http://www.stephaniekuehnert.com/
When did you first know that you wanted to be a writer?
I first knew when I was five years old and started reading Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House series. I wanted to be Laura and record the adventures of my life. As it turned out my life wasn’t nearly as interesting as her life on the frontier, so I started writing fiction instead.
Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?
I went to Columbia College Chicago for both my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. I was working on I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE as my Master’s thesis project and when I was about two-thirds of the way finished with it and in the middle of total writer’s block, I got picked to meet with an agent to get feedback on the first chapter during the school’s annual Story Week Festival of Writers. I figured I’d be getting a critique and was excited just to get that, but I walked in to meet with Caren Johnson and she said, “I want this. How soon can you be finished?” I told her I needed the summer to get it done. That gave me 6 months to finish it and polish it. I went to visit her in New York and brought it to her. She still loved the whole story, so she took me on as a client and I did a couple revisions on it before she started shopping it.
I was really lucky. That is not how it usually works. It usually takes a lot of querying to find an agent. However it did take Caren a lot of querying with publishers to find the right home for my book. She spent a year shopping it to all of the major adult houses in New York. Then we talked about how it could probably sell as a YA book, so she began shopping it to those publishing houses and MTV Books picked it up! Even though it took over a year and I really never thought it was going to happen, I’m thrilled with how it all turned out because I love MTV Books and my editor there!
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?
Have you ever wondered what it would be like if a girl was the biggest rock star in the world? Well, I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE is the story of that girl and what made her who she was.
What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?
Music is my greatest muse. I’ve been listening to punk rock since I was in junior high and it has always been my outlet. I can’t play guitar or sing or anything though, so I pour the energy and inspiration I get from it into writing stories and books instead. I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE was inspired by all the female musicians I’ve loved throughout the years and is my tribute to them.
Let’s hear about your family, who I’m sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!
My mom, Nancy, is a Neonatal Intensive Care Nurse, meaning she takes care of premature and very sick newborns. She is my hero and my biggest cheerleader. I have a nurse tattoo on my back in honor of her. My brother, Daniel, is two years younger than me and he also really inspires me. He just finished law school and will be practicing employment law on the side of the workers rather than the corporations, which doesn’t have a lot of money in it, but is very important, honorable work in my opinion. My dad, Paul, is also a nurse, he works as the Executive Director of Public Health in Kane County. My parents divorced when I was 17 and my dad remarried and I have a half-brother, Evan, who is 8 years old. It’s not the easiest situation. I’m definitely closer to my mom and Dan, but it’s the kind of situation many of us cope with now and I love my dad and Evan, too, so we work through it.
Now for some fun facts. What’s your greatest comfort food?
Mashed potatoes, preferably with lots of garlic.
What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?
Wash up, feed my cats (who act like I’ve completely starved them) and make breakfast.
If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what’s the one thing that would surprise me the most?
Hmm, maybe the Janet Jackson concert program in my closet. My house is plastered with posters and flyers from punk and alternative bands, but when I was 10, I loved Janet Jackson and she was my first concert. Though it was too loud and I asked my mom to take me home after four songs.
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?
Probably silver. I’d like to be sparkly and reflective and look different depending on the light.
Who is your favorite cartoon character?
I don’t know if Hello Kitty is technically a cartoon character but I have cartoons with her in it. I am totally Hello Kitty obsessed. I like cats and she is just adorable.
Which cartoon character is most like you?
I have to say when I was younger I was a total Lisa Simpson and I think I still am. I’m vegetarian, I’m very passionate about the issues that concern me, I’m bookish and I never let people make me feel ashamed of my desire to learn and be smart. I’d rather be smart than popular. I can’t play the saxophone though. The pen is my saxophone I guess.
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?
Seattle 1990. Nirvana is my favorite band. I was 14 the last time they toured Chicago and my parents wouldn’t let me go to the concert, they told me I could see them in the summer. Then Kurt Cobain killed himself, so I never got a chance. I just want to see them live and watch the whole grunge scene explode. It would be cool to be part of that. Maybe it’s lame not to go further back in history and part of me would like the see the frontier days in the US and hang out with Laura Ingalls Wilder, but yeah, I’d really rather get to see my favorite band perform live. I guess it shows how much my life is focused on music!
So what’s your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while you’re writing?
Punk and late eighties/early nineties alternative rock. Some of my favorite bands are Nirvana, Hole, Social Distortion, Rancid, The Distillers, The Gits, Screaming Trees, Mudhoney, The Replacements, PJ Harvey, The Cure, Johnny Cash, Against Me!, Sleater-Kinney, Rise Against, and Civet. I can’t usually listen to music while I’m writing, but I listen to music before I write to get inspired.
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?
Grey’s Anatomy, Degrassi (all of them, I was hooked on Degrassi Junior High and High as a kid and now I watch the Next Generation), My So-Called Life, Twin Peaks, The X-Files, Family Guy, and I’ve been hopelessly addicted to the soap opera One Life to Live since I was 14. I am addicted to old 80s movies like Heathers and The Breakfast Club and watch those over and over. I’m also obsessed with the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and the Harry Potter movies. The last movie I saw in the theater was the latest X Files movies. I need to see Dark Knight though!
You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?
Be yourself. Don’t worry about what other people think about you. Kids can be horribly mean and I was constantly made fun of for the clothes I wore and for working hard in my classes instead of trying to be popular and for loving to read and listening to punk rock and expressing my opinions about politics and stuff, but in the end, I was glad that I stay true to myself instead of trying to conform. I did that for a year in sixth grade and was miserable. Eventually you’ll find your tribe.
One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?
My next book is called Ballads of Suburbia and MTV Books will put it out in the Summer of 2009. You can get a sneak preview of it at my website: www.stephaniekuehnert.com/backstage.html It’s actually about a girl who doesn’t really fit in, but eventually finds her tribe.
Again, thanks so much for joining us at http://www.teensreadtoo.com/!
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