Q: VANISHING GIRLS focuses on the complicated nature of sisterhood. What compelled you to write about that?
A: I’ve always wanted to
write about sisters and been attracted to sister stories, undoubtedly because I
have a sister. She’s older than I am and was both the scaffold around which I
built my identity and also the source of my greatest anguishes and anger. I
always think of siblings like those trees you see occasionally that have grown
around something else, a foreign object; they’ve absorbed it and at the same
time it’s a completely alien, other thing. That’s really the story I wanted to
tell in VANISHING GIRLS, about the
complexity not just of sisterhood but of all closeness, and the intertwining of
need and resentment, admiration and anger.
Q: It’s remarkable how often two siblings from the
same parents, brought up the same way, look so different and can have
diametrically opposed personalities. Nick and Dara are a perfect example. You
have a sister yourself – how are you alike, how are you different?
A: I don’t think it’s
remarkable. I think it’s actually intrinsic to the formation of
identity--siblings learn to be themselves as they begin to differentiate
themselves from their sisters and brothers. So the differentiation is actually
built into the very core of the development of a sense of self. Lizzie and I
are no exception. We share a sense of humor, for sure, and we’re both big
readers. We love the outdoor and physical activity. But in many other ways,
we’re extremely different. I’m an extrovert and she’s an introvert; she is much
more intellectual than I am, and I’m more social than she; she’s a committed
vegan, I’m an ecstatic meat-eater; she’s religious, I’m not. The list goes on.
Q: Nick and Dara are hotly competitive in every
aspect of their lives, but especially when it comes to boys. Does this stem
from any personal experience you want to share?
A: I never competed with
my sister overtly for boys--we were too far apart in age, and she certainly
would never have been interested in any of my friends. But I did often fall in
love with and idealize the guys she dated or hung out with; I sought romantic and
sexual attention from them as a way of bridging the gap between our ages and
also, perversely, as a way of actually trying to get closer to my sister by
obliterating the gap between us.
Q: Much of the book is set at a dilapidated amusement
park called FanLand. What was it about using that setting that appealed or
interested you?
A: You know, it’s funny.
Settings choose you just as much as characters do—the best settings become
characters, in a way. I always knew the story of these sisters had to be set in
an amusement park, perhaps because of its themes of disillusionment. Much of
the book deals with what things are versus what they appear to be, and about
our perceptions and beliefs and their ability to distort reality. So maybe an
amusement park, which depends on illusion and belief, is the obvious choice.
Q: What was it like to write a novel through two
different perspectives? How did you keep
Nick and Dara straight in your mind as you wrote the narrative?
A: They’re entirely
different people. I would never have confused them any more than I would
confuse my two best friends for each other. Besides, I’d just finished an adult
novel in which there were seven major narrators--two was easy!
Q: VANISHING GIRLS is your
tenth full-length published book. How
did your previous novels inform and influence it?
A: Double digits! Very
exciting. My writing has certainly changed since my early books, I hope for the
better. My interests have changed. I’ve shaken off some bad habits (but likely
picked up others). It’s impossible to say exactly how much every novel informs
the one that succeeds it, but there is certainly a strengthening effect to the
cumulative practice of writing.
Q: You’ve written books for middle grade, young
adult, and adult readers. How do you do your research and what do you
focus on when writing for different age groups?
A: Whether I do research
or not depends not on the age group for which I’m writing but on the book
itself, and that’s really true of the entire process—books have their own inner
rhythm and demands, internal exigencies and places to be explored. I don’t ever
consciously make decisions based on its intended audience.
Q: You are also deeply involved in the business side
of publishing as a successful entrepreneur running your own book packaging
company, Paper Lantern Lit. How do you
balance the time and energies that go into wearing your business and artistic
hats?
A: Some days it’s very,
very difficult. Like anyone else who balances multiple roles--a working mother
or working father, a serious hobbyist of any sport who has to spend hours a
week practicing--there are times where I feel pulled apart and overwhelmed. But
creativity fuels creativity: I’m very inspired by my work and lucky to be able
to do it for a living. I do run a business but we’ve built such an atypical company
with such a flexible and innovative approach that I never feel it’s too
distinctly different from my writing life.
Q: We’ve seen waves of popularity for dystopian,
supernatural, and realistic storytelling when it comes to young adult
fiction. Any predictions for the next YA
craze?
A: My deepest, profound
hope is that the alchemically appealing idea of a “craze”--which I truly
believe is driven more by the people at the editorial and publishing helm and
by the limitations of the industry, as opposed to by readership--will be
abandoned by the people whose job it is to produce great books. Trend-driven
publishing leads to a landscape barren of so much richness and depth. So I’m
hoping the next craze will be a continued diffusion in the YA space, until
there is a continued and sustainable hunger for various different sub-genres of
book as there is in the adult space.
Q: What can you share about what readers can look
forward to in your next book?
A: I’m thrilled that in the fall I’ll be
releasing the first in a series of books for middle-grade readers, called CURIOSITY HOUSE: The Shrunken Head. The
book is about four extraordinary children who live in a museum of freaks and
oddities, and was coauthored by the brilliant (and quite strange, to be honest)
H. C. Chester. And in Spring 2016, I’ll have another teen standalone.
Amazon buy link:
Author bio:
Lauren Oliver was born Laura
Suzanne Schechter in Queens, New York, and raised in Westchester, in a small
town very similar to the one depicted in Before
I Fall. Her parents are both literature professors (her father is true
crime writer Harold Schechter) and from a very early age,
she was encouraged to make up stories, draw, paint, dance around in costumes, and
essentially spend much of her time living imaginatively. She pursued literature
and philosophy at the University of Chicago, and then moved back to New York to
attend NYU’s MFA program in creative writing. She also worked at Penguin Books,
in a young adult division called Razorbill, and while there started writing Before I Fall. She left in 2009 to
pursue writing full-time and now happily works at home in Brooklyn,
New York. She is also the co-founder of the boutique literary development
company, Paper Lantern Lit.
Visit her website www.laurenoliverbooks.com
and follow her on Twitter: @OliverBooks.
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