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 today…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.
Thank YOU!
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?
Probably around third grade? I feel like somebody gave me a cute little diary with a lock on it and I started writing in it and was like well shoot, this is fun. But it didn’t occur to me that it might be something I could actually do for a living until waaay later, I think in college, and even then I ended up going to law school first, before finally deciding to give writing a shot.
Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?
It’s either a really long story or a really short one—I write for the TV show Family Guy, and my agent was like “hey, you ever think about writing a book?” and I was like “sure, why not” and we went from there. But it never would have happened if I hadn’t first put all my stuff in the car, moved to LA, found a job as an assistant to an agent, moved from that job to one as an assistant to a TV producer, then moved from that one to a bunch of other assistant jobs, all while writing spec scripts, looking for an agent/manager, “networking,” and doing all the other stuff you have to do to get anywhere in the film/TV industry.
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?
“She’s So Money” is about a girl named Maya who needs to make a whole bunch of cash fast, so she starts a cheating ring at her school with this guy she hates. Luckily, the guy she hates is hot. It’s the kind of story that also could’ve been told using more swear words and racier jokes; most of them got edited out, but you might be able to tell where they were supposed to be.
What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?
Yeesh. Life? Life and pop culture. :)
Let’s hear about your family, who I’m sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!
Yep, they are! My parents are in the restaurant business, like the parents in “She’s So Money,” and I’ve got one younger brother.
Now for some fun facts. What’s your greatest comfort food?
Chocolate!
What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?
Slam the alarm clock, get angry that I’m awake, loll around in bed while hopefully not falling back asleep.
If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what’s the one thing that would surprise me the most?
I still don’t own a dresser. Like, half my clothes are in those plastic storage bins that slide out like drawers, but aren’t really furniture. Oh my god, that’s sad, isn’t it.
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?
Red! Just because it’s my favorite. I own way too many red T-shirts, which actually came in handy during the recent WGA strike because our official WGA shirts were red but it’s not like you could wear the same one to picketing every day.
Who is your favorite cartoon character?
Hmmm. Probably Stewie Griffin, whom I totally loved even before I started working for Family Guy.
Which cartoon character is most like you?
Oh, lord. I guess I’ll give the answer I gave when somebody asked something similar at the Family Guy Comic-Con panel last summer, which is Tricia Takanawa for the obvious reasons.
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?
The studio audience either of the times Justin Timberlake hosted SNL.
So what’s your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while you’re writing?
Sometimes, yeah. If I’m feeling music-y I’ll usually put on my itunes on random, which consists of all sorts of different music (but I’ll often hit skip if some lengthy piece of classical music shows up because that can make me sleepy).
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?
Family Guy, of course, and god, I love TV so much, this list could take sooooo long, um… Friday Night Lights, American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, The Hills, Newport Harbor, America’s Next Top Model, The Office, Project Runway, SNL, Dancing With The Stars, Gossip Girl, Amazing Race, Survivor, America’s Best Dance Crew. I was a huuuuuge fan of Buffy, Angel, Firefly, and Veronica Mars back in their days. Oh, and the last movie I saw at the theater was Step Up 2 The Streets. It was AWESOME. I saw it twice. Go see it.
You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?
Have yourself a helluva good time in college because skipping class is a lot easier than skipping work.
One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?
Let’s see, I’ve got two Family Guy episodes coming up that I wrote months ago but haven’t aired yet. I don’t want to get too spoilery but here are some words pertaining to them: heist, newborn, music video, Paris Hilton. And I’m in the verrrry beginning stages of my next book; it’s not a sequel to “She’s So Money,” it’s something totally different.
Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!
Again, thank YOU!
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