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Blog: The Children's Book Review (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Pat Mora, Adam Selzer, Valentine's Day, Books for Girls, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Jane O'Connor, Laura Numeroff, Ages Four to Eight: Books for pre-school to second grade, Goodie Bag: Books to share and give, Ages Nine to Twelve: Books for third through sixth grade, Teens: Books for young adults, Book Lists: Specialty picks, Ages Baby to Three: Books for infants and toddlers, Seasonal: Holiday Events, Dan Yaccarino, Brian Katcher, Julie Anne Peters, Libby Schmais, Victoria Kann, Add a tag
Blog: Alice's CWIM blog (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Delacorte, debut author, Stephen Barbara, Debut Author of the Month, Libby Schmais, The Pillowbook of Lotus Lowenstein, Foundry Media, Add a tag
Debut Author of the Month:
Libby Schmais
Je suis heureux de vous informer that starting today, I'm reviving le Debut Author du mois feature on mon blog. (Those of you who contacted me for First Books: You may be hearing from in months to come.)
January's DAotM is Libby Schmais, whose YA debut is The Pillow Book of Lotus Lowenstein, released from Delacorte en Décembre. Says Kirkus: "readers of any age will savor Lotus’s panache...Chick lit par excellence." You can read a délicieuse excerpt here.
Describe your debut YA novel, The Pillow Book of Lotus Lowenstein.
The Pillow Book of Lotus Lowenstein is a diary book by a teenager living in Brooklyn who is obsessed with all things French. Lotus feels stifled by her life in Park Slope, Brooklyn and fancies herself an existentialist, although her real knowledge of that philosophy and actual French words is a little sketchy. She and her best friend Joni end up both liking the same guy, another Sartre aficionado, and things come to a head during a school trip to Montreal, challenging both her friendship and her freethinking ideas.
You’d published a couple of books for adults—what made you write for a YA audience?
I didn’t consciously set out to write a YA book. The character of Lotus appeared to me one day, and the voice was a teenage one, so I just kind of went with it. I think if I had decided to write a modern-day YA novel from the beginning, I would have been intimidated, because it was out of my comfort zone.
Why did you choose diary format? Have you kept journals at some point?
Well, Lotus is studying The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagan in school, a famous Japanese diary book so that’s part of the reason I chose the diary format. The other reason is that I’ve always wanted to write a diary book. So many of my favorite books are diary books, like I Capture the Castle,
Blog: YA Authors Cafe (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: YA Authors Cafe interview, Libby Schmais, The Pillow Book of Lotus Lowenstein, Add a tag
Marlene: Tell us about your book
Libby: The Pillow Book of Lotus Lowenstein is a novel about existential dread, cupcakes and l’amour. It’s the story of a teenager named Lotus Lowenstein who lives in Park Slope and is kind of obsessed with Sartre (who she calls JP), France and falling in love. Her diary book chronicles her day-to-day life in Brooklyn, falling in love, going to Montreal, not to mention a falling out with her best friend Joni over Sean, the boy they both have feelings for.
Marlene: What was your inspiration for this story?
Libby: I was inspired by The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagan, which is a diary book written by a young woman in the Imperial Court of Japan in the year 1002 It’s called The Pillow Book because the author, Sei Shonagan, was given some notebooks by the Empress to make into a pillow. She used the notebooks to write her thoughts down. When I first read The Pillow Book, I was struck by how modern and even witty it was. I’ve always loved diary books, so I wanted to find a way to use the diary concept and The Pillow Book in a novel. I came up with the idea of a girl living in Park Slope, Brooklyn who was studying The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon in English class, and has the assignment of writing her own pillow book. This also allowed me to include a number of quotes from the original Pillow Book.
Marlene: Do you remember writing the first words? Are they still the same?
Libby: Yes, I remember writing the first sentence and immediately liking the character of Lotus. The beginning is pretty straightforward, in the classic first person narrative “Call Me Ishmael” tradition. Lotus starts with: As you may have guessed, my name is Lotus Lowenstein and this is my diary.
Marlene:What kind of research did you have to do for this story?
Libby: The research for this book was, as Lotus would say, très enjoyable. I read a great biography about the relationship between Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, perused some books of French slang and existentialism and took a road trip to Montreal to eat Poutine (a Canadian concoction of French Fries, cheese curds and gravy). I also wandered around Park Slope, eating cupcakes and drinking cappuccino.
Marlene: What is your favorite line, passage, chapter from this book?
Libby: I am particularly fond of the opening of the book where Lotus describes her hopes and dreams, which involve moving to Paris and wandering around in a Trenchcoat with her imaginary French boyfriend, Jean-something.
Marlene: Was there any part that you struggled with or avoided writing?
Libby: One of the parts I had particular trouble with was the fight between the two best friends, Lotus and Joni, and accurately portraying the deep emotions of a friend breakup. Towards the end of the writing of the book, I actually had a falling out (later resolved) with one of my own close friends, which actually helped give me insight into how painful it was for Joni and Lotus.
Marlene: What's on your nightstand right now?
Libby: A glass of water, my Juice Beauty moisturizer, a book on Henry the VIII by Alison Weir (research for my next YA novel), Life in Tudor England (see the theme here), On Writers Block by Victoria Nelson (a great book) and Gidget (highly recommended & who knew she was Jewish).
Marlene: Have you ever wanted to quit writing? Why?
Libby: Yes, there have been times that I’ve definitely wanted to quit writing. It’s easy to get discouraged when the wr
The excerpt left this existentialist grinning. I can think of a number of people, including myself, who need to read this book.
Knowledge is a treasure, but practice is the key to it...................................................
Quelle belle interview! C'est et une bonne suprise, et J'ai beaucoup appris.
(okay, but now I'm curious - how can an author use GoodReads to promote their book?)
Thanks and Namaste,
Lee
Thanks for posting this awesome interview. I love reading the many different pathways to publication.
Hi everyone,
thanks for your tres gentile comments and for lee, what I was talkinga bout was that goodreads has a great author program where you can post info about your book, linke your blog, do giveaways, etc. here's the link: http://www.goodreads.com/author/program
merci!
Libby
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