http://carolalt.com/
First off, thanks so much for joining us for an up-close and personal interview for TeensReadToo.com! My name is Jen, and I’ll be your server toda…oh, wait, wrong job! Anyway, thanks so much for taking time out of your writing schedule—which I’m sure is busy!—and answering a few questions for your readers and fans.
Let ' s get some of the typical interview questions out of the way first. When did you first know that you wanted to be a writer?
In high school my English teacher came to me and told me she would not pass me in English class if I did not consent to being the editor of the yearbook. I was a jock and anything that got in the way of me playing sports was out of the question. So, I fought her. But ultimately, I needed to pass English!
Therefore, I ended up being the Editor-in Chief of the yearbook and I negotiated in the time to still play, AT LEAST, basketball.
Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?
All my friends and clients wanted to know what I was doing to look so great; why I had such great energy, how I stayed slim and healthy.
So basically, I guess this all started out with a book on Raw Food (called Eating in the Raw) that everyone was pushing me to do. So I thought, OK, ONE book.
Well, that book did so well that it became two books. Then my agent, Laura Dial felt I had something to say to young girls who wanted to accomplish what I had accomplished in modeling-and, you know, I felt that I had a message to tell, too.
That message is that it is better to keep on the straight and narrow if you want a BIG career as a model because it is a business and the drug addicts don't last long-and neither do the girls who get used-because they get used up!
So anyway, we decided to tell the story in an entertaining way....a la Gossip Girl
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 persuade us to buy the book, what would it be?
This is the true story of a girl who made it big in the modeling industry-it is a blueprint for any young aspiring model!
What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?
My life has been amazing! I don't need to look to anywhere else-no one has had the life or the experiences I have. And the more I am around other people, the more I am convinced that my stories stop parties-as people sit to listen to me.
Let' s hear about your family, who I'm sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!
Absolutely! My Mom was a showroom model back in the day, and my sister, Christine, is the Premier Large Sized Model! She started the genre.
My older sister is a nurse....my brother and my father have passed away, both at a young age-so I am able to feel pain and loss and to be happy with small successes- In other words, I am not jaded by this business....
However, I want to point out that my mom would have loved me in any case! I did not need to become an author-or a model for that matter -- to have her love or the love of my family!!
Now for some fun facts. What's your greatest comfort food?
I eat raw food-it has kept me model thin yet super healthy and FAB looking (in fact I have ads coming out in Elle and Vogue in September and I have the cover of Playboy in December !!)
So, I have found some wonderful raw bars and nut mixes....I love Bio-food Raw Bars (one of the bars even tastes like the old Bonomo Turkish Taffy!! YUM!!) and Raw Revolution bars (which taste like the Tootsie Roll) and also, "Good Stuff From Mom and Me" caramelized nut mixes and granola....
What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?
I make a fabulous green tea/roiboos tea with agavi!! Then I go for a wonderful keifer (it is like yogurt but better! and more healthy!) and mix a FAB granola in it. I check e-mails and then by that time I have already eaten so I go wash up . (I have just created a new line of RAW ESSENTIALS skin care to be out later this year. Now I looooove to wash up in the morning-oh and at night, too!) If I am working that day, I check location and if I am writing, I get my team together to write. I also return phone calls at this time!!!
If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what’s the one thing that would surprise me the most?
How many shoes and accessories I have (clothes, too as these are all tools of my trade)!
AND that I have raw food all over the house that looks just like regular food.-
Oh yeah, and that I have no toaster or microwave!
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?
Pink: as it is a warm inviting and cheerful color. Part of the challenge of my work has been to over come the "Super Model" fear- we are written about as divas and demanding b*tches. In my business I need people to like to work with me so that they keep coming back and hiring me. That is how I have made a career that has lasted so long with so much repeat business- So, I have had to make an extra effort to be the complete OPPOSITE of what people think Super Models are. And that, sometimes, takes LOTS of doing.
So "pink" as it encompasses all of the above!
Time in history, where and when would it be—and why?
I love the beautiful gowns and dress of 1800s
However, I think I would only like to look at this- I think wearing it all would be another thing all together...and I am sure that bathing (something I like to do more often than not), was not a common occurrence!
Perhaps I would like to have been around at 5 BC so that I could have spent some time with Christ-so many questions I have that have no answers. I would have loved to talk to him directly to get his take on things without having so many "interpreters" and "interpretations" of what he meant....
So what's your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while you're writing?
I am a great multitasker, but I know my limitations!! I cannot listen to entertaining music or movies while I am trying to work-to me it is like mixing good solid food with candy.
When I do listen to music, I like Coldplay, I like Beyonce and I like Alicia Keys.
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?
I like CSI-Vegas.
My boyfriend likes to watch Space Cowboys so I watch with him-he also likes The Negotiator.
I mostly have so many new films to catch up on (as I am an actress and on the board of the Cinema Society of New York) I need to stay abreast of all the new films that are happening-and I watch every film I can: small independents, medium and big studio blockbusters!
We just did a screening for the Cinema Society for Ironman and the new Indiana Jones.
You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?
Follow your moral DNA. There is nothing worse in this business than to see young girls coming up in the business who think they will get ahead by screwing around or taking drugs to be sociable.(Except to see young girls who think they know it all and you see they are on the verge of huge mistakes!)
In the end, the photographers and clients want to see young, beautiful, fresh girls-not burnt out, used up, washed up 20 year-olds.
Sometimes staying out of the center of the action is best! Being part of the sidelines is a good thing!
This is a small business and everyone talks-people always know who is who- who are the drug addicts and who are the reliable girls who get the job done. In the end, there is too much money on the line for the client or photographer to recommend a girl they know is "iffy"
One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?
In August, This Year's Model is coming out (and it will be on the seat of every Fashion Editor at the shows during Fashion Week!)
And we start a model search with Harper Collins and Lord & Taylor in September to find the cover girl for my next book titled: Next Year's Model!
VERY EXCITING!!!!
So check Carolalt.Com and HarperCollins.Com as we get closer to August!!
Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!
Thanks for having me here! This was fun!
Carol Alt
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