Interview with Katie Alender

http://katiealender.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.

You’re welcome! Thanks for having me!

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?

I learned that I liked to write in third grade. We had to write a short story once a week, and my stories always ended up as long, rambling epics. From a critical standpoint, they probably weren’t all that special (for some reason, they were all about ponies), but I loved writing them. I got more serious about writing in ninth grade, when I went to an arts high school for Communication Arts. Of course, as soon as I got there, I shifted my focus away from writing and onto the multimedia aspects of the program, which is how I ended up in film school. It was only after film school, that I started thinking about writing again, first screenplays and then books.

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

Bad Girls Don’t Die is my first completed novel, but I revised it several times over a period of a couple of years. By the time I sent it to my agent, it was a totally different book than the first draft had been. My agent had recently spoken to an editor about supernatural thrillers, and she was interested in the book from the start, but she didn’t buy it right away. She had some notes that she wanted addressed, and I happened to agree with her, so I went ahead and did a revision. When that was done, the book went out on a second round of submissions, and that first editor acquired it. It all fell into place neatly—although while it was happening, it felt wild and crazy!

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?

That it’s a story about a normal person in completely abnormal circumstances—a chance to play the “what if” game for an afternoon!

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

I’ve been very inspired by a lot of ghost stories. But actually, in a weird way, my work is inspired by myself—by situations that I think are interesting or fascinating. I’m not the most daring person in real life, so my subconscious has a bad case of the “what if”s. My writing is an expression of that!

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

I feel very strongly about family connections, which probably influenced Bad Girls Don’t Die.

My family is wonderful. I like to think of us as the world’s most functional dysfunctional family. My parents are divorced, but everyone comes together on a regular basis, and everyone gets along. My three siblings are all very unique, but I feel really connected to all of them, especially now that we’re older. And I have a ginormous extended family, which I adore. I have somewhere around 35 first cousins. I love having tons of relatives.

And then there’s my husband’s family—who are all great people, fun to be around, and very supportive.

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

At the moment, it’s (American) Smarties—the little candy disks that come in rolls about three inches long. They’re pure sugar, and I have a bag of them in my purse, and I can’t stop eating them.

But most of the time, I’d probably say either sloppy joes (with lots of brown sugar) or this chicken-salsa-bean dip we eat with chips. You make it by the potful and you just have to eat it all. I’m a homebody, so anything I can eat on the couch while watching TV is comforting to me.

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

On a perfect morning, I rub Winston’s belly, put my contacts in, and change into my workout clothes. On a less-than-perfect morning, I hit snooze, hit snooze, and hit snooze.

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

Maybe my earthquake supplies? I’m one of those extremely rare Southern Californians who actually keeps a giant stock of emergency food, water, and other necessities. It takes up half a closet.

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?

I think I would be a dark red—subtle but dangerous!

Who is your favorite cartoon character?

Ooh, tough one. I’m a big fan of the Mooninites from Aquateen Hunger Force. They crack me up. I also love “Donkey” from the movie Shrek.

Which cartoon character is most like you?

Leela on “Futurama”, probably. She’s outspoken, sometimes a little too much so, but inside she’s a softie. Plus we both have pets that will eat anything.

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 would love to experience the Hollywood studio system in the 1930s and 40s, when everyone worked on the studio lot and everything was interconnected. I love a lot of those old movies, especially the musicals, and I think it would be really fun to be involved in that process.

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

I listen to a wide variety of music—everything from Frank Sinatra to country to folk. I’m a total sucker for a song with a good hook. Probably my all-time favorite band is the Indigo Girls, but I also love Sinatra, the Weepies, Dar Williams, and soooo many more—sinc ethe advent of iTunes, I buy a ton of singles.

I don’t usually listen to music while I write, because the lyrics distract me. But I listen to music between writing sessions—I have a playlist for each project, and listening to that helps keep me thinking about my story and characters.

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 have a lot of favorite TV shows—American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, The Biggest Loser, Project Runway, America’s Next Top Model, 30 Rock, The Office, What Not to Wear, Made, True Life—and a bunch that aren’t in production anymore: I Love Lucy, Arrested Development, Strangers With Candy, Futurama, Buffy the Vampire Slayer… I could go on and on! Our TiVo never rests.

Every holiday season, I have to watch Elf at least once—usually two or three times. I love that movie! The last movie I saw in theatres, though… that’s tough. We Netflix everything! Wow, does it make me sound terrible if I say it was either Wall-E, Iron Man, or Babymama? Because I’m pretty sure those are the only three movies I saw in the theatre in the past year!

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

Use the times when you feel insecure or uncomfortable to develop compassion. And don’t jump to conclusions about other people—more often than not, they’ll surprise you.

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

I'm actually working on Book 2 in the "Bad Girls" series, because Disney-Hyperion decided they wanted to make a 3-book series, which was very exciting.

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

You’re so welcome! Thanks for helping to spread the word about Bad Girls Don’t Die! And thanks to Amber for her great review.