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In your opinion, what are the top three reasons why teens (or even adults) should consider picking up My Life Undecided the next time they see it online or in stores?
1)It’s funny! And who doesn’t love to laugh? With all the bad news in the world and heavy, serious books out there, this one is guaranteed to make you smile. :) My Life Undecided has been called “humorous,” “laugh out loud funny,” and “amusing,” by reviewers and book bloggers. I mean what’s not funny about letting a bunch of blog readers run your life? So laugh it up!My Life Undecided tells the story of Brooklyn Pierce, so would you mind sharing a little about her? In addition, if you could offer her any advice what would you say?
2)It contains a positive message. Although my first goal when writing all my books is entertainment, I can’t help sneak in a few positive messages along the way. In this book, I think one of the strongest messages is: “It’s okay to make mistakes.” And it is. (Thank goodness, because I’ve made a few of them!)
3)It’s got cute boys in it! Haha! Seriously, though, when I choose a book to read, I want to make sure I’m getting some kissing action in the deal. And some crush-worthy boys. So without giving anything away, I’ll just say, “I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.” At least I hope not!
Brooklyn Pierce is “decisionally challenged.” She has a hard time making wise choices and always manages to find herself in trouble. She picks the wrong friends, the wrong boys, even the wrong classes! If I could offer her (and any other decisionally challenged beings out there) some advice, I would say this: It’s okay! You don’t have to be perfect. That’s what life is all about. Making mistakes, learning from them, and moving on with a new outlook.In My Life Undecided, Brooklyn is the queen of bad decisions, so she turns to a blog to enlist the help of others in her decision-making. What inspired you to have her look for help in this type of form?
I wanted to use a format that represented how teens interact with each other today. And so much interaction (between teens and adults!) these days is online. Kids are growing up on the internet. They’re having experiences there, meeting people there, sharing their live there. Our online “presence” has become part of who we are. In one way it can expose more of ourselves than we ever allowed to be exposed before, and yet in another way, it can make us more anonymous. I liked the contrast of this and I wanted to use it in the book. Brooklyn spills all her secrets to the world, and yet she does it anonymously. Her blog readers are practically living her life for her…without even knowing who she is. It was really fun to explore this in the story.
I love the cover for My Life Undecided. It is very cute and definitely has a summer read vibe to it. So what did you originally think of it the first time you saw it?
The cover for this book was a bit of an emotional roller coaster for me. We had a very early original cover that was similar to this one (that I loved!) but it quickly came to our attention that it was VERY much like another book that was already on the market. So it had to be changed. Then we had a second cover that I didn’t really like much. I told my editor that and she was thankfully able to get it changed. But it was complicated because at the same time, they were redesigning the cover for the paperback of THE KARMA CLUB, so that it would match the look and feel of MY LIFE UNDECIDED. It was getting a little crazy with all the back and forth and we were running out of time. Finally, they came up with this one and the current paperback for THE KARMA CLUB and I loved it. It was exactly what I was hoping for. Simple and clean yet at the same time fun and colorful. Phew!How did the title My Life Undecided come to be? Was it always the title, or did it come later on in the process?
That’s a very funny story, actually! Fitting to the theme of the book (decisions and indecisiveness) I couldn’t for the life of me, come up with a title for it. During the entire three months I was writing it, the title page read, “Untitled Blog Book.” So, I took a hint from my main character and polled 50 of my closest friends, asking them to submit book titles to me and vowing to pay $200 to the person who submitted the title that stuck. My friend Mike came up with MY LIFE UNDECIDED and he is now $200 richer. :)
With every one of your books so far, you have had a fabulous trailer to go along with it, and I have to say the one for My Life Undecided was the best one so far! So what originally inspired you to make book trailers? Moreover, do you hope to continue this trend continue as your writing career continues?
THANKS! My first book trailer for THE FIDELITY FILES (one of my women’s fiction novels), was kind of a fluke! There was a producer who had wanted to turn the book into a TV series (before the book even came out) and so he produced what’s called a “sizzle reel.” It’s like a trailer for what the TV show would look like if it were on the air. It’s used to pitch the concept to studios and networks. Unfortunately, the show didn’t get made, but my dad (of all people!) said, why don’t you use the footage and edit together a sizzle reel for the novel? Like a book trailer? I’d never heard of this concept before but I liked the idea and so we did it. That was how the first book trailer was born. I had so much fun editing it, that I decided I wanted to do one for every book. And so now I do! I’d love to continue to do them for each book but they’re a TON of work though so we’ll have to see how my schedule shapes up at the time of the next book release.Since the publication of your first book, The Fidelity Files, have you experienced any noteworthy ‘rock star’ type moments? If so, do you have any you would like to share?
Well, I’m still waiting for the one that I’ve been hoping to happen since my first book was published. And that is for someone to recognize my name and go, “Hey, didn’t you write The Karma Club?” Or something like that. It’s yet to happen! But I’d have to say my biggest “rock-star” moment so far was when my name and picture was published in Variety a few months ago. It was an article about a film option for my upcoming sci-fi series called UNREMEMBERED. I used to work at MGM Studios and Variety would be delivered every day to my desk. It’s like the film world bible. So to see my name (and picture!) in there was totally surreal! I have the article hanging on my wall. :)
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| Now out in paperback! |
Ooh, I love these. Okay, here’s three:What is up next for you book wise? Is there anything else you would like to add?
1)I was not a big reader when I was young (I didn’t get into books until after college)
2)When I was thirteen, you couldn’t even see the walls of my bedroom because they were covered floor to ceiling in Paula Abdul posters. No joke!
3)I’m afraid of the dark and even watch TV with the lights on!
Ooh, I have TONS of fun stuff in the works! Some I can talk about and some I can’t…YET! My next book is called 52 REASONS TO HATE MY FATHER. It will be released in Summer 2012. I just finished all the edits. I’m so excited about this one! It’s about a spoiled teen heiress, famous for her partygirl antics and tabloid headlines, who’s forced by her ever-absent mogul father to take on a different low-wage job every week for a year, if she wants any hope of receiving her trust fund. I had SO much fun writing that one. And it was recently optioned for film! So fingers crossed it actually gets made! How cool would that be?~~~
And right now I’m working on the first book in a new sci-fi trilogy I just sold called UNREMEMBERED. It’s about a sixteen year old girl who wakes up amongst the wreckage of a devastating plane crash with no memories. She's forced to piece together her forgotten past with only one clue to her identity—a mysterious boy who claims she’s not from this time.
I’m really excited about everything that’s coming up!
Thanks so much for such a fun interview (and challenging questions!) I hope your blog readers enjoy the book!
Thanks so much for stopping by, Jessica!
To find out more about Jessica and her books:
~ Website
~ Twitter
To buy a copy of My Life Undecided:
~ Amazon
Book Trailer:
Be sure to check back tommorow for a review and giveaway for My Life Undecided!
LOL, love the story of how she got the title for this book!
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