Alright everyone, here it is!
My interview with Jennifer Echols, the wonderful author of Forget You! Click HERE to read my review!
Jennifer was kind enough to agree to an interview after I read and loved Forget You. She is also the author of several other books for teens, including Going to Far, another romantic drama, and several romantic comedies, including Major Crush, and The Ex Games.
You can learn more about Jennifer and her books at her website, found HERE.
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First, I would like to say a huge thank you to Jennifer for agreeing to take part in this interview. It's great to have this chance to talk with you.
Ashley, I really appreciate the interview. Thank you!
So, when did you first start writing stories?
I think I was working on my first novel in third grade or so. My mom was reading Watership Down, which is about rabbits. My novel was about squirrels.
What did you want to be when you grew up? Have you always wanted to be a writer?
I was interested in writing, art, and music, and I pursued all three into college. My first college major was music education and composition. I wanted to be a composer and a high school band director. I was so interested in music intellectually, but I just wasn’t good enough. Writing was a creative outlet I felt much more comfortable with. In fact, I wrote a short story about band for the college literary magazine, people seemed to like it much better than any music I’d ever written, and I never looked back.
Why do you write young adult novels? Was that a conscious choice, or something that just sort of happened?
I finished writing my first novel when I was 20 and still reading YA myself. After that I wrote YA and adult, back and forth, but I guess YA was a part of me when I got my start and I never left. I still think YA novels are some of the best books out there.
Do you have any plans or desire to switch over to the Adult side of the aisle?
Since selling my first YA novel, I have written three adult novels, but they haven’t sold. Every time this happens, it breaks my heart, but publishing is a hard business and I knew this going in.
You already have several published novels out. Both comedic and dramatic. Were there any unique challenges to writing Forget You that you hadn't come across before?
This book is probably the one that’s most personal to me. The characters and events are fictitious, but I have felt all Zoey’s pain before. I have been that good girl who makes bad decisions. So I’m finding it a little harder than usual to share this story and listen to what other people say about it and about her.
Which of your books was the most challenging for you to write?
Endless Summer, because it is a sequel, and everything had to match what I’d written in The Boys Next Door.
Do you ever just sit back and think, "Wow. I'm a writer!"
Yes I do. Every single day I make sure that I reflect on the long, hard road I traveled to get here, and I am thankful that I finally have the career I always wanted.
I love getting new book recommendations. So, I have to ask. What do you read? What are your favorites?
Kiss It by Erin Downing and The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting were absolutely wonderful. And I hope everybody will check out the amazing When the Stars Go Blue by Caridad Ferrer, which is coming out in November. One of the coolest things about being an author is that you get to read other writers’ novels before they’re published!
Are there any books you can identify that have had the most impact on you as a person, and as a writer?
The best class I ever took was an American Moderns course at Auburn University. We read The Sound and the Fury by Faulkner, The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway, A Lost Lady by Willa Cather, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, and the collected poems of T. S. Eliot. Every one of these books made me see the possibilities of writing in a new way. The only book we read that wasn’t new to me was The Great Gatsby, and this wonderful professor made even that seem brand new. Have you ever taken a class like that?
Do you have a current work-in-progress? If yes, is there anything you can share with us about it now?
I’m finishing my next romantic drama for MTV Books. It will be published in July 2011, and it is called This Novel Has Such A Fabulous Title That I Can’t Even Tell You, or possibly OMG This Is The Best Novel Title Ever. My editor and I haven’t chosen which one yet but I will let you know.
Well, thank you so much Jennifer for answering all my questions!
My final question, just because I love them, what is your favorite pair of shoes?
In 2005 I ran my first 10K and the end of my middle toe kind of fell off. It was just a really bad blister. So I went to a local running store and said to the owner, “Please choose a pair of shoes for me that will not make my toe fall off,” and he did and I am on my fifth pair. They are Nike Equalons. This is probably not what you were asking, LOL!
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This was an awesome interview! Thanks again Jennifer for taking the time to talk to share with us! I'm looking forward to your new release, and to picking up some copies of your older books. And, if I ever decide to run a 10K, I'm definitely going to be looking for some Nike Equalons!