Sara Zarr, author of Story of a Girl (Little, Brown 2007) and Sweethearts (Little, Brown 2008), will present on the panel Tayshas: Hot High School Authors on Wednesday, 10:15-11:50 a.m. She joins authors Lisa Klein, John Green, and Melissa Marr.
Have you attended TLA before? If so, what advice do you have for new authors?
This will be my first. Until now, I've only jealously watched my friends go and have the time of their lives. So now I have high expectations!
What is your preferred method of writing and why -- laptop, longhand, typewriter?
Mostly the laptop or desktop. Though I do have a beautiful vintage electric typewriter that I bought after meeting Richard Peck and finding out he composes on a typewriter. He said he likes the page to feel like a page right away, and after writing about 100 pages of a first draft of my next book on the typewriter, I think he's onto to something. Also, the typewriter doesn't allow you to be a perfectionist, and perfectionism is a big obstacle to getting anything done. It's so much harder to fix what you think are "mistakes" on the typewriter - everything gets on the paper, and when you go back over it you might find that those mistakes are actually gold. Longhand works, too, though it's harder for me to keep up with my thoughts.
Favorite books of the past year
I'm a slow reader, and still going through my 2006 to-read pile. A couple I loved from 08 - The Way He Lived, a YA by Emily Wing Smith, which I thought was really beautiful and also funny, and Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahiri's latest collection of short stories. The title story is absolute perfection. Anyone who wants to write short stories should study it.
Favorite books from your YA years
Anything and everything Cormier. I Stay Near You by M.E. Kerr, L'Engle's series on the Austin Family, and one of my all-time favorite books that, to me, should be as well-known as any of the most famous books for young readers: All Together Now by Sue Ellen Bridgers. I don't know if it's really YA or if Bridgers even intended it to be a book for young readers, but I've read it at all ages and it's just masterful. I still think about scenes from that book at least once a week.
Finish this sentence. The perfect vacation is...
paid for by someone else.
MySpace or Facebook?
Facebook.
BBQ or Tex-Mex?
Tex-Mex, especially if I could have it with the sides that come with BBQ. Hush-puppy tacos?
Finish this sentence. Libraries are…
underfunded, considering that you can't truly have democracy without them.
Do you have a blog, website, or other online presence that you would like to share with us?
I blog regularly at my home page, www.sarazarr.com.
