7 Questions I Always Ask +1: An Interview with Chantel Guertin
Chantel Guertin is blog touring all over the Internet in support of her new novel, DEPTH OF FIELD, the sequel to THE RULE OF THIRDS, which I adored. I’m so excited to have her here to answer my seven questions…and one just for her about writing her character Pippa Greene.
ECW Press, August 2011.
E. Kristin Anderson: What was the first spark of inspiration for your latest novel
Chantel Guertin: DEPTH OF FIELD is Book 2 in the Pippa Greene series, which started with THE RULE OF THIRDS. The series follows Pippa, a 16-year-old photographer who’s dealing with the death of her father from cancer. My mom died when I was a teen, and I found it really hard to deal with her illness and death, and also just be a teen and see my friends. I wanted to write a novel that dealt with the death of a parent, and blended sadness with humor.
EKA: What kind of planning do you do before you start writing?
CG: I brainstorm what I want the book to be about. That’s usually just a page long. Then I start writing scenes, and then piecing it together and seeing where the story goes, then filling in the missing links. I don’t always even know how it’s going to turn out until I’ve written a first draft!
EKA: If you could have lunch with any writer living or dead, who would it be?
CG: I would love to meet John Green. I’ve loved his writing since LOOKING FOR ALASKA.
EKA: What is the first book you remember reading and enjoying as a young reader?
CG: A few of my favorites, which I read over and over again: ARE YOU THERE, GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET., STARRING SALLY J. FRIEDMAN AS HERSELF, STRANGER WITH MY FACE, the Anne of Green Gables and Emily of New Moon series.
EKA: If you could go back and time and tell your teen self ONE THING AND ONE THING ONLY, what would it be?
CG: Stop worrying about what anyone else thinks.
ECW Press, October 2013.
EKA: If you haven’t had a book challenged or banned, would you want this to happen to you? Why or why not?
CG: I realize that if one of my books were to be banned it’s because there may be something inappropriate for teens in it, and I don’t want to be that bad-ass who’s corrupting the youth of tomorrow, but at the same time I loved and love many books that get banned, and so I do secretly want to have a book banned! Sometimes the reason books are being banned seem totally ridiculous, and at the same time make teens really rally behind a book if they love it. And who doesn’t want that? With THE RULE OF THIRDS, a reviewer warned that that there was underage, unsupervised drinking, and I thought, Yessssssss. One step closer. I’m kidding, kind of.
EKA: What kind of book do you really want to try to write, but haven’t ever attempted? And what do you think is holding you back?
CG: A choose your own adventure! But I just don’t know if it would ultimately be that rewarding to write. It might be a fun project for Wattpad, to get feedback from readers about what they want along the way!
EKA: What was it like writing a sequel for Pippa? Easier than the first book? Harder? Fun? Scary? Give us all the dirt!
CG: I loved writing the sequel but it was also a lot harder than I thought it would be. Originally I’d planned out the whole series (which right now is supposed to be 4 books) but when I started writing DEPTH OF FIELD, I got so caught up in the characters that the story totally changed! I don’t want to give any spoilers but one major change was that in an early draft, Dace and Dylan were both in New York with Pippa! You can imagine how differently the book might’ve turned out than the way it is now. The same thing is happening with Book 3, which I’m working on right now. Even I have no clue how it’s going to end!
Chantel Guertin
Chantel Guertin is the bestselling author of four novels—STUCK IN DOWNWARD DOG, LOVE STRUCK, THE RULE OF THIRDS and DEPTH OF FIELD–and a beauty expert on The Marilyn Denis Show. When she’s not working on a new book she likes writing in her diary, sending mis-autocorrected texts to her best friends and making to-do lists. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.
