The Next Big Thing
Recently, I got invited to do a “chain blog” – also referred to as a “blog hop”…but maybe it’s best described as a game of cyber tag among authors. The task: answer the following questions about why your book is going to be The Next Big Thing. And, being so very modest, I got right on board. At the end of the post, you’ll find links to the authors I tagged.
What is the working title of your book?
Streaming
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
A girl who’s on a reality TV show with her fame-hungry family of fifteen wants to be off the air and out of the public eye.
(Read the longer version here.)
Who is your publisher?
Henry Holt
(Every time I say that, I imagine a foppish man smoking a cigar, glaring at me through a pince nez. I imagine he’s the kind of dude who would go “bunburrying.” Ten points if you get the reference.).
When will the book be out?
Winter 2014
Where did the idea come from for the book?
I’ve always been rather horrified by reality TV and after the whole John and Kate Plus Eight fiasco, I started thinking about their kids. What is it like living with cameras on you twenty-four seven? How does it feel to have your tantrums and your parents’ arguments on display for the ENTIRE COUNTRY? Then I started thinking, okay, what about a YA where the girl is on a show like that, but she’s seventeen and dying to be anonymous?
What genre does your book fall under?
YA Realism
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Oh, man. So hard because I don’t know the names of age-appropriate actors! Also, my protagonist has twelve brothers and sisters, so I’m only going to focus on the two she’s closest to. I’ll do my best…you’ll have to use your imaginations. Good thing I’m not a casting director!
Bonnie™ “Chloe” Baker: Claire Danes circa My So Called Life. She’s pensive, confused, and her own girl. She’s a watcher, too.
Benton™ Baker: . He’s got the sweet, hot, supportive big brother thing down.
Lexie™ Baker: would be perfect for Bonnie™’s bitchy sister. I feel skeezy, stealing from the cast a second time. Oh well.
Patrick Sheldon (the loooooove interest): A younger version of with a bit of Kurt Cobain thrown in. He’s a smart rebel, and a dirty, grungy romantic.
Mom: Can I please have (a.k.a Tami Taylor of Friday Night Lights fame)? Please? I love her. She just wouldn’t be allowed to be so nice and ya’ll-ing.
Chuck Daniels: The show’s head producer – a Hollywood snake. wouldn’t be a bad choice.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
I wrote the first chapter as an assignment for a graduate writing course I was taking at Simmons College (I was briefly a student there before switching to Vermont College of Fine Art’s MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults). Then, I commenced on my own NaNoWriMo that lasted six weeks, from the end of Dec. 2011 – February 2012, when I completed the first draft. I used it as my entry for the PEN New England Discovery contest and I won! I started querying agents in May and signed with Brenda Bowen at SJGA. The next month, my editor, Kate Farrell, bought it. It’s the fastest I’ve ever written anything. The idea itself had only been swimming in my mind for a few months before I started it. I got really lucky.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
It’s hard to say, because there isn’t anything quite like it. When my agent queried editors, she compared it to e. lockhart’s The Disreputable History of Frankie-Landau Banks, which was SUPER high praise and pretty excellent to be put in the same sentence as one of my favorite writers of all time. It will probably be the only experience I have with that, but I’ll milk it for all it’s worth!
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
As I said before, the plethora of reality TV shows that feature kids. I really do have a problem with it and I wanted to examine what it would be like for someone going through adolescence on air.
What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?
I have what I like to call “media inserts” – they range from Twitter posts to gossip columns or radio talk show transcripts that give the reader a peek into the media storm that Bonnie™ is in the center of. You’ve probably noticed the ™ symbol after her and her siblings’ names. That’ll be part of it, too.
Next week, check out the following writers as they discuss why their work will be The Next Big Thing.
I personally LOVE both of their ideas for their novels.
