Calista’s Interview 2/27/07
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I
recently interviewed young adult novel author Julie Anne Peters. Julie lives in Q: What’s
the most difficult part when beginning to write a book? A: I think it's finding your rhythm. By
the time I sit down to write I've thought the story through; I've written the
ending; I know the characters pretty well, not inside out, but they'll reveal
themselves to me as we go along. Every story has a particular pace and tone,
all of it a part of voice. But just getting the pen working on paper at a
certain tempo, without fits and starts, takes a while. It's like getting
your car out to the highway. You chug along the side streets, slowing for
traffic and stopping for lights. Once you're on open road, you put the stick
in high gear and switch to autopilot. Zoom. But every day when I sit
down to write, I have to find the rhythm. Q: As a child, what was your dream job? A: Being a teacher. All I ever wanted to
be was a teacher. I went to college and became a teacher. I was the worst
teacher in the world. No kidding. I'm in the Guinness Book of World Records as
"Worst 5th Grade Teacher in the World." Sometimes your dream is
bigger than you. Q: What would you say is the one of the
most difficult things about being an author? A: The
challenges have evolved over the years. Revising with my editor used to be
enormously difficult. Trying to envision my work through someone else's eyes
is a murky swamp. I've gotten better at that. Not falling apart emotionally
when a book I worked on for years receives a bad review. I've gotten better
at taking criticism. Public speaking—bleh. I
thought being a writer meant I could hole up in a cave… that I wouldn't have
to deal with people or politics. Promoting myself
and my books is an ongoing challenge. Promotion is my least
favorite part of being a writer.
Julie Anne Peters Q: Which book of yours would you say was
the most fun to write? Which was the most difficult? A: The most fun book is the one I'm
working on right now, the one that hasn't been revised to death. It's this
book I'm calling, By the Time You Read This I'll Be Dead. I think the most
frustrating was Revenge of the Snob Squad because all I had when I started
was a title…I had to create a whole, entire novel around a title. Do NOT try
this at home. Q: What (and/or who) gives you
encouragement to continue writing? A: Fans…There truly is a cycle of
empowerment between readers and writers. |
Q: In
your YA novels, you write in a teenagers’ perspective; is it ever hard to
have an idea of what a teen may think or do in some situations? A: Since so many young people write to
me and I'm talking to them all the time, I feel I know what they're up
against. It's way too easy for me to transport back in time to my own
teen years. I think I have a lot of unresolved adolescent issues. Ouch.
Although culture changes during generations, the issues we deal
with at 13, 14, 15, 16 and on up through the life
continuum are not so very different. Isolation, alienation, peer
pressure, sexuality, identity, friendship, dating, family, choices,
consequences... Sound familiar? I have a whole JAP Mafia to call on if I ever
have questions about authenticity. Q: Where do you get your inspiration? A: From everywhere and everything. My
life, the lives of others. From things I see and read and think about. From
the way I react emotionally to situations or injustices or the unfair
distribution of burdens in our society. I'm inspired by young people who
overcome tremendous obstacles to find their own inner strengths and to
empower themselves to move forward with their lives. Inspiration is a
hard one to pin down. Q: All in all, how worth it do you think
being an author is? A: There's not a lot of financial reward
unless you're in it for a long time, or you're one of those rare breakout
authors who hits it big the first time out with a bestseller. It takes years
and years to build up readership and fan loyalty. You have to really love the
work of writing and be in it because the writing itself is the reward. That
peace you find in sitting down every day and discovering something new and
exciting about yourself that you didn't know was inside you. All these
revelations that come out on paper, and the
amazement you experience when you bring artistry to the work. I think
whatever work you do in life has to bring you a sense of self-fulfillment and
actualization. You can't always be looking outside yourself for validation. Q: Do you ever have times when you wish
you just had a “normal” job? A: No.
There's not one day when I regret not doing the 9 to 5. I'm incredibly
self-motivated and disciplined, so I don't need a boss or a schedule hanging
over me to get things done. I absolutely love deciding what will be on my
agenda each and every day. I get to eat dessert first. For instance, I
do all the fun stuff right away and save the crap for the end of the day
(like business junk). Some days all I do is take long walks and think about
my characters and the story I'm working on—just get inside their heads. I
read in binges to catch up on all the YA books I've missed while I was busy
writing my own. How much fun is reading? My job is full of so many fun tasks,
it's hard to choose which ones to do in what order. If I'm working on a book,
though, that always has to come first…I've made it a priority throughout my
career to always write back to readers as quickly as possible and I hope I
can continue to do that. Sometimes I'm up until midnight finishing my
e-mail, but I'm committed to keeping the cycle of empowerment going, and
going, and going... Q: What advice would you give to an
aspiring author? A: Read.
Remember the reason you want to be an author in the first place is because
you want to move readers in the same way your favorite authors move you. So
read. In closing, I’d like to thank Julie for spending time to
answer these questions. If you would
like to look further into Julie Anne Peters, you can visit her website at www.JulieAnnePeters.com
or you can read her MySpace blog
– www.myspace.com/julieannepeters. Calista |
