by the US's shamefully high teen pregnancy rate. Countries with a more enlightened attitude (Hi, Holland, how YOU doing?) not only have delayed onset of sexual activity but much lower rates of STDs. But again, I digress.

The point is, if you don't like darker YA, don't buy it. If you don't want your kids to read it, don't let them. But don't make a cultural blanket statement using this extremely tenuous argument about why lame anti-drug messaging didn't work. Maybe the DARE program didn't work because it was so dorky and kids saw right through it? Maybe incidences of cutting are going up because kids feel under insane amount of pressure from such early age to take all AP classes and make the gymnastics team and debate and also do well in that after-school Mandarin they're enrolled in so they can compete when China takes over the world. Or maybe it's because the culture is surrounded by such ridiculous models of womanhood that no girl can live up. Maybe it's Jersey Shore's fault. Who knows? But there are an awful lot of scary things going in the world, in our culture—things that would require a lot of systemic change—that are making life more complex for kids today. It would be nice if we could just make books cheerier and kids would be fine (and for the record, I think kids ARE fine and that the worry that today's generation is doomed is perennial), but it's not that easy. Sorry, Meghan. There's no silver bullet. Or maybe that's a bubble-gum pink bullet for you.

For the record, and please don't kill me, I don't actually think YA saves. I don't think books save people. I think people save people. I think books sometimes help people feel that they're not alone and this allows them to connect with other people. I also don't think you have to be an anguished person to enjoy a book about anguish. For instance, I don't think readers of IF I STAY have to have been in awful car crashes and have lost their families to like the book. But kids—and adults, it turns out—like to engage in emotional reading experiences, to have catharsis through reading. The Greek philosopher Aristotle coined that term to describe the public release that came through works of art. If Gurdon is so into the classics, she might want to look that up. Sometimes, readers relate on a more personal level and that gives a book more resonance. But it's not necessary to the reading experience. And as far as I can tell, no one has read IF I STAY and gone on to try to kill their families in car crashes. Some readers have said they've stopped texting while driving, though and others have picked up the cello. Ohh, gateway book!

Gurdon's argument is stupidity. And using faux science to back up personal tastes is Glenn Beck territory. And part of me knows the best way to combat stupidity is to shut up about it. But in my last post about this, I exhorted us all not to let the bullies and liars and purveyors of misinformation be the loudest voices, so following my own advice, I'm getting the last word.

For now anyway.

Oy, the stupidity. It stings.

the definitive ya wiki

There has been so much written about YA lately. Lordy. You would think it was the latest Apple product or something. All these people scratching their heads to try to figure out what this new shiny thing is and how it works. It slices. It dices. It corrupts. It depraves. (I don't know if you can actively deprave something, but this is the Wild West World of YA so heck, why not).

Anyhow, someone needs to be the official expert of YA. And I have about 20 minutes to spare.  So I thought we could use a Wikipedia entry or something. Because there are SO MANY MISCONCEPTIONS.

For one, YA does not stand for young adult. That is a misnomer. It stands for Yurger Anderssen, the 17th Century Swedish philosopher who is roundly regarded as the MODERN inventor of YA. Here he is pictured. He was quite the looker in his day.

Anyhow,  I say Yurger is the modern inventor because…

YA really dates back to the Middle Ages. Though back that it was called Storeys of Angsteey Youth Featuring Noteth Mucheth of The Bangingeth. Also, because most 15-year-olds were middle-aged back then, the protagonists were usually seven.

Little-known interesting fact: William Shakespeare totally tried writing YA—have you freaking read ROMEO & JULIET? Or at least seen the Leo and Claire version?—but pretty much failed at it. He channeled his depression into writing tragedies like Hamlet and also into a lesser-known Yahtzee addiction. Another little-known fact: Yahtzee was invented during The Reformation. Look it up, people.

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Want to talk about depravity? Before money was invented, the payment for a YA novel was one of the following: One book in exchange for…

a) drinking a pint of donkey blood

b) having sex with a one-armed dwarf

c) signing a blood oath to go into politics or journalism.

Phew, thank gawd those days are over!

Most experts agree that the modern modern era of YA began some time in the 1980s when Judy Blume ate a particularly delicious blueberry muffin and it was so good, it caused her to yell out: "Delicious! YA!" And that was that. Librarians, can you back me up on this, please?

NOBODY is building a secret Mancuhrian Candidate Zombie Army by implanting and encoding secret messages in Sarah Dessen, Sara Zarr, Stephanie Perkins, Jacqueline Woodson, and Meg Cabot novels. Why would you EVEN THINK THAT?

Also, same holds true for the secret Manchurian Candidate Unicorn Army with secret messages encoded in Libba Bray, Blake Nelson, Ally Condie, John Green, Matt de la Peña, and Chris Crutcher novels. Why would YOU EVEN THINK THAT?

The jury is still out on Markus Zusak. Some  17th-Century Swedish experts and Yurger Andersson descendants have said that if you read the Finnish translation of THE BOOK THIEF backwards, the words, "Zombie come for me" are audible. But there is no consensus yet. Other linguists have said the precise translation of the backward speech is "Give me another Oreo." But they don't have Oreos in Finland. Further research is being conducted.

Investigations are also being conducted of Barry Lyga and Holly Black. Weird things happen if you put their books too close to each other.

Also, it is commonly known that all YA authors are simply biding their time until the Book-Fairy Princess turns them into Jonathan Franzen.

Or into an Oreo.

Hopefully this clarifies the ever-broadening world of YA Literature. If you have any entries to add to this Wiki, please feel free to do so in the comments box.

 

my daughter—super agent

So, generally, I try to keep pretty mellow about things like bestseller lists and book sales. To me what ultimately matters is that my books are selling. And that is not even because I'm panting for my piece of the sales. By the time I actually see those royalties, my kids will be in college. Or near enough. It's more that sales is a barometer of longevity. If you are buying my book, I assume you're reading it and then hopefully you are likely to read my next book, and given that this is all I want to do with my life, that stuff is very important to me.

Anyhow, the point is, I try to be Zen about this stuff. Because I control it about as much as I control the weather (which I have a very hard time being Zen about; it's 65 degrees today. And rainy. In mid-June. Again, I ask, WHO CAN I FIRE?). One way I keep my Zen on is to keep a chin-high church-state wall of separation between business stuff and family stuff. I talk about it sometimes with my husband, but rarely with the kids. All they know is my picture is on some books. That's cool. And sometimes I travel for my books. Which isn't cool. Except for the presents, which are cool.

All well was withe balance until the Wimpy Kid. The Diary of A Wimpy Kid is totally harshing my mellow. Screwing with my Zen.

I picked up Jeff Kinney's graphic novel a few weeks ago at  a stoop sale. Willa, the 6 year-old, demolished it in a few sittings. Then she noticed the cover. Which she brought to my attention. And suddenly, I wasn't so glad my kid could read.

Because after she finished the book, she read the cover, carefully. And noticed the blue type. And then she came to me.

Willa: "Mom, did you know this book was a number one New York Times Bestseller?"

Me, smiling: "Yes, sweetie. It's a very popular book."

Willa, scrutinizing me: "You weren't number one, were you?"

Me, still smiling: "No, sweetie. I once made it to number two for a week."

Long pause. Then in soothing, if condescending, tones, Willa: "Well, that's pretty good."

Me: "Gee, thanks."

Willa: "You might make it to number one for your next book."

Me: "You never know."

Willa, eyes narrowed: "Is Where She Went still on the list?"

Me, eyes downcast: "No, honey. Not anymore."  She gives me that pitying/disappointed look. Willa then wanted to see the actual bestseller list, to see Wimpy Kid on it, and I showed her how long the series had been on there, along with other children's books standbys, like Marcus Zusak's The Book Thief.

Oh, lordy. I wish it could say it ended there, a temporary fascination as kids that age are prone to get. But apparently not. This past weekend, I heard her getting all tantrumy because Nick recycled the Saturday paper before anyone had read it (Note to Nick: Some of us still read the paper version of the paper!). I thought she was upset because she wanted the magazine. The last few weeks she'd been looking for interesting food articles (no idea why). I was putting the little one down for a nap as all this was going down. When I came out, I saw her on Nick's lap in front of the computer, perusing the online bestseller lists. She was upset because he'd recycled the Book Review before she'd had a chance to check Wimpy Kid's standing.

I felt a little sick watching her read the lists. It was like my worlds colliding. Or like watching your parents make out.  It was not something I wanted to see, my six-year-old charting the bestsellers. But it only got worse. Last night at dinner, Willa twirled her spaghetti and politely inquired if Where She Went had gone back on the list. It was like my six-year-old became a stand-in for every adult author who has given me that blank you-write-what? look, for that sinking feeling I get when I go into a children's bookstore and don't see my books on the shelves (cough, cough Books of Wonder!), for every fear that I'm not doing this well enough, selling enough.

I'm ashamed to tell you what I did next.

It's that bad.

It's inexcusable. But I did it anyway.

I snapped.

I threw….sales figures at her. Yes, sales figures. I never have them but I'd just gotten numbers for Where She Went and If I Stay that very morning from my agent, so I told Willa how many books I'd sold. It was a number that had made me very happy when my agent had shared it earlier, but then I told Willa. And any sense of pride I had in those numbers disappeared because I had just given a sales report to a six-year-old. And then came the kicker, her response: "When will you sell five hundred million bajillion?"

Maybe after Wimpy Kid does.

Oh, Wimpy Kid :I friggin' hate you! Even if I just bought numbers two and three.

 

 

the holly goldberg sloan hour

I want to tell you guys about an amazing author—Holly Goldberg Sloan—and her amazing new book—I'LL BE THERE—but before I do I want to talk about blurbing. I've blogged about this before, the insidery nature of blurbing, my blurb policy In a nutshell: I only blurb debuts. I'm incredibly picky about what I will blurb. If it's not the kind of book that I will shout from the rooftops, grab strangers, or go on this blog to say HEY, READ THIS!!!, I won't blurb it. I can't just like something. I can't even just love it. I have to be in love with it. Ready to have its babies.

Needless to say, I want to have babies with I'll BE THERE. You know this because I put my name on it with a blurb (as did Sara Zarr, Natalie Standiford and a bunch of other talented picky people). But I wasn't even asked. I was given the book to read. I knew the editor. Her stuff is always amazing. I read it. I emailed her basically asking: Can I blurb this? I don't want to make this all about me but I want to properly convey how awesome this book is. How unlike anything else it is. It's about a boy named Sam, and holy moly will you fall in love with Sam, and a girl named Emily. And Sam's little brother Riddle. And Emily's family. And Sam's family. And the way in which we  are all family. It is told in vignettes, multiple character POVs, in a way that sounds like it would be disjointed but really is totally beautiful and sucks you in. Here's an excerpt, which I cribbed from Forever Young Adult's swoony review of this book, and if my gushy praise doesn't convince you of its awesomeness, read Forever YA's review!

Haley jogged over to Emily. They both were covered in sweat. Haley said breathlessly:

"Don't look right away, but leaning against the fence behind you is maybe the cutest guy to ever set foot in the state."

Emily's head instantly swiveled. Haley tried not to shriek, but it came out that way.

"I told you not to look!"

Emily smiled, and then as Haley watched, she ran across the field straight at the Vision in a Plaid Shirt.

With Haley immobilized, the other players stopped running.

Twenty-one girls now watched, dazed, as the boy/man/god put his arm on Emily's shoulder, drew her near, and with the old chain-link fence between their two bodies, gave her the sweetest kiss any of them had ever seen.

The next day, despite the fact that Emily was a junior, and despite the fact that she was one of the weaker players the team voted her captain for the following season.

 

So, I loved this book. And after I finished it, I wanted to know all about Holly. But the woman had no web page. No Twitter. No Facebook (she does now). But she did have an profile because she comes from film. She'd written and directed movies before. Like real movies. And now she's writing novels. It's a reverse trajectory that I find fascinating. So I wanted to ask her all those burning questions about coming from Hollywood to books and this book. And I wanted to drool over her book so you could, too. And of course, we're going to give some of her books away, more on that after the interview.

I absolutely loved I'LL BE THERE. Can you tell me a bit about where the inspiration came from.

One of my good friends took me to lunch.  I hadn't seen him in 6 months.  He said that the reason he'd been out of touch was that his kids met a teenage boy in church, and they were trying to help him.  My friend said that the boy had not been to school in a decade.  I truly admire my friend, and I couldn't believe that he and his family had found this young person who so desperately needed their help.  I literally couldn't stop thinking about it.  I never met the boy, and I know very few particulars of his real life, but the next day, I began to write what I imagined to be, and I couldn't stop…

Your background is in film. It's kind of an unusual trajectory, from director to YA author. Can you tell us a bit about the journey.

I have written family movies and I have directed three of those films, as well as a half-hour television pilot.  I believe that I think in a visual way.  If I were not a writer, maybe I would have been an architect who told a lot of stories.  The journey from film and television to novels really came about in a very unplanned way.  But I will say that several years ago I wrote an essay, for lack of a better word, about taking my oldest son to college.  I sent this essay to some of my friends, and one of them runs a movie studio and he sent me a short email back that said simply:  'You should write books'. So maybe this is all his fault.

How is writing a screenplay different from writing a novel? How are they the same? Did you think in cinematic terms of were you liberated from having to think a certain way? I have read certain screenwriters love that they can write in any location without concern of cost. You certainly take advantage of some amazing locations. Was that the case with you?

What was liberating was the fact that I didn't have a dozen people telling me what to do.  I didn't have to think about demographics and marketing and studio politics.  I didn't get rounds and rounds of notes.  I didn't need to submit an outline or a treatment.  And when I was finished, I didn't have to hope that actors could be enticed into playing the parts.  I didn't need to find millions of dollars of financing, a producer and a director, and all of the other elements that go into making a movie.  I could just tell the story that I wanted to tell.  It was pure joy.  It still is.  Of course now I want to see the book made into a movie.  So maybe I've reversed engineered the whole thing.

The story is written in this very episodic, vignette style, from multiple character POVs, what gave you the idea to do it that way?

I have spent so many years writing dialogue for films.  One of the rules in screenplays is that you show things through action and of course by the words spoken by the characters.  It is very difficult to show internal thoughts, unless you use voice-over.  And most people discourage the use of that technique.  So I was thrilled to be able to legitimately be inside someone's head.  Also, I love Faulkner.  'As I Lay Dying' was my favorite book in high school.

Sam and Riddle are so tightly woven. What was this inspiration for this bond?

I have two sons.  They are crazy close.  I have two brothers.  We are very close.  There is no one in the world genetically more like you than a sibling.   And often there is no one in the world who understands you as well….

One of the things I loved about this book was the way that connections create connections. Like the way the guy, Hiro,  who bought the valuable coin connection he knew was stolen hung onto it until he could find its rightful owner. Was that an implicit message of the book, or just something that emerged?

The idea that everything matters is really what I wanted the book to be about.  The idea that little things make a difference.  The idea that there are consequences for our actions.  If it all matters, then I believe individual action has more meaning.  And our own lives have more importance.  If we are all connected then we should care more

There were some hilarious scenes with tanning salons gone wrong. You are from LA. Is there some personal experience here?

I have been diagnosed as an Ultra Caucasian.  A doctor actually said that to me.  And I'm fascinated by albinism because I'm one step away from that.  So, yes, I have done my time in the spray-on tanning booth.  And I will admit that I have emerged with streaky legs and skin the color of a pumpkin.  I can never remember if my ears go inside the paper cap or out.  I'm always confused if I should keep on my underwear, or wear a swimsuit in there, or take it all off.  I feel like I'm getting lung cancer when I inhale the creepy spray-on stuff.  And yet, I return.  People are complicated, especially when it comes to issues of personal appearance.  As I type this, I have self-tanning lotion on my arms.

Music is incredibly important in this story. It's what brings Sam and Emily together and eventually brings Sam into the folds of Emily's family. In the end, it's what gives Sam a new life, so to speak. Did you set out to write so much music into the book or did it just happen?

I don't play an instrument.  I can't sing.  And there are people who probably believe I should be banned from a dance floor.  But I love music.  I believe that music is everyone's second language.  Babies bop up and down before they can walk.  I hear music in my dreams.  I think we all do.  Some of us are just lucky enough to be able to express that.  I'm not one of them.  Sometimes art is an expression of dysfunction.  I'll leave it at that

Why the song "I'll Be There"?

I love the song.  If I'm by myself in the car and I hear it, I will silently weep.  I'm not sure why.  I love when Jermaine Jackson does his part and is in effect singing to Michael.  Brothers.  No one can harmonize the way family members (well not in my family, but in musical families) can.

How did you get the rights to put the lyrics to the entire song in the book? [Note to nonpublishing folk: For a song this famous, this is either crazy hard or crazy expensive.]

I approached the publisher/authors (it was written by Berry Gordy, Bob West and Hal Davis).  And I negotiated for the right to publish the song's lyrics.  I also paid for the right to use the song's title as my book title.  I come from the world of film and television and I have done this in the past for film projects, so it didn't seem unusual for me.  I'll Be There was the number one song of 1970.   I was a kid.  It was the greatest.   Supposedly while they were recording, Berry Gordy told Michael Jackson to sing the ad-lib 'Just look over your shoulder, honey!', but Michael was young and he sang 'Just look over your shoulders', making it plural.  That's one of the things I love.  There is something innocent about making it plural.

I cried so many times reading this book. Did you cry while writing it?

I cry.  I also laugh.  And I groan.  And I go from euphoria to clinical depression all in one paragraph….

What's next?

My next book is entitled COUNTING BY SEVENS and it is the story of a young girl who is a genius.  The school district discovers this during a round of standardized testing.  They send her to see a school counselor who is a version of Zack Galifianakis (from the Hangover).  Trouble ensues.  But I'm also working on a continuation of I'LL BE THERE, and I'm equally excited about that because I'm not finished with my characters.  They still have a story to tell….

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Ohh, I'm so glad to hear that. And COUNTING BY SEVENS also sounds awesome.

So, I'm telling you people that if you are a fan of my books, Sara Zarr's books, Sarah Dessen's books, John Green's books, David Levithan's books, Natalie Standiford's books, Stephanie Perkins's books, Jandy Nelson's books, Lauren Oliver's books, you will love this book. It's the kind that makes you cry and and fills your chest with that fluttering feeling and will have you on the edge of your seat with suspense. And Sam. Oh, Sam. The hotness of Sam. I cannot describe it enough.

You want to read this book. Your friends want to read this book. Which is why are giving away three signed copies of this wonderful book.

Here's what you have to do. Post a comment here. You enter one time. If you go to Holly's FB page and like her—and tell us you've done this in the comments section; we operate on an honor system—and you enter twice. Contest runs until Friday. U. S. residents only (not me doing the postage, sorry).

After you read the book, come back and tell me how much you love it!

And stay tuned, more author interviews and giveaways coming up soon!