Interview with Lara Zielin

http://larawrites.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?

I distinctly remember penning my first story in first grade—I don’t recall what it was about, but I know the pencil I used to write it was green and glittery. Score! I also remember an overwhelming feeling of contentment as I poured all my words out on to the paper. I went on to write second- and third-grade masterpieces with titles like The Man How He Stole Water, and Help, I’ve Been Captured! There is also the excruciatingly embarrassing novella I penned as a teen, Butterflies, which I think actually uses the word “frenching” but not, you know, ironically. So, yes, I’ve been writing a looong time and heard the calling of the craft when I was pretty young.

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

See above re: Butterflies.

Just kidding. But I will say that I re-wrote my debut novel, Donut Days, between eight and ten times, especially if you count the edits I went through with the professionals at Putnam, my publisher. For years, writing was an exercise in heartbreaking frustration—I mean, knowing since I was practically in the womb that I wanted to be a writer didn’t necessarily translate to publishing success. I was 30 when it all finally clicked. Yikes!

But while the path to publishing was tough sometimes, it ultimately yielded some fabulous results, even beyond the book. For example, one of my closest friends in the world I met at a writers’ conference, ands she was the one who told me to fish Donut Days out of the recycle bin. And I’m a better author now because I had to re-write, and re-write, and re-write. Oh, did I mention re-writing? It’s ALL about the re-writing.

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?

Donut Days’ main character, Emma, struggles with her faith, which I think is true for a lot of teens out there. Many teens go to a church, or a temple, or a mosque, but internally they’re thinking, “Why?” and “What’s all this about?” Emma’s in the same boat, except that her parents are the pastors of her church, so it’s not like church ever fades into the background—it’s always there. In general, she’s facing some harsh realities about organized religion (it can be crappy because people can be crappy), all while fighting with her best friend and trying to figure out what’s up with a guy she’s been friends with forever, who’s suddenly smoking hot.

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

I was an evangelical Christian for most of my teen years, but I never thought this was remotely interesting until I met my husband, Rob. He was like, dude, you have to put all this into a story. The more I thought about it, the more I realized he was right. Even though it was pretty hard to relive aspects of those days, Rob really encouraged my journey in that respect. It took me a long time to figure out—with his help—how to write the story honestly and find the right voice. When I started out, I approached it pretty medicinally, without much heart. (Translation: my writing sucked!) Rob was there the whole time, letting me know it was okay to just bring it real, and cheering me on.

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

In addition to Rob, I also have a kitty, Pancake, and a puppy, Amos. We all live together in Ypsilanti, Michigan. My parents live in Wisconsin, where they raised me with an appreciation for cheese and beef and the Packers, for which I’ll always be grateful. Especially the part about the cheese. Mmmm…cheese.

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

See above: cheese! Seriously. I could eat cheese and crackers until the cows come home. The Wisconsin cows, thank you very much.

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

I wish this answer is more exciting than it is, and that I rolled out of bed every morning to fight crime and make the world a safer place. The reality is that I make coffee, feed the dog and cat, and get ready for work. The good news is that I love my day job. Love, love, love. I work at the University of Michigan (Go Blue!) and I edit an alumni publication, which means I get to tell amazing stories about U-M’s graduates, faculty, and students. They all rock!

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 have a set of drums in my basement and I’m learning how to play. I love banging out rhythms, and my husband Rob is the greatest teacher ever. Sometimes he’ll grab a guitar and we’ll just jam together and make up silly songs. It’s a blast.

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! Pink is the new black. I love pink.

Who is your favorite cartoon character?

I don’t know if this counts, but I love Boo Berry, the ghost from the cereal that I used to eat as a kid, way back when. Boo Berry was in cahoots with Franken Berry and Count Chocula, though he was definitely the underdog and always getting teased by the other two. In fact, General Mills stopped making Boo Berry for a while, until there was an outcry from the masses. Now, you can find Boo Berry on grocery shelves in the fall, especially around Halloween. Three cheers for the cute, lovable, edible ghost that everyone thought was washed-up, but who persevered nonetheless.

Which cartoon character is most like you?

See Boo Berry, above. I always root for the underdog! I can certainly sympathize.

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 have this fantasy sometimes when I’m looking at a landscape, that I’m transported back in time and I can see it as it was during different periods. I think about how it might have looked during, say, the Jurassic period—before humans ever walked upright. I think about how different the plants would look, and how much fresher the air would smell. Then I think about how it looked 200 years ago—and I wonder what Native Americans looked at when they stood where I stood, etc. I know that for this answer I should probably say something like, “I’d go back in time and sit at Jesus’ knee and learn from him,” or whatever, but the reality is that when I think about history, I mostly think about my desire to see the earth before skyscrapers were built, before man-made pollution infused our land and water, and before many of the native species were destroyed.

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

I get a lot of my musical input from movies, actually. A good soundtrack will make it into my iTunes library pretty quickly—for example, I bought the soundtrack for Slumdog Millionaire the second I heard it.

I listened to a lot of the Killers when I wrote Donut Days, and I even have a quote from them in the front of the book. I absolutely adore the Killers, especially because I’m a lyrics girl: a good bit of poetry in a song can undo me. And boy, do they have some good poetry.

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 this ritual where, every spring, I pop in Twister and watch it. It’s pretty cheesy but, having been on a tornado chase myself (in 2004, I actually paid money to have professionals get me as close as they could to tornadoes), I can appreciate the movie’s spirit. I also watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy every year. All three movies. Back to back. It takes about a day and a half and by the end of it, I’m wiped. But the universal themes in the story never fail to move me, and I always end up relating to a different character each year. One year it’ll be Frodo; the next, Aragorn; the next, Arwen. For not being much of a sci-fi or fantasy fan, I have to say I love (love) these movies.

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

Being totally honest, I’ll just say that my teenage years were difficult for a number of reasons. So if you’ve heard that “these are the greatest years of your life,” and have questioned it, then let me just say that things can get a lot better. A lot better. High school is hard, and I really empathize with kids whose high school experiences are probably twenty times harder than mine ever were. So just know, there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

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

One of the formative experiences of my life was when my dad, who was my principal in high school, lost his job because of a ballot scandal involving a pregnant homecoming queen. My next novel is based off this crazy experience, and I’m hoping it’ll come out sometime in 2010.

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