1) Why do you like writing YA?
Because I am emotionally stuck at sixteen. Storytelling is drama and conflict and making crazy intense emotional connections and for me, all those things are so characteristic of the teen years. There are so many primal, important issues we’re figuring out about ourselves, and our place in the world. Yet, it’s a time of a wonderful freedom because we don’t necessarily have the adult responsibilities still to come. So we can be childish and playful in a very special way. And in terms of love, the teen years are so passionate. I remember having this incredible sense of immortality and possibility and yet I felt every emotion so profoundly. For both the romance and comedy, I think it’s a wonderful time in a person’s life to explore. Plus smart, mouthy, teen girls rock. See aforementioned emotional stuckness and possible self-fulfillment fantasy.
2) If you couldn’t be an author, what would your ideal career be?
Jazz singer/flapper in the 1920s. I’m guessing my inability to sing is the least of my obstacles on that one.
3) So you’re a former screenwriter... was the transition to author easy to make?
Yes and no. I think my understanding of story, character, structure, theme – all of that was applicable. But novel writing definitely has its own needs. There are a lot more words! Who knew? That said, I love that I can be in my characters’ heads in a novel, in a way that I can’t in a screenplay.
4) When did you write your first book and what was the title?
Because I am emotionally stuck at sixteen. Storytelling is drama and conflict and making crazy intense emotional connections and for me, all those things are so characteristic of the teen years. There are so many primal, important issues we’re figuring out about ourselves, and our place in the world. Yet, it’s a time of a wonderful freedom because we don’t necessarily have the adult responsibilities still to come. So we can be childish and playful in a very special way. And in terms of love, the teen years are so passionate. I remember having this incredible sense of immortality and possibility and yet I felt every emotion so profoundly. For both the romance and comedy, I think it’s a wonderful time in a person’s life to explore. Plus smart, mouthy, teen girls rock. See aforementioned emotional stuckness and possible self-fulfillment fantasy.
2) If you couldn’t be an author, what would your ideal career be?
Jazz singer/flapper in the 1920s. I’m guessing my inability to sing is the least of my obstacles on that one.
3) So you’re a former screenwriter... was the transition to author easy to make?
Yes and no. I think my understanding of story, character, structure, theme – all of that was applicable. But novel writing definitely has its own needs. There are a lot more words! Who knew? That said, I love that I can be in my characters’ heads in a novel, in a way that I can’t in a screenplay.
4) When did you write your first book and what was the title?
I may have written a novel’s worth of very bad fanfic when I was a teenager, which I pray was consumed by fire. It had no title. I started another one in university, again, titleless, again, very bad. I thought it was ironic. It was not. So my first novel that got a title was Sam Cruz’s Infallible Guide to Getting Girls.
5) Do you have a writing routine?
Does “obsessing” count? I'm not one of those people who has a set regiment of number of hours or words per day. In the early stages, my process consists of lots of thinking–about plot, character, theme, all that goodness. And scrawling notes on random pieces of paper that pile up. Eventually I turn those into a loose outline. And from there, I begin my first draft. I find the deeper I get into the story, the more my writing time increases until I'm scowling at my family for their audacity in wanting clean clothes and food, because all I want to do all day is write. I also play a lot of Sudoku once I start writing, because it helps me figure out story problems.
6) Where did the idea for The Blooming Goddess Trilogy come from?
I’ve always loved the idea of retelling/reshaping classic myths and fairy tales. Playing with them in different contexts. When I started to think about doing that myself, it was Persephone that really spoke to me. I didn’t want to retell the original or simply move the same story to modern day. I wanted her past mostly (with the addition of Kai) as is, and then make it firmly a human struggling to be a goddess. Sophie suddenly has to deal with all these expectations of herself on a global scale. It’s hard enough figuring out who we are as teens, so revealing a goddess identity just threw her into an entirely new pressure cooker. And because I love romantic comedy so much, this whole series, in my head at least, really is a rom-com first and foremost.
7) What’s next?
My Life From Hell, the final book in The Blooming Goddess Trilogy will be coming out in 2014. Once I have this series wrapped up, I want to go back to writing for an older YA crowd. I'm playing around with an idea for a 5 book fantasy romantic comedy series, where each book would have its own set of lovers but with an overarching battle through all the books.
Connect with Tellulah Darling
There’s bound to be pressure when it takes 2500 years to get to a second date. Which is exactly why Theo Rockman, a.k.a. Prometheus, would rather not go. With his best friend gravely injured and the fate of humanity still on the line, Theo has all sorts of creative excuses to avoid dating swoon-worthy god and love of his life, Hephaestus.
YA romantic comedy gets an epic mythological twist in the free (at select retailers) short story A Date of Godlike Proportions (The Blooming Goddess Trilogy Book 2.5). Being human hasn’t killed Theo, but this date just might.
No comments:
Post a Comment