Interview Marathon Day 2 - Ellen Hopkins

Hola, Readers!

The Carly Reads Interview Marathon continues … with Ellen Hopkins!

Carly Reads: Your books are so unique in that they’re written in verse.  How did you decide to write your novels in verse?
Ellen Hopkins: I started my first novel, “Crank,” in prose, but the voice was all wrong. My voice, not "Kristina's." I put the book away and saw another verse novelist, Sonya Sones, speak at a conference. I've written poetry most of my life, so decided to give it a try. It worked for “Crank,” and then I discovered a talent for it.

CR: I’ve heard you say that some of the characters in  “Tricks” are based on young people that you’ve met in ‘real life.’ Do you often find inspiration for characters in real people?
EH: All the time. Some I know. Some I interview. Some I just observe.

CR: You’ve been to TBF multiple times! What is it about TBF that has you returning year after year?
EH: It's just such a great event, from the exceptional organizers, to the lineup of authors, to the wonderful reception we receive every year. I always have an amazing time.

CR: What five books are on your list of “Favorite Books Ever”?
EH: “The Great Gatsby,” “Sometimes a Great Notion,” “Catcher in the Rye,” “Of Mice and Men,” and “The World According to Garp.”


CR: What author are you most looking forward to meeting and/or seeing at the Sixth Annual TBF?
EH: That's a really hard question because I'm connecting with several friends there, plus meeting a number of Twitter buddies for the first time. But Terry Trueman is always a hoot to be around, and I always look forward to seeing  him.

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my interview questions, Ellen.  Looking forward to seeing you soon (29 days)!

Interview Marathon Day 1 - Melissa de la Cruz

Alright, Readers …

It’s day one of the Carly Reads Interview Marathon.  In case you haven’t noticed, TBF is 30 DAYS AWAY!!!! This means that I am in TOTAL PANIC mode.  I have sooooo many interviews left to post, soooooo many book reviews to write, and ummmm, yeah, a few books left to read.  Remember how last year, I said that I was going to be more on top of it and I wasn’t going to post three things a day for the month leading up to the festival? Yeah. That didn’t happen. 

So, enough talking – let’s get to interviewing! The lovely Melissa de la Cruz was kind enough to agree to an interview with moi, so here is what we discussed …

Carly Reads: I picked up your novel “Angels on Sunset Boulevard” because I was intrigued by the social networking theme.  What inspired you to take such an extreme approach to social networking?

Melissa de la Cruz: A couple of friends of mine were talking about MySpace (I wrote the book around 2005 or so) and I was intrigued by how they met people through the Internet, not in a chat room, and how they had these very personalized web pages, it was like having your bedroom walls (posters, quotes, etc) on the Internet. I was also fascinated by pyramid schemes, and also something I read about how 60% of American teens think they will be famous. It just seemed so odd to have your popularity online through the number of "friends" you had, and it just sparked my imagination to think of something evil behind it. Social networking was still pretty new about six years ago, so it was fun to think of how it might be used for nefarious schemes. :)  

CR: “Angels on the Sunset Boulevard” is very plot-driven.  I didn’t want to put it down until I had finished it.  When you begin a novel, do you know how it will progress and/or end? Or does it come to you as you write?
MC: I always outline all my novels, so I know all the plot points beforehand. I aim to write page-turners, so thanks for the compliment! But it's all a process, sometimes the story takes off in a different direction, so you need to keep pushing it until you get to the core of the story. Some things are planned, some things are surprises from the writing process. The easiest books to write are the ones where the plot is perfect from the outline, then I'm just fleshing it out. “Angels” was actually a difficult book, I had to keep rewriting it to figure out what the real story, the real plot was. I always know the ends of all my books though. That I know from the beginning. I know all my endings and I try to figure out the best way to get to them, so it builds up to the ending.

CR: Have you always wanted to be a writer? When did you know that you wanted to write for teens?
MC: Oh yes, ever since I could read. Being a writer was a dearly treasured childhood dream that I never gave up on, it was my life's goal. I knew I wanted to write for teens when I read "Gossip Girl.” I thought, "I could do this, I want to do this." I wrote “The Au Pairs” and never looked back.

CR: What are your top five favorite books?

MC: So hard to choose. But here goes. “War and Peace.” “Dune.” “Lord of the Rings.” “Wizard and Glass” (from the “Dark Tower” series). “Harry Potter.”

CR: What author are you most looking forward to meeting and/or seeing at the Sixth Annual Greater Rochester Teen Book Festival?

MC: My dear friends Ally Carter and Elizabeth Scott. I cannot wait to hang out with them, I don't get to see them enough! 

Thanks so much, Melissa. I can’t wait to meet you in person in 30 days! (Yikes!!!)

Baby Book Festival (And the "Heist Society" Winner!)

Hello Readers!

I have an exciting announcement to make, and it’s all about babies.  Unfortunately, Beth Fantaskey will not be able to join us for TBF 2011.  But fortunately, it’s for a really good reason.  Two days before TBF, Beth will be boarding a plane to China to adopt a new baby!  So although we will miss her at TBF 2011, we are all so happy for her and her family and their newest addition.  Beth will be attending Teen Book Festival 2012, so we all look forward to hearing about her new baby (who won’t be quite so new anymore!).    

Beth isn’t the only member of our TBF community to be gaining a new family member, though! We have a new TBF Planning Committee baby! One of our amazing committee members had a beautiful baby girl only a few weeks ago.  I have yet to meet our newest little committee member, but I know that she’s a book-lover-in-training.  (I wonder if we can get a TBF t-shirt in a newborn size … or maybe Terry Bear will share his t-shirt with our newest TBF member.)  

So readers, all these TBF babies are keeping the storks busy. Congratulations to all the happy parents and their families! I can’t wait to see pictures!

I have also have a contest winner to announce!  The winner of a copy of “Heist Society” by Ally Carter is

Miranda E.

Miranda, send me an email so that I can get in touch with you to find out where to mail your book!

An interview marathon is coming, readers! An interview a day til I’ve posted all I’ve got. Check back tomorrow for the first one!

Spying on Ally Carter

Hey Readers!

I think this is going to be an interview week because I’ve gotten an influx of responses from authors. (Yay!) So, today I’ll share my interview with Ally Carter with you. And … in addition to my interview with Ally, I’m running a contest! Courtesy of TBF Chair Stephanie Squicciarini and Disney Hyperion, Ally’s publisher, I have a gorgeous hardcover copy of “Heist Society” to give away to one lucky reader. 

In order to be entered to win a copy of “Heist Society,” leave a comment on this post answering the following question: What is your favorite book by Ally Carter? Or, if you haven’t read anything by Ally yet, which of her books are you most looking forward to reading?  The contest ends on Monday, April 11. Sorry, this contest is not open internationally.

So readers, enjoy Ally’s interview, and I wish you all luck in the contest!

Carly Reads: Where do you get your story ideas? I am particularly interested in how you came up for the idea for the Gallagher Girls series.
Ally Carter: Story ideas come from all kinds of places.  My very first novel (“Cheating at Solitaire”) came to me one night when I was making spaghetti.  “I’d Tell You I Love You But Then I’d Have to Kill You” popped into my head during an episode of “Alias.”  Really, each book comes along in its own way and, as the writer, I just have to keep my mind constantly scanning and searching for the good ones.

CR: Do you have a favorite Gallagher Girl? I’m partial to Cammie, but I do love Bex’s personality!
AC: I honestly don’t have a favorite.  They each serve their purpose for the story and for their friendship.  I feel as if the girls balance each other out quite nicely so that, taken together, they’re a much, much stronger force.

CR: Are you currently working on my other projects (new books!) that you can tell us about?
AC: Right now I’m hard at work on the first draft of Gallagher Girls 5.  It doesn’t have a title or a specific release date just yet, but I feel confident it will be in stores in early 2012.  The next book that will be in stores for me is “Uncommon Criminals.”  It’s the sequel to Heist Society and it will be out on June 21, 2010.

CR: What was the last book that you read for pleasure?
AC: I just finished Megan Whalen Turner’s “The Thief.”  As a rule, if more than three people gasp when I say I haven’t read a certain book, that book goes to the top of my reading pile.  That was the case with “The Thief” and I have to say I wasn’t disappointed.

CR: What author are you most looking forward to meeting and/or seeing at the Sixth Annual Greater Rochester Teen Book Festival?
AC: Everyone!  It’s an amazing lineup, and while I can’t wait to catch up with old friends like Melissa de la Cruz, I can’t wait to meet new people too.  Really, that’s one of the greatest things about book festivals and one of many reasons we authors enjoy them as much as the attendees.

CR: You get a bonus question because Dr. Laura Jones, one of the TBF committee members, requested that I ask you: are you a spy?
AC: Well, if I said yes, I wouldn’t be a very good one!

Thanks, Ally! We can’t wait to meet you in May!

You Should Read This Interview ...

Hello Readers,

Last week I reviewed Charles Benoit’s novel “You.” This week, I have an interview for you (Haha!) with Charles.

Carly Reads: “You” is your first young adult novel – you’ve previously written mysteries for adults.  What has your journey into the young adult lit world been like?

Charles Benoit: I have found the YA world to be very welcoming. The talent level scares me though – every YA book I pick up is freakishly well-written. It forces me to work harder on my on books, which is a good thing, yes, but man, it can be intimidating! I've been reading the books by the authors on my TBF panel (Torrey Maldonado, Jon Skovron and Josh Berk) and each one wow-ed the hell out of me. I hope I don't get all fan-boy during the panel... The other cool thing I've noticed: When you're doing book talks for adult books, 90% of the time no one will have read the book. When I've done talks for “You,” lots of folks in my teen audiences have actually read the book. The level of questions they ask are better then the questions I get for my adult mysteries. And they don't let you get away with vague, off-the-question answers. YA audiences are much more fun.

CR: “You” is written in second person, which I’ve heard you say was something you did to add an extra challenge for yourself.  Would you write another book in second person?

CB: Noooooooooooooooooooooooo. I spent months after finishing “You” trying to get that second-person voice out of my head. It was starting to freak me out. So, no, no more second person for me!  

CR: I don’t want to give too much away, but I love how “You” begins and ends in the same place. Is this something that you intended from the beginning? Or did it the full circle ending evolve as you wrote “You?”

CB: I knew before I started that that was how the book would start and finish – it was just everything in between I wasn't so sure of. For my adult mysteries I've always been a plotter, planning the whole book out from the start. But for my YA books I've let go of much of that, trusting the process a lot more. Now I find I just plot out a scene or so in advance. I know where I want to go – sortta – but the exact route is up in the air. 

CR: What was the last book that you read for pleasure?

CB: I'm reading a biography of the jazz legend Cab Calloway (“Hi De Ho” by Alyn Shipton) and I’ve got a couple chapters to go in “Buy Back” by Brian Wiprud. It's part comedy, part art heist book, which is coincidently the type of book I just finished writing. 

CR: What authors are you most looking forward to meeting and/or seeing at the Sixth Annual Greater Rochester Teen Book Festival?

CB: I've met a few already and I want to meet all the rest of course. I want to meet Svetlana since I love graphic novels; Ally Carter's “Heist Society” is sitting on my desk to read so I hope to meet her; Patrick Jones writes the kind of stuff I like to write, so I want to meet him and try to steal some of his ideas or maybe a finished manuscript I could pass off as my own. I wish I could play poker (I have a hard time with Go Fish), but the idea behind “Big Slick” is so intriguing that I hope to chat with Eric Luper; And I must meet Melissa Kantor since every one of her 5 Fun Facts are true for me, too. Erie, huh?

Thanks, Charles, for answering these questions for us! We can’t wait to meet you at TBF 2011!