| Interview with Garret Freymann-Weyr |
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?
There were two times. One was in the sixth grade when I was writing a story called Charlie the Great about
a girl named Charlotte whose parents were diplomats. And then, in college, I took a writing course with
Doris Betts and I knew I had found something really important.
Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?
It’s winding and detoured. I had, a bit by accident, published a novel for “grown ups” back in the 80s. I
was very young and the less said about it, the better. For a while, I had a lot of jobs. I was an artist model
-- not as interesting as I had hoped and, yes, men do hit on you. Sadly, the nice ones don’t. I was reading
manuscripts for a literary agent and for a book club (the book club fired me when I said they should
TOTALLY pass on Cold Mountain.) I wound up working in the sub-rights department at HarperCollins
Children’s Books. I hated my job, but I did read almost the entire backlist, which gave me a crash course in
YA. And I met my best friend there, so it wasn’t that bad a job. A character I’d been trying to fit into a
book fell into a YA type of novel, I called my old boss and off we went. When I Was Older was turned down
by twenty-seven editors, but we did find a home for it at Houghton Mifflin.
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?
Stay With Me is about love, loss and dyslexia. If you’ve ever wondered why love matters or if blonde girls
are as dumb as they look, then this book is for you.
What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?
I’m going to have to say my father, whose past as a refugee haunts the pages of Stay With Me. His larger
than life and demanding personality also infuses the mood of my other books. My mother wanted me to go
to law school, but my father said I could fail as a lawyer, just as easily as I could as a writer. He thought I
should aim to have an interesting life, not just a successful one. He still picks up the phone when I call,
crying snot out of my eyes because I think I’m failure. He likes to alternate between There, there and Well,
honey, I don’t know (meaning, I think, Snap out of it.)
Let’s hear about your family, who I’m sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!
They’re not so very thrilled. My sisters are, I think, tired of seeing small details from our collective memory
spun into my ideas and fictions. My mother really wishes I had gone into a higher paying, less volatile
career. My father thinks my work is good but wishes I could speak a foreign language.
Now for some fun facts. What’s your greatest comfort food?
It’s a toss-up between a turkey sandwich cut on the diagonal and a latte with 2% milk and an extra shot.
What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?
I find my glasses, drink a cup of very strong coffee and then read the paper, especially the fun sections. I
wish I were one of those people who rolled out of bed to drink green tea and meditate, but every time I try
that, it feels like a violation of my will.
If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what’s the one thing that would surprise
me the most?
The nicest clothes I have are hand-me-overs from my best friend (whom I met at HarperCollins, see
above). She is about five and a half feet tall and full of yummy curves. I am 5 feet twelve inches on a good
day and my body curves very differently than hers does, but her clothes look amazing on me. Go figure.
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?
I think the color of fire (be it orange, red or that strange grey-blue) so I could have been there when
Prometheus stole fire from the gods.
Who is your favorite cartoon character? Which cartoon character is most like you?
Calvin is my favorite because he reminds me of my husband. As much as I’d like to say I’m like Brenda
Starr or Wonder Woman, the truth lies closer to Lucy. Or Violet. I always loved Violet.
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 should like to have been either Maria Callas’ maid during her affair with Onassis or Martin Luther’s best
friend as he was struggling to leave the Catholic church. Opera divas have always fascinated me (my
mother loved Tebaldi, but she might have been boring to work for). And I think the Catholic/Protestant split
is illuminating and scary and odd.
So what’s your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while
you’re writing?
I have such appalling taste in music, that if I had to choose, I’d rather talk about my weight than about
music. I will say that I listen to what I like over and over and over again. But yes, I listen a lot while I work.
Not when I revise, because then I have to hear each sentence. But when I am figuring things out, music is
very helpful.
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?
My favorite movie is probably The Way We Were. I like shows that are sort of the same each week:
Without A Trace or Law & Order (both SVU and Criminal Intent). However, I also love The Wire on HBO,
which is different and heartbreaking. In the theater, we just saw The Painted Veil. Naomi Watts reminded
me of a Swedish movie star because she can move her face. You don’t see that a lot since botox was
discovered.
You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?
Don’t take advice from women you don’t know. No, I can do better. I think it would be to trust yourself. It’s
hard because if you can do that (trust yourself), you have a lot of power. Or peace. Which might be the
same thing.
One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?
I have no idea. My books usually start with an image or a phrase or the vaguest idea of a person. I start
writing around that scrap of information and I go from there.
Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!
Thank you. This was fun.
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?
There were two times. One was in the sixth grade when I was writing a story called Charlie the Great about
a girl named Charlotte whose parents were diplomats. And then, in college, I took a writing course with
Doris Betts and I knew I had found something really important.
Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?
It’s winding and detoured. I had, a bit by accident, published a novel for “grown ups” back in the 80s. I
was very young and the less said about it, the better. For a while, I had a lot of jobs. I was an artist model
-- not as interesting as I had hoped and, yes, men do hit on you. Sadly, the nice ones don’t. I was reading
manuscripts for a literary agent and for a book club (the book club fired me when I said they should
TOTALLY pass on Cold Mountain.) I wound up working in the sub-rights department at HarperCollins
Children’s Books. I hated my job, but I did read almost the entire backlist, which gave me a crash course in
YA. And I met my best friend there, so it wasn’t that bad a job. A character I’d been trying to fit into a
book fell into a YA type of novel, I called my old boss and off we went. When I Was Older was turned down
by twenty-seven editors, but we did find a home for it at Houghton Mifflin.
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?
Stay With Me is about love, loss and dyslexia. If you’ve ever wondered why love matters or if blonde girls
are as dumb as they look, then this book is for you.
What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?
I’m going to have to say my father, whose past as a refugee haunts the pages of Stay With Me. His larger
than life and demanding personality also infuses the mood of my other books. My mother wanted me to go
to law school, but my father said I could fail as a lawyer, just as easily as I could as a writer. He thought I
should aim to have an interesting life, not just a successful one. He still picks up the phone when I call,
crying snot out of my eyes because I think I’m failure. He likes to alternate between There, there and Well,
honey, I don’t know (meaning, I think, Snap out of it.)
Let’s hear about your family, who I’m sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!
They’re not so very thrilled. My sisters are, I think, tired of seeing small details from our collective memory
spun into my ideas and fictions. My mother really wishes I had gone into a higher paying, less volatile
career. My father thinks my work is good but wishes I could speak a foreign language.
Now for some fun facts. What’s your greatest comfort food?
It’s a toss-up between a turkey sandwich cut on the diagonal and a latte with 2% milk and an extra shot.
What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?
I find my glasses, drink a cup of very strong coffee and then read the paper, especially the fun sections. I
wish I were one of those people who rolled out of bed to drink green tea and meditate, but every time I try
that, it feels like a violation of my will.
If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what’s the one thing that would surprise
me the most?
The nicest clothes I have are hand-me-overs from my best friend (whom I met at HarperCollins, see
above). She is about five and a half feet tall and full of yummy curves. I am 5 feet twelve inches on a good
day and my body curves very differently than hers does, but her clothes look amazing on me. Go figure.
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?
I think the color of fire (be it orange, red or that strange grey-blue) so I could have been there when
Prometheus stole fire from the gods.
Who is your favorite cartoon character? Which cartoon character is most like you?
Calvin is my favorite because he reminds me of my husband. As much as I’d like to say I’m like Brenda
Starr or Wonder Woman, the truth lies closer to Lucy. Or Violet. I always loved Violet.
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 should like to have been either Maria Callas’ maid during her affair with Onassis or Martin Luther’s best
friend as he was struggling to leave the Catholic church. Opera divas have always fascinated me (my
mother loved Tebaldi, but she might have been boring to work for). And I think the Catholic/Protestant split
is illuminating and scary and odd.
So what’s your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while
you’re writing?
I have such appalling taste in music, that if I had to choose, I’d rather talk about my weight than about
music. I will say that I listen to what I like over and over and over again. But yes, I listen a lot while I work.
Not when I revise, because then I have to hear each sentence. But when I am figuring things out, music is
very helpful.
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?
My favorite movie is probably The Way We Were. I like shows that are sort of the same each week:
Without A Trace or Law & Order (both SVU and Criminal Intent). However, I also love The Wire on HBO,
which is different and heartbreaking. In the theater, we just saw The Painted Veil. Naomi Watts reminded
me of a Swedish movie star because she can move her face. You don’t see that a lot since botox was
discovered.
You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?
Don’t take advice from women you don’t know. No, I can do better. I think it would be to trust yourself. It’s
hard because if you can do that (trust yourself), you have a lot of power. Or peace. Which might be the
same thing.
One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?
I have no idea. My books usually start with an image or a phrase or the vaguest idea of a person. I start
writing around that scrap of information and I go from there.
Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!
Thank you. This was fun.