Writing is a passion. Publishing is a business.

JOHN COREY WHALEY

Interview with JOHN COREY WHALEY

John grew up in the small town of Springhill, Louisiana, where he learned to be sarcastic and to tell stories. He has a B.A. in English from Louisiana Tech University, as well as an M.A in Secondary English Education. He started writing stories about aliens and underwater civilizations when he was around ten or eleven, but now writes realistic YA fiction (which sometimes includes zombies). He taught public school for five years and spent much of that time daydreaming about being a full-time writer…and dodging his students’ crafty projectiles. He is terrible at most sports, but is an occasional kayaker and bongo player. He is obsessed with movies, music, and traveling to new places. He is an incredibly picky eater and has never been punched in the face, though he has come quite close. One time, when he was a kid, he had a curse put on him by a strange woman in the arcade section of a Wal-Mart. His favorite word is defenestration. His favorite color is green. His favorite smell is books. He currently lives in Los Angeles. WHERE THINGS COME BACK is his first novel. NOGGIN, his second novel, came out in April 2014.

What are you reading right now?

I'm reading this great book, MOSQUITOLAND by David Arnold. It comes out in 2015.

What first sparked your interest in writing?

I was always fascinated by characters in movies and on TV. As a slow reader, I got into books more when I realized that telling stories was something I wanted to do - and the only thing I was ever really good at doing.

What do you love the most about writing? The least?

The thing I love most about writing is that, on a good day, it can help me escape any and everything going on in the world around me.

My least favorite thing about writing is when I reach a point in a story where I lose inspiration....and then it's a waiting game sometimes.

Tell us a little about your writing process.

Process? Haha. I usually get an idea, sit down and see if it will work on paper (err..screen) at all and then come back to it and try again and again until it's either a go or a STOP IT - THIS DOESN'T WORK. I binge write, so I can go weeks without writing a word, then write half a book in a week or two. It's unpredictable and moody, my process, but it works for me.

What are your passions?

Music. Movies. Making people laugh. Telling stories that I think people aren't expecting to be told.

What inspires you?

People and music. Usually never environment. Just people and conversations and a really great (often sad) song.

Why young adult?

Why not? Teenagers get to explore openly and unapologetically where they're supposed to be in the world and in existence in general. Adults do the same thing, but after making a lot more mistakes and apologies. Teenagers are more interesting and honest to me.

Why speculative fiction?

It doesn't matter what a story is about, only how well it's told. It was a challenge at first, to write borderline sci-fi, but now I see the universality in it, which was my hope all along.

How was NOGGIN born?

I wanted to write my homage to Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. - a book with an absurd premise, grounded in emotional reality. A book seemingly about one big issue, but actually about a million little things that we all feel.

I empathized with Travis, his parents, Cate, Kyle and, well, everyone in this book so much that I shed quite a few tears on their behalf. Was it difficult writing such an emotional book?

I always say that my favorite thing to do in my books is make people laugh or cry. But, it isn't easy. Sometimes, it just happens, and I'm even surprised by the emotions a scene will produce. NOGGIN became much deeper than I planned, and that happened by equal parts accident and necessity.

You treat every character like they’re the protagonist of their own story. Other than Travis, is there any character in NOGGIN for whom you have a particular fondness?

I love Hatton - because he's so funny. But, of all the characters, Kyle is most like me - he holds onto the past just as much as Travis, but in his own, more personal way.  And I can identify with that.

Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

Write whatever you want to write. Fix it later. Don't dwell on the possibility of failure or being laughed at - I wrote one book about a woodpecker and another about a frozen head. Anything can happen.

AVA DELLAIRA


Interview with AVA DELLAIRA

I was born in Los Angeles. One of my first memories is of looking out the window of the Cadillac that my family drove across the desert when we moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, which is where I grew up, and where my sister and I spent countless summer afternoons making fairy potions, battling evil witches, and playing other imaginary games that probably contributed to my proclivity to make up stories. I went to college at the University of Chicago, and then received my MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where I lived on the bottom floor of a farm house once occupied by Kurt Vonnegut (how cool is that?!) and studied poetry. Now I live in Santa Monica, in an apartment the size of a shoebox close to the beach.

What are you reading right now?

I just finished A MONSTER CALLS by PATRICK NESS, a really beautiful middle reader book. It’s a gorgeous story about a boy whose mom is dying of cancer and he has this monster friend - it’s a sort of magical realism. It really made me cry.

Right now I’m reading an arc an of THE TRUTH ABOUT ALICE by JENNIFER MATHIEU.

What first sparked your interest in writing?

I would say maybe middle school age was when I felt the spark. I always liked writing all through elementary school. My 25-page book report on Laura Ingalls Wilder proves I was obviously into writing, but as an early teenager I got very into listening to music and I kept a journal where I wrote down all this stuff about the songs. I also started making my own attempts at poetry. Hearing lyrics and connecting with them was probably the beginning.

What do you love the most about writing? The least?

Who said, “I don’t like writing but I like having written.” [Rachel’s note: Dorothy Parker]

I actually enjoy the process of writing for the most part. Of course, there are the hard days, but when I’m writing I feel something that’s hard to name, the spark of creativity or discovery and that feeling makes me really happy. What I’m discovering now that’s also really great about writing is being able to connect with people and readers. I guess that’s two things I like about writing!

I’m not sure what my least favorite thing. I’ve certainly experienced all of my normal frustrations. You have bad days. You have insecure days. However, I mostly think of those as part of the process so that helps me move through them.

Tell us a little about your writing process.

For LOVE LETTERS I started out writing while I had a full time job so I would come home from work and write at night. It was easier for me to write in the evenings for some reason. I think because in the morning I was thinking about what I needed to do for the day, but at the end of the day I felt like I could be in my own world with the story.

I started out with just the title and the concept: a girl who’s dealing with personal grief by writing to famous dead people. When I started writing, Laurel’s character introduced herself to me quickly. The first draft of the book was really a discovery process. I was getting to know the characters and letting Laurel tell her story and I was open to not knowing, open to discovery. When I finished the first draft, I spent a lot longer than it took me to write that draft editing and rewriting and shaping the story.

Eventually I started sending it out to agents and when I got my agent we reworked the book together and it was another few months before he started sending it out. And then I did a lot more work on the book with my editor as well. It went through many processes of revision, but certainly the heart of the story stayed the same. But I’m incredibly grateful to my agent and the editors who helped me. LOVE LETTERS grew a lot from that first discovery.

What are your passions?

Reading! Cooking and music, too.

What inspires you?

Reading again! Movies. Nature. I like to spend a lot of time outside and by the ocean.

Why young adult?

When I started writing the book I didn’t actually think about that. I didn’t realize I was writing a young adult book and it wasn’t until I started working with my agent that he said, “I think this should be sold as a young adult book.” Everyone in the young adult community has all been so completely wonderful and inspiring and supportive

How was LOVE LETTERS TO THE DEAD born?

The concept came to me pretty suddenly. I was working for Stephen Cbosky at the time and I’d given him some of my writing to read. I was trying screen writing and he said, “I think you should write a novel.” The idea had never occurred to me before, just the fact that I wanted to be a writer.

That evening when I was driving home from work the title and concept came to me out of nowhere but were reflective both of my interests in pop culture and also the fact that I had lost my mom a couple of years before. Writing about processing grief was a natural thing for me.

Why “love letters” rather than “letters”?

I had someone else ask that question on social media. I think that the letters are love letters. Obviously not in the traditional romantic sense. They’re not letters between lovers. But they are love letters in that Laurel is very connected to these people and loves their work and though the letters express a range of emotion they’re a celebration of the lives of the people.

Was any one character more fun to write than the others?

I had a lot of fun writing the Tristan character. And Hannah. They’re both very lively and vibrant and big. Tristan is like a big brother figure for Laurel and he imparts a lot of wisdom. A few of my favorite lines in the book are his. For Hannah she’s full of life and her life has sad elements but watching her grow through that was gratifying.

Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

The best advice I could give is write what you love and what matters for you. The difference for me with LOVE LETTERS is that it was a book I would have kept working on - forever. The first draft wasn’t great. It had good things in it but certainly didn’t read like a good novel. But I loved it enough to continue working on it and working on it. Because it felt like the kind of thing that makes writing matter to me. So my advice is to write that thing that you love so much that you can live with it forever and rewrite and rewrite forever.

Is there anything else you would like to tell us about yourself?

I love to watch Mister Ed like Laurel does in the book.

MARISSA MEYER

Interview with MARISSA MEYER

One of my first spoken words was “story” (right along with “bath” and “cookie”), my favorite toy as an infant was a soft squishable book, and I’ve wanted to be a writer since I first realized such a job existed. When I was fourteen my best friend introduced me to anime and fanfiction—over the years I would complete over forty Sailor Moon fanfics under the penname Alicia Blade. I attended Pacific Lutheran University where I sorted mail that came to the dorm, carted tables and chairs around campus, and took writing classes, eventually earning a Bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing and Children’s Literature. Knowing I wanted a career in books, I would also go on to receive a Master’s degree in Publishing from Pace University. After graduation, I worked as an editor in Seattle for a while before becoming a freelance typesetter and proofreader. Then, day of days, someone thought it would be a good idea to give me a book deal, so I became a full-time writer. CINDER is my first novel, though I have an adorable collection of unfinished ones lying around too. I now live with my husband and our three cats (Calexandria Josephine, Stormus Enormous, and Blackland Rockwell III), who go in and out, in and out, about eight hundred times a day. My favorite non-bookish things include Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, re-watching episodes of Firefly, and playing all manners of dress-up.

What first sparked your interest in writing?
I was an avid reader as a kid, and I think as soon as I realized that making up stories was a job people actually got paid to do, I knew that's what I wanted. I had this overactive imagination and I was constantly daydreaming, so to think that I could turn that into a career was always a fantasy. I'd been working toward that dream ever since.

What do you love the most about writing? The least?
Getting to work in my pajamas! Ha! That's a big job perk. I also love to know that getting lost in a daydream is now considered "working" - how great is that?

As far as my least favorite part of writing, there is that point with every writing project where I'm convinced that it's horrible. It's usually somewhere around 2/3 of the way through the second draft, and I just know that I'm wasting my time and this story will never be what I want it to be and everyone who reads it will realize I'm a talentless hack. It's a tough period. Luckily, I've found that every writer experiences this at some point, and that if you can keep pushing through you'll eventually reach a place where you love the book again.

What inspires you?

Oh, all sorts of things! You never know where inspiration will come from. I've been inspired by books, movies, music, magazine articles, overheard conversations, random signs on the side of the street, watching parades and musicals, traveling to new destinations. I think it's important for writers to get out there and experience as much life as they can, and to be constantly filling themselves up with new ideas, because you never know what will turn into your next story.

Why speculative fiction?

I always loved fantasy - from fairy tales to sword and sorcery fiction and everything in between. When I was a kid I was *convinced* that I had secret magic powers, and it was only a matter of time before they revealed themselves. (Okay, I might still think my time is coming.) It's a wonderful fantasy to think that there is more to this world than meets the eye, and as a writer, I can make those fantasies a reality. Maybe that's my magic power.

Why young adult?

I like that teenage protagonists can be free to be optimistic. They believe in love at first sight. They believe that they're brave and heroic. They believe that they can change the world. It's great to write about a time of life in which characters aren't yet bogged down with cynicism; they're not jaded. They're looking forward, anticipating what they're lives will become, and I love watching my characters grow and change over the course of their stories. I like watching them become heroes.

CAROL SISKIND

Interview with CAROL SISKIND

Carol started her standup career in New York. She then moved on to Los Angeles and after that Las Vegas. Her television credits include numerous appearances on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson and Jay Leno, HBO, Showtime, as well as many Network comedy sitcom and talk shows. She has worked clubs and theatres throughout the United States, England, and South Africa. In Las Vegas Carol performed in every Strip hotel and casino, including a full year opening for George Wallace at The Flamingo Hotel and Casino. Carol has been featured in People Magazine, Newsweek Magazine, Mademoiselle Magazine, The New York Times, The New York Times SundayMagazine (where she was on the cover), The New York Post, the Sunday Times of London,  as well as many other publications. She was nominated by the American Comedy Awards as “Best Female Comedian.”

What are you reading right now?

Right now I'm reading Michael Connelly's thriller THE SCARECROW.

What first sparked your interest in writing?

What sparked my interest in writing is what inspired my stand-up, drawing, and painting: the need to express myself. I knew at an early age, when I could make my family laugh, that I was an extrovert in this way. My mother was an artist so self-expression was a way of life I saw intimately.

What do you love the most about writing? The least?

What I like most about writing, when I give in to doing it, is the escape from ego it affords me: to get out of myself and my neurotic, obsessive thoughts.

What I like least about writing is the judgment and criticism I give into, too readily. I either overestimate or underestimate the value of what I have to say, and at times, it's paralyzing.

Tell us a little about your writing process.

My writing “process” varies. With stand-up, I'll write down any current idea or observation, and either hone it then or later for the stage. On rare occasions, the nugget comes to me fully formed. Usually it needs extensive rewording and reworking.

Writing essays or scripts requires a time devoted to the project, like “I will sit this morning and do it.” It requires more discipline for me and is more challenging.

What are your passions?

My passions are family, friends, laughter, beauty in all forms, good food, great wine, the Yankees, and my dog, now gone.

Did you know without a doubt what you would write about in your NO KIDDING essay or did you have a few topics from which you narrowed it down?

When I wrote the essay for NO KIDDING I just wrote, without any forethought as to where is would go. The finished product surprised me, because I didn't judge it. I just wrote.

Was it difficult writing about something so personal?

It's never difficult for me to be personal in my writing. From all years doing stand-up, I've learned that the most personal is the most universal. We're all more alike than not. So I'm not at all shy or modest about sharing.

Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

If I have any advice, it's just to do it. Write crap. Don't judge. Just pick yourself up, and with as little self-flagellation as possible. Then rewrite. Do you best to stay out of the result.

Is there anything else you would like to tell us about yourself?

I keep this quote from T.S. Eliot on my desk: "There is only the trying. The rest is not our business.”