Margo Rabb will be speaking on our YART kick-off program Women of YA Lit + 1 on Tuesday, March 31, 2:30-3:50 p.m. She joins Justine Larbalestier, Nancy Werlin, Cassandra Clare, and Patrick Jones.
1. Have you attended TLA before? If so, what advice do you have for new authors?
This is my first time, and I’m so excited! The only library conference I’ve been to before is the Association of Jewish Libraries conference—I had the most amazing time there, and became friends with some wonderful people.
2. What is your preferred method of writing and why -- laptop, longhand, typewriter?
My first rough drafts of novels and short stories are always written by hand in little notebooks, and then typed into my laptop. I feel freer when I write longhand, since I know that no one will ever read it. I don’t use a manual typewriter, but I fantasize about pecking away on one like Snoopy, typing “It was a dark and stormy night…” and then ripping out pages and crumpling them up, which seems very satisfying.
3. Favorite books of the past year.
My two favorite books that I read last year are Peter Cameron’s Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You and Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home.
Every once in a while I read a book that’s so beautiful I don’t want to finish it, since I’ll never again have the experience of reading it for the first time. Someday was one of those books for me. Fun Home was a different kind of experience—I read it in one sitting and stayed up all night finishing it. I recommend both books to everyone I know.
4. Favorite books from your YA years:
In Summer Light by Zibby Oneal (I have an essay about this book coming out in Lizzie Skurnick’s Shelf Discovery, which will be published by Avon in July), Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume, Beginner’s Love by Norma Klein, Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery, and poetry by Edna St. Vincent Millay and Emily Dickinson.
5. Finish this sentence. The perfect vacation is...
in Paris, kissing on a bridge over the Seine, and then going off to eat a huge, delicious, endless meal featuring lots of puff pastry and raw cheeses.
6. MySpace or Facebook?
Facebook! MySpace kind of gives me a headache.
7. BBQ or Tex-Mex?
I would like to marry the Salt Lick BBQ brisket sandwich and have its babies.
8. Finish this sentence. Libraries are…
my favorite places to go whenever I feel heartbroken or depressed. They always, always, always cheer me.
Do you have a blog, website, or other online presence that you would like to share with us? My website is www.margorabb.com and my blog is http://margorabb.com/blog/
