Visit with Dyan Sheldon

www.dyansheldon.co.uk

Today I'm excited to be visiting with UK author Dyan Sheldon, whose newest release, MY WORST BEST FRIEND, was just released. Although it won't be published until August 2010 in the US by Walker Books, Dyan has kindly agreed to talk with us about her books, her life, and writing....

I’m normally a fairly cautious (even wary) sort of person -- sniffing the milk before I pour it in my tea, peering through the eyehole before I open the door – but I’ve welcomed 2010 with a big smile because this year I have two new teen novels coming out.

The first, published this month, is MY WORST BEST FRIEND. I think the title pretty much speaks for itself. Who of us hasn’t had a best friend whom we considered if not our cosmic twin at least our cosmic cousin, only to look around one day and realize that we’re not even on the same planet? Like CONFESSIONS OF A TEENAGE DRAMA QUEEN, this title came from my daughter, who in various ways and not always voluntarily has contributed a lot to my books. “So who was your worst best friend?” asked my daughter one day, and I thought, Wow, what a brilliant title -- and observation. Almost instantly a story started unfolding in my mind.

The central characters of my book are Gracie, who tells the story, and her best friend Savanna. Gracie is the moon in this particular universe, and Savanna is the sun. But I don’t want you to think for a nanosecond that they aren’t really best friends, because they are. The friendship Gracie and Savanna have, though destined not to last forever, is intense and special (and it’s very possible that neither of them will ever have another friendship that matches it). But things change, people change, and the way we see things changes too as we grow. Which is how life works. And, though I don’t want to give any of the plot away, I will say that this
particular ship of friends does start to sink when it hits the sea of love.



Now, on to the questions!

1) If you could bring any character from one of your books to life, who would it be and why?

I think it would have to be Lana Spiggs from AND BABY MAKES TWO. There are characters like Lola Cep and Janet Bandry who are as real to me as my own family, but Lana is the one I always wonder about. I gave her a very hard row to hoe (a single mother at 16), and I’d really like to know how things turned out for her and her daughter. I often imagine them walking hand-in-hand on rainy days, hoods up, Shinola in rain boots covered with stars splashing in puddles, the two of them laughing, going home to have biscuits and tea. Or possibly tomato soup. I’d like to know that they’re all right.

2) Your own six-word memoir.

Always maintain your sense of humor.

3) Twitter your newest or upcoming release in 140 characters or less.

Like books, films, and days, some best friends are better than others. Which means, of course, that some are a lot worse. But you don’t always know how bad till you get to the end.

4) You have the chance to spend the day with any character from one of your favorite books. Who would you choose and why?

I was a bit torn on this one since I have so many favorite books, all of which are peopled by wonderful characters whom I’d love to hang out with. But I think I have to go with Kilgore Trout, who is a character from more than one of my favorite books. Kilgore Trout, a failed but prolific science fiction writer (he can’t write, but he has great ideas), wanders in and out of the works of the fantastic Kurt Vonnegut. Kilgore’s a hard man to pin down, but he has his fans – and I’m definitely one of them. I think Kilgore and I would have a lot to say to each other about our world and how it’s run. I know he could make me laugh. Possibly vice versa.

5) What was your favorite book growing up as a teen?

I spent the better part of an entire summer locked in my room reading every Sherlock Holmes story and novel, while my father sprayed my window with the hose and yelled at me to come outdoors and witness daylight. I think Mr Holmes was the first fictional character I actually fell in love with.

6) When you were young, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Aside from very brief periods when I wanted to be a journalist, a pharmacist, a horticulturalist and a physicist (and my parents’ desire that I be a teacher), I always wanted to be a writer.

7) Your favorite subject in high school – and your least favorite.

My favorite subject was probably history. My least favorite -- hands-down, no contest – was chemistry. This came as a surprise to me as I was really into science and had my own chemistry set and microscope and everything, but my high school chemistry class destroyed all interest and ended my science career. Until they made me take geology in college, which I also didn’t like.

8) The one book everyone in the world should read.

CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller. If an alien took an unfortunate wrong turn and landed in my garden and asked me to recommend one book that would explain people and how they behave so she’d know what she was up against, CATCH-22 would be the book.

9) The book you wish you had written.

This may seem like a stretch, since I’m not Colombian and have a very limited imagination, but I wouldn’t mind having authored ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE. Another book our alien could put in her satchel.

10) Your five favorite reads from 2009 (books you read during the year; they do not have to have been published during 2009).

WHEN WILL THERE BE GOOD NEWS? by Kate Atkinson.
BREATHING LESSONS and DIGGING TO AMERICA by Anne Tyler.
ADRIAN MOLE AND The WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION by Sue Townsend.
And, one piece of rather fantastic non-fiction, FACING EAST FROM INDIAN COUNTRY by Daniel K. Richter.

11) The 2010 release you’re most looking forward to reading.

Andrea Levy, who wrote the totally wonderful SMALL ISLAND, finally has a new novel coming out this year that I am eagerly awaiting. And, possibly even more exciting, the third book in Patrick Ness’ superb CHAOS WALKING trilogy (MONSTERS OF MEN) is published in May. A good year, then.

12) If your mom wrote the author profile for the jacket of your next book, what would she write?

Let’s give credit where credit is due. I read to her every night when she was little, and always helped her study for her spelling tests in elementary school. And who gave her her first typewriter? Her mother, that’s who.

13) Your family has the chance to describe you for an interview. What ten words would they say describe you best?

Can’t Sing. Can’t Dance. None of the Above. Disagree strongly. Dyanosaurus Rex.

14) You have the chance to go back and change a scene from one of your previous releases. What book would you choose, what scene would you change, and how would you alter it?

I actually can’t think of a scene I would change (which doesn’t mean that there aren’t scenes that could do with changing), but I can think of a couple of titles. The first would be the book I did under the pseudonym D M Quintano. The publisher wanted to call it PERFECT, but I wanted to call it PANGALACTIC HOMESICK BLUES. The publisher said that my title made it sound like science fiction. I said but it takes place way in the future on another planet and there’s a lot of time travel involved, so, technically, it is science fiction. We called it PERFECT. I still like my title better.

15) You’ve invented a new national holiday. What is it called, and what does it celebrate? (Plus, would we get the day off of school and work??)

Just Be Day. This day celebrates just being alive. No texting. No shopping. No TV. You have to go sit in the garden or in a park or wander aimlessly through the countryside, looking up at the sky, listening to the birds, etc. Both sunrise and sunset must be watched. Stargazing is mandatory. School and work are not on the agenda.

16) Using the letters J L W (my initials!), create the title of your next bestseller. (For example, Jumping Love Walrus)

JUST LAST WEEK. I think it’s about the breakup of a relationship. Either a girlfriend and boyfriend, or someone’s parents. If not a breakup, then someone has died. Either way, it’s about grief and regret and the surprise we always feel when things we knew couldn’t last don’t. The title refers to the fact that just last week everything was normal.

17) What is your astrological sign? How closely does it match your personality?

My sign is Cancer. I do agree that I’m endearing, but I’m not so sure about being eccentric. I think I’m pretty “normal”. I also do have a tendency to live internally, but I think that’s more because I’m a writer and I’ve been on my own a lot than because I was born in July.

18) You’re going off your diet for one day and only eating food from restaurants. What do you eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? (Include the restaurant each meal comes from.)

Breakfast is at Alice’s Restaurant, where you can get anything that you want. Alice’s Restaurant was both a real place and a song by Arlo Guthrie, after whom I named my motorcycle (Arlo). Lunch is at the taco stand on the beach in L.A. frequented by Jim Rockford in the classic detective TV series THE ROCKFORD FILES. I was going to have supper at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, but than I worried that there wouldn’t be anything to eat. So I think I’ll have dinner at The Homesick Restaurant. Something from the family menu.

19) What is your ultimate vacation destination?

The Yucatan Peninsula.

20) The world has suffered from a one-day only loss of power. You have no cell phone, computer, lights, or anything else that requires a computer, cell battery, or electricity. What do you spend the day doing?

I reckon I’d spend the day pretty much the way I spend every day. Although I do write on a computer, I often sort my ideas out by spending days or even weeks sitting with a notebook on my lap, writing by hand, so that would be no problem. Also, because I expect power cuts, I have my trusty manual typewriter, with a supply of ribbons, always ready and waiting. There’s no sound I like better than that taptaptap. It’s like a heartbeat. When I was through writing for the day, I’d light a candle and read.

21) If you weren’t an author, what job would you be doing?

This would amaze the art teachers I had in middle school and high school (and anyone who has ever partnered me in Pictionary and, as a result, lost miserably) but I’d be a potter.

22) You get the chance to star in an upcoming film release. What movie would you star in for your acting debut? (If you can’t choose an upcoming film, you can choose a past release.)

I think I’d rather write the screenplay than be the star.

23) You’re invited to a White House function, and you have the chance to give a 10-minute speech to the President and everyone else attending. What do you speak about?

Although it’s a bit distressing to think that anybody – especially the American President and his friends and advisers – needs to be told about the peril the Earth is in, the disappointing results of the recent meeting in Copenhagen suggest that they do need to be told. Though this isn’t just about climate change per se. We live unsustainably, gobbling up finite resources and destroying the habitats of every other species in what seems to be some mad desire to turn the entire world into a cross between a twenty-lane expressway and a shopping mall. So I guess I’d spend my ten minutes patiently explaining that there is no Planet B, and that if we don’t shape up pretty sharply Nature is going to see that we ship out.

24) Your publisher has instructed you to write a new series based on an endangered species. What animal do you choose?

Quite a few years ago, I wrote not a series but a picture book about an endangered species called THE WHALES’ SONG. I wrote that book out of rage. Twenty years on, whales and dolphins (and, indeed, the oceans themselves) are still badly treated and heavily at risk, and the list of endangered and extinct species grows daily. So things have gotten a lot worse. Which means that, if I were going to do a series, each book would have to deal with a different species – from the cute and cuddly like baby orangutans to creepy, crawly jungle things that would make you scream if you saw one in the bathroom. We’re all in this together.

25) A movie is being made of ONE of your books. Which book is it, and who will star as the main characters?

It would be a pair of books I wrote called HAUNTED. The first was YOU CAN NEVER GO HOME ANY MORE and the second was SAVE THE LAST DANCE FOR ME. They were about a girl who moves with her mother and brother to a new town after her parents split up. The girl, Angel, is not too happy about this move; and is even less happy to find herself sharing her room with the ghost of a boy who died in a motorcycle accident in the 1950s (and his dog). I have a bit of a crush on the ghost, whose name is BJ, which I suspect is why I’d like to see it made into a film. Plus he rides one of my favorite motorcycles. I’d say Taylor Lautner might make a good BJ.

26) The paranormal genre is big in teen/YA literature right now. Most bestsellers feature vampires, werewolves, faeries, angels, or the like as a main character. In your opinion, why are teens currently fascinated with all things paranormal?

To be honest, I don’t think it’s just teens who are interested in all things paranormal. We all are, always looking up our horoscopes and enthralled by stories of magic, other beings and alien abductions. (Let me just mention here that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the great Sherlock Holmes, a detective of almost frightening logic and reason, believed in faeries.) It seems to me that a lot of what motivates we humans is fear. We’re these little creatures on this big rock whizzing through an enormous universe. And, unlike our fellow travelers on this rock (polar bears, gorillas, chameleons, etc) we know it. Which is why we’re afraid. We don’t want to be all alone whizzing through space. We need to believe that there’s somebody in charge – that there are reasons for what happens and ways of controlling our lives. We’d like to think that no matter how big a mess we make of things, someone – an angel, or a kindly alien – is going to bail us out. (Also, of course, it’s a lot more romantic being in love with a vampire who can read minds than an ordinary boy whose biggest talent is that trick he does with dental floss.)

27) You’re writing a book where you can change one major historical event. Which event do you change? (For example, Abraham Lincoln wasn’t assassinated, or Japan never bombed Pearl Harbor.)

Columbus never discovers “America”. Nor does anyone else. In fact, the Great Nations of Europe never get off land. Every time they make a boat it sinks, so they are never able to colonize the world and destroy other people’s lives and cultures on a grand scale. They have to stay where they are and settle for making each other miserable.

28) Remember those “classics” that you were made to read in high school English class? What was your favorite, and which title should students never have to be subjected to reading?

This is something I’ve never admitted before, but I missed most of those “classics” they made you read in high school. Which is to say that they didn’t make me read them. I’m not quite sure how it happened. The only “classic” I remember having to read is Thomas Hardy’s RETURN OF THE NATIVE, and I really liked it. Though I believe that was a minority opinion in my class.

29) Someone tells you that you’ll never publish another book that you write. Do you still keep writing?

Yes. Aside from the fact that I tend not to believe everything that people tell me, writing is more than my job. It’s who I am. I’d be like a goat up a tree without it.

30) A group of teens ask you the best way to become a published writer. How do you answer the question?

If you want to be a writer, there are two things you need to do. The first is to read everything you can get your hands on. Read bad books and good books; great books and schlock, read the box your breakfast cereal comes in. The second thing you need to do, is write. Thinking or talking about writing is not the same as doing it. While your friends are all frolicking on the beach or dancing the night away, you need to be sitting in your room by yourself, writing stories it’s very likely you’ll chuck straight in the bin for quite some time (or at least trying to).

**Thank you so much to Dyan for visiting with us today! Be sure to visit her at her website listed above, or you can email her directly at dsheldon94@yahoo.co.uk.

Dyan and her publisher have been so kind as to offer two lucky posters a copy of MY WORST BEST FRIEND, so be sure to leave any comments or questions you have for Ms. Sheldon in the comments section. She'll be stopping by (as the time difference allows!) to see what we're discussing.