This afternoon I had the amazing privilege of meeting three amazing authors: E. Lockhart, Sarah Mlynowski, and Lauren Myracle.
Umm. They wrote that book to the left there. How to Be Bad. It’s another fantastic bathtub read, about three girls in Florida who go on a road trip and almost get eaten by alligators. (Multiple times.)
But … oh! There’s so much to tell! And I don’t know where to begin.
Hmm. If you’re like me, you’re probably wondering how three women could write one novel. Not a selection of short stories or essays, but a novel. Which to me has always seemed like a sort of solitary process. But it’s got to be especially hard when two of your writers (Emily and Sarah) are based in New York, and one (Lauren) is in Colorado.
Well, when I hung out with them at Harper Collins headquarters today — where they were lined up in a row signing a whole bunch of books to give out as contest prizes — the gals told me it was all thanks to the miracle of the internet. They got to talking in a MySpace teen lit group that Sarah started.
(May I just pause here to say that these women are all adults? And they hang out on MySpace? Which is totally cool and all, even awesome, but also slightly hilarious. It’s like internet-dating for writers.)
Right. So one thing led to another, and the three of them started passing their work back and forth like it was a slam book. (Remember those things from middle school? The notebooks in which you wrote nasty things about other kids in your class?) Anyway, Emily (long for E), Sarah and Lauren filled their slam book with juicy YA goodness instead of mean comments about other people’s off-brand jeans.
The book, in case you haven’t read it yet, is about Jesse, Vicks and Mel, who take a road trip through Florida. Which is where they live. But they end up going to some crazy places none of them have ever been, and having near-misses with alligators, and freaking out at toll booths, and getting thrown out of restaurants.
Which is kind of what Emily, Sarah and Lauren did when they were researching the novel. They drove around Florida, went to Disney World, and hung out at Gatorland. (I said Gatorland. As in this place. Totally bizarre!)
Right. Did I say this was an interview? That means you want quotes from the authors and stuff, right? Hmph. Who am I to disappoint?
“I was going like thirty miles! And there were no children! And it was, like, a Sunday!” — Sarah, on the subject of a speeding ticket she got. In a school zone.
(Farrin Jacobs, the gals’ editor at Harper Collins, totally called Sarah out on the Sunday thing, though. Because the ladies called her. At the office, which I’m guessing — and hoping, for Farrin’s sake — she doesn’t generally go to on a Sunday.)
Hmm. What else? Emily wants you to know that the writers were inspired by Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn.
Farrin wants you to know that there’s a quiz you can take to find out which character you are. Emily was Vicks, Lauren was Jesse, and Sarah was Mel. Which is funny, because Emily wrote Vicks, Lauren wrote Jesse, and Sarah wrote Mel.
Alas, the interview was a little rushed, because Lauren kept asking me questions about myself — very nice, that one — and the three of them had to go off to Connecticut, and they were signing books for a contest, and … there just wasn’t enough time to ask them all the really important questions I wanted to ask. Like “Where did you get your Hello Kitty bag?” and “Which one of you is obsessed with alligators?”
Here’s the little tiny bit I was able to get down verbatim:
Emily: This book is not about how to be bad, it is about how not to be the good little person other people want you to be.
Sarah: It’s fun. Read it. Bad is the new good.
Lauren: It’s a book about boys and adventure and sun and storms and most of all about how to be a good friend.
But it’s mostly about alligators. Okay, maybe not. It’s actually a really lovely seamless book, and if you read it without knowing the secret (three authors! one book!) you wouldn’t suspect it for a minute. Also, yeah. It’s about boys and adventure and sun and storms.
And alligators.
I took some pictures. They all ended up blurry. But here’s one anyway, since you’ve been so nice:
Emily, left, and Lauren, right, try to lick Sarah’s face. They miss.
PS. Emily, Lauren, Sarah. Books of Wonder. 18 W. 18th St. Sunday at 1 p.m.
Buy How to Be Bad
Yes, I’m commenting on my own entry. Did you know that there are two Floridas? Seriously. There is the one where your grandmother lives, the one with beaches and Disney and all that. And then there is the other Florida, which is a bit more to the north. That is where Florida is just another part of the South, with swamps and gators and lots of heavy accents. I think you should know this because if you’ve been to visit your grandma in Florida, you’ve only seen one side of the state. Anyway, this book is a lot more about the Southerners who live in the northern part of the state. It is a whole different world. Trust me.
Ooh, I was so sad to miss the Books of Wonder reading! Jealous: Me.