Frequently Asked Questions

(If you’re looking for the Author Q&A that accompanies Bad Girls Don’t Die, please click here to download it!)

Q: Is it true there’s going to be a sequel to BAD GIRLS DON’T DIE?

Yes! I am thrilled that Disney-Hyperion decided that they want BGDD to be a 3-book series! Book 2 will be out in 2011, and Book 3 will be out in 2012. Neither book has a title or cover yet, but if you join my mailing list, you’ll be among the first people to find out!

Q: Who’s the girl behind the curtain on the cover of the book?

Well, for starters, it isn’t me! The cover image is actually a stock photo. As for which character it’s supposed to be…? Well, you can decide for yourself. It seems a lot like a “Kasey moment” to me.

Q: I saw a trailer… Is there going to be a movie?

What you saw was my book trailer, which I’m very proud of. It would be wonderful if BGDD were turned into a movie, although right now there’s no plan to do so. If it ever happens, I’ll definitely announce it here on the blog and to my mailing list, which you can join by clicking here.

Q: Where do you get your ideas?

I like to start with the question, “What if…?” And when I’m working on new ideas, I do a lot of daydreaming. It helps to try to be around things, people, and places that inspire you. I’ve never gone astray looking more closely at something that truly interests me! All those research projects I hated in high school… It turns out that if I’d just looked for subjects that I actually liked, I would have enjoyed the whole process.

Q: How long did it take you to write your book?

I started the first draft of BAD GIRLS DON’T DIE in 2002. For the next couple of years, I revised when I could fit the time into my busy work schedule. In 2006, I got serious about trying to get published. I connected with my agent, did some revisions for an editor who was very interested, and ended up selling the book to Hyperion in November 2006.

A lot of people say they have two “practice” books hidden in a drawer. For me, this was the practice book! I just kept hammering away it it until it was good enough.

(I don’t, however, intend to spend quite so many years on my future books. ;-) )

Q: Why won’t you share what year were you born (or your parents’ names, or your husband’s name, or other personal details)? I need them for my report!

First of all, I am so honored whenever a reader decides to use BGDD for a book report. However, there is some information I simply can’t share, due to privacy reasons. It gets complicated, because that information is readily available about many authors, and your teacher might expect you to find it. However, in the age of the internet, it is very important to protect your personal information as much as possible. Famous authors like John Steinbeck, Judy Blume, and Laura Ingalls Wilder may not need to worry about identity theft, but we current authors do!

If you are doing a book report, I encourage you to mention this to your parents and teacher. To make up for this lack of info, I will even send a handwritten note explaining my views on the situation. But I can’t give out the personal info! Perhaps you can discuss with your teacher some alternate questions that are less personal.

Here are the answers I will share: I was born in the 1970s. My husband is known on the internet as “the Husb”. I call my parents Mom and Dad, and I was raised in Florida.

Q: When did you start writing?

The first time I remember really writing was in third grade. My teacher, Mrs. Twiggs, had everyone buy a spiral-bound notebook. Then we would spend an hour a week writing. I remember writing the craziest stories, using all my friends’ names. Once I got up to read one, and it took forever. It must have been eight pages long. I wonder what the teacher was thinking!

Then, in seventh grade English class, our teacher made us do a research project where we were researching some choice or decision for ourselves. Mine was, “Do I Want to be a Writer?” I don’t remember what conclusion I came to in the paper, but I guess it made an impression.

You can find excerpts of some of these early writings here, here, and here.

Q: Why did you decide to write for teens?

I never really made a conscious decision; as I worked with ideas, the ones that felt the strongest to me were the ones narrated by and involving teens. In fact, some of my story ideas started out featuring adults, but evolved into young adult stories. I don’t know exactly why, but that seems to be my voice. Plus, I had a great time when I was a teen. I had my ups and downs, but that’s a time in my life I don’t mind thinking back on.

Q: How did you find an agent?

Every author has a different “how I got my agent” story. My agent happens to be a friend from high school that I’d lost touch with. I hadn’t seen or talked to him for eight years, and I emailed him out of the blue to ask if I could send the book. He said “sure”, liked it, and agreed to represent me. He told me later that he was really scared he wouldn’t like the book. Luckily for both of us, he did! It just goes to show that what you do in high school, and the people you meet there, really ARE important!

Q: Did you get a lot of rejections?

I got several, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. We sent the book out, and many editors passed. A lot of them had really kind and thoughtful things to say, and some even said they’d like to see whatever I write next. It stings a little, but it’s all part of the game.

(One editor said it had a big Hollywood ending — at first, I thought that was a compliment! When you work in Hollywood, a big Hollywood ending means you’re Steven Spielberg! Turns out that in publishing, it means something a little less flattering. Also, it’s not as fun as you might think to be told you have a “vivid imagination”.)

Q: Do you like to read?

I love to read! I’ve always been a reader, and I think most people benefit from reading. I also think there’s too much pressure on kids to read specific books at an age when they should just be learning how to love the act of reading. When I was in high school, I wrote a lot of five-paragraph essays about books I hadn’t read. You can find out about my favorite books by clicking over to my bio page.

Q: Will you read my book/screenplay/etc.?

Unfortunately, I can’t read unpublished work–for a lot of reasons. But I highly encourage you to join a critique group or hook up with another writer. (If you’re a published author looking for a blurb, please contact me here.)

Q: Did going to film school change the way you write?

I don’t have a way of knowing for sure, but learning how to tell a story through the lens taught me to pay attention to visuals. When I write, I picture a scene playing out in my mind the way I would shoot it for a movie. Not so much “a close-up of this character” and then “a wide shot of the kitchen”, but where the characters stand in relation to each other, and how they move, and where they look, and how they “act.” So even if they’re saying one thing, I can change how they act and change the focus of the scene.

Q: Do you have any advice for writers?

You can read my blog posts tagged advice and writing.

My best advice for anyone who wants to write is to go ahead and do it! And don’t necessarily try to write “the perfect book.” I’m a fan of writing for yourself. I wrote a lot of long, rambling stories that never saw the light of day, just because I wanted to see what it was like for a character to experience something. Though most of my writing now is more focused, writing those stories gave me a real sense of how to craft narration, dialogue, action, etc.

I think it’s really important to care for an idea and protect it from the big, bad world. To this day, I’m very protective of my work. Until I sent my book to my agent, only my husband and I had read it. An idea is like a kitten — it’s wonderful and delicate and someone who treats it badly could really hurt it! So I make sure I don’t share too much information with people who might not respond kindly.

I write my whole first draft before I revise. I might read over and smooth out a sentence or two, but overall, I want to get the whole thing down first. As Nora Roberts said, “I can fix bad writing. I can’t fix a blank page.”

Looking for more info? Here are links to various interviews I’ve done around the blogosphere!

Online interviews
Fantastic Book Review – 6/11/09
The Best D— Creative Writing Blog, Period – 5/12/09
Lauren’s Crammed Bookshelf – 4/21/09
Hope’s Bookshelf – 4/21/09
Book Chic Club @ MySpace – 4/20/09
Bookluver-Carol 4/19/09
Imperial Beach Library Teen Blog – 4/15/09

Podcast Interviews
FreeBookFriday Teens – 4/25/09

Still can’t find the answer you seek? Contact me here.