1. 5 things (pssst...) nobody
knows about you:
Five things?! I’m not sure I’m
that secretive. Ok… let me see…
1) I’ve been to a nude beach in
France.
2) I forget to wear deodorant all
the time (which isn’t really a secret when it’s happening).
3) I sat next to Patricia Field
(the costume designer for Sex and the City) at a dinner for a Broadway premier
and had no idea who she was. I was like, “what’s up with the crazy dressed
woman who everyone wants to talk to?”
4) I have terrible depth
perception so I run into walls and doorframes all the time.
5) My second daughter, Hazel, was
named by the waitress at our favorite breakfast place in Chicago.
2. The cheesiest line you've ever
heard/ read:
Actually, I’d say the cheesiest
lines I’ve ever read were the ones I wrote! Matt Three-Last-Names in PLAYING
NICE is pretty damn cheesy. When he sings Led Zeppelin to Marty… MAJOR CHEESE
FACTOR.
3. The weirdest and sweetest
thing that's ever happened to you:
The weirdest thing that’s ever
happened to me is that I’m a published author. I never thought that would
happen!
The sweetest thing that’s ever
happened to me is my husband, Kyle.
4. This or that:
Good boys or bad boys: Good boys
for sure
Dictionaries or Encyclopedias:
Encyclopedias
Chinese or Italian: Italian
Drums or guitars: Guitars… they
get me every time.
And now, onto your
masterpiece:
5. How ever did you come up with
Aspen- the name and the story?
I was talking to my husband on a
car ride about the concept for the book and it just came to me. I live in
Colorado and aspens are all around. They’re actually my favorite tree.
The story came about because I
wanted to write a piece about a girl struggling with PTSD. I hadn’t seen much
of it in YA and I thought it needed to be explored. The key was making it
funny. The book had to have a comedic factor, which is not an easy thing to do
when tackling a tough subject.
6. Your favorite Aspen dialogue:
THIS IS SO HARD! I love all the
dialogue in the book. But if I had to choose, I
would pick the second scene with Aspen and Ben in physics. I played with that
scene over and over until the dialogue hit just right. When I wrote the scene
and it ended with:
Ben cocks his head to the
side. "Don't take this the wrong way, but this is the weirdest
conversation I've ever had.”
I lean in and whisper, "Don't take this
the wrong way, but you look weird in that shirt."
I knew I had something special
with the two of them. It was just so
Aspen. And the Beta Particle scene. I love the Beta Particle scene!
7. If Aspen was turned into a
movie, what would be your:
--A. Dream cast
Ok, don’t hate me for this, but I
don’t have a dream cast (except for one person) and I’ll tell you why… because
I haven’t seen any teen-aged actors who fit the characters. BUT in a dream
world with a dream cast, I would beg, on my hands and knees, for Jennifer Lawrence
to play Ninny. She’s so damn perfect for the
part. She funny and inappropriate and would probably play an amazing stoner. I
know it’s kind of weird to think of someone who plays a teenager in the Hunger
Games playing the mom of a teenager in ASPEN, but Ninny is young. She had Aspen
when she was 16, which puts her at 33 in the book. Jennifer Lawrence could
totally do it.
--B. Theme song:
I have so many! I have a
sweet/sad theme song and a pump up theme song and a Grateful Dead theme song.
Can I list them all? Ok, I’m totally going to:
--Sweet/sad theme song: “Cold is
the Night” by the Oh Hellos
--Pump up theme song: “Feel Again”
by One Republic
--Grateful Dead theme song: “Scarlet
Begonias”
8. What would your own, personalized
Aspen Grove be filled with? What would the main characters have in theirs,
other than Aspen, of course!?
My family has this thing with
taking photos that look like album covers. That’s what would be in my aspen
grove—all the album cover photos we’ve taken.
Kim’s aspen grove would be filled
with magazine cut outs of all kinds of different looking people. She’d assign
names to all of them.
Cass’s would be filled with
artwork like Aspen’s but not sketches. He’s more of an abstract artist with
lots of colors.
Ninny would never be organized
enough to have an aspen grove. Aspen would end up making one for Ninny.
Ben would only have one thing in
his aspen grove: a family picture.
9. Signing out, a message to your
Ardent Readers:
Thank
you from one end of the infinite universe to the other. Thank you for taking
this journey of story telling with me.
Title: #famous
Jilly Gagnon is currently based in Chicago, but is originally from Minnesota, a fact she'll likely inform you of within minutes of meeting you. Her humor writing, personal essays, and op-eds have appeared in Newsweek, Elle, Vanity Fair, Boston Magazine, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, The Toast, and The Hairpin, among others.
