Interview with Alicia Thompson

http://alicia-thompson.com

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?

When I was in elementary school, I used to fill composition books with really bizarre stories about dolls coming to life or dogs who could change into humans or a country at war because of preppy sports (not sure where I was going with that one). Then, when I was in high school, I decided to try to write and sell a romance novel because I figured it’d be easy. It wasn’t easy. But at least it got me to think bigger than my composition book, and realize that I wanted to write stuff that other people would read and not just stuff that would stay in my nightstand drawer.

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

I wrote and tried to sell three separate romance novels when I was in high school and college, each embarrassingly bad. Then, in my senior year of college, I wrote Psych Major Syndrome while I should have been working on my thesis. For some unknown and possibly ill-advised reason, I mentioned that fact in my query letter, and when I met my eventual agent for the first time, she asked me, “So, did you finish that thesis?” And I was like, that old thing? Sure, I had to or else they wouldn’t have let me graduate, but who cares? I realized that I didn’t want to go for plan B when plan A – writing – seemed obtainable for the first time in my life. A year and several rounds of edits later, the book sold to Hyperion. I’m sure every author says this, but seriously, I could not be happier with the whole process – from my agent to my editor to my publicist to my copyeditor. I’ve loved every single person I’ve worked with, and they’ve done such a good job making my dream come true.

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?

I’m horrible at describing my own book in one sentence. It’s my favorite thing about reading reviews of the book written by other people, actually, even if they’re bad – I’m always awed by how perfectly they manage to sum up what I often can’t.

But I would say that the story is about a girl who thinks that analyzing life is the same as living it, and learns that it’s not.

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

The “what” of my inspirado is incredibly random, and often comes when I’m in the car or during the hour it takes me to fall asleep every night. For example, the inspiration for Psych Major Syndrome came from an aura photo I took in St. Augustine, a Psych GRE study guide, my prized 1971 Gremlin, reality TV confessionals, and a lot of all-nighters.



The “who” part is a little easier. My mom always read to me when I was a kid, and when I was old enough to read, we’d read books aloud together. Reading other people’s stories is what inspired – and still inspires – me more than anything to create my own.

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

My mother is so thrilled she tries to sign people up to buy my book like you would for Girl Scout cookies. It’s semi-embarrassing, but she’s also wrangled at least ten book orders from strangers waiting in elevators, which is where she traps them for her pitch. So, I guess I can’t complain.

My husband’s usual reading material is more along the lines of Stephen King or Richard Matheson, so I’m always surprised by his willingness to read my teenage girl stuff. But then he’ll have some insight that should have been totally obvious to me if I had half a brain at all, and it’s clear that I couldn’t do it without him.

I dedicated the book to my grandfather, who passed away a few years ago, but who always supported my writing. We used to write letters back and forth, and he would call himself my “agent” and say he was going to send my stuff to magazines and get me published. Of course, he would drop the standard 15% to 10% because, you know. We’re family.

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

Baked spaghetti with meatballs and melted cheese on the top. I don’t really like chocolate, I don’t like cake, I don’t drink alcohol, but my big weakness is anything involving pasta.

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

Usually it involves turning off my cell phone alarm after ten snoozes, muttering an obscenity, and racing through the five things that I need to be at all presentable to the world. If I have to leave the house at 8, I will be up at 7:53. If I have to leave at 10, I will be up by 9:53. And if I don’t have to be anywhere by anytime . . .

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

In Florida we don’t really do attics or basements, but if you glanced in my closet you’d probably be surprised to find that I’m a big sports fan. When I was in middle school I was the girl who failed gym because I refused to dress out, but over the past few years my closet has suddenly started sprouting a USF Bulls jersey, a Bucs t-shirt, a Rays hat . . . Sometimes I catch myself debating about whether a pitcher deserves to be a starter or if he should be dropped back to the bullpen, and I think, who are you?

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?

Now I feel kind of left out that no one’s ever asked me that tree question. But it’s probably a good thing because I would say something like dogwood or juniper and then not be able to back it up with anything other than, “I like them?”

So, color. I would be green. Because I like it.

Who is your favorite cartoon character?

Do comic strips count? Maybe Hobbes from Calvin & Hobbes. There’s nothing better than watching Calvin lose his temper, while Hobbes quietly stirs the pot with smug little jabs and asides, then sits back to enjoy the aftermath. After all, it’s always Calvin who looks like an idiot for wrestling in the mud with a stuffed animal about a backyard baseball game.

Which cartoon character is most like you?

In high school I would’ve said Daria. The long dark hair and glasses, the sarcastic quips and anti-establishment attitude . . . the pining for one boy you could never have. That was totally me in high school.

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?

I’d love to travel back in time to Germany circa 1942, and hang out with the Sophie Scholl and the White Rose resistance group. I’d help them draft some leaflets, distribute them around the university, paint slogans on walls . . . then I’d pop over to Holland (it’s not hard to get out of Nazi Germany when you can beam yourself!) and hang with Anne Frank for a little bit, gossip about Peter and talk about the meaning of life.

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

My favorite type of music is probably indie rock or whatever equivalent title it has at the moment. But I’m all over the place – the list would change every time you asked the question.

I have to admit that right now, all I listen to is Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. Over and over and over. I do listen to music while I write, usually Radiohead or Portishead or some other beautifully melodic band with the word “head” in the name (so not Motorhead). I wish I was cool enough to have playlists for everything I write, but the truth is I just listen to a lot of random stuff I put onto a playlist I call “chillin’.” So while I may post a soundtrack of music I feel go with a certain book of mine, if I ever try to post a playlist and pass it off as what I listened to while I wrote the book, it’s probably a lie. That playlist would be 250 songs long.

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?

TV Shows: The Office, Gilmore Girls, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Arrested Development, Flight of the Conchords, Summer Heights High, Dawson’s Creek . . . I have watched every single cycle of America’s Next Top Model. Probably like eight times apiece. I also religiously read two different recap blogs about it, tried out for it once just to see what it would be like . . . man, do I love that show. It’s not America’s Next Top Best Friend!

Movies: I could list a thousand, so I’ll pretty much say that if it’s set in high school, I probably love it. There are the usual suspects like all the John Hughes films, 10 Things I Hate About You, Can’t Hardly Wait, but I like really, really atrociously bad ones, too. Like, if it’s a movie about a girl pretending to be a boy or a girl and boy switching bodies and acting COMPLETELY ridiculous and over the top, I am totally obsessed with it. I could watch She’s the Man or It’s a Boy/Girl Thing for days. And have.

Last Movie: The Proposal with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. It was okay. There was a fake proposal for an outlandish reason, but she never put on fake sideburns and shoved a tampon up her nose like Amanda Bynes does in She’s the Man, so I found it a little wanting.

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

Always remember that you’re in it for the stories. Sometimes you overhear the boy you like saying that he doesn’t know why you moved to the school anyway, you’re not that pretty. Sometimes your first job interview degenerates into someone yelling that If the head camp counselor tells you to get the kids to play soccer, that doesn’t mean just kick the ball around the yard, that means soccer, do you understand? Sometimes you get head lice at your seventh birthday party, and then no one can watch the home videos because it’s just too sad to watch a bunch of second graders scratching their heads like monkeys. These all seem horrible at the time, or embarrassing, or tragic, or whatever. But when you’re done feeling all those intense emotions, just think about how hilarious the story will be when you tell it later. It seriously helps me deal on a day-to-day basis.

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

I’m currently working with a former Olympic gymnast on a middle-grade series about four gymnasts – think Stick It meets The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. In a completely different venture, I’m writing a novel about a girl who’s in denial about her eating disorder – and who has to learn that she’s not the only one struggling with demons before she can figure out how to banish them.

Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!