Hello...
This month I have asked a good friend of mind to guest blog for me, because one of the really cool things I get to do as an author (especially as a sci-fi/fantasy author, editor, and podcaster) is attend multigenre conventions.
The bad part of it is when I have to do three of them in a row; they can really wear you down, especially when you also hold down a full-time job as I do as a YA/Tech librarian. Over the past three weeks I was at WTHCon where I met up with my publisher at Scaldcrow Games (scaldcrow.com) where we showed of the Worlds of Pulp RPG. Then I traveled to MystiCon where I got to interview Peter Davison, the 5th Doctor, from Doctor Who (interview) for Gallifrey Pirate Radio. And finally I was at StellarCon where I ran into my very good friend and incredible YA author Janine Spendlove (website), who has agreed to an interview; so be on the look out for an interview from her in the upcoming months from me.
But I knew all of this was coming up and I asked Lorie Steed, a school librarian and incredible writer in her own right to see if she would be interested in guest blogging for me. So I could take a break after three weekends of cons and four weeks without a day off. And luckily enough she agreed and has written up an interview with Lauren Bjorkman.
Until next month enjoy.
Davey
Guest Post by Lorie Steed: An Interview
with Author Lauren Bjorkman
About
the Author: Lauren Bjorkman studied Mandarin in college. On her honeymoon to
China, she learned to pick up a single grain of rice with chopsticks. She
believes in ghosts and appreciates the color pink more than she admits,
especially to her friends who wear tasteful earth tones. She lives in Taos, New
Mexico with her husband, two sons, and cats Zorro and Zenobia. She likes the
letter Z. You can find out more about Lauren at her website: http://laurenbjorkman.com, and you can
listen to Lauren talking with her teen hosts about love and advice columns on
World Talk Radio, right
here.
Miss
Fortune Cookie is the smart, funny, and suspenseful
tale of secret advice blogger Erin, whose quirky sense of humor and helpful
advice bring her alter ego Miss Fortune Cookie a small amount of fame, even
though Erin isn't always sure of herself or her status with Chinese-American
friends Linny and Mei. As "the lesser third" of the trio, Erin
nevertheless acts as a confidante to each of them in turn—but what happens when
she gives one of them some advice that has potentially damaging consequences?
Lauren Bjorkman's latest book is a fun, thoughtful
exploration of what it means to be a daughter, a friend, and a high school
senior applying to college. Will Mei choose to stay with her boyfriend in
California or honor her mother's wishes and attend Harvard? Will Erin get into
an Ivy League school or attend UC Berkeley with Linny? Will Miss Fortune Cookie
take her own advice and follow her heart?
Read Miss Fortune
Cookie to find out, and in the meantime, check out the interview below to
get some insights on writing from author Lauren Bjorkman. Leave a comment with
a fortune cookie saying or piece of advice and you'll be entered into a drawing
to win this prize pack! Have fun and good luck!
Note:
This is Lorie, your guest blogger here, who forgot to mention you need to leave an e-mail address so we can contact you if you win. You can also tweet about the giveaway for an extra chance to win; just be sure to leave the link to the tweet as well. Good luck everyone!
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/f5e3841/
If you are entering from outside the US, temporary
tattoos will be substituted for nail polish, as nail polish cannot be sent via
airmail. Also, you will receive a copy of the book from The Book Depository. A
signed bookplate will be mailed to you by the author.
And here's our interview!
1—What YA books or authors have you read and enjoyed
recently?
Most recently, the delicious and romantic Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie
Perkins. Her Paris setting totally slew me. Janet Gurtler’s Who I Kissed took me on an emotional
roller coaster ride. I love to read contemporary YAs that are funny and full of
heart. I recommend anything by K.L. Going, John Green, Carolyn Mackler, Sherman
Alexie, Maureen Johnson, and David Levithan.
2—Could you talk a bit about your writing process?
When/where do you write? How much planning do you do in advance, and what form
does that planning take? Do you revise all along or wait until you have a
complete draft? How many drafts do you go through from start to finish?
When I started writing, I lived in the tiniest house
imaginable in Hawaii, and would take my laptop to café. Later, I wrote in bed.
When my back rebelled getting scrunched, I switched to a more conventional
table and computer in my bedroom. We moved last year. Now I have a mini-office.
With a door!
Outlines generally make me nervous—PTSD from high school, I
think. Over time my process has evolved, though. I still consider myself a
pantser, but I do a lot of advance work—synopses, character inventories,
conflict webs, settings, rudimentary plots points, scene weaves—before starting
a novel. After fifty pages I re-evaluate the story from start to finish, and
create an outline type thing then.
Not wanting to embarrass myself in front of my critique
partners, I revise as I go. On the one hand, it seems silly to polish a scene
that later gets cut, on the other, I believe that no time spent writing is
wasted. Sometimes I’ll rescue jokes, snippets of witty dialog, and other little
darlings to use in the future. From start to finish, I write anywhere from four
to six drafts.
3—Most of us have faced writer's block. When does it hit you
the most—when you're in between projects, or in the middle of one? When you get
stuck, what do you do to get yourself unstuck?
I’ve never found myself just staring at a blank screen.
Still, just like some people have bad hair days, I have bad writing days. If I
force it, I feel like an untalented cockroach by the end of the day, or like
I’ve eaten a bag of cockroaches. In any case, it’s disgusting.
To break out from a bad writing day, I have to spend time
away from my computer thinking about my story. I might concentrate on a
character’s arc. Or a scene that’s not working. Or what seems to be missing.
Sometimes I pretend to be one of my characters for a while, and see the action
through his or her eyes. My best thinking time happens in the car (no kids), in
the shower, pacing, or while trying to fall asleep.
When things get really bad, I use a book about writing to
guide the process, something like The Writer’s Journey or The Anatomy of Story.
Reading other authors while stuck can help too. If I hold the problem in my
mind, and see how another writer solved that same kind of problem, it gives me
new ideas.
4—Which novel was harder to write, My Invented Life or Miss
Fortune Cookie, and why?
Miss
Fortune Cookie. When my editor offered on My Invented Life, she included a second
untitled book in the deal. After finishing the last copy-edits on book 1, I
developed a brief proposal for the yet unwritten Miss Fortune Cookie. My editor loved the concept, and off I went.
Unfortunately, during the writing process the book changed from the original
pitch. My editor didn’t like the new direction, so I had to do several major
rewrites. On the plus side, she was right, and the book came out better because
of all the hard work we did.
5—In Miss Fortune
Cookie, each chapter begins with a different fortune. To what degree does
each chapter's content relate to the content of the fortune? Did the fortune
cookie sayings you collected give you ideas for particular scenes?
The original chapter headings were an eclectic mix of
fortunes, sayings, and quotes by famous people—all of them funny. My editor
suggested that people particularly enjoy fortunes that predict the future. I
gave it some thought, and realized she was right. In the final draft, I changed
two-thirds of the fortunes so they would consistently predict the future in a
funny way.
6—Chinese culture and tradition is an integral part of Erin
and Miss Fortune Cookie. How much of
what's in the book comes from your own background, and how much had to be
researched?
My great grandmother taught in an elementary school in
China. Though I never met her, my grandmother told me stories of her life.
Because of her, I studied Chinese history in high school. Then I met my husband
to-be. He was born in Sweden, has a degree in Classical Chinese poetry and a
Chinese soul. His passion for all things Chinese inspired me to take Mandarin
in college and immerse myself in Chinese literature and philosophy.
Because of all that, I didn’t have to study much Chinese
culture. Most of my research focused on teen blogging, advice columns, Lowell
High School, the history of the fortune cookie, and the locations in the
story—SF Chinatown, Muni, and The Elbo Room. Most of the Chinese phrases came
from memory, but I had to look up how to say, “your lips are very beautiful.” I
re-read Confucius and Lao Tze, as well as my favorite ghost stories, which was
great fun.
7—You address LGBT issues in both My Invented Life and Miss
Fortune Cookie, and Miss Fortune
Cookie also works in themes of privilege versus poverty. Why do you think
these are important topics for teens to read about, no matter what their
personal experiences?
Until space travel becomes easy, everyone has to live
together on this one planet and get along.
I lived on a sailboat during my Elementary school years, and
about three years in foreign countries. My experiences led me to believe that
people have much in common beneath the surface and that everyone deserves the
same rights and respect. Yet differences cause such division and heartache.
When I learned about the experiences of some of my LGBT
classmates at a high school reunion, hearing what they went through devastated
me. Though, I’m not a lesbian or even bi, I relate powerfully to the underdog.
The subject haunted me, and I knew I had to write a book about it. A little
research on the topic strengthened by resolve—LGBT teens have the highest rates
of dropping out and suicide. Still, my orientation is happy and funny, so I
ended up writing a happy and funny LGBT novel that touches lightly on the more
serious aspects.
On the subject of poverty and privilege—I grew up without
money. Most of my possessions were gifts or came from garage sales, thrift
stores, and flea markets. By my 13th birthday, I paid for own movie
tickets and clothes. So writing Erin’s money woes was easy for me.
Also, it bothers me that so many movies and novels glamorize
the lifestyles of the very wealthy. Even when the “message” is money doesn’t
buy happiness, I think those images plant the unhealthy desire for more stuff.
I don’t want any part of that.
8—The shifting dynamics between Erin, Linny, and Mei was, to
me, one of the most interesting aspects of the book. Erin thinking of herself
as "the lesser friend" and "not Chinese enough" especially
resonated, even though ironically, both Linny and Mei ask her to keep secrets
from the other at some point. What messages about friendship and identity did
you want to leave your readers with?
The word “message” makes me cringe. I do everything in my
power to AVOID leaving messages. Instead, I hope my readers will relate to the
struggles my characters go through while being entertained. If my readers use
my story to reflect on their own lives, that’s icing on the cake. Miss Fortune Cookie is a love letter to
anyone who feels inadequate—not thin enough, pretty enough, smart enough,
Chinese enough. You fill in the blank. A friend told me she got Erin perfectly
because she grew up non-Greek in a Greek neighborhood.
I grew up feeling outside, other, fringe. Because of that, I
try to make others feel included.
9—I loved reading about the girls' relationships with their
mothers, in particular Mei's complex relationship with Shufang. Is there a
reason you chose to make all the girls fatherless in some way?
My mother died when I was young. In my teen years, several
of my friends had lost their mothers, too, and this became an important bond
between us. I wanted to capture that feeling in the novel.
10—Good novels pay attention not just to the main cast, but
also take time to include well-rounded secondary characters. I absolutely loved
Cigarette Willie, Lincoln, and Shanice. Were these characters planned from the
beginning? Did any of them surprise you?
The whole lot of them came out of nowhere. Cigarette Willie
was supposed to be a cameo. In my original “outline,” I planned for Erin to
offer a homeless man a sandwich. Until I wrote the scene, I had no idea he’d
follow her home, or that he knew Erin’s mom in the past. I borrowed his name
and history from a man I knew in Key West.
Lincoln had a minor role in my first draft—a motorcycle
crashes into his apartment through the front window. Erin and Weyland witnessed
the accident and went to rescue the rider. Long after the accident disappeared
from the manuscript, Lincoln persisted. In a late draft, he became Erin’s
advice column consultant, the perfect role for him.
These characters sprang from an idea that Erin needed to survive
a few adventures to see that the big, bad world isn’t so big and bad, after
all—The Odyssey for the fearful.
11—What scene did you have the most fun writing?
The kissing scene in the hotel. I had a blast writing the
scene in the Elbo Room. The virgin martini cracks me up. And when Erin and
Weyland get to know each other during the chase scene. The whole book, really.
12—Is there a personal experience or story you can share
that might offer encouragement to writers who worry that their work will never
be published?
My first novel still languishes on my hard drive next to a
half-finished second novel. I began writing My
Invented Life in 2003, completing a draft in 2004. After receiving some
feedback from editors at writers’ conferences, I revised it completely. In
2005, I started hunting for agents. When an agent requested a partial, then a
full, my hopes soared. In the end, he turned it down with feedback. Though
disappointed, I knew by then the professional approach. I asked him if he’d
take a second look after I revised. He agreed, and gave me more suggestions.
The rewrite took me ten months. After all that, he rejected the book a second
time. It felt like the end.
Luckily or unluckily, depending how you see it, I love
writing too much to quit. A few weeks later, I started a new novel. Around that
time, I signed up for a novel writing workshop that required a twenty-page
sample. In class, we critiqued each other’s work. When the workshop ended, my
instructor took me aside. He’d enjoyed my piece and heard from another student
that I had a finished novel, as well. Would I mind if he recommended me to his
agent? Not long after, his agent offered to represent me, and found a publisher
for My Invented Life.
The writing emo-coaster raised me from the pit to the top in
just a few months. It may not happen the same way for you—but if you love
writing and you’re persistent, I believe that your day will come.
13—As a writer, what is the best and/or worst advice you’ve ever
received?
Worst advice—write for the market.
It’s important to know the market, of course. If you’ve been dying to
write about demons, and demons suddenly become hot, go for it. If you have to
write about vampires, you can study the market to make sure your take is
unique.
Write what lights your
fire. There’s always a market for a really good book in any genre.
A Korean god. An ancient curse. Can she escape becoming GILDED?
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