Interview with Carrie Jones!
Today's interview comes to you courtesy of the ever-lovable Carrie Jones! Carrie is the author of Tips on Having a Gay (ex) Boyfriend, Love (and other uses for duct tape), Girl, Hero, and Need. She's also super-cool, super-supportive and just plain grand :)
KF: Are you a musically-inspired writer or do you need silence? If you write to music, care to share any of your fave writing songs/singers/groups?
CJ: Oh, I am difficult.
Sometimes I need silence.
Sometimes I need music.
Sometimes I worry that if I'm playing something really sad (like the Soundtrack from The End of the Affair) or something really happy (like funk) it will fool me into thinking that I am writing something brilliantly sad or funny, but it's really the music that's moving me, not my writing. I learn this when I reread it a couple days later expecting to sob over my laptop and instead I am all, "Crud. This stinks. This stinks so badly. Ackkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!"
So, I get worried about that trap.
However, if I am having a hard time writing and feeling depressed I go over to Pandora Radio and put on a mix inspired by Prince's Sexy M.F. This always gets me writing. It is my new writing trick.
KF: Is there any writing advice you wish you’d never heard?
CJ: Short sentences are good.
KF: Come clean: Out of all your characters, which one is your favorite? No fair saying all of them, but if you’d rather turn it around and say your least favorite, I suppose I’ll forgive you. (Note: Carrie, if this causes panic, you may say all of them. But this exception is only for authors named Carrie Jones!)
CJ: Whine. I want to say them all! You are a harsh mistress of an interviewer.
Okay... Okay...Um...
As of right this moment my favorite character is Muffin the cat in Tips on Having a Gay Ex Boyfriend.
Why?
She's furry.
She doesn't talk back. She only meows.
KF: You often discuss how Grover is your writing cheerleader and how John Wayne is your internal critic/task master. Why do you think it's important for writers to have both?
Yes. I think that writers have tendencies to go to extremes especially when it comes to self-criticism. They become such perfectionists about their writing that:
1. They can't write anything
2. They hate anything they write
3. They loathe themselves for not being J.K. Rowling or Toni Morrison or Stephen King (insert name here) or Sherman Alexie.
It starts to limit us. Healthy criticism is fine, but there's a line into destructive self criticism that can be an easy line for writers to cross. That's why it's important for me to personify my critic as John Wayne. He's tough. He's hard. He doesn't let me slack off, but he's pretty fair.
To balance things out I have Grover, who is the best Muppet ever. He had his tonsils out with me. He loves me unconditionally. He's a little self absorbed, but you can't have everything, right?
Seriously, as authors (and as humans) I think it's important for us to find a balance between confidence and criticism, between optimism and pessimism, between taking it easy and taking it too hard. That's what Grover and John Wayne represent for me.
ETA from KF: By the way, Carrie doesn't know this, but she's totally my Grover-like cheerleader. For realz. I have a quote from her on my binder o' scary agent stuff & everything. Ask tltrent, she's seen it!:-)
KF: Richard Peck once said, "We have to be all our characters but none of our characters should ever be us." Your books truly seem to take this to heart and you put a lot of yourself into your stories- has this always been your style or is it something you came to gradually?
CJ: That's such a tough question! For me it's hard to not be genuine. Honestly, that's the compliment in life that I get most often and I'm always standing there in the grocery store with a bunch of peaches in my hand and my mouth wide open going, '????' Because what can you say to that? I don't know how not to be genuine as a person, which is probably a horrific drawback and a reason I lost by 500 votes when I ran for office. I just am who I am.
When I write I think that's what happens. I just write. The issues I care about, the people I care about shimmy their way into my stories like slinky tango dancers and I have no idea how to keep them out. So, my characters tend to have random pieces of me in them. Belle has caffeine-induced seizures. Liliana is full of childhood pain and wants so badly to be a hero. Zara is a nutcase (in a good way - a better way than me). I think all my characters are much better than me. Well, except maybe Ian. And Megan. Gosh, I hope I’m not that bad. (ETA from KF: No, you are very much not!)
KF: What's the most fun/interesting/weird thing you've discovered when researching a book?
CJ: It's so naughty that I totally can't write it here. My mom might google me and find it. But it was so bad that I got worried the FBI would be tracking my web use after.
KF: You're organizing the Bar Harbor Book Festival- care to give it a shout-out here?
Yes! A cute local police officer and I have started this book festival in Bar Harbor, Maine. It's September 12-13 and this is its first year. There's going to be about 25 authors there, signing, talking, hanging out, reading, hopefully eating strudel and debating zombies versus unicorns.
The money we raise (if we raise any and it doesn't turn into one big party) is going to support local law enforcement literacy initiatives. Literacy rates are really linked heavily to crime rates. It's kind of a win-win situation: Books. Cute cops. Helping kids. Yay!
Please come! There's more info here.
You can email me if you want to donate too: carriejonesbooks at gmail dot com
(ETA: In an attempt to help Carrie thwart spambots, if you want to email her take out spaces and replace at with @ and dot with . )
You've been hard at work on the sequel to Need, Captivate, so this particular question comes from Travis M.: What is your most successful revision technique?
CJ: The problem I've found is that every revision is different. Sometimes I find it super helpful to go back each pass and look for one thing to improve. Sometimes I find it helpful to outline and look for issues. Sometimes I find it helpful to think about structure and beats. Sometimes I find it helpful to cry and clutch onto the hem of my editor's skirt and beg her to put me out of my misery.
I think the only advice I could possible give is to be brave when you revise. Be unafraid. If you have to throw it all away, you have to throw it all away. The goal is to make the best book you can make. Do whatever it takes to do that and DO NOT GIVE UP!
KF: And, from Megan: What/who inspired you to become a writer?
CJ: My high school creative writing teacher, Joseph Sullivan, is the best human in the universe and when I took his class he would write in huge red marker: YOU ARE A WRITER! Or things like: YOU ARE TALENT! Or things like I SEE BESTSELLER LIST.
Since I am the sort of person who responds to massive amount of praise it made me want to be a writer. He made me a much better writer too, but I didn't really try until about three years ago. We live in rural Maine and it takes forever to drive anywhere. My daughter gets incredibly bored in the car so she would demand stories. I started making one up while I drove. It got longer and longer. Eventually, I started writing it down because I thought that it would be easier. Then Em would be like, "More pages! MORE PAGES!" (You can imagine a ghoulish monster waiting in bed for her story if you'd like). So I started writing 10 pages a day just to appease her. Then I realized it was fun. It was actually way more fun than being a newspaper editor, which is what I was.
So I foolishly quit my job, applied to graduate school and somehow got accepted to Vermont College of Fine Arts. A year after I started Andrew Karre bought my first book, TIPS ON HAVING A GAY (Ex) BOYFRIEND.
So, I guess Em and Mr. Sullivan inspired me.
A giant, Muppet-filled Thank You! to Carrie for the interview!
KF: Are you a musically-inspired writer or do you need silence? If you write to music, care to share any of your fave writing songs/singers/groups?
CJ: Oh, I am difficult.
Sometimes I need silence.
Sometimes I need music.
Sometimes I worry that if I'm playing something really sad (like the Soundtrack from The End of the Affair) or something really happy (like funk) it will fool me into thinking that I am writing something brilliantly sad or funny, but it's really the music that's moving me, not my writing. I learn this when I reread it a couple days later expecting to sob over my laptop and instead I am all, "Crud. This stinks. This stinks so badly. Ackkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!"
So, I get worried about that trap.
However, if I am having a hard time writing and feeling depressed I go over to Pandora Radio and put on a mix inspired by Prince's Sexy M.F. This always gets me writing. It is my new writing trick.
KF: Is there any writing advice you wish you’d never heard?
CJ: Short sentences are good.
KF: Come clean: Out of all your characters, which one is your favorite? No fair saying all of them, but if you’d rather turn it around and say your least favorite, I suppose I’ll forgive you. (Note: Carrie, if this causes panic, you may say all of them. But this exception is only for authors named Carrie Jones!)
CJ: Whine. I want to say them all! You are a harsh mistress of an interviewer.
Okay... Okay...Um...
As of right this moment my favorite character is Muffin the cat in Tips on Having a Gay Ex Boyfriend.
Why?
She's furry.
She doesn't talk back. She only meows.
KF: You often discuss how Grover is your writing cheerleader and how John Wayne is your internal critic/task master. Why do you think it's important for writers to have both?
Yes. I think that writers have tendencies to go to extremes especially when it comes to self-criticism. They become such perfectionists about their writing that:
1. They can't write anything
2. They hate anything they write
3. They loathe themselves for not being J.K. Rowling or Toni Morrison or Stephen King (insert name here) or Sherman Alexie.
It starts to limit us. Healthy criticism is fine, but there's a line into destructive self criticism that can be an easy line for writers to cross. That's why it's important for me to personify my critic as John Wayne. He's tough. He's hard. He doesn't let me slack off, but he's pretty fair.
To balance things out I have Grover, who is the best Muppet ever. He had his tonsils out with me. He loves me unconditionally. He's a little self absorbed, but you can't have everything, right?
Seriously, as authors (and as humans) I think it's important for us to find a balance between confidence and criticism, between optimism and pessimism, between taking it easy and taking it too hard. That's what Grover and John Wayne represent for me.
ETA from KF: By the way, Carrie doesn't know this, but she's totally my Grover-like cheerleader. For realz. I have a quote from her on my binder o' scary agent stuff & everything. Ask tltrent, she's seen it!:-)
KF: Richard Peck once said, "We have to be all our characters but none of our characters should ever be us." Your books truly seem to take this to heart and you put a lot of yourself into your stories- has this always been your style or is it something you came to gradually?
CJ: That's such a tough question! For me it's hard to not be genuine. Honestly, that's the compliment in life that I get most often and I'm always standing there in the grocery store with a bunch of peaches in my hand and my mouth wide open going, '????' Because what can you say to that? I don't know how not to be genuine as a person, which is probably a horrific drawback and a reason I lost by 500 votes when I ran for office. I just am who I am.
When I write I think that's what happens. I just write. The issues I care about, the people I care about shimmy their way into my stories like slinky tango dancers and I have no idea how to keep them out. So, my characters tend to have random pieces of me in them. Belle has caffeine-induced seizures. Liliana is full of childhood pain and wants so badly to be a hero. Zara is a nutcase (in a good way - a better way than me). I think all my characters are much better than me. Well, except maybe Ian. And Megan. Gosh, I hope I’m not that bad. (ETA from KF: No, you are very much not!)
KF: What's the most fun/interesting/weird thing you've discovered when researching a book?
CJ: It's so naughty that I totally can't write it here. My mom might google me and find it. But it was so bad that I got worried the FBI would be tracking my web use after.
KF: You're organizing the Bar Harbor Book Festival- care to give it a shout-out here?
Yes! A cute local police officer and I have started this book festival in Bar Harbor, Maine. It's September 12-13 and this is its first year. There's going to be about 25 authors there, signing, talking, hanging out, reading, hopefully eating strudel and debating zombies versus unicorns.
The money we raise (if we raise any and it doesn't turn into one big party) is going to support local law enforcement literacy initiatives. Literacy rates are really linked heavily to crime rates. It's kind of a win-win situation: Books. Cute cops. Helping kids. Yay!
Please come! There's more info here.
You can email me if you want to donate too: carriejonesbooks at gmail dot com
(ETA: In an attempt to help Carrie thwart spambots, if you want to email her take out spaces and replace at with @ and dot with . )
You've been hard at work on the sequel to Need, Captivate, so this particular question comes from Travis M.: What is your most successful revision technique?
CJ: The problem I've found is that every revision is different. Sometimes I find it super helpful to go back each pass and look for one thing to improve. Sometimes I find it helpful to outline and look for issues. Sometimes I find it helpful to think about structure and beats. Sometimes I find it helpful to cry and clutch onto the hem of my editor's skirt and beg her to put me out of my misery.
I think the only advice I could possible give is to be brave when you revise. Be unafraid. If you have to throw it all away, you have to throw it all away. The goal is to make the best book you can make. Do whatever it takes to do that and DO NOT GIVE UP!
KF: And, from Megan: What/who inspired you to become a writer?
CJ: My high school creative writing teacher, Joseph Sullivan, is the best human in the universe and when I took his class he would write in huge red marker: YOU ARE A WRITER! Or things like: YOU ARE TALENT! Or things like I SEE BESTSELLER LIST.
Since I am the sort of person who responds to massive amount of praise it made me want to be a writer. He made me a much better writer too, but I didn't really try until about three years ago. We live in rural Maine and it takes forever to drive anywhere. My daughter gets incredibly bored in the car so she would demand stories. I started making one up while I drove. It got longer and longer. Eventually, I started writing it down because I thought that it would be easier. Then Em would be like, "More pages! MORE PAGES!" (You can imagine a ghoulish monster waiting in bed for her story if you'd like). So I started writing 10 pages a day just to appease her. Then I realized it was fun. It was actually way more fun than being a newspaper editor, which is what I was.
So I foolishly quit my job, applied to graduate school and somehow got accepted to Vermont College of Fine Arts. A year after I started Andrew Karre bought my first book, TIPS ON HAVING A GAY (Ex) BOYFRIEND.
So, I guess Em and Mr. Sullivan inspired me.
A giant, Muppet-filled Thank You! to Carrie for the interview!