We all know how much I hate blogging–I’m sure it’s legendary at this point–but there are a few people for whom I am willing to overcome my hatred. People I will not only blog for, but also blog about. Jennifer Hubbard is one of those people. She is my Tenner buddy, and really just an all-around good egg (I can say things like “good egg” because I am very secure in my dorkiness).
Anyway, Jennifer wrote a book everyone is talking about and eager to read called THE SECRET YEAR.
It’s about a poor, hot boy named Colt who secretly hooked up with Julia, a sad, privileged beauty who dies unexpectedly. The only thing Colt has to remember her by is the diary she kept during the time of their affair, which he hopes will explain why she was so determined to keep their relationship a secret.
I asked Jennifer a few questions to get to know her as a writer and a person and here is what she had to say:
Explain the origin of your book’s title.
The Secret Year was at least the third title this book had in its pre-publication life. But it fits well: it’s about a year in the life of two people who had a secret relationship.
Every author has a distinct style. Describe yours.
I tend to write on the shorter side, but I invest a lot in each word. That probably comes from my years of short-story writing. I aim for brevity and clarity, but with layers of meaning.
What does your book offer a reader that no other book can?
One reason I started writing was to tell stories that turned out the way I thought they should, because I grew impatient with stories that ended too neatly. I try not to be formulaic. In The Secret Year, the characters are aware of the “opposites attract” storyline, and they play it up, they make fun of it, they use the expectations of that script for their own purposes. However, their differences also affect them in ways they don’t expect.
What’s one writer’s myth you’d like to bust?
I hear a lot of, “You HAVE to do this,” and, “You MUST do that,” when it comes to publishing and promoting. And 99% of the time, the thing that’s being touted as a requirement is actually optional. You don’t have to blog, Skype, Twitter, do school visits, do vlogs, produce a trailer, and develop a playlist. Everything helps, but nobody has time to do everything and still write. And if a certain task doesn’t come naturally and feels like a chore, I think the discomfort shows and it becomes less effective. I do think writers nowadays need to be online in at least one place, but there’s a lot of leeway in where, and how, and what to do with that online space. I’m online a lot because I enjoy it; it’s fun for me.
What do you read for fun?
Almost everything. Just for example, my bookshelves contain classic novels, nonfiction works about everything from the birth of the atomic age to the Gold Rush, YA novels, Nancy Drew books, essays, poetry, travel narratives, memoirs, true-crime stories, the journals of Lewis and Clark, a few picture books, short-story anthologies, literary magazines, and on and on.
What was the last book you read that blew you away and why exactly were you blown?
The last book that gave me the cold chills and made me rave to anyone who would listen was Peter Cameron’s Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You. I loved the voice, the humor, the richness of the language. It’s about the aftermath of 9/11, though in a very subtle way; you have to pick up on the cues. It’s about the difficulty that self-protective people have in reaching out for love. It’s just stunning, IMHO.
If you could pick any writer alive or dead to mentor you, who would you pick and why?
I used to long for a writing guru, especially in the days before I knew any other writers. Now, with the internet, I’m in constant communication with other writers, and this “pool of mentors” is wonderful. But I have to mention two special people. Danielle Joseph, author of Shrinking Violet, is my mentor through the Class of 2k9/2k10 program. And I consider Kelly Fineman, of the blog Writing and Ruminating, to be my blogging mentor. Hers was the first blog I read, and I still read it every day. She taught me how to get started on LiveJournal.
What’s the one thing you want to accomplish before you die?
I’ve accomplished a lot of the things on my list already, like “Get published” and “See the giant redwoods.” Now I just want to see as much of the world as I can, and put as much good into the world as I can.
If you guys want to know more about Jennifer, follow her on Twitter (I do; she’s got a GREAT sense of humor) @JennRHubbard. She’s also got a real blog, unlike my poor excuse for one, which has smart, informative, writerly type posts: http://writerjenn.livejournal.com/
So go check her out, she’s pretty cool. And go buy her book, THE SECRET YEAR–it released yesterday, but today is Friday so I know y’all just got paid. xD
Tags: author interview
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