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 1) You've written several adult books before the publication of "Confessions of a Triple Shot Betty". What brought you to making the transition from adult books to YA?
Well, I won't pretend that I thought of it completely on my own. Many of the writers I know who were writing adult fiction started crossing over into YA-Land about five or six years ago, and I started to get YA-curious. I tried reading YA and was amazed at this explosion of really fun, edgy, innovative fiction, so I wanted to try my hand at it. Also, when the idea of setting a book in a drive-through espresso stand came to me, it just felt like a young booklike the characters should be in high schoolso I went with that.
2) What is "Triple Shot Betty" about? How did you get the idea for it?
It's a radically modernized version of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing set in a drive-through espresso stand. If you like Shakespeare, you'll dig the Shakespeare stuff; if you don't like Shakespeare, don't worry, it's nothing like his play! : )
I got the idea like this: my boyfriend and I would sometimes get coffee at this little espresso stand, and we loved the girls who worked there--they were funny and sassy and good at what they did. They inspired us to write a song called "Mocha Shack Girl." (I've posted this song on my MySpace profile, if you want to hear it; it's also on the Penguin web page for Triple Shot Betty: www.penguin.com/confessionsofatripleshotbetty). After that I got the idea to use a drive through espresso stand as a setting for a book. While I was mulling this over one of my students started telling me hilarious stories about Espresso a Go-Go, the place where she worked, and pretty soon I was hooked on the idea. It just seemed like the perfect backdrop for drama--a magical little claustrophobic world where the caffeine is free and you've got a constant stream of characters you can interact with, but none of them have access to the inner sanctum of the coffee shack.
3) What are you working on at the moment?
I just finished a fresh round of revisions on the sequel, TRIPLE SHOT BETTYS IN LOVE. Next I plan to tackle a YA novel about a girl who goes undercover at a boys' boarding school.
4) Tell us about your road to publication with your first book "Summer in the Land of Skin." After publishing three books, was it easy for you to get your debut YA sold?
Well, technically SUMMER was my second novel. I wrote one while still in grad school, and I did get an agent based on that manuscript, but we never sold it. I think it's fine to have a sort of "training wheels" novel, and that was mine. SUMMER went through a number of years worth of grueling revisions; I even hired a friend of mine, a magazine editor, to help me get it into shape. When it finally sold it went to auction and I ended up with a three book deal, so that kept me busy for quite awhile. When I decided to venture into YA, Penguin's offer also became a three book deal. I don't know if my background in adult fiction helped with that deal or not, to tell you the truth.
5) In "Notes from the Backseat", Gwen spends her entire time writing in journals and keeping everything on paper. Do you have a journal of your own that you write in?
I used to be a dedicated journal-keeper; from age 12 until my late twenties I wrote in a journal almost daily. Now I'm inconsistent at best. I think writing novels, plays, blogs and even e-mails has taken the place of journaling for me, though I do sometimes turn to it when I need a completely private writing spacesomeplace where I can unravel my own mysteries without anyone seeing or judging what I've written.
6) Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?
Write what you love as often as you possibly can and don't let anyone who trivializes your work get too close to you. Take yourself seriously in terms of the amount of time and energy you give to it, but also let there be pleasure and a sense of whimsy in your writing life. External validation is always a blast, but it's the delight you take in the writing itself that will keep you coming back. |
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A Woman's Triumphant Valor. Delicious Language. Award Winning Novel.
