Q. Tell me about yourself.
A. Well, I'm married, with one daughter, and one dog. I live in the Chicago area, so I experience cold, snowy winters and scorching hot summers. Sounds great, doesn't it? My television viewing is varied, but I tend to favor crime shows. Music is also varied; while writing Advantage Erin my most common Pandora channel was Foster the People. I'm a bit of a sports nut and I follow all the Chicago teams.
Q. Anything else?
A. I suppose I should mention that I'm male.
Q. But you write in the first person as a teen girl?
A. True. It's a gift. Seriously, it's something I experimented with a number of years ago, when I was writing fiction for an adult audience. I enjoyed it and got positive feedback from published authors, which encouraged me to go on, and the stories I want to tell lend themselves to a first person female voice. There's a long literary history of writers from one gender writing in the voice of the other, and fortunately I have a good enough ear for dialogue to make it work.
Q. How did you come up with the idea for Advantage Erin?
A. Basically from my observation of the mother-daughter dynamic and the high expectations many moms place on their girls, which naturally leads to resistance. As for the time travel element, I think it's fairly natural for a child to wonder what an encounter would be like if they met their mom or dad at the same age. And tennis seemed the ideal metaphor for mother-daughter tension.
Q. Do you play tennis?
A. I took lessons when I was young, but I never played competitively. While researching this book it struck me that I'd enjoy picking up the game now, so I've recently started playing in a regular game. But if you saw me play, I'm not sure you'd recognize it as actual tennis. More like hitting the yellow ball and hoping it stays in play. Erin would destroy me!
Q. Do you think time travel will ever be possible?
A. I never say never, but if it ever did become possible, wouldn't some future time travelers have made their way to our time, and in our Internet age wouldn't we know about it? But that's one of the great things about fiction; anything is possible.
Q. What else have you written?
A. I've completed two other young adult novels. I'm hoping to find a book publisher for them, and I have a literary agent representing me for those works. Stay tuned! I also
wrote a mystery novel for the adult market which was published a number of years
ago, but which is presently out of print. Please email me if you're in the publishing field and would like my agent contact, or if you'd like more information on my mystery novel.
Q. Any advice for writers?
A. Read a ton and write a ton is standard. But a piece of advice I was once told has really stuck with me. There is no such thing as good writing, only good re-writing. You may feel your first (and second, and third, and ...) drafts suck, but don't give up. Edit, and edit some more until you're truly satisfied with your work. No short cuts here. But I promise, you'll feel awesome once your work is complete and great!
A. Well, I'm married, with one daughter, and one dog. I live in the Chicago area, so I experience cold, snowy winters and scorching hot summers. Sounds great, doesn't it? My television viewing is varied, but I tend to favor crime shows. Music is also varied; while writing Advantage Erin my most common Pandora channel was Foster the People. I'm a bit of a sports nut and I follow all the Chicago teams.
Q. Anything else?
A. I suppose I should mention that I'm male.
Q. But you write in the first person as a teen girl?
A. True. It's a gift. Seriously, it's something I experimented with a number of years ago, when I was writing fiction for an adult audience. I enjoyed it and got positive feedback from published authors, which encouraged me to go on, and the stories I want to tell lend themselves to a first person female voice. There's a long literary history of writers from one gender writing in the voice of the other, and fortunately I have a good enough ear for dialogue to make it work.
Q. How did you come up with the idea for Advantage Erin?
A. Basically from my observation of the mother-daughter dynamic and the high expectations many moms place on their girls, which naturally leads to resistance. As for the time travel element, I think it's fairly natural for a child to wonder what an encounter would be like if they met their mom or dad at the same age. And tennis seemed the ideal metaphor for mother-daughter tension.
Q. Do you play tennis?
A. I took lessons when I was young, but I never played competitively. While researching this book it struck me that I'd enjoy picking up the game now, so I've recently started playing in a regular game. But if you saw me play, I'm not sure you'd recognize it as actual tennis. More like hitting the yellow ball and hoping it stays in play. Erin would destroy me!
Q. Do you think time travel will ever be possible?
A. I never say never, but if it ever did become possible, wouldn't some future time travelers have made their way to our time, and in our Internet age wouldn't we know about it? But that's one of the great things about fiction; anything is possible.
Q. What else have you written?
A. I've completed two other young adult novels. I'm hoping to find a book publisher for them, and I have a literary agent representing me for those works. Stay tuned! I also
wrote a mystery novel for the adult market which was published a number of years
ago, but which is presently out of print. Please email me if you're in the publishing field and would like my agent contact, or if you'd like more information on my mystery novel.
Q. Any advice for writers?
A. Read a ton and write a ton is standard. But a piece of advice I was once told has really stuck with me. There is no such thing as good writing, only good re-writing. You may feel your first (and second, and third, and ...) drafts suck, but don't give up. Edit, and edit some more until you're truly satisfied with your work. No short cuts here. But I promise, you'll feel awesome once your work is complete and great!
