Questions
& Answers:
What
was your childhood ambition in life?
Who is your favorite writer?
What’s your favorite band?
What’s your favorite song?
Favorite movie?
Who is the person you’d most like to meet?
What’s your least favorite chore?
Who is the person you most admire?
What’s your worst habit?
What’s your best habit?
What’s your advice for writers who are just getting
started?
What’s your worst Bluebird experience?
What are you working on now?
What
was your childhood ambition in life?
One summer, I worked at this camp. I was a counselor in charge of about
ten five and six year olds. I remember sitting in the grass reading
to them. All of a sudden, this powerful feeling came over me, and I
decided I was meant to be a kindergarten teacher. It wasn’t until
much later that I realized what I really wanted was to write books for
kids. I started out trying to write picture books, but that evolved
into novels for teenagers.
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Who
is your favorite writer?
My all-time favorite is Flannery O’Connor, but I like so many!
I love Thomas Hardy, Emily Bronte, Emily Dickinson, Ayn Rand, Joyce
Carol Oates, Lee Smith, John Irving, Zora Neale Hurston, Thomas Wolfe,
Tom Wolfe (yes, they’re different), Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck,
Truman Capote, Sylvia Plath, Anne Tyler, Rebecca Wells, Sue Monk Kidd,
Wally Lamb, Barbara Kingsolver, Jennifer Weiner, Joan Didion, Anne Lamott,
Carl Hiaaseen, Kim Edwards, Alice Sebold… Sorry, but I can’t
seem to stop.
As for my favorite young adult authors, I think Carolyn Mackler is fabulous,
and I have always loved Judy Blume and Frances Hodgson Burnett. John
Green has such an incredible talent. Oh, and Margaret Meacham and Lara
Zeises and Cynthia Voigt and Jerry Spinelli and Catherine Gilbert Murdock
and… I know I’m leaving out about fifty other favorites!
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What’s your favorite band?
Okay, that’s an easy one—U-2.
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What’s your favorite song?
Another easy one—“You Can’t Always Get What You Want”
by the Rolling Stones.
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Favorite movie?
Breakfast At Tiffany’s
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Who is the person you’d most like to
meet?
Oprah. I’d like to stay in her guest cottage for a weekend and
follow her around and ask lots and lots of questions.
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What’s your least favorite chore?
Cleaning the bathroom and emptying the dishwasher.
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Who is the person you most admire?
Al Gore. I think he made the most out of a painful political loss. I
hope he stays out of politics and keeps trying to do good in the world.
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What’s your worst habit?
I’m a soda drinker, and I should stop, I know. My friends call
it liquid poison.
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What’s your best habit?
Working out. I really like the way I feel after a run. I don’t
do marathons or work with trainers or make this an obsessive thing.
I try to have the mindset that this is something I have to do for the
rest of my life, like brushing my teeth or drinking water or (ugh) going
to the gyno.
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What’s your advice for writers who are just
getting started?
Read. Write. Rewrite.
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What’s your worst Bluebird experience?
There are too many to count. At times, I’ve acted like a Bluebird
(not something I’m proud of), and I’ve been the victim of
Bluebirds (the reason I stopped acting like one). I think cliques are
dangerous, especially for writers. Once you’re locked in, it’s
hard to think for yourself.
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What
are you working on now?
Currently, I’m
working on another novel set in the South. I’m just getting started,
but I already completely love the main character and her story. I hope
readers (and my editor) will, too!
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