Growing Up with Author Kiersten White

I started a brand spankin' new type of author interview for Books Obsession! I wanted something original, that other sites didn't do, but still fun - since I've just grown tired of asking authors the same interview questions over and over. So I'm beginning "Growing Up with Authors!" It will be a type of interview that focuses only on the author's life from childhood, teen, adult, and future. Hopefully it will let us get to know some awesome authors better and let us see what it was like for them growing up.

For this Growing Up post, I was lucky to interview debut author Kiersten White. She wrote the YA book Paranormalcy that is due to come out on August 31 this year!

Did you play or want to play any instruments as a kid?
I played the piano from age eight to about fourteen. I can still play a little. I also sang in choirs from fifth grade through graduation. Oddly enough I hate singing in choirs now...

Do you remember one of your first dates?
How about my worst date? There was a very nice boy I was friends with. He had already asked me to prom and we went out (as friends, or so I thought) to a movie. He held my hand and I didn't have the heart to pull it away. I felt so terrible that he thought we were more than friends (and we still had prom to go to together!) that I got a massive migraine from stress. I ended up emailing him to tell him that I couldn't be more than friends. Prom was a little bit awkward after that.

What was one of the highlights during your high school years?
I was on the Mock Trial team, and I totally cleaned up as an imaginary lawyer in imaginary trials in front of non-imaginary judges and attorneys. One time one of the judges (a forty-something attorney) even told the other student-attorneys that they needed more sex appeal in their delivery, like I had. Okay, that part was creepy.

What was your first car?
The Champagne Super Nova, a champagne-colored Chevy Nova. I think all cars should come with their own theme song standard.

Most outrageous thing you did as a teenager?
Get married two weeks after I turned nineteen? It didn't feel outrageous at the time (and still doesn't), but I suppose I was rather young...

When/why did you decide to be an author?
I had been writing for a while, but it wasn't until I was nearly finished with my first YA novel (June of 2008, I believe) and went to a bookstore that it hit me just how badly I wanted to be on those shelves. It really became a driving passion more than a hobby for me at that point.

Do you have a song or band that you've listened to through life?
Other than The Beatles, no. I listened to a lot of Counting Crows in high school, but they just don't "speak" to me like they used to. It's funny how now I can listen to those songs that teenage me completely identified with and feel almost nothing.

Where do you see yourself ten years from now?
I hate this question, because it makes me picture my kids as teenagers, and I'd much rather not imagine that. Regardless, I hope to be writing and publishing more books that teenagers want to read, and I fully anticipate still having a hard time finding the energy to do everything I want to as a mother, wife, and author!

Anything else you'd like to say?
Fustigate! Fishmonger! Blast! Frankenstein!
I just like saying those words aloud sometimes.

Oh, also, thanks for hosting this interview, Ashley! Those are good words, too.

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions Kiersten!

Growing Up with Author Jennifer Hubbard

I started a brand spankin' new type of author interview for Books Obsession! I wanted something original, that other sites didn't do, but still fun - since I've just grown tired of asking authors the same interview questions over and over. So I'm beginning "Growing Up with Authors!" It will be a type of interview that focuses only on the author's life from childhood, teen, adult, and future. Hopefully it will let us get to know some awesome authors better and let us see what it was like for them growing up.

For my first-ever Growing Up post, I have Jennifer Hubbard here to answer some questions. She wrote the YA book The Secret Year that came out this year.

Do you remember one of your first dates?

I think the first boy to ever ask me out did so on a day I had just had my wisdom teeth out, so needless to say, I was not in date-ready shape just then. Then he ended up going to live in another country shortly after that; we never did have our date!

On my actual first date, we didn't do much, just drove around. I do remember that my dad insisted on meeting the boy first, and my date actually wore a tie, which unfortunately my father failed to notice.

What was one of the highlights during your high school years?

The summer after sophomore year, I went to a creative-arts camp where I majored in creative writing. Definitely one of the best summers of my life. Even though, to tell the truth, I didn't write much during the summer, it was my first experience being around so many other kids who were into the arts, so it was the most socially accepting experience I had as a teenager. And I made huge leaps in my writing progress as soon as I got home; I started experimenting with traditional forms such as sonnets, I tried my hand at novels, and I started submitting work. I actually had a short story published right around the time I graduated from high school.

That program still exists; it's called CCY, the Center for Creative Youth:

http://www.crec.org/magnetschools/schools/ccy/

Most outrageous thing you did in college?

I know that a lot of people think college is like Animal House, and maybe for some people it is. But generally, college--especially the course of study I chose--is a very hard academic slog. We studied all the time and ate a lot of pizza and watched TV at two in the morning; we played volleyball or danced in a frat-house basement to let off steam; we had our romances and heartbreaks. Mostly, we did an unbelievable amount of work. So I can't think of anything really outrageous--just little things. Like, people went sledding in the park using the plastic cafeteria trays. And my friend and I went to Atlantic City one April day when it was eighty-something degrees in Philadelphia, but (as we discovered) much, much colder at the Jersey shore. And I played on a volleyball team called "Nausous"--yes, my teammates spelled it wrong and we decided to keep it that way!

Scariest experience: the day in organic chem lab when our experiments were all catching fire because of bad instructions. The TA just went around the room putting out one fire after another--literally.

What's the best or worst job you've ever had?

As a teenager, I worked in a restaurant, and sometimes I had to clean the bathroom. Cleaning a public toilet is definitely one of my least favorite jobs ever. It's exactly as disgusting as you imagine.

Where do you see yourself ten years from now?

I imagine I will still be writing, and I hope people will still be reading my work.

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions Jennifer!