Libba’s Comments (group member since Jun 21, 2011)

Libba’s comments from the Ask Libba Bray - Special One-Day-Only Group group.

Juwi wrote: "Hi Ms Bray!!!
just wanted to say THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO COME ON GOODREADS- it's particularly awesome for those who don't live in the US...i really hope you do a book tour in the UK somet..."

Hey Juwi. Thanks so much! Wow, I am blushing. (And I am so happy to be mentioned in the company of Ms. Black, Ms. Cabot, and Ms. McCafferty, wonderful writers, all.)

I really did have a blast coming up with the products for BQ. And yes, Maxi-Pad Pets was probably my favorite. I honestly don't know where it came from. I just went, "What would be a truly ridiculous concept for a feminine hygiene product? Oh, how about plush toys in our pants? Yeah, that'll work." Or maybe I'd seen too many of those Webkinz and Pillow Pets ads. They started to break me down, man!

I hope I can get to the UK sometime. Oh, and Captain Jack Sparrow was not an inspiration, but Marc Bolan and Russell Brand were. Thanks!

Tammy wrote: "Totally freaking right now! You're a big inspiration to me as a writer. I love your Gemma Doyle series so so much. I have a few questions for you about your writing process.

Was there ever a point..."

Hey Tammy! "Was there ever a point where you lacked a cohesive plot?" Um, yes. ALL THE TIME! Honestly, when I write, I feel as if I'm standing at the open mouth of a plane holding on to the rip cord of my parachute while looking down dubiously and muttering, "This could all end badly..." It is my extreme sport, and most of the time, I am hanging in the air hoping I land okay. For me, it's all part of the process. I just write and rewrite and keep revisiting, keep asking question, keep going over tiny details (God is in the details) until I work it into something that seems, well, workable. I do think that the more you work on your characters, the more you will discover the plot as a by-product. I mean think about it: character are human beings. Human beings make choices based on all sorts of wants, needs, fears, insecurities, etc. When human beings make choices, they take action. Action = plot.

Remind me of that next time I get stuck, will you? Thanks.

Kathryn wrote: "What inspired you to write Going Bovine? That book is my absolute favorite and it had me teared up, it actually had me going and wondering about the point of life! Did you go through any emotional ..."

Hey Kathryn, thanks so much. Of all my books, I find GOING BOVINE the most difficult to talk about or explain as it's probably the most deeply personal and therefore hard to articulate in any coherent fashion. But yeah, you could definitely say I went through an emotional journey while writing it. :)

Seth wrote: "Hi Libba- I don't know if anyone else has asked about this, but--THE END OF GOING BOVINE. What the heck was that?! I didn't really understand it at all. One of my friends tried to explain it to me,..."

Hey Seth. Well, I can't really explain the ending because the ending is totally subject to the interpretation by the individual reader. So, basically, whatever YOU think is what happens, happens. I'll tell you what some people have said:
1. Cameron only takes the road trip in his head and then he dies. Game over.
2. Cameron lives on in a parallel universe because every time you make a choice, you spin off another universe in which a different choice happens. So in one world he dies but in another world, he lives.
3. The adventure only happens in Cameron's head but our brains are like parallel universes in which anything can happen, and since our brains determine our reality, it is all real.
4. Cameron actually died when he was five on the Small World Ride.
5. Cameron exists in a book, and a book is a parallel universe.
6. Dude, this book was trippy. Let's go get some pizza and stop thinking for a while.

Hope that helps.

Alexa wrote: "In which time of day do you prefer to write?"

Hi Alexa. I am solidly a morning into early afternoon writer. I'm useless at night. Useless.

Karisa wrote: "Hi Libba! I am an adult reader who adores your writing style and feminist punk rock attitude! I discovered you with the Gemma Doyle trilogy and am now reading through Beauty Queens (through fits of..."

Hey Karisa, thanks so much! Emily on Page One beat you to the feminism question, so if you scroll back a page, you'll find my answer to that one. As for whether or not I'll write an adult novel, wellll...maybe. I have this one crazy adult book I've been writing in dribs and drabs over the past, um, ten years. (Really? Yes. It has been ten years. It is the neglected novel. It sits in a file on my computer glaring at me and sighing.) But first, I've got THE DIVINERS, my four-book series starting Fall 2012. And then there's another YA novel I've been dying to write for longer than 10 years. (It was the first novel I meant to write but didn't feel ready to tackle.) That's going to keep me busy for some time.

Thanks for your questions.

Alyssa wrote: "Hello Libba,

I have read your Going Bovine book and it was amazing. I just wanted to know how you came up with the idea for this book? The book was awesome and I loved how it made me laugh and c..."

Hi Alyssa,

The idea for Going Bovine came to me many years ago. I'd heard about a man in my hometown who contracted CJ, the human variant of mad cow disease, and his story stuck with me. I wanted to write about what it might be like to lose touch with reality and if we can ever really know what's "real" or not. It brought up a lot of deeper philosophical questions I had.

Yes, I get writer's block, too. It's awful, isn't it? I think most writer's block is about fear. It's about getting close to some truth that feels scary to unearth. So in a way, you're usually close to a breakthrough when that happens. I also find that when I haven't written in a while, due to schedule interruptions, I get out of the groove and it gets harder to get back in. Ye olde inertia problem. So I'd say that being able to sit with your story for a little bit each day is helpful. And when all else fails, do something else for a while: Go see a movie or go to a museum. Hang out with friends. Run. Read. Play the drums. It'll get your brain going in a roundabout way. No need to beat up on yourself. :)

Janine wrote: "Hi, Libba!

I've read all of the Gemma Doyle Trilogy books and Going Bovine, and I have LOVED them all! You are truly one of the few authors that I am the biggest fan of. Usually I read one book o..."

Hi Janine. Thanks so much--and good question. I've never felt that boys were such a big mystery. Maybe it's that I was really close with my older brother growing up and he provided sort of an All-Access backstage pass to the teen male psyche. No filter. Also, I've always had tons of guy friends. I'm married to one and I'm raising another one. I don't know. We're talking about individuals, and characters are individuals regardless of gender, so I'm just always trying to find the heart of that particular character. One thing I will say is that when I was growing up, some of my favorite protagonists were male: Holden Caulfield from CATCHER IN THE RYE, Jimmy from The Who's QUADROPHENIA, Harold from HAROLD & MAUDE. I think what I related to was their unapologetic snark and anger. And my argument is that I'd like to see more of that from female characters. I think we still hold female characters to some unrealistic expectations regarding "likeability."

But ultimately, when you are creating characters, you are trying to create the most honest, living, breathing people you can on the page. And often, that involves exploring yourself. I hope that's helpful. Thanks for your question.

Jenna wrote: "Hi Libba! I am a huge fan of the Gemma Doyle trilogy and would love to read a fouth book! I was wondering which of the three novels you enjoyed writing the most and why?"

Hi Jenna. Thanks so much. My favorite to write was REBEL ANGELS. I enjoyed getting the girls to London and writing about Nell and Bedlam and the Poppy Warriors.

Nusi wrote: "Dear Ms.Bray.
I know three thousand people a day probably tell you this, but I'm madly in love with you and your books. Your writing inspires me as an aspiring writer and is my constant drug as a ..."

Hi Nusi,

Wow. These are great, great questions. Let me see if I can give some satisfying or helpful answers.

1. As I write I keep thinking about my reader, or target audience, and it usually results in me either scarping the writing, or writing something very off, so to speak. The question is How do you stop from thinking about who is going to be reading your material?

That happens from time to time. I think it's part of the internal critic I was talking about in an earlier answer. It's some part of our brain that wants to judge. I think about two pieces of advice from two writers I respect. One was Nancy Werlin who said about giving a speech that you have to assume you are going to lose half the audience anyway. So you should speak to the other half and not worry about it. The other--and this is often my yardstick for writing--came from my pal and short story writer, Maureen Leary, who said once of a certain book, "I felt like it didn't cost {the writer} anything to write it." Books cost us something in their creation, so ultimately, you have to write for the reader inside yourself. You have to feel as if the only person who will ever read that book is you, and damn the torpedoes. This is often easier said than done and is one of the reasons why I use music to help me get into a zone and block out distraction. (music is not a distraction to me.) Or, as I like to say, if you're gonna take it on the chin, wouldn't you rather take it as yourself than as someone else you've pretended to be? Gosh, I don't know if this is helpful, but I sure know that feeling.

2. I read in one of your interviews that you felt the term 'chick lit' was an awfully insulting way to describe your writing, as it has much more depth to it. How do you keep yourself from falling into the chick lit category when your characters and setting are described by the market as chick lit, is there a way out of it?

It wasn't about "chick lit" being applied to my writing so much as my dislike for the term in general because I always felt like it was said to dismiss female writers. And there is nothing you can do about category or labels or any of that. It's all marketing stuff. All you can really do is concentrate on writing the best book that you can.

3. I love love LOVE, that in Gemma Doyle's trilogy the setting was historical and yet you still managed to have all the characters relevant. When writing in certain historical settings, is it better to be historically accurate or be relevant to the reader? *as in should one mention that most girls wouldnt have a shot in hell at what Im writing for instance and it really is fiction, or should you write modernized history so to speak and not mention the unrealistic settings your characters are in?*

That's a really good question. I felt like I was writing a bit of a mash-up so I made a conscious decision to bend the rules a bit and not be 100% historically accurate. (I'm a rules breaker by nature.) You know who does a fantastic job with making historical fiction feel pulse-poundingly current? Caleb Carr. THE ALIENIST is one of my favorites, and what he does so well is to get all the trappings and research right--he gives tons of fascinating information--but he gives the characters a slightly modern edge and doesn't overcomplicate the dialogue. (By that, I mean the language is not difficult to follow.) THE ALIENIST is a great read. I recommend it for research purposes, yes, but also because it's just a wildly entertaining book.

Hope this helps!

Joan3000 wrote: "Hi! I really loved the Gemma Doyle series and I can't help asking why you decided to kill kartik? I mean why not have a happily ever after and what is it that makes so many writers decide to end th..."

Hi Joan. Hopefully, you'll find your answers here: http://libba-bray.livejournal.com/278...
Thanks!

Zoe wrote: "I love all you the work you've wrote, it's all fantastic.

Schrödinger's cat alive or dead?????"

Heh--great question, Zoe. Depends on who's observing, doesn't it?

Emma wrote: "Hi Libba!
Let me just start out by saying, wow, your awesome. I absolutely love your books! Especially Going Bovine! I have two questions:
1) How do you even come up with these characters? Are th..."

Hi Emma. Thanks so much. I appreciate the GB love. How do I come up with these characters? Well, honestly, it's a product of the writing. I keep writing till I find the heart of the character...and then I eat it. I kid, I kid. But I do just keep writing until I figure out all the quirks and hurts and delights of each character. I don't give up on people as a general rule, so I tend to really hang in there with characters as well. I just think human beings are endlessly fascinating and surprising. I've know a lot of very interesting, wild and amazing people. And though I don't tend to draw on them for characters, I do draw on the idea that we all three-dimensional, not one-dimensional. So I hope that comes through in the writing. Getting to know the characters is probably my favorite part of writing.

My favorite hot dog topping? Johnny Depp.

Gemma Irene wrote: "Hello, Ms. Bray!
I really enjoyed--no, loved--your Gemma Doyle series, and the only thing keeping me from reading your other books are the people at the library who check them out before I can. I ..."

Hi Gemma Irene. Nice name. :)

Let's see if I can answer some of your questions:
1. What drives you to write in the first place? I have to write. I would write on the back of envelopes if I had to. I love telling stories. I feel that stories connect us. We've been telling stories since we first crawled out of the ooze. Who knows? Maybe we were telling stories IN the ooze. I couldn't NOT write. It's in my DNA.

2. What do you love most about writing? I love when I stumble upon some small truth that I didn't know before which changes me and which I hope I can communicate to someone else. it's like sharing a secret: "Have you ever noticed this? Have you ever felt this way? I've just realized this..."

3. What is the first thing you do when you've finished working on a new book? Drool. ;-) Then go for a walk.

4. What is the one thing new writers should keep in mind when dealing with rejection/acceptance? With rejection, it's to keep going. We've all been there. With acceptance, it's to keep going, too, because now the real work begins...

Great questions--thanks!

Magdalena wrote: "Im love your Gemma Doyle books so much but i really want to know why you killed Kartik!? i loved so much and i really would have liked for him to end up with Gemma...after all she went through i th..."

Hi Magdalena, thanks so much! I'm hoping this blog will answer some of your questions. (It's a popular question--you're not alone.) http://libba-bray.livejournal.com/278...

(G)Emma wrote: "Hey Libba!

I was just curious about the sexual repression that Mary Lou feels in Beauty Queens and where you drew her character from. She really struck a chord in me.

What did your writing proc..."

Hey Emu girl! I related a lot to Mary Lou, too, which is weird since I'm not terribly repressed. But I've always felt very in touch with and comfortable with my sexuality even as I was aware that the world isn't always so down with sexually self-possessed women. I think it goes back to the messages girls/women often get about being sexually passive, about not being too self-assured/direct about sex and sexual desire or feeling entitled to sexual enjoyment lest you risk getting labeled "wild" or "slutty" or some other pejorative. Yeah, screw that. :)

But in Mary Lou's case, it's not just about sexual ownership. It's about having an adventurous, expansive spirit and wanting everything she can get from life. She does not want to be her mother. She does not want to retreat into a cave and live small. She wants to live free and make her mark. She wants to captain her own ship, so to speak.

I would totally accept that pillow. I would treasure it. *waits for cross-stitching to happen*

Heidi wrote: "Hi pally!
So I finally finished Beauty Queens and loved it. Like your previous works, this is a highly character driven story...which is fantastic.
My question has to do with with the creation pr..."

It's Heidi The Great! Wahoo! Great questions, madam. Let me see if I can make some semblance of sense. (Semblance of Sense--new band name.) I think when it comes to character, I am heavily influenced by my background in theatre. I really think about what makes those people on the page tick. I try to think about all that underlying stuff: psychological wounds, motivations, fears, desires, longings, etc. The juicy stuff. Whenever I get stuck, I ask, "What does this character want right now? What is he or she willing to do to get it? What line would they never cross? Okay, what if they cross it?" So it's a constant conversation in my head. (This might explain why I often put my keys in the fridge and leave the milk on the counter...) If I am alone in my home, I sometimes act things out. (This, by the way, doesn't work so well if you are in a busy cafe. Just a word to the wise.) Yes, I am into sound, as you mentioned, and I do imagine a character's voice. Like you, I also imagined Fee with a throaty timbre to her voice. Sometimes, just as if it were a play, I imagine small bits of business or habits a character might engage in even if those habits don't make the page. I like fleshing things out.

But I don't go into the writing with a fully-fleshed out character. I discover things in the writing and refine and revise as I go. I learn more and make adjustments. I don't really base characters on people I know outright. I might borrow a thing or two--and I sometimes discover some uncomfortable things about myself, LOL--but I'm much more interested in creating real fictional people (that sounds...odd) than in recreating people I know. Ya know? You do. Good. I thought you did.

Great to "see" you on here, Ms. Heidi. Thanks for the questions. Maybe I will see you in Miami next month when the This Is Teen tour kicks it at Books & Books, July 23rd?

Christine wrote: "Hello! I just want to say that I really love your A Great and Terrible Beauty Trilogy. Ever since I read it, it has been my favorite. :)
I just want to know if you're planning on continuing Gemma ..."

Thanks so much, Christine. :)

Cassandra wrote: "Hi Mrs. Bray! I absolutely love the Gemma Doyle series! What made you make the setting of it in England? Did you have to do extensive research to get info about England?"

Hi Cassandra, I set the series in England because it was an homage to those great Victorian novels I enjoyed reading so much as a teen, books like JANE EYRE and WUTHERING HEIGHTS and the novels of Charles Dickens. Also, I happen to love England; I'm an Anglophile, so it was fun for me, and I'm always in favor of fun. I did go on a research trip to England. I got to go to the British Library (I still have my library card) and wear special gloves and handle the maps. I corresponded with Lee Jackson, who is a Victorian scholar, and with Colin Gale, the archivist for Royal Bethlehem Hospital, better known as Bedlam. Thanks for your question.

Haven wrote: "I have never found a YA book I enjoyed more than AGATB. I am an avid reader and have read hundreds of books, but I have to say that AGATB and its trilogy, is my favorite.

My question is, are you e..."

Hi Haven, thanks so much! Scroll back through my responses to find the answer to your question. (It's a popular one today.) Thanks!