tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2752863935200357433.post8397497943051495415..comments2024-01-12T13:13:31.281-08:00Comments on YA Authors Cafe: SUCH A PRETTY GIRL by Laura WiessYA Authors Cafehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08709796426279258496noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2752863935200357433.post-75780845633503117692007-02-22T14:07:00.000-08:002007-02-22T14:07:00.000-08:00Hi Amanda,Thanks for asking if there'd ever been a...Hi Amanda,<BR/><BR/>Thanks for asking if there'd ever been a time when I'd walked away from the Pretty Girl manuscript and stopped working on it. <BR/><BR/>I remember pushing the chair away from the desk and walking away from the computer plenty of times, especially when being in the middle of the story got overwhelming, but that was usually to take a breather, pace away fear and frustration, or wait to see what happened next. <BR/><BR/>It was such an intense story that the first draft was written fairly quickly, and then set aside a while to cool. There were several rewrites after that, along with trying to make myself back off and let it sit some more, so I could approach it again with distance and a critical eye. <BR/><BR/>So no, once I knew Meredith and what was going on, the first draft was pretty much written at a dead run, with no extended absences. Thanks for asking!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2752863935200357433.post-59691777942811508612007-02-22T08:48:00.000-08:002007-02-22T08:48:00.000-08:00Was there ever a time when you walked away from th...Was there ever a time when you walked away from the ms and stopped working on it? If so, why, and how did you feel when you went back to it?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2752863935200357433.post-1487739955003597052007-02-21T21:47:00.000-08:002007-02-21T21:47:00.000-08:00Hi Allie, thanks so much for the congratulations! ...Hi Allie, thanks so much for the congratulations! (You started this whole Pretty Girl interview journey, you know.;) Thanks again for that, too!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2752863935200357433.post-12823260350436426122007-02-21T21:36:00.000-08:002007-02-21T21:36:00.000-08:00Thank you, Marlene and Lisa, for the congratulatio...Thank you, Marlene and Lisa, for the congratulations, and Marlene, for hosting me this week. Lisa, it's nice to meet you!<BR/><BR/>You guys asked if I was ever scared or worried about the emotional toll telling Meredith's story might exact, and how writing it affected me.<BR/><BR/>I remember sitting in front of the computer staring at the blank Word document before I started, trying to deal with the trepidation and having my husband Chet walk in to ask me something. I turned and said, "I have to write this," and he (being a very easy-going guy) said, "Okay."<BR/><BR/>I said, "No, you don't understand." (and now I'm leaning forward and getting very intense.) "This is the child molester story, where the girl is abused by her own father. To write it, I not only have to get inside of Meredith and be there with her through it all, but I have to get inside everyone else, too. Including her father."<BR/><BR/>Chet was like, "Okay, see you!" and zoom, was gone. Smart man. <BR/><BR/>Stepping into Meredith's father was rough, scary and just plain gross. Skin-crawlingly gross. Her mom was no picnic, either. I spent a lot of time in dark, frustrating and mind-bending point-of-views, just trying to understand them.<BR/><BR/>I had some mental fail-safes in place which helped alot, the first being that Meredith's father is somewhere in the vicinity of my age, maybe younger, so stepping into him was like thinking from the brain of one of my own classmates. The second was that Meredith's parents are very different than my parents, which I think provided the comfort barrier or insulation necessary to step out of my life and into hers. <BR/><BR/>The worst part was that no matter what I was imagining and feeling, or how I was struggling to survive in Meredith's life, I knew that real kids were enduring much worse than I could ever write, and they had no insulating barrier between them and the nightmare. This knowledge kept me very angry through the entire manuscript. For me, I guess fear + rage = good writer fuel. <BR/><BR/>On the bright side -- and I don't think I'm giving anything away by saying this -- readers have called Meredith an inspiration, someone who provides hope to others, and I got to be there with her during those moments, too. <BR/><BR/>Can't beat that. :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2752863935200357433.post-64134514697336103472007-02-21T20:41:00.000-08:002007-02-21T20:41:00.000-08:00Yay, Laura! :) So glad to see your novel receiving...Yay, Laura! :) So glad to see your novel receiving even more recognition!Little Willowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17058463472836988047noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2752863935200357433.post-9333189949797692722007-02-21T20:33:00.000-08:002007-02-21T20:33:00.000-08:00Hi Debby G, and thanks for the congrats. It's nice...Hi Debby G, and thanks for the congrats. It's nice to meet you!<BR/><BR/>You asked why I thought it took Pretty Girl a while to find a publisher, and if editors worried that it was too dark.<BR/><BR/>I need to back up a step in order to answer this, so bear with me. <BR/><BR/>When I was watching the news story and thinking about the convicted pedophiles being released and going home, all of a sudden it hit me: home where? Whose home? Home town or home house with wife and family? Would someone actually stay married to a convicted pedophile, especially if they had children? And if so, why? <BR/><BR/>It seemed like such an unbelievable thing, and yet these men (and for the sake of argument, let's just use a guy as an example in this) don't exist in a vacuum. They have parents, siblings, families, wives and kids. <BR/><BR/>Kids.<BR/><BR/>The more I thought about where home was, the more it freaked me out, thinking about the children in the home and what it would mean for them if their father was also a registered sex offender. Because I'd bet money on the fact a lot of them DO have kids. <BR/><BR/>When I wrote Pretty Girl, I wasn't thinking of YA or adult markets, or editors or school libraries or anything but Meredith, the fifteen year-old daughter of a child molester, and the woman who loved him and wanted him back. As inconceivable as that was to me, the survivors I spoke with said oh yes, it happened a lot more than anyone wanted to believe. <BR/><BR/>The interesting thing is that I remember one editor -- have no idea who -- say flatly, "No mother would ever choose a man over her own child." For her, that was reality and even considering the possibility that reality could be otherwise was too abhorrent a thought for her to contemplate. <BR/><BR/>In retrospect -- and with a hug to my agent Barry Goldblatt, whose belief in Pretty Girl never faltered, and a nod to a benevolent universe -- I think Pretty Girl ended up exactly where it was meant to be, with an editor who absolutely gets it, at a house that supports it, and in a perfect publishing time frame. <BR/><BR/>Anything sooner, any editor less enthusiastic, any house less supportive, and things would have been very different for Pretty Girl than they are now. <BR/><BR/>And the funny part is that ever since I started writing (and getting rejected ;) I've heard editors say, "It's not right for us," or other authors saying, "The manuscript just has to find the right editor," and thanks to experience, I can now say that is absolutely true.<BR/><BR/>Thanks for asking, Debby!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2752863935200357433.post-86381610709874242662007-02-21T17:01:00.000-08:002007-02-21T17:01:00.000-08:00Great interview! I was going to ask about how writ...Great interview! <BR/><BR/>I was going to ask about how writing the book affected you, but Marlene asked it first.Lisa Yeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14996451632755795135noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2752863935200357433.post-48841540830038998412007-02-21T15:32:00.000-08:002007-02-21T15:32:00.000-08:00Laura,Congratulations on your book's debut. I love...Laura,<BR/><BR/>Congratulations on your book's debut. I love the cover and have a copy in my hands. Well, actually, it immediately went into my daughter's hands, but I'll get it back eventually.<BR/><BR/>Were you ever scared to tell Meredith's story? Did you ever think/worry that it would take too big of an emotional toll on you? I think sometimes that the story I'm scared of is the scary I should write.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2752863935200357433.post-37549228157580055312007-02-21T15:12:00.000-08:002007-02-21T15:12:00.000-08:00Congratulations!Didn't this take a while to find a...Congratulations!<BR/><BR/>Didn't this take a while to find a publisher? And now it's doing really well? Do you send emails to publishers that say, "Nanny nanny booboo?" Just kidding. But why do you think it took a while to find a publisher? Did editors worry that it was too dark?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2752863935200357433.post-50101919335552085452007-02-21T15:02:00.000-08:002007-02-21T15:02:00.000-08:00Hey, Andrew! Thanks so much for the congratulation...Hey, Andrew! Thanks so much for the congratulations on Pretty Girl. I have fond memories of The Conference Ride of Terror, and very much look forward to presenting with you (and other intrepid panelists) again someday.<BR/><BR/>Thank you, Mary and Shirley, for the cover compliments. <BR/><BR/>Shirley, I knew MTV was cooking up something striking but never expected anything as perfectly ominous as this. My editor sent it over, asking for my opinion but that was easy, because I loved it from the moment I saw it and didn't want to change a thing. <BR/><BR/>I'm also eager to see what S&S UK is going to do with the new cover when it's released in the Commonwealth come August 2007. <BR/><BR/>And Mary yes, Meredith did speak to me. I had just watched a news story about sexual predators being released from prison, and was busy fuming to myself about three or four infuriating aspects of the report. <BR/><BR/>One was how overused the language describing the crimes seemed to be, and how, because the language had become so bland, that didn't seem to bode well for the abuse survivors.<BR/><BR/>All of a sudden this girl's voice, who would later become Meredith, said, "Well, if the phrase child molestor doesn't freak you out anymore, then maybe the details of what happened will. I won't mince words, if you won't turn away. Don't you dare, because I can't." <BR/><BR/>I didn't know the details of her story right at that moment, but she sounded angry, desperate and scared, so I knew it was going to be intense. And I knew I couldn't turn away, and leave her stuck in it alone. <BR/><BR/>That's how Meredith and I met, and Pretty Girl was born.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2752863935200357433.post-15104374925533140622007-02-21T11:08:00.000-08:002007-02-21T11:08:00.000-08:00I really like your cover. I think it is perfect. W...I really like your cover. I think it is perfect. Were you asked for any input into the design? <BR/><BR/>Congratulations on the publication! I look forward to your next book.SAHhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14789864164402336600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2752863935200357433.post-39169622306377129612007-02-21T10:54:00.000-08:002007-02-21T10:54:00.000-08:00Congratulations, Laura! I can't wait to read SUCH...Congratulations, Laura! I can't wait to read SUCH A PRETTY GIRL. And wow, what a cover!<BR/><BR/>I was wondering, you mentioned, "when Meredith brought you her story" and I assume that means you heard your character speaking to you? Did you know immediately what her problem was, or did you have to discover it?MaryPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09959214623937731955noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2752863935200357433.post-3362231849609446112007-02-21T10:43:00.000-08:002007-02-21T10:43:00.000-08:00Congratulations Laura! I had a chance to meet Laur...Congratulations Laura! I had a chance to meet Laura at a conference in Delaware where we both presented. She was delightful and very generously gave me and the other presenters rides to and from the hotel. Her driving was, like her fiction, an intense experience.Andrew Karrehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04489549432775603390noreply@blogger.com