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?
Okay, 2.5 years ago I was a newspaper editor at a tiny, little paper in Maine. It was cool to meet people all the time, but totally sucked to have to go to things like planning board meetings where people would argue about setbacks and land use ordinances for hours and hours and hours until midnight.
Plus, when you work for a newspaper you're not supposed to make stuff up, which is really not fun.
Why?
Making stuff up is better than reporting facts because:
No one ever strips naked at planning board meetings and announces that they have married their toaster strudel, which CAN happen in a book.
No one ever sings arias to their coffee in planning board meetings. This can happen in books and in Will Ferrell movies.
No lobster fisherman ever hands me a toffee and says to me "eIay ovelay ouyay" to me in pig Latin in planning board meeting, which can... Oh. Wait. That did happen once. Never mind.
Anyway, frightened of the pig-Latin espousing, toffee-dispersing lobsterman, I applied to Vermont College's MFA program. I got in. They must have had low standards that semester. That's when I decided I wanted to be a writer.
When I was young I wanted to be a human rights attorney and possibly be martyred for a cause during a U2 concert and have there be peace in Ireland as a result. That probably shows wayyyyyyyyyyy too much about all my mental issues. Luckily, even though I did NOT become a human rights attorney and I was NOT martyred during a U2 concert, there's peace in Ireland anyway.
Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?
About a year into my MFA program, I sent TIPS ON HAVING A GAY (ex) BOYFRIEND to Andrew Karre at Flux. He took it! Right away. Even though I spelled my own last name wrong in the query letter. I kid you not.
I spelled Jones like this: Jonese.
How dumb is that?
Then he took two more books. Andrew must have a thing for writers who can't spell their own names. Or some sort of savior complex, like maybe he thinks, "Oh, the poor thing. She can't spell her own name. She can't get her email address right. I must don my Super Editor cape and save her! No one else will!"
Andrew, Andrew, Andrew. I really love him.
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 first book, which comes out in May 2007, is TIPS ON HAVING A GAY (ex) BOYFRIEND. It's about Belle who has had this perfect long-time boyfriend, Dylan. But then Dylan turns out to be gay. Belle must deal with what this means for her, for him, and for the small town they live in. It's about assumptions people make about people and eschewing labels.
One thing about it to make you buy it? Okay. Umm:
Gay ex-boyfriend? You know you've had one.
What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?
A real incident where this girl was hate crimed because her boyfriend came out.
My own high school boyfriend, who is the best guy (and best kisser) ever, but is gay.
PREGGERS was inspired by:
Me trying to figure out what was going to happen to Belle and Emmie, who star in TIPS.
This is embarrassing but I was on the treadmill and flipping through the channels but MUTE was on and I saw this girl sitting on the floor by the toilet and her mom was at the doorway, sitting on the floor too and everyone looked SO sad and it was such an image it inspired me to write a story.
AND THEN all of the sudden there are these guys with guitars in the middle of a field and I realized that I was watching a country music video. Ack!
TRUE GRIT was inspired by:
Sarah Silverman, the comedian, because we were in the same grade when we were kids and she really impressed me. One of the characters is based on my memories of her.
My high school writing teacher, Mr. Joseph Sullivan, because when he laughs his tongue looks like a snake. And he always thought I'd be a writer, so he's obviously psychic, which is cool.
John Wayne.
Let's hear about your family, who I'm sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!
This is what my dad said when I told him, "Someone bought your book? That's great. What's it called?"
My father then laughed some more. "Let me write that down. That's really the title? Ho boy."
Then about six months later, I was talking to my dad on the phone while simultaneously trying to make vegan shepard's pie and he said, "How many books have you sold?"
I told him.
"Three? Three! In less than a year?"
"Yep," I said, dicing onions, which always makes me cry.
He was really quiet and then he said, "Your grandfather was a really literate man. He was a great reader, you know. And my mother--she loved poems."
"I know that, Dad," I said, wiping my eyes with a paper towel that smelled like onions and only made things worse.
Then he swallowed so loudly I could hear it and he said, "I'm dyslexic you know. I don't read very well."
"I know Dad. You're super smart though." I said this because sometimes my dad forgets that he is super smart.
The silence settled in and he finally said, "I'm just really proud of you. You know that, right? I'm really, really proud of you."
So, even if no lovely people ever buy my books, at least I know that I did something that made my dad proud.
Now for some fun facts. What's your greatest comfort food?
I am a big fan of stuffing, steamed shrimp pot stickers, Weetabix and Postum. Postum is half drink/half fee things you do when you wake up in the morning?
Moan. Stumble out of bed. Fall on the floor and admire the carpet from Afghanistan before moaning again. Try to drag myself to the bathroom, but get no traction because the carpet slides across the hardwood floor. Give up and go bacin. Try to drag myself to the bathroom, but get no traction because the carpet slides across the hardwood floor. Give up and go back to sleep on the same carpet.
If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what's the one thing that would surprise me the most?
1. The fact that I actually live in a house and have a closet and a basement and running water and heat and that I'm not living in the back of a Subaru station wagon. Because once you know me, you understand that's pretty remarkable.
2. Or maybe the man's black Speedo swimsuit (Can you even call it that? Or should you call it lingerie?) that I just found in a box in the basement. I mean, I was surprised. I'd been looking for expired Pop-Tarts and I found a very large man's Speedo.
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?
Oh, probably mottled puce with sallow undertones. Oh, wait you weren't asking about my actual skin color?
Then forest green.
Who is your favorite cartoon character? Which cartoon character is most like you?
My favorite is either Scooby Doo or Boo-Boo Bear from the old Yogi Bear cartoon. I have to say I've had intense crushes on both of these boys. I don't know if it's the fur or the fearfulness, but from the age of 3 to 7 I really wanted to marry either Scooby (pre-Scrappy version) or Boo-Boo.
Now, my animated affections have moved to Puss in Boots, in Shrek. What can I say? I'm fickle. I've moved from easily dominated cartoon males to dominating lothario cartoons males.
Who am I like? This requires a degree of self-knowledge that I probably don't possess but I'm going to go ask people now.
Okay. I'm back. And I'm now having major self-esteem issues.
Option #1: Dory in Finding Nemo. She's the fish who has short term memory problems.
Option #2: Maggie Simpson. I do not know what this means.
Option #3: So, all desperate, I take an Internet Quiz and it says I am Tweety Bird. Hhmmm.
I think I should have not answered this somehow.
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 would go to Tibet, right now. It's my dream.
So what's your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while you're writing?
I'm a MP3/IPod shuffle type person, but when I was writing TIPS and PREGGERS I listened to a lot of Cliff Eberhart, Dar Williams, Cheryl Wheeler, John Gorka and Mark Erelli. That's because Belle is really into the guitar and modern folk singer-songwriters.
If I have to write something sad I listen to the soundtrack from the movie, The End of the Affair, which is cheating off of brilliant writer, Tim Wynne-Jones. But if you have to cheat off someone, he's perfect.
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?
The last movie I saw was Happy Feet. It's that penguin thing again.
I love Freaks and Geeks, which no longer exists. I watch Lost. I am addicted. I am not proud of this. I am entering a program...and trying to refrain from checking fan forums and spoiler links. Really. Really. I swear.
You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?
Drink Postum!
One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?
I am thinking about a novella from the point of view of George Bush's old college condom.
But currently. TIPS is coming out in May, 2007. PREGGERS and TRUE GRIT are coming out in 2008.
TRUE GRIT is about Lily, this girl who has all kinds of stuff to deal with. Her mom's new man is an alcoholic jerk. Her dad is starting to cross-dress. And so Lily starts looking for father/figure heroes to save her, wishing her dad was like John Wayne, this old dead movie star. She writes John Wayne letters. Oh, I feel so badly for her, but she's really cool. I swear. Plus, she gets to fall in love with a cute boy.
I'm also working with an editor on another YA called WHY I DRINK. This is NOT a memoir, I swear, and it's not a problem novel either. I promise! Not that there's anything wrong with problem novels or memoirs, it's just not what I write. Oh, that sounds so negative.
Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!
I can't believe you're thanking me. You're the best. Thank you. You do sooooooo much for authors and readers, you are the coolest. We should all be worshipping you and sending you strudel. Seriously, you're just great. I hope I didn't go on too long. Yikes.
(A note from "The Genius," aka The Owner of TRT: I promise I didn't pay Ms. Jones a dime to say such nice things about me! Although, now that I think about it, I probably owe her at least a dollar.)
