Interview with Stephanie Greene

http://www.stephaniegreenebooks.com/

When did you first know that you wanted to be a writer?

I wasn’t one of those authors who can say they wrote their first book at age six. I didn’t care about writing one way or the other when I was very young, but I loved to read. I knew I wanted to be a newspaper writer when I was about ten because my grandfather worked for a large city paper and I thought it was glamorous. I didn’t know I wanted to write for children until I had one, and found the things he and his friends did so amusing.

Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?

I sold my first chapter book to Clarion Books when my manuscript was discovered at the bottom of their slush pile. That’s the huge, daunting pile of manila envelopes in every publishing house’s offices. Editors have to read each and every one of the manuscripts, which are unsolicited. Large publishers can receive 10,000 manuscripts a year, so getting to the bottom of the pile is quite a job. I’m proud I made it out of that pile and into print. Now, I have an agent, so it’s easier.

Tell us a little bit about either your latest or upcoming release. If you could only tell your readers one thing about the story that had to convince us to buy the book, what would it be?

The Lucky Ones is the story of a confusing, sexually-charged summer in the life of a privileged 12-year-old girl who has to separate herself from the wild behavior of her beautiful older sister, and the cool indifference of her self-centered mother, to find out what kind of girl she wants to become and how she plans on dealing with boys.

What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?

Life.

Let’s hear about your family, who I’m sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!

I’m one of five children. We grew up in Connecticut. My mother is Constance Greene, who wrote many popular books for children; my older brother, Shep, wrote a YA called “The Boy Who Drank Too Much” which is still in print; and my older sister, Philippa, also wrote for children. I think they’re proud of me, but my getting published wasn’t as extraordinary as it might have been in another family.

Now for some fun facts. What’s your greatest comfort food?

Pasta. No, avocadoes. No, make that cheese. And add chocolate-covered raisins. That should hold me.

What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?

Get out of bed, go downstairs, make coffee.

If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what’s the one thing that would surprise me the most?

A pair of moose antlers, probably.

Everyone asks the question about “if you could be a tree, which tree would you be?” so I want to know: If you could be a color, which color would it be, and why?

Teal, because it was the color of the most beautiful, tiny bird’s eggs I’ve ever seen. I don’t know what kind of bird they belonged to.

Who is your favorite cartoon character?

Babar.

Which cartoon character is most like you?

I don’t know – you’d have to ask my family.

If you could beam yourself to anywhere in the world (“Beam me up, Scotty!”), during any time in history, where and when would it be—and why?

Back to one, single deliriously happy day of my childhood, probably in summer.

So what’s your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while you’re writing?

I love jazz, and YoYo Ma, and Paola Conti, and some show music, and guitar if it’s good, and big band … it would be easier to say what kind of music I don’t like: bad music. No, I never listen to music while I write. I either have to write, or listen to music; I can’t do both at the same time and do justice to either one.

Do you have any favorite T.V. shows? Movies you watch over and over again? What was the last movie you saw at the theater?

No favorite TV shows at this time. Ditto with the movies. I saw “Four Christmases” last weekend, but I really prefer foreign movies if there’s a good one around. “Tell No One,” was a terrific French movie, and “The Lives of Others” and “Mostly Martha” are two very good German movies. Oh, and English movies, I love those. Irish, too. Indian Bollywood movies … aren’t you sorry you asked?

You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?

Find your own way, which is to say: follow your bliss.

One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?

I’m not sure. Ones young people love reading, I hope.

Again, thanks so much for joining us at http://www.teensreadtoo.com/!