Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit interview with Wendy Toliver

Feb 13, 2009 10:10

Sasha Finnegan has always had a knack for setting people up, and at sixteen, she's turned her talent into an online business, molding high school crushes into true love. But Sasha finds her toughest match yet when hottie Derek Urban asks her to set him up with Sasha's gorgeous sister, Maddie. It's not that Derek isn't a good catch. In fact, after spending so much time with him, Sasha can't help but think he's perfect -- for her, that is.

Can Sasha push her feelings aside for the sake of her business? Or has this miss finally found her match?
More Info about Miss Match

Miss Match is Wendy Toliver’s second Simon Pulse Romantic Comedy. It was a 2007 finalist in the Romance Writers’ of America© Golden Heart® contest in the Young Adult category (under the title Cupid Girl).

Interview with Wendy Toliver

How many fingers would you use to count the books you've read more than three times?  What books do you turn to time and again and why?

Being a mom, I’ve read my sons’ favorite picture books so many times; I have them memorized. When it comes to novels, I’m not a big re-reader. I do keep books I like, and I might scan through my favorite parts again. I’d say I’ve read about five books more than three times is all. What makes me want to read a book again is a really twisted ending. I like to go back and look closer at all the clues. Or perhaps a classic that I might not have fully understood when I had to read it as an assignment in high school or college and want to give it another go as a so-called adult.

Have you ever fallen in love with a character (yours or someone else's)?How did that work out for you?


Hmmm, good question! I’m going to interpret this as having a crush on a male character, if that’s all right. I feel it’s my duty as an author to create characters readers either love or love to hate. I have a major soft spot for Alex in The Secret Life of a Teenage Siren. I like how he loved Roxy despite her frizzy hair and zits. I went through a very rough spot in college and Matt (now my husband) still loved me, and that was one of the reasons I knew he was a keeper. And who can resist a gorgeous Texas boy who says “yes m’am,” like Derek in Miss Match?

Then there are the usual suspects, like Mr. Darcy, the Hardy Boys, Harry Potter, Edward Cullen … I guess I crush on characters who are strong at times, tender at others, funny, faithful, and (ahem) good kissers.

Was there a pivotal moment in your writing or a single (or plural) epiphany that really changed or improved the way you write?

I didn’t really think about being an author until a few years ago, and my first attempt at writing a novel was just a spontaneous “Hey, that was a cool experience. Maybe I should write a book about it.” It taught me I could indeed get the words down, and even get an agent, but it was only when I went to the RWA National Conference I realized there needed to be a character arc. I’m still not certain I have all the technicalities of writing a novel down, but at least I know that most novels are not a continuous cycle of “this happened, then that happened.”

I don't think any character really lives and breathes without quirks.
Can you talk about that?

For a character to be believable, he or she must have a trait or two that is unconventional. For example, if the hero is 100% perfect, from his easy-going and supportive parents to his good looks, successful (but not TOO time-consuming) career, flawless DNA, a soft spot for the heroine’s geriatric cat, you just want to yawn.  My favorite kinds of quirks are fears. Like a man who by all accounts seems very brave, yet is afraid of roller coasters.

Do you ever fear that people you've known will read your work and see themselves in the characters you create?

My grandma was excited to see herself in a book, playing the role of Grandma Perkins (who is a foxy Siren) in The Secret Life of a Teenage Siren. J And yes, some of the engineer-nerd characteristics of Roxy’s dad are loosely based on my own dad. I warned my mother-in-law that I used one of her quirks (being a vegetarian but sometimes splurging on halibut) for Sasha and Maddie’s mother in Miss Match. And some of my husband’s qualities sometimes seep into my heros, because hey, he’s pretty darn lovable. But for the most part, my characters are their own people, not based on anyone in my life.

If you could meet any fictional character ever created, who would it be
and why? 
I’d like to meet Zorro because he’s soooooo sexy and exciting and mysterious.

interview, miss match, girlfriends cyber circuit, wendy toliver

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