Some FAQs about me and books!

Frequently (and not so frequently…) Asked Book Questions

Picture Courtesy of Google Images

 

Writers get asked lots of questions over and over. It’s just the nature of the job. Writing is sort of hard to understand, just like any other art, especially when it’s your career. But my favorite questions that I get are questions about reading. I love to read, I read a ton, and I love to talk about what I’m reading.

 

1. What is your favorite book?

 

Nope. Can’t do it.

 

2. Okay, okay. What about your favorite book in different genres? Like your favorite book of poetry, your favorite YA book, etc?

 

It’s still darn near impossible — but I can give you a selection of SOME of my favorites…

 

Poetry: Li-Young Lee, The City in Which I Love You; Shara McCallum, The Water Between Us; Kim Addonizio, Tell Me; Michael Waters, Parthenopi; Stephen Dobyns, Velocities

 

YA Novels: Liar by Justine Larbaleister; Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr; Please Ignore Vera Dietz by AS King; Teach Me by RA Nelson; Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

 

Fiction: The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri; Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver; The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold; Dracula by Bram Stoker

 

3. What’s your favorite part of a book?

 

In general, there is usually this moment in good books, about 3/4 of the way through, where the greater meaning or significance comes through. The Lovely Bones is a great example of this — there’s a line that says, and I’m paraphrasing, “These were the lovely bones that grew in my absence.” That line knocked my socks off and brought the significance of the title to life. It doesn’t always have to be that strategic, but I often feel that there is a moment like that in most books.

 

4. When naming your characters, do you give any thought to the actual meaning?

 

Um, the meaning as in the significance or whatever? Like the fact that “Fiore” means “flower” in Italian? No. I do choose names based on how they sound in my head or if I think they fit with other names. In Taste Test, I chose Nora’s name based on a friend of a friend’s daughter — I just really loved the name. I also chose the name of her friend, GiGi, because that was what my son was going to be named if he was a girl — Giada, actually.

 

5. How do you conceive your plot ideas?

 

Honestly, I don’t really feel like I have a process for that. Sometimes, the stories come to me like movies — beginning, middle, and end. I just have to flesh them out. Much of the time, particularly when I’m writing, I feel like I’m watching a movie play in my head and I’m just writing what I see in there.

 

6. Have you written a book you love that you have not been able to get published?

 

I have lots of partial manuscripts and synopses and chapters and ideas. LOTS OF THEM. None of them are complete enough to be published. There is one manuscript I completed, revised endlessly, and submitted to agents. It nabbed me my first agent and went to acquisitions a few times in an attempt to be sold, but it just didn’t happen. That’s the way this business works, though. Sometimes you sell, sometimes you don’t.

 

7. Do you use real-life facts based on true stories?

 

I use real life as inspiration — Taste Test is based off of the Top Chef type of shows that are out there. I’ve tried to base my characters on characteristics I’ve witnessed in people. But there isn’t a biographical element in my work.

 

8. Do you use your OWN experiences?

 

Absolutely. More often than not, any emotion that’s in my books are emotions I’ve felt. Personally, I think you have to write what you know in order to maintain authenticity.

 

9. Did you ever think you’d ever become an author?

 

Not a YA Author, no. I wrote poetry from the moment I knew how and I’ve always been literary. But YA found me in a sort of strange way in 2007. I started writing YA because I fell in love with the emotion and drama of teen literature. I loved reliving those emotions.

 

10. Grab the book closest to you. What is the first sentence of the third paragraph on the sixth page?

 

“Right about then I wondered if there were any teachers or otherwise responsible adults around in case Tucker and Bruce and their friends decided to take it beyond words.” Sara Zarr, STORY OF A GIRL