Interview with Susan Fine

http://susanfine.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 always wanted to be a writer – even back in second grade when I wrote my first book – but the larger challenge has been admitting this. Even now when I’m asked what I do, I pause before saying that I’m a writer. I don’t think I’m alone in feeling self-conscious about calling myself a writer. Maybe if I sell one more book… then it can’t be a fluke, right?

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

I co-authored my first book, ZEN IN THE ART OF THE SAT, with Matt Bardin, and we published it in 2005 with Houghton Mifflin. Matt had been working on a book when we met at a mutual friend’s wedding. We started talking about what we did and found that we had some shared ideas about learning and standardized testing and young adults, so we started working together to take what Matt had already worked on and create a book proposal. Then we found an agent who helped us refine the proposal, and our agent, Laura Dail, sold the book to Eden Edwards who, at the time, oversaw the Graphia imprint at Houghton Mifflin.

This paragraph summary doesn’t do justice to all the work that went on, though. It was very satisfying and productive to collaborate with another person, although collaboration can be a lengthy project! Matt and I spent a lot of time together in person, online, and on the phone working on the book, but it was invaluable to have someone to go back and forth with on everything we wrote.

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?

INITIATION, my debut novel is very timely with its exploration of the drama that comes from technology trouble in a school!

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

It’s hard to identify one thing or one person. Getting accepted into Jim Shepard’s fiction workshop when I was in college was very important for me. At the time, it made me feel as though maybe I had something to write that would be worthwhile for others to read. He also gave meticulous feedback on his students’ writing and modeled for me what teachers can do for their students and how important teachers and mentors are.

I would also say that I’ve found inspiration in the books I love and in language that’s beautiful and original. Reading a short story such as “The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is an inspiring experience for me – although after the initial inspiration, I sometimes then have an overwhelmed feeling, knowing that I am reading the work of someone brilliant, whose sensibility to language is rare.

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

We are an all-female family at this point, so it’s sort of interesting that my novel features a fourteen-year-old male narrator! I have two sisters, one older and one younger. My mom still lives in the house where I grew up in Berkeley, California.

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

That’s hard… I like so many things! Perhaps a fantastic baguette from my favorite neighborhood bakery, the Medici in Hyde Park, where the folks at the counter where Medici t-shirts, which on the back say “Obama eats here!” They also make a fantastic apple pie.

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

Feel grateful that my husband loves to wake up early and spend time with our three-year-old; drink decaf coffee; make my eight-year-old’s lunch, which is almost always exactly the same thing: bagel and cream cheese, fruit, and a small treat such as Tings or Pirate’s Booty.

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

We don’t have a lot of stuff! That’s the result of living in small apartments in NYC for many years. We have more space now in Chicago, but we don’t have tons of stuff.

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 would probably choose black, because it’s a color for clothing that looks good on everyone.

Who is your favorite cartoon character?

I used to like Tweety Bird a lot, but I haven’t actually thought about him in a while.

Which cartoon character is most like you?

Wow – I have no idea!

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?

This is a very hard question – I’d be happy to go to many different places and at different times. But, if I had the ability to bend time or change the normal course of affairs, what might be most compelling would be to bring back people in my family who have died – and my father, in particular – and just talk with them about all that I’ve learned about myself through being a parent myself. That wasn’t something I was able ever to share with my dad or some of my grandparents.

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

Wow – these days it’s mostly listening to my son play the cello! That makes me happy and proud! I don’t listen to music while I write. If my book were ever to become a movie, I would beg the producers to hire Josh Schwartz to determine the music (and maybe just to do the whole thing!). I loved the music that he featured in the OC. He’s the man for the job!

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 can’t even remember the last movie I saw in the theater, although I am sure that this summer I will see the new Harry Potter movie in the movie theater, and I’m hoping to do so on the day it’s released. One of my favorite movies of all time is THAT THING YOU DO. We don’t watch T.V. regularly, but I have managed to see such shows as THE OC and FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS on the internet or DVD and liked them a lot.

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

Trust yourself! When you feel uneasy about something you are thinking about doing, listen to those feelings! Don’t push yourself to do things that make you uncomfortable. And, know that everyone has secret fears and insecurities, regardless of the façade presented in public.

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

I’m working on a second young adult novel with a female protagonist this time! It’s set in Long Island and takes up questions of high school athletics (mostly lacrosse) and folks outside of that world – in particular the kids who run the school newspaper.

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