Sarah MacLean Interview!

Sarah MacLean is the wonderful debut author of The Season, which was released yesterday. It is amazing, and you should get yourself a copy. :)

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What made you decide to be an author? Why did you choose to write YA and not adult or middle grade?

Being an author sort of decided me rather than the other way around. Alex came into my head like an avenging queen, in the scene that became the first chapter of the book. And I had to know her better. Her story just seemed write for YA...her friends are such great friends, her life is so perfectly teen, despite being 200 years in the past...and I just can't imagine THE SEASON being anything other than a YA

Middle grade authors are magic to me. I couldn't capture that voice if I wanted to. When I meet people who write for that age group...I'm always floored...I mean...these are the writers who give kids access to books...these are the people responsible for cultivating book lovers. I give them mad snaps.

What types of music do you listen to? Do you listen to a certain playlist while writing?

I have a writing playlist. It's filled with classical music and opera...to keep me in the zone of the 19th Century. Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, Rossini...and right now I'm working on an adult romance...and the main character has an incongruous theme song--Jason Mraz's I'm Yours...so it's always a little weird when that pops up between The Emperor's Waltz and something from the Barber of Seville.

What made you decide to write The Season?

A triple threat of a love of historical romance, an obsession with the Regency and a desire to write a YA that would explore the best side of friendship.

Are you working on any more books currently? If yes, are you allowed to tell us about them?

I actually have three adult romances coming from Avon/HarperCollins next year...the first one is due to my editor in April...so I can tell you about that one! It's a Regency-set romance...the heroine is a 27-year-old spinster who has spent her whole life dreaming of adventure and romance...and finally decides to take matters into her own hands. She makes a list of the 9 things she would do if she didn't have to face society...or the consequences. And then she does them. Oh, and there's a dreamy rake in there, too.

I've been hearing about these six-word memoirs a lot. Will you write a six-word memoir for us?

Raised by Europeans; Regency dorkiness abounds.

How did The Season change from the first draft to the copy that everyone will see when they read it?

My editor is brilliant...because of her, I added what are now two of my favorite scenes of the book...the scene where Alex dresses and the carriage scene. The mystery is tighter, and there's a little more exposition in places (I tend to write a lot of dialogue)...did I say my editor is brilliant?

What is your daily schedule like?

Wake up; Shower, thinking about book; Dress, thinking about dayjob; Write on morning subway commute (invariably standing, squished between 5 people, thanks, F train); Day job, sometimes daydreaming about book; Write on evening subway commute (see above); Walk dog, thinking about book...or day job if I had a bad day; Dinner with hubby; Write; Bed; Repeat.

Who has been the most influential person in your writing career?

My best friend, author Lisa Ann Sandell. She's brilliant, encouraging and the most lyric, beautiful writer I know. I wouldn't be a writer if it weren't for her.

What was the time when you got the weirdest inspiration?

I'm about to do something totally crazy with book two in my adult series. I can't really talk much about it, but suffice to say my heroine will have something of an odd habit for Regency times (that's totally normal in the 21st century). It was weird--the idea sprang into my head in the grocery store. And I tried to ignore it. But I can't. This is how she wants to be. So...it's how she'll be...assuming my editor doesn't decide I'm crazy.

What is your advice to teens who want to be authors?

Write all the time. Read more. Appreciate that writing isn't an innate talent but an earned, practiced skill. Practice makes perfect.

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Thanks, Sarah! Check back here tomorrow for a review of The Season.

Want to find more about Sarah? Here's some links:

Sarah's blog.
Sarah's Twitter.
Sarah's MySpace.

hope.