Author Interview with debut author Lissa Price!

All this week we're celebrating Lissa Price and her debut, STARTERS available NOW from Random House! And if you haven't checked out the LA Times glowing review of the book, check it out here!


I was lucky to snag Lissa before her interview, and here's what she had to say about herself, her writing, and her latest title.

YOU

We can read all about your life from your bio in the jacket flap of your book. And let me tell our readers--you have led quite an interesting life! You have walked with elephants in Botswana, swum with penguins in the Galapagos, danced in India, and had tea in Kyoto. Wow!


So, what's a completely random fact about you that most people don't know?

Maybe this one – I collect charm bracelets, especially ones with three-dimensional moving parts. The English ones are my favorites, but I have some from a few different countries and different decades. Guess that’s why Callie gets a charm bracelet in the book…

As a kid, what was your favorite book? Have your tastes changed since growing up?

The Hobbit. I tend to prefer less full fantasy now, where there’s not a long list of strange names to learn. I love all the YA dystopian novels. The writing there is so exciting and it’s great that science fiction has found a home in the YA section of the bookstore.

In your book, STARTERS, the old can temporarily take the place of the young. It’s dangerous for the young, and I can definitely see why Callie wouldn’t want to do it. But if you were old, would you consider signing up to take a young person’s body temporarily?

Gosh, no! I joke about being in Shaun White’s body but seriously, I try to show how wrong it is. One of the nice Enders who thought it was okay turns around by the end.

YOUR BOOK

It's the inevitable question: what inspired STARTERS? 

I was trying to get a flu shot a few years ago and they didn’t make enough vaccine. I think one of the batches turned out spoiled. Anyway, the government set up a triage system where it was only for the very young and the elderly (and the infirm). I thought what if this was a killer disease? The only ones left would be the most fragile members of society.

One of the great things about STARTERS is how you present moral issues—questions of what is right and what is wrong—without being preachy. How did you find the balance of showing morality without being didactic?

Thanks. I get into the characters pretty deeply, so Callie tells me what she thinks and believes and I try not to shut her out. I think when it’s coming from a character, it helps.

Can you tell us a little bit about the process--particularly the timeline--of writing & publishing STARTERS?

I wrote Starters in about nine months, with a couple more months of polishing. I got my agent in 24 hours, via an email query. I had met her in New York in a casual setting a couple of years before that. She got the full manuscript by 11 east coast time and emailed me at 6 her time saying she was canceling her dinner appointment to finish my manuscript. She called the next day and offered representation. I thought about it overnight (I had other offers).

She wanted to go out with it immediately but I wanted to tweak it so I did a polish over the next two weeks. Then she took it out and sold it in 6 days over a holiday weekend, when my publishers were not in their offices. They had moved floors at the time and didn’t expect to do any business over the holiday. An auction was set up between a group of publishers but Random House pre-empted.

So ten months later, today, it is being published. Book 2, the end to the series, Enders, will come out approximately 8 months after today (Dec 4 2012). This is very fast in publishing terms and I think I’m a little dizzy from it all – but in a good way!

If your reader could only take away one emotion, theme, or idea from STARTERS, what would you want it to be?

That you’re so much more than what you appear to be on the outside.

YOUR WRITING

What's the most surprising thing you've learned since becoming a writer?

How much time would be devoted to the business of writing – publicity, social networking, which I like doing – and how much overlap there would be. You’re writing something new while you’re doing edits on the first book and then also writing a short story. Sometimes, especially with tight deadlines, it can feel like this is all you do.

But the biggest thrill is when a reader tweets late at night that they stayed up to finish your book, and it brings back the joy in writing.

What do you think are your strongest and weakest points in writing?

I’m too new to know my weakest points but I’m sure I’ll discover them. Beta readers have told me they love the twists and turns in the story that they never saw coming. And that they felt they were experiencing a fresh world.

Beyond the typical--never give up, believe in yourself--what would be the single best advice you'd like to give another writer?

Be smart but write from the heart.

Thanks so much, Lissa! 


And because Lissa is awesome, she's donated a super-cool prize for one commenter on today's post. Leave any comment below to be entered to win a very neat Starters Light-Up necklace! 

Here it is all lit up!

So--get to it! Leave a comment here to be entered!!
Details: US addresses only, winners announced this weekend.