Friday, April 5, 2013

#AuthorInterview Tellulah Darling tells why she wants a hatchet and a box of sharpies #YA

Hello darlings,

When Rachelle kindly invited me to share the dark recesses of my brain in an author interview, I was thrilled because Sudoku was getting boring and being deep in rewrites I needed another way to procrastinate refresh myself during the creative process.

Make yourselves comfy…

1)    Why do you like writing YA?

Because I am emotionally stuck at sixteen. J 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)    What is your favorite line from your new novel My Ex From Hell and why?

She bopped out of the river clad–only in some strategically placed seaweed–and rushed me like a twelve-year-old girl reunited with her BFF at summer camp.

I feel that I really captured the emotional honesty and nuanced understanding of those most fragile tween years.  Yeah, I can’t read that with a straight face either. Because the image just makes me laugh.

4)     The love interest in this book is a character called Kai, who happens to be the son of Hades, God of the Underworld. Would your sixteen-year-old-self have fallen for him?

Absolutely. He would have been so excellently unsuitable for me! However, I would have been worried about of my protagonist Sophie kicking my butt, so maybe just quietly. And from afar.

5) What five things would you want on a desert island?

I could list a bunch of really useful electronic devices, but let's be real. They'd probably die before they could be useful and then I'd be stuck with a bunch of dead weight. So I need to think practically here.

1) Towel
Since I was a wee lass, I have taken Douglas Adam's sage advice very seriously. I always know where my towel is. To use to pillow my head, or wrap around me or snap at angry hyenas, it has proven its worth on more than one occasion. 

2) Sharp Hatchet
A very handy tool for both the chopping of kindling and decapitation purposes when the zombie apocalypse happens. Sure, you say, what are the chances that the virus will spread to my particular deserted island and infect the local animals? But do I really want to take that chance? I think not.

3) Vat of Ground Espresso - preferably Lavazza Rossa.
This desert island stay can go one of two ways. I can be happy (with espresso) or very very cranky. Believe me, no one wants the latter. Since I'll have my hatchet to both chop the wood for the fire and cut open a coconut which I'll turn into a stovetop (firetop?) espresso maker, it's just common sense.

4) Box of black sharpies
I'll finally have the time to write my masterpiece on either rocks or a nice cave wall. Also, I'm going to want to mark my tough survivor status with ink and since I don't like needles, the sharpies will have to suffice.

5) MAC paramount lipstick
I don't leave home without it because I was not raised by wolves. And even if I'm only facing angry hyenas or zombies, there is no need for me to look as scary as they do. Plus at least my epitaph can say "She was stupid enough to get herself stranded on a deserted island, but boy, did she look good!"

Since we’re doing lists of fives, give us five facts about you.

How very excellently Sesame Street.

1)    I love British TV
2)    I tap dance
3)    I did my master’s thesis on Bugs Bunny animation. (*No one can beat me for parental disapproval. I paid good money to study cartoons. Feel free to use me as an example of “at least I’m not doing this.”)
4)    I slipped off a ship (but was caught) when I was three. According to my father it was due to a pair of cursed sandals from a Voodoo priestess. Or he just refused to pay full price and was sold duds. We differ on the historical interpretation of the event.
5)    Kindles are the greatest things ever because you can read smexy books in public without being judged. I hate being judged. The irony that I write judgy girls is not lost on me. Hey, I only hate being judged. Judging is a basic right.

Thanks so much for letting me babble! Stop by www.tellulahdarling.com or friend me on Goodreads or Twitter and let’s chat books!

Be sure to enter the Rafflecopter for one of three signed copies of Tellulah Darling's latest release, My Ex From Hell. (LAST DAY!!!)


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