| Interview with Cylin Busby |
First off, thanks so much for joining us for an up-close and personal interview for TeensReadToo.
com! My name is Jen, and I’ll be your server toda…oh, wait, wrong job! Anyway, thanks so much for
taking time out of your writing schedule—which I’m sure is busy!—and answering a few questions for
your readers and fans.
Let’s get some of the typical interview questions out of the way first. When did you first know that you
wanted to be a writer?
When I was a kid, I would get my allowance on Saturday morning, then I would beg my dad to take me
to the mall so I could go to the bookstore and buy a new book. I read constantly, and adored books—
reading was all I wanted to do with my free time. When I reached high school and had to start thinking
about what I wanted to do with my life, it seemed like an obvious choice to study writing and be an
author.
Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?
My first job after college was working for Random House in New York City. I worked at Knopf as an
editorial assistant and slowly moved my way up the ranks until I was a children’s book editor. I loved
working with authors and making books for kids, and at one point I had an idea for a middle grade
series (about urban legends). My boss at the time said “You could write that yourself,” and then she
hired me to do it! That was my first book, called THE CHICKEN FRIED RAT, published by
HarperCollins in 1997.
Tell us a little bit about either your latest or upcoming release. If you could only tell your readers one
thing about the story that had to convince us to buy the book, what would it be?
My next book is all about KISSING (and who doesn’t like that?) It’s called FIRST KISS (THEN TELL)
and it’s a collection of short stories all by YA authors, talking about their first kiss. Comes out in
January 2008.
What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?
Kids, especially pre-teens, are my greatest inspiration—memories of my childhood and the types of
books that I enjoyed, and the hours that I spent reading always inspire me to write for kids who are
going through that difficult age right now.
Let’s hear about your family, who I’m sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!
My parents are still together and have been married for 42 years, I have two older brothers, Eric and
Shawn. I’ve been with my husband for 10 years now, and we have one little boy, named August, who
is 4 years old.
Now for some fun facts. What’s your greatest comfort food?
Tomato soup! Must be served with saltine crackers too.
What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?
Usually my little boy wakes me up (very early in the morning) so I have to go into his room, then I get
him something to eat and start making coffee. After a cup or two of that, I usually wake up—a little!
If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what’s the one thing that would
surprise me the most?
You would probably be surprised to find that I don’t have a basement, because I live in California. Due
to all the earthquakes we have out here, a lot of houses don’t have any basements—because during
a big shake, your house could fall right into the hole underneath it! Some people have what is called a
“California basement” which is a little mini-cellar under about ½ or ¼ of your house, more like a crawl
space then a real basement, but I don’t even have one of those.
Everyone asks the question about “if you could be a tree, which tree would you be?” so I want to
know: If you could be a color, which color would it be, and why?
Blue, because it’s my son’s favorite color and I think he would be psyched be the only kid at school
with a blue mom!
Who is your favorite cartoon character? Which cartoon character is most like you?
I love Sandy from SpongeBob SquarePants—she’s like me in that she has a little bit of a southern
accent and she has to live out of her element (if you’re not a fan of the show, she’s a squirrel who
wears a deep-sea suit and oxygen helmet so that she can hang out with Sponge Bob and friends).
When I was a kid, I moved from New England down to Tennessee, and Sandy always reminds me of
that “I totally don’t belong here” feeling when I see her in her diver’s helmet hanging out under the sea.
If you could beam yourself to anywhere in the world (“Beam me up, Scotty!”), during any time in
history, where and when would it be—and why?
I’d love to go to ancient Egypt—to see the pyramids and the Sphinx when they were newly built, and to
see how people lived then.
So what’s your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while
you’re writing?
I call myself an “indie pop princess” --one of my favorite bands is Radiohead, and I also love Beck.
Recently I’ve been listening to Interpol and Kanye West, but never while I’m writing—I can’t have any
music on at all while I’m writing, it’s way too distracting for me.
Do you have any favorite T.V. shows? Movies you watch over and over again? What was the last
movie you saw at the theater?
Two favorite movies are Valley Girl (a modern-day retelling of Romeo and Juliet, set in the 1980’s
California LA valley) and Bad Seed (a thriller about an evil little girl who seemingly has no
conscience). I’ve seen these two movies too many times to count! I can quote from Valley Girl, and
often do (although I don’t think my friends like to hear me talk all totally rad like that).
You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?
Have confidence in yourself. It’s really hard when you’re a teenager and it seems like someone else is
always smarter than you, better than you, prettier than you, has better clothes than you. But the
sooner you learn to focus on your own awesome qualities, the better off you’ll be.
One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?
I’m currently writing a memoir with my father that will be published in October 2008, from Bloomsbury.
It doesn’t have a title yet!
Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!
Thanks, this was fun!
com! My name is Jen, and I’ll be your server toda…oh, wait, wrong job! Anyway, thanks so much for
taking time out of your writing schedule—which I’m sure is busy!—and answering a few questions for
your readers and fans.
Let’s get some of the typical interview questions out of the way first. When did you first know that you
wanted to be a writer?
When I was a kid, I would get my allowance on Saturday morning, then I would beg my dad to take me
to the mall so I could go to the bookstore and buy a new book. I read constantly, and adored books—
reading was all I wanted to do with my free time. When I reached high school and had to start thinking
about what I wanted to do with my life, it seemed like an obvious choice to study writing and be an
author.
Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?
My first job after college was working for Random House in New York City. I worked at Knopf as an
editorial assistant and slowly moved my way up the ranks until I was a children’s book editor. I loved
working with authors and making books for kids, and at one point I had an idea for a middle grade
series (about urban legends). My boss at the time said “You could write that yourself,” and then she
hired me to do it! That was my first book, called THE CHICKEN FRIED RAT, published by
HarperCollins in 1997.
Tell us a little bit about either your latest or upcoming release. If you could only tell your readers one
thing about the story that had to convince us to buy the book, what would it be?
My next book is all about KISSING (and who doesn’t like that?) It’s called FIRST KISS (THEN TELL)
and it’s a collection of short stories all by YA authors, talking about their first kiss. Comes out in
January 2008.
What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?
Kids, especially pre-teens, are my greatest inspiration—memories of my childhood and the types of
books that I enjoyed, and the hours that I spent reading always inspire me to write for kids who are
going through that difficult age right now.
Let’s hear about your family, who I’m sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!
My parents are still together and have been married for 42 years, I have two older brothers, Eric and
Shawn. I’ve been with my husband for 10 years now, and we have one little boy, named August, who
is 4 years old.
Now for some fun facts. What’s your greatest comfort food?
Tomato soup! Must be served with saltine crackers too.
What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?
Usually my little boy wakes me up (very early in the morning) so I have to go into his room, then I get
him something to eat and start making coffee. After a cup or two of that, I usually wake up—a little!
If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what’s the one thing that would
surprise me the most?
You would probably be surprised to find that I don’t have a basement, because I live in California. Due
to all the earthquakes we have out here, a lot of houses don’t have any basements—because during
a big shake, your house could fall right into the hole underneath it! Some people have what is called a
“California basement” which is a little mini-cellar under about ½ or ¼ of your house, more like a crawl
space then a real basement, but I don’t even have one of those.
Everyone asks the question about “if you could be a tree, which tree would you be?” so I want to
know: If you could be a color, which color would it be, and why?
Blue, because it’s my son’s favorite color and I think he would be psyched be the only kid at school
with a blue mom!
Who is your favorite cartoon character? Which cartoon character is most like you?
I love Sandy from SpongeBob SquarePants—she’s like me in that she has a little bit of a southern
accent and she has to live out of her element (if you’re not a fan of the show, she’s a squirrel who
wears a deep-sea suit and oxygen helmet so that she can hang out with Sponge Bob and friends).
When I was a kid, I moved from New England down to Tennessee, and Sandy always reminds me of
that “I totally don’t belong here” feeling when I see her in her diver’s helmet hanging out under the sea.
If you could beam yourself to anywhere in the world (“Beam me up, Scotty!”), during any time in
history, where and when would it be—and why?
I’d love to go to ancient Egypt—to see the pyramids and the Sphinx when they were newly built, and to
see how people lived then.
So what’s your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while
you’re writing?
I call myself an “indie pop princess” --one of my favorite bands is Radiohead, and I also love Beck.
Recently I’ve been listening to Interpol and Kanye West, but never while I’m writing—I can’t have any
music on at all while I’m writing, it’s way too distracting for me.
Do you have any favorite T.V. shows? Movies you watch over and over again? What was the last
movie you saw at the theater?
Two favorite movies are Valley Girl (a modern-day retelling of Romeo and Juliet, set in the 1980’s
California LA valley) and Bad Seed (a thriller about an evil little girl who seemingly has no
conscience). I’ve seen these two movies too many times to count! I can quote from Valley Girl, and
often do (although I don’t think my friends like to hear me talk all totally rad like that).
You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?
Have confidence in yourself. It’s really hard when you’re a teenager and it seems like someone else is
always smarter than you, better than you, prettier than you, has better clothes than you. But the
sooner you learn to focus on your own awesome qualities, the better off you’ll be.
One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?
I’m currently writing a memoir with my father that will be published in October 2008, from Bloomsbury.
It doesn’t have a title yet!
Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!
Thanks, this was fun!
