To help get you all in the mood for TeenBookCon '11, we are beginning a series of interviews with the authors who will soon grace us with their presence on April 9th. Until they get here, we will be sharing a few questions that we've asked of our authors and their answers.
And what better way to start it all off than with an interview with the TeenBookCon 2011 Keynote Speaker: Deb Caletti!
TeenBookCon: What inspired you to write about a teenager who comes in to such a large amount of money in The Fortunes of Indigo Skye?
Deb Caletti: I wish I could say it happened to me in real life! When I began the book, though, I was ending a few years where, through a series of life circumstances, I’d spent a lot of time around people who were wealthy. Very wealthy. And the experience of that was strange for me, a person who had been a single mother, a person who turned the radio up so as not to hear that scary car noise that was sure to mean expensive car repairs. I felt like a National Geographic reporter dropped down into a strange, foreign land. But more than that, what I saw bothered me. The excess and the twisted focus, the unhappiness – it bothered me so much that of course it became my next book, the thing I could spend the next year thinking about and writing about. I felt like we as a society had gotten so far off track. All the clichéd adages about money not buying happiness – the words had stopped having meaning somewhere along the line. So the book was a question for me – what are we hungry for, and why? What is enough?
TBC: While many YA novels focus almost exclusively on the teens in the story, your novels tend to feature a multigenerational cast of characters. Would you say that's a happy accident or are you conscious of it when writing?
DC: It is definitely purposeful, though I don’t do it so that my books will be different from other Y/A books. I do it because our lives (both teens’ and adults’) are filled with all different kinds of people. Yeah, sure, we have our friends, but we also have our wacky grandma, and the strange neighbor guy next door, and our dog. Not to mention the complicated (or not) lives of our parents and siblings, which affect us on a daily basis. Our relationships with them will affect us profoundly throughout our lives, no matter how old we are. How can they, especially, not appear? I have those other people in the books because a) it’s the truth, and b) it’s more interesting that way.
TBC: What are your top three "Books to have if stranded on a desert island"?
DC: Some of my favorite books are, “A Farewell to Arms,” by Ernest Hemingway, “The Sportswriter,” by Richard Ford, and “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” by C.S, Lewis, to name only the required three. Still, a deserted island… An old encyclopedia set, so I don’t run out of material any time soon? “The Boy Scout Handbook,” so that I can learn how to make a lean-to or a phone out of a coconut?
TBC: Do you have any upcoming book projects you can tell us about?
DC: My newest book, “Stay,” will be released April 5. It’s a story about a girl and her father who run to a remote beach town to escape her obsessive boyfriend. Next up is “The Story of Us” (April 2012), which is about a young woman facing loss and change after graduation. As her entire family gathers one crazy weekend for the wedding of her mother (who historically leaves men at airports), she herself must decide whether or not to leave the young man who has been a part of her life forever.
Great answers! Thanks so much to Deb Caletti for spending some time letting our fans get to know you a little better before they get to meet you at TeenBookCon.
And what better way to start it all off than with an interview with the TeenBookCon 2011 Keynote Speaker: Deb Caletti!
TeenBookCon: What inspired you to write about a teenager who comes in to such a large amount of money in The Fortunes of Indigo Skye?
Deb Caletti: I wish I could say it happened to me in real life! When I began the book, though, I was ending a few years where, through a series of life circumstances, I’d spent a lot of time around people who were wealthy. Very wealthy. And the experience of that was strange for me, a person who had been a single mother, a person who turned the radio up so as not to hear that scary car noise that was sure to mean expensive car repairs. I felt like a National Geographic reporter dropped down into a strange, foreign land. But more than that, what I saw bothered me. The excess and the twisted focus, the unhappiness – it bothered me so much that of course it became my next book, the thing I could spend the next year thinking about and writing about. I felt like we as a society had gotten so far off track. All the clichéd adages about money not buying happiness – the words had stopped having meaning somewhere along the line. So the book was a question for me – what are we hungry for, and why? What is enough?
TBC: While many YA novels focus almost exclusively on the teens in the story, your novels tend to feature a multigenerational cast of characters. Would you say that's a happy accident or are you conscious of it when writing?
DC: It is definitely purposeful, though I don’t do it so that my books will be different from other Y/A books. I do it because our lives (both teens’ and adults’) are filled with all different kinds of people. Yeah, sure, we have our friends, but we also have our wacky grandma, and the strange neighbor guy next door, and our dog. Not to mention the complicated (or not) lives of our parents and siblings, which affect us on a daily basis. Our relationships with them will affect us profoundly throughout our lives, no matter how old we are. How can they, especially, not appear? I have those other people in the books because a) it’s the truth, and b) it’s more interesting that way.
TBC: What are your top three "Books to have if stranded on a desert island"?
DC: Some of my favorite books are, “A Farewell to Arms,” by Ernest Hemingway, “The Sportswriter,” by Richard Ford, and “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” by C.S, Lewis, to name only the required three. Still, a deserted island… An old encyclopedia set, so I don’t run out of material any time soon? “The Boy Scout Handbook,” so that I can learn how to make a lean-to or a phone out of a coconut?
TBC: Do you have any upcoming book projects you can tell us about?
DC: My newest book, “Stay,” will be released April 5. It’s a story about a girl and her father who run to a remote beach town to escape her obsessive boyfriend. Next up is “The Story of Us” (April 2012), which is about a young woman facing loss and change after graduation. As her entire family gathers one crazy weekend for the wedding of her mother (who historically leaves men at airports), she herself must decide whether or not to leave the young man who has been a part of her life forever.
Great answers! Thanks so much to Deb Caletti for spending some time letting our fans get to know you a little better before they get to meet you at TeenBookCon.
Deb Caletti is the author of The Six Rules of Maybe, The Secret Life of Prince Charming, Queen of Everything, The Nature of Jade, Wild Roses, Honey Baby Sweetheart, The Fortunes of Indigo Skye and the upcoming Stay. Find her on Facebook.
Deb will be speaking on The Lighter Side, with Some Bumps Along the Way panel with Lindsey Leavitt, Stephanie Perkins, and Kristen Tracy.
We'll have more interviews coming up, so make sure to stop back by soon.
And we love feedback, so make sure you let us know your thoughts in the comments section!
And we love feedback, so make sure you let us know your thoughts in the comments section!
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