Debut Author Interviews

Carrie Jones is the author of Tips on Having a Gay (ex) Boyfriend (Flux/Llewellyn, Spring 2007)

• Carrie Jones on...Dream Editors
• Carrie Jones on...Writing Process
• Carrie Jones on...First Novels
• Carrie Jones on...Family Appreciation
• Carrie Jones on...Completion
• Carrie Jones on...Critique Groups
• Carrie Jones on...The Call
• Carrie Jones on...Audience
• Carrie Jones on...Surprises
• Carrie Jones on...Writing Schedule
• Carrie Jones on...Other Careers
• Carrie Jones on...After-Sale Revisions
• Carrie Jones on...Agents
• Carrie Jones on...Prior Research
• Carrie Jones on...Promotion
• Carrie Jones on...Ideas
• Carrie Jones on...Training
• Carrie Jones on...Why Kids?
• Carrie Jones on...Setting
• Carrie Jones on...Celebrations
• Carrie Jones on...Query Letters
• Carrie Jones on...Influential Books
• Carrie Jones on...Ideal Reader
• Carrie Jones on...Character and Self
• Carrie Jones on...What's Next?
• Carrie Jones on...Outlines
• Carrie Jones on...Impact on Readers
• Carrie Jones on...Why Write?
• Carrie Jones on...Favorite Teacher
• Carrie Jones on...Book Memory
• Carrie Jones on...Self-Help Books
• Carrie Jones on...Website
• Carrie Jones on...Favorite Library
• Carrie Jones on...Favorite Book
• Carrie Jones on...Cover Art
• Carrie Jones on...Character's Conflict
• Carrie Jones on...Taste in Books
• Carrie Jones on...Actor for Character
• Carrie Jones on...Favorite Bookstore

How did you choose your editor and was he or she the “dream editor” you wanted?

I am absolutely in love with my editor, Andrew Karre, of Flux.

Why?

It is not because he is a cute boy.

Okay. It is partly.

No, really, I love him because his suggestions make me go play. His suggestions make me go into rapid revise mode, adding depth to my novels. I love him because he will talk to me about random things such as the butter sculpture of pagent queens FOR AN HOUR!!! And he will. Really.

I submitted to Flux blindly. I submitted something barely written. He took it and ran. He’s incredible. I am positive he’s spoiled me and it will be hard, hard, hard to adjust to anyone else.

What is your writing process?

Tips on the Carrie Jones Writing Process:

1. Sit in a chair at house. Not a coffee house. Not a field of lilies. Carrie Jones is not that cool.
2. Move cat, Lyra, off laptop.
3. Apologize to cat and pet cat head, fearful of offending the kitty writer muses.
4. Open laptop and sigh. Note: All writers sigh or shrug. A lot. Try to remember to not let characters sigh and shrug a lot.
5. Write. Type and type and then check email. Type and type and then make tea.
6. Try not to obsess about wordcount. How can only be 1,002 words? You’ve been working for weeks.
7. Try not to obsess about plot and objective correlatives in the first draft. Leave that for revision.
8. Realize that revising is WAY more fun than the first draft.
9. Do a happy dance in the kitchen once first draft is done. Ignore cat’s scornful looks.
10. Realize that sometimes you can write with an outline (but prefer not to) Realize sometimes you can write like Alison McGhee (just in scenes in no particular order, later piecing them together and fillling them in). Realize that it doesn’t matter. All that matters is writing.
11. Stop dancing and realizing and sit down again. Move cat off laptop. Revise some more. Tell yourself this writing piece is “An Experiment” that way it doesn’t matter if it bubbles over, burns the carpet, or explodes in the basement.
12. Laugh like a mad scientist, rub hands together. Type some more.

Was this the first full-length novel you wrote, or rather the first that you sold?

The first novels I wrote were in fifth grade. I wrote them on college-ruled spiral notebooks. I wrote Star Trek novels.
I did not like Star Trek.
I thought that my 24-year-old brother liked Star Trek because he once said, “Captain Kirk is cool.”

So…
I did research.
I watched A LOT of Star Trek for my brother.
Then I wrote the stories 250-300 handwritten pages a piece.
In each one, a beautiful heroine who had brown hair and glasses fell in love with:
1. Kirk.
2. Spock.
3. Dr. McCoy
4. Scotty

I then gave all the stories to my brother for his birthday. He looked at me and said, “Why do you think I like Star Trek?”

My mom tells me that at this point I swallowed really hard and said, “Do you like Dr. Who better?”

I then began to watch and write Dr. Who. All of my stories starred…You guessed it. A brown-haired, eyeglasses-wearing heroine who falls in love with The Doctor.

Now that you’re under contract, does your family better appreciate your writing?

This is a hard question.

This is what my dad said, “Someone bought your book? That’s great. What’s it called?”

“Tips on Having a Gay (ex) Boyfriend.”

My dad began laughing, “Ho boy. Ho… boy. Wait till I tell your Aunt Athelee that one. Tell me that again. .. Gay what?”

“Tips on Having a Gay (ex) Boyfriend.”

My father then laughed some more. “Let me write that down. That’s really the title? Ho…boy.”

Then today, about six months later, I was talking to my dad on the phone while simultaneously trying to make vegan shepard’s pie and he said, “How many books have you sold?”

I told him.

“Three? Three! In less than a year?”

“Yep,” I said, dicing onions, which always makes me cry.

He was really quiet and then he said, “Your grandfather was a really literate man. He was a great reader, you know. And my mother…she loved poems.”

“I know that, Dad,” I said, wiping my eyes with a paper towel that smelled like onions and only made things worse.

Then he swallowed so loudly I could hear it and he said, “I’m dyslexic you know. I don’t read very well.”

“I know Dad. You’re super smart though,” I said this because sometimes my dad forgets that he is super smart.

The silence settled in and he finally said, “I’m just really proud of you. You know that, right? I’m really, really proud of you.”

So, even if no lovely people ever buy my books, at least I know that I did something that made my dad proud.

====
When I sold my first book, my mother said, the way my mother always says, “Oh, sweetie. That’s so wonderful. I knew you could do it. I am so proud of you. My daughter the writer.”

To be fair to my sweet mother and to be honest, this is what my mother says about everything I do. Like the first time I made an angel food cake she said, “Oh, sweetie. That’s so wonderful. I knew you could do it. I am so proud of you. My daughter the angel food cake maker.”

====
The rest of my family, I think, are appreciative of the fact that I sold a couple of books. It makes me more legit to them somehow. Which is strange but typical I guess. In our culture it often seems that the process of learning and creating is often only considered worthy if a tangible product comes from it and if that tangible product has market value.

But to me… the big value is that I made my dad think about his parents and think about books and think about me and made him proud.

How did you know you were “done” with your book and ready to submit it?

This is what happens to me when I write a book:

1. Finish the first draft of book and then revise it.
2. Put book away for AT LEAST one week.
3. I look at the book. I revise it again.
4. I revise it again.
5. I think, “Oh, this is done.”
6. I realize it will never be done.

With TIPS ON HAVING A GAY (ex) BOYFRIEND, I skipped steps four and five. I just sent it out. I thought, “Hhmmm. Let’s just see what happens.” Andrew Karre picked it up, asked me to add about 10,000 words. I added about 30,000 by the time I was completely through with it.

Now I feel it will never be done. Not really. Not in the sense of the book’s universe. The book, is basically done, but the scenes beyond it, the themes behind it, the emotions within it, they still rotate around, waiting for readers to take that extra step beyond the book.

Do you belong to a writing group?

I wish I were in a writing group.

I’m not.

Sarah Aronson mentioned that Vermont College provides her with a writing community, where there’s feedback and friendship. That’s so essential to me, that community, however I’m graduating January 2007.

And writing communities thrive on MySpace and LiveJournal and through forums such as the Class of 2k7’s, as well as a Vermont College forum that my classmate Chris Masselli set up. Then there’s SCWBI. Then there’s my agent and editor.

Still, it’s not quite enough.

It’s hard living in Down East Maine. It’s gorgeous and I’m lucky, but there aren’t ANY children’s writing groups nearby. Any takers? I’m willing to drive two hours…Please?

What happened when you received ‘The Call’ that your book would be published?

Things I did when my book was accepted:

1. Stare at phone in shock.
2. Hang up phone.
3. Dance around kitchen.
4. Scream.
5. Apologize to dog and cat who are terrified of screaming, dancing, soon-to-be published author.
6. Dance around more with dog’s paws on arms, so she feels part of the fun.
7. Grab cat and dance with her too. Apologize for not being immediately inclusive.
8. Stop dancing.
9. Panic.
10. Call people who are all at meetings.
11. Sit down and repeat steps #3 through #10.

Who is the target audience for your book?

Tips on Trying to Figure out Target Audience:

1. Do not pull out hair when trying to figure out this question. It will make you look bad at any future book readings/signings/conferences you go to.

2. Try to think of other authors to compare your book to. (This worked for me, sort of, when not feeling awed by the authors I’m comparing it to. ) I would say for my book, “People who enjoy the work of Sarah Dessen, E. Lockhart, Cecil C. and Joan Bauer would like TIPS ON HAVING A GAY (EX) BOYFRIEND).” Then I would cringe and hide.

3. Remember Target Audience means more than just your mother. How cool is that?

4. Rethink your answers. Obsess. Promise yourself that you will stop writing in the second person for tip number 5. Write a real sentence there. Wish your editor wasn’t on vacation so you could call him and ask him to answer this question for you.

5. Go back to the beginning. TIPS ON HAVING A GAY (ex) BOYFRIEND is suitable for ages 14 and up. It contains realistic language and situations.

What has surprised you the most so far?

I am going to sound like the author who has no self-confidence, which is maybe, partially true, but to be honest, the thing that has surprised me the most is:

That I’m here.
That I’m a writer.

For me that’s just the coolest of the cool.

As I’ve mentioned before my super smart dad can barely read. Me? Well, I have a writing disability, which seems bizarre because now as an adult I write quickly, but I was (and am) one of those kids who couldn’t tie their shoes. My hand would cramp when I wrote in my notebooks. My handwriting is horrible no matter which hand I use. I mix up my b’s and d’s and my p’s and q’s.

And when I write sometimes words come out wrong…

How wrong?

Oh. I write whistle for freckle or president for present or glances for glasses or something like that.

It happens ALL THE TIME.

When I finally fessed up to him about this, Andrew, my editor, wrote to me that, “I think your brain gets nervous when you write too many sentences full of standard facts and satisfied expectations, and so it forces you to tell a little lie and violate expectations by substituting the wrong word.”

Can he spin things or what? No wonder I love him.

Of course, I’ve been surprised by how great other writers are, and the people at Flux, and my agent. But, honestly, that’s the biggest surprise… the fact that I’m a writer at all.

What is your writing schedule?

I write Monday through Friday after I take the dog on our daily run/walk/sprint/stop-totally-and-smell-the-scary-things-by-the-side-of-the-road. I usually sit at my computer around 9 am.

Then the dog looks at me and passes out at my feet.

I write in the mornings for a couple of hours and then take a shower. Sometimes I write until 1. Sometimes I write until 11.

If I get stuck I go on the cross trainer in my basement or out in the kayak for a half hour. Or else I switch projects. Instead of writing a literary YA, I’ll go hang out with a funny MG.

This schedule does NOT work in the summer.
This schedule does NOT work every single day.

This schedule makes me sound organized. I am not. I have no corkboards. My laptop sits on a table in a corner of the kitchen. The table is wedged between the piano and the hutch-thing that holds wine glasses.

The thing is if I don’t write I feel like I’m slacking. I have an amazing ability to feel guilty. That’s what keeps me writing.

What career would you pursue if you weren’t a writer?

This is a hard question.

Why?

Because what I really really want to be is a writer.

I could be a newspaper editor again. But would I pursue it? No.

A newspaper reporter again?

Nope.

Poetry editor? City councilor?

Nope. Done it. Not for me.

When I was little I always wanted to be a human rights attorney and hopefully get assassinated while bringing peace to Northern Ireland or El Salvador. My death would, of course, inspire the entire world to love each other, shake hands and sing “Imagine.”

Yep.

Obviously, I have some major complexes going on.

But if I could do anything? I guess that would be it. Not the martyr part, but I’d work for Amnesty International in any capacity, really. Is that silly?

How much revision did you do AFTER you sold your book to your publisher?

Because I want my book to be as good as it can be I am pro-revision. Revise now. Revise all the time. Go revising! (Imagine pom-poms). Every time I revise I feel as if I’m adding another layer of depth into the story. I love it.

My manuscript was SO FAR from perfect when I sent it to Andrew. He took it anyway. He’s a good man. Revising with him was my favorite part of writing the book. It went quickly. It was fun. It also gave me confidence. This was a book no one else saw. No mentors at Vermont College. No critique groups. Just Andrew.

Here’s what Andrew said about revising and his Editor Man attitude:

Anecdotally, I know this can vary enormously. Of the Flux authors you’ve probably revised at least as much as anyone else I’ve worked with, and there have been a few authors who made comparatively few changes. I know one of my authors who published dozens of books with another small house said he was very surprised (pleasantly, thank god) at how much time we invested in revisions with him. I have read many YA books from small and large presses that felt to me like they were too raw, a couple drafts short of their best.

I suspect this also varies depending on what kind of agent you’ve got (and how much editing she does).

Personally, I will bend all sorts of rules to accommodate further revisions if I feel like the author wants another go at the ms.

Is it any wonder I call him Sweet Editor Man? I’m sure he’ll stop me sometime, though…

Is an agent useful or necessary for a first-time author?

In about a month and a half I sold two books to one publisher without an agent.

Do I wish I had an agent then?

Yes.

I panicked. I called all the attorneys I knew. Friends donated their dads who were attorneys. A friend’s BRILLIANT agent kindly advised me, and didn’t mind that the entire time I talked to him I was itching because all the stress gave me eczema.

I did the contracts on the first two books myself. I got my Sweet Editor Man to increase the advances by myself. It was lovely and cordial and fine but I still hated it.

Fast forward about two or three months and I was talking to my Vermont College mentor, Kathi Appelt. She said in her beautiful soft Texan voice, “Honey, you really need to get an agent now.”

And I said in a shrill New England voice, “What?”

I thought, “Agents give me eczema.”

I told her my story. She gave me two names. I emailed the first name. He emailed back.
He and I meshed. Except for the fact that he’s NEVER worn a flannel shirt. How can a Maine author have an agent who has never worn flannel? I don’t know. Still, I love him.

So now I have an agent and when I write things, I get to send them to him, and he gives me lovely revision ideas. Then I revise. Then he sends them out. Then I don’t have to worry and I can just write.

Why is having an agent amazing?

1. Like Sarah A says, you have a brilliant industry-knowledgable set of eyes looking at your work.

2. They say things such as, “This is brilliant.” And that really means something.

3. You don’t have to get eczema when a production studio wants to look at optioning your second book, which hasn’t even been revised (by editor and you) yet. Why? Because Super Agent Guy will say, “I’ll have our movie rights people handle that.”

4. Sometimes agents are cute and sign their emails xo.

5. If you have an agent you don’t have to break out in hives when you see the contract. Or call in favors from attorneys. This is a DANGEROUS practice. Believe me, I know.

6. It’s nice to live somewhere like Maine and have your agent call you on the cellphone during a junior high soccer game. It makes you feel all cool inside.

7. They really do know so much more about the industry than the typical writer, meaning me. They really do casually mention things to editor types at lunch or while sipping martinis. They open doors.

But you don’t HAVE to have an agent. Stephen King has brilliant anti-agent advice. By the way, Stephen King, a Mainer, does wear flannel.

Kelly’s answer to this question is pretty much right-on so I won’t repeat it, except to say that you have to find an agent you mesh with, someone who suits you.

How much research and/or meditation about your subject did you do before you began your first draft?

TIPS ON HAVING A GAY (ex) BOYFRIEND started because I heard about a girl whose big-time boyfriend came out. Then, despite the fact that she was pretty cool and popular, some people in her school tormented her about it.

Research about that? Well, I’ve had boyfriends who turned out to be gay. I talked to a few people this had happened to. And I’m the community advisor for our school’s civil rights team. This is a civil rights issue.

The other aspect of Belle, my main character, is that she has epilepsy. Her seizures are induced by caffeine and/or aspartame. Having epilepsy is a part of her character but it doesn’t drive the story, nor does it drive her character’s development, which is the case in almost all children’s books with epileptic main characters.

This was a definite choice and it was something that was bothering me because I am epileptic. I didn’t meditate on it long, but I did do my critical thesis on the perpetuation of negative epilepsy stereotypes in children’s literature. It was fascinating and disheartening and enlightening. Anyone want to see it? Probably not…but that’s where most of my Belle-related research came from.

What is your plan to get the word out to the public about your book?

1. I plan on cheating off of everyone else’s answers.
2. I have a website.
3. I plan to go to some national events.
4. I plan to do everything my editor tells me to do.
5. I plan to beg everyone I know to buy my book, in exchange for hugs forever, of course.
6. I plan on some sort of cool duct tape promotional thingy.
7. ARCs. ARCs everywhere.

Where did you get the idea for your book?

TIPS ON HAVING A GAY (ex) BOYFRIEND started because I had heard of a hate crime incident at a nearby high school.

The incident involved a girl whose boyfriend had just come out. She’d been taunted and called derogatory names because of her ex boyfriend’s sexuality.

The real life incident didn’t get reported to the police or to the school administration.

It bothered me. A lot. So, I started writing TIPS…

And yes… I’ve had a gay ex boyfriend. He’s really cool.

What writing training have you had?

1. I wrote a haiku in September of second grade. I had all the syllables right. It wasn’t about Tonka trucks. It was about nature so the teacher, Mrs. Snearson, posted it in big letters on the wall and decided I was gifted. Whew. Did I fool her.

The poem was:
Spring is fun you see
Because flowers grow with rain
And robins come home.

This is how I learned that teachers are important to writers’ egos.

2. We didn’t have cable so I had nothing to do except take walks in the woods and make things up. I’d talk to Big Foot and imagine we were going to run away together. I made up ghost stories. Then my big brother had a birthday coming up and I had NO MONEY, so I wrote him Star Trek stories. I thought he liked Star Trek. I was wrong.

This is how I learned that fanfiction was not for me.

3. In fifth grade we had AUTHOR OF THE MONTH contests. I did not win the first month, but I assessed the audience and won every month afterwards. I learned that:
Boys liked violence, UFO aliens, and potty jokes.
Girls liked romance and puppies.

So I made up a continuing story featuring a girl in the army who has a dog who is actually a UFO alien from the planet ABBA. The girl falls in love with another alien who has a problem with constipation.

This is how I learned that you have to go with your audience wants and if that’s poopy jokes, so be it.

4. I took a really amazing creative writing class in high school with Mr. Joseph Sullivan of Manchester, NH. It was the best class I’ve ever taken.

This is where I learned how to write better, how to vary sentences, how to use devices.

5. I took poetry workshops with Rob Farnsworth at Bates College while I was a student there.

This is where I learned about the beauty of language, but also that if you don’t want people to think you’ve been molested, abused, raped, caught on fire, abandoned, and abused alcohol, drugs, food and hamsters all on the same day you should NEVER write fictional CONFESSIONAL poetry in the FIRST PERSON. Ever.

6. I was in a writing group with really good writers for about six months. Once a week, every Wednesday.

This is where I learned what a bad writer I was.

7. I was a newspaper reporter/editor for about seven years. I am bad at numbers though, so it might be less.

This is where I learned how to right fast.

8. I am about to finish my MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College.

This is where I learned how much more I need to learn.

Why write for children and teens?

When we write books we can write them according to accepted forms, kind of like a Playmobile castle, following all the directions. People know what they get that way. And it can be really good, really comforting and empowering.

Or when we write books we can freestyle a bit more, mixing up Playmobiles with Legos. We can design our own thing and in doing that come at the truth in a slightly different way, a way that might make us question our world view.

What does this have to do with why I write for kids/teens?

As a writer, I want to write things that are crazy Playmobile/Lego mixes. A little Chick-lit with a some literary with some T.S. Eliot theory thrown in.

I write for teens because I want to empower them. I want to create a world they recognize and legitimize their world by presenting it as truth, but I also want teens to question that world a little bit, shake up that world view, question it. It’s only by searching and exploring that we can figure our way back to the truth that is our own.

I think kids/teens are really good explorers, and truth-seekers. I like that. So I write for that.

Where is your novel set, and why there?

I set my story in a small, small city in rural Maine, because I wanted to have that small-town claustrophobic feel to Belle’s struggles.

I set my story in a public high school because:

97% of students in public high schools report regularly hearing homophobic remarks from their peers

53% of students report hearing homophobic comments made by school staff

80% of prospective teachers report negative attitudes toward gay and lesbian people

45% of gay males and 20% of lesbians report having experienced verbal harassment and/or physical violence as a result of their sexual orientation during high school

Those statistics are taken verbatim from: http://www.dreamworld.org/oystergsa/gsa_statistics.html

When I was talking to a NY-based agent about another one of my books, he said, “Carrie, nobody has issues with gay people any more, not even in rural Maine.”
I would like to live in his world.

I set my story in a small city in rural Maine because that’s what I know best. I could have set it anywhere. It would have changed some of the dynamics, but it wouldn’t have changed the statistics.

How did you celebrate your book sale?

1. I danced around the kitchen with the dog who is as tall as I am and was really happy, but probably because she thought it meant rhinestone doggy jewels and milk bones galore.

2. I kept trying to call people and tell them it was OFFICIAL. Everyone was at meetings.

3. I got scared and nervous and worried, because it was suddenly, actually REAL and real can be terrifying, good, but terrifying.

4. I hugged everyone who walked in the door.

5. I apologized to the cat for all the dog dancing and gave her some wet food.

I am obviously a party animal.

Describe the query letter that got you published.

I did EVERYTHING wrong in my query. Seriously. It’s horribly ridiculous how stupid I was.

Here’s my livejournal post about it when I realized my MASSIVE mistake. The realization occurred when my future editor called.

Be warned. It is sad.

“Okay. Here’s the big question of the day: Why am I so stupid?

Although, he was kind and he did say, “It’s the manuscript I care about, not your inability to spell your own name.””

The actual letter itself? I put in blurbs from mentors who said good things about me. I wrote a quick summary of the book. I had a ridiculous title for the novel. Andrew later said, “I knew with a title like that, it had to be one of the worst submissions ever, or really good.”

Does that help?

What books had an impact on you when you were growing up?

All of them.

Really. I think that every book I read affected me at least a little bit. Even if it was to just scream, “Do not have incest with your brother just because you’re locked in the attic! He’s your BROTHER! Ewww…” I think I avoided my brothers for weeks after that.

The books I remember the most are:

1. Wrinkle in Time… I had glasses. So did Meg. I was smart but not a super genius. Just like Meg. I felt kind of boring while everyone else seemed extraordinary. Just like Meg.

2. Illusions by Richard Bach. This seems so smarmy, I know, but this book made me believe in the potential of the individual.

3. Anne Sexton’s Mercy Street. It made me love poetry and made me start to write it. This is possibly a bad thing.

4. Funny books. I was just a little kid but I was soooo into Erma and all her housewife antics and then there was Douglas Adams, and then there was Dave Barry, and the Preppie Handbook and the Talk like a Valley Girl books. Anything that made me snort out my nose was a big deal for me.

5. The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and The Hobbit. The creation of other worlds really sucked me in. I wanted to create other worlds. I wanted there to be other worlds. I still do.

If you had an ideal reader, who would that be and why?

I’m with Kelly here.
Anyone who reads my book is ideal.

Everyone who reads my book is essentially a stranger. It might be a girl hanging out before cheerleading practice or another who is waiting for her mom to pick her up after an Amnesty International meeting. It might be a woman who saw the title and said, “I’ve had a gay ex boyfriend.”

Writing is so strange:
1.You are alone in a room when you write and write and revise and plot and write and worry.
2.You have some strange urge to do this writing thing.
3.You create characters and a story and all in the hope that someone will read it.
4. You might never know your readers, your ideal readers (excluding, of course your mom, nana, best friend and critique group). Writing is a crazy offering of trust and hope. When you write a book, and when someone buys it and someone else reads it that’s almost miraculous, I think.
5. It’s like you’re reaching out your hand to a stranger and that stranger actually grabs it, and for the duration of the book you’re both holding on to each other, trusting, hoping your palms aren’t all sweaty and that the other person remembered to wash after the trip to the bathroom.
6. The writer trusts the reader to read.
7. The reader trusts the writer to bring him or her on a journey.

Anyone who does that is ideal.

Is your main character like yourself?

1. Belle plays the guitar really well. I don’t.

2. Belle is a socially conscious teenager who overthinks everything. Um. Okay. I was.

3. Belle is not shy. I am.

This is hard for me to answer, really, because I’m not sure how self aware I am. I can describe Belle really well, but can I describe myself in a way that corresponds with other people’s perception of me? In a way, that’s what TIPS ON HAVING A GAY (ex) BOYFRIEND is about. It’s about whether or not we can ever really know other people or ourselves, and what to do when our perceptions are really, really wrong especially when those perceptions are about someone we love.

What’s next after your debut novel?

My second book is currently called, PREGGERS. Flux purchased that book recently. It should hit shelves in March 2008. Flux also purchased another book called either TRUE GRIT or THE JOHN WAYNE LETTERS. I actually wrote that book first. Go figure.

I’m working on three other YAs right now (NEED, WHY I DRINK, and HERE) and a bunch of middle grade books.

All are in various stages of development.

It’s actually really fun writing for different age groups and in different styles and I’m finding that some styles are so much harder and take so much longer for me to finish and revise.

Still, it’s all an amazing adventure and I feel really lucky that I get to write things. Really, really lucky.

One of my Vermont College advisors, Kathi Appelt, always said, “Write like your fingers are on fire.”

So, I’m trying to do that.

Another writing mentor, Rita Williams-Garcia, told me that she went through a super productive time 10 years or so ago, and then she dried up when it came to new ideas. That super productive time has kept her going, as she revises and completes and re-invisions.

I am terrified of dry spells. I need plenty of words on paper to keep me going. So I write and write like my fingers are blazing, just like Kathi says.

Do you outline before writing?

I never start with an outline, but I do things in the first draft when I’m really cruising and I don’t want to break up the flow, but I’ve thought of something important.

I make notes like: MUST MAKE MIMI AND BELLE TALK ABOUT DYLAN
And… GO BACK AND MAKE SURE THE INCITING INCIDENT IS IN THE FIRST 20 PAGES.
Or… ADD SCENE ABOUT THE DIFFICULTIES OF PERCEPTION VS. REALITY WHEN IT COMES TO UNDERSTANDING LOVED ONES. PERHAPS AT THE DMV.

That way I don’t forget the little sparks of where I’m going.

That said, I’m revising two fantasy novels (middle grade) that are flawed. I’ve decided this, the whole flawed thing, although I’m positive if other people saw them right now, they’d agree.

So, I’m going back, outlining the story arc and making character sheets, which is a new process for me. That way when I revise them again, I’ll feel like I have a plan. Plus, it almost feels like a mini-vacation from writing, because it’s so different from my usual process.

Still, I never could have written the first drafts if I had outlined them. My favorite part of writing is the discovery process. I love discovering the story in the first draft, just like I love discovering character depths, connections, themes and layers in the revisioning process. I am greedy, and I don’t want to give any of that discovery up, and I think I would if I outlined before the first draft.

What should readers get from your book?

Ack. What a hard question.

I hope they get:

1. A story.

2. Friends. That’s how I feel about my main characters, Belle and Em. I feel like they are friends, and they are good friends to have.

3. Things to think about. Things like: What it means to be yourself, how it’s difficult to know the truth, that the truth of an individual isn’t determined by a majority vote

4. Their money’s worth.

5. A book that they don’t want to flush down the toilet, which is what my family members want to do when they really, really hate a book. Remember! Books and toilets do not mix.

Why do you write?

It’s fun.

I don’t know how not to.

Describe your favorite teacher when you were your protagonist’s age.

Imagine a man who laughs with his tongue sticking out of his mouth, wiggling like a tiny snake.

Imagine a man with wild, Einstein hair and a great love of books, Ray Bradbury and Stephen King.

Imagine a man who writes things on your papers like: I LOVE YOU! YOU MAKE ME ROAR! YOU ARE A STAR!

Imagine the same man writing: IT’S THEIR NOT THEY’RE ARGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Imagine a man who makes you believe that you could be anything, even a writer.

Imagine a man who makes all his high school students pledge to buy him a cottage on the beach if they become a massive money-making writing machine.

Imagine a man who on the second day of class says, “Students, you are now word merchants. Your task in my class is to string words together that make sense and have the power to affect the reader.”

This man you’re imagining is real.

This man is Joseph Sullivan, gifted writer, gifted teacher of creative writing at Manchester West High School in N.H.

This is a man I love. This is the man who made me a writer.

What is your earliest book memory?

I remember being in nursery school and just wanting to kill the teacher because she read THE CAT IN THE HAT so damn slowly.

I remember smashing my head down on my little pink carpet square that I had for nap/story time and just sobbing because I couldn’t take it any more.

She asked me what was wrong. I guess I somehow told her.

Then I got to go in a corner all by myself for story time and read whatever books I wanted.

Yay!

What are some of your current favorite writing or author-help books?

IMPROV WISDOM by Patricia Ryan Madson.

I used it for my graduate lecture and although it’s about improv, every single maxim applies to writing.

I adore her. She is wise and brilliant.

I also bought CHILDREN’S WRITER’S AND ILLUSTRATOR’S MARKET and studied it.

Do you have a website for your book? How did you handle setting it up?

I have a website for me, where there’s a blog updated at least three times a week, usually more. There’s a bio page with links to Amnesty International and the Epilepsy Foundation. Each book that is under contract has a page on there saying:

- an audio excerpt,
- a reason why it started
- a telling of why I wrote it
- what it’s about

My friend, Chris Maselli (If you say his name aloud it sounds like Christmas Elli) pretty much made it for me. I didn’t have tons of money to get a professional designer and be all fancy-schmancy, and I think Chris did a super cool job.

It’s at http://www.carriejonesbooks.com

Describe your favorite library.

Yep. I too am a library slut.
Give me a library and I’ll show it love.

What makes me love them?

Is it the free books aspect that Sarah Beth loves? Yep.

Is it the cool librarians who don’t get mad at me when I take out 30 books at a time? Yep.

Is it the way some libraries are tiny and cramped and book shelves reach the ceiling. Yep.

Is the way some libraries are huge and gothic and full of secrets? Yep.

Is it the way the hold stories on their shelves, protecting them, holding them safely until a hand reaches out and opens up a spine.

God, yes.

I love them all. Call me a Library Slut. I don’t care. I don’t care. It’s true.

What was your favorite book when you were your protagonist’s age?

This is one of those questions where I’d like to lie because the answer makes me look so, um, silly, but my favorite book when I was Belle’s age was probably:

Illusions by Richard Bach

Because I really, really wanted to believe that I could be the messiah and walk through walls and practice peace and all that stuff. Please do not make fun of me! Remember, I could have lied.

The book I read the most was the Amnesty International Human Rights Report, which comes out every year. I was all over that baby, quoting it in pretty every single paper I had to write in high school, and in college, and, um, I even quote Amnesty in my first book, Tips on Having a Gay (ex) Boyfriend. And I use the report, a lot, in a WIP that’s sitting on my agent’s desk right now.

I obviously have a hard time outgrowing things.

Did the art director read your entire book to get inspiration for the cover?

Two artists read TIPS ON HAVING A GAY (ex) BOYFRIEND. They read the whole book, which is pretty cool, I think.

Then they both submitted ideas.

The idea that was chosen is really cool because it’s a collage. The artist actually carved my name in wood that’s supposed to be like a dugout wall or a school table. How fantastically neat is that? Somebody carved my name, and it wasn’t in the bathroom door stall at a rest stop somewhere with the words IF YOU WANT TO HAVE A GOOD TIME CALL or anything like that.

What drew you to the conflict you created for your main character?

Somewhat like Melissa’s book, I tend to write characters with multiple conflicts. The poor babies just keep getting it layered on.

So, Belle’s conflicts in TIPS ON HAVING A GAY (ex) BOYFRIEND, is essentially trying to re-understand her life and identity, once her big-time boyfriend tells her he’s gay. Belle has to struggle with the belief that she knows people, when she doesn’t.

She has to struggle with the questions:
1. How is it possible to ever know someone?
2. And if you can’t truly ever know someone, can you ever truly love them?
3. Once you realize this can you be open to relationships again?

Belle is a super liberal who somehow compartmentalizes people in her quest for understanding, while at the same time eschewing labels.

Her struggle is very Wallace Stevens inspired… What do we do when we realize that reality isn’t static, that our imaginations and our notions create a reality that is ever changing?

Poor Belle.

I guess what haunts me is whether or not, as Americans, we can get over our desire to absolutely know people in order to love them; if we can embrace the mystery of others as part of our love for them; and if we can embrace ourselves for failing to be omniscent. Knowledge is power, but is it always? I’m not sure…
Or even more importantly, how to come to terms with Stevens’ concept of reality as a product of the imagination.

Do you have different taste in kids’ books as an adult writer than as a kid?

Not really.

I’m pretty much a book slut, and I’ve pretty much always been a book slut.

I’d go to the library and just pull out 20 random books a week from the kids’ shelves and the adult shelves. I’d totter up the stairs. They’d topple on the counter in front of the Bedford N.H. librarian. She’d always say, “Do you really read all these, Carrie?”

“Yes.”

I’d always glare at her for asking. Which is horrible. That poor librarian. What a horrible kid I was.

Then I’d take them outside, sit on the steps, start reading and wait for my mom to come pick me up.

The only differences? Now, the librarian believes me that I read the books and now I have to drive myself home.
It was much more fun before.

Who would play your book character in a movie?

If you took Dar Williams and made her look 17. Not that she doesn’t look young now. Oh…

NO OFFENSE DAR WILLIAMS! I THINK YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!

Do you have a favorite bookstore?

I am a bookstore slut.
Yes, it is true.
Show me a bookstore and I turn into a crazed, happy woman who peruses the aisles, sighing.

My favorites?

1. I love the Flying Pig in Vermont because it is AMAZING. It is comfy and fun and the owners are brilliant. And it’s so obvious how much the people who work there love books.
2. I love Port in the Storm Bookstore in Maine because it’s on Somes Sound in the village of Somesville, and this bookstore is full of light. You walk in and you have to smile.
3. I love the Borders in Bangor Maine because I actually witnessed a girl buy TIPS ON HAVING A GAY (ex) BOYFRIEND there. This is the highlight of my author existence. It was so hard waiting until she went to the cash register, but I did wait. I swear! Then I jumped up and down in a circle silently screaming “YAY” and pumping my fist in the air.
4. This really cute bookstore in Scotland that was down a tiny dirt road (It was Scotland…) and was just crammed full of books. You had to turn sideways sometimes to get down the aisles. I really loved that store.