Friday the 13th Surprises

Happy Friday the 13th! :D Instead of the unluckiness today is supposed to bring, I got lucky and was able to interview Marissa Meyer!!!!! (Yes, the author of the incredible book Cinder)! Here it is:

1. What inspired you to write Cinder?

It started when I entered a writing contest a few years ago in which the host had listed about ten random prompts and writers had to choose two of them to include in their stories. My two prompts: set it in the future and include a fairy-tale character. My contest entry was a sci-fi version of Puss in Boots and I had so much fun writing it that I thought I would try to do an entire series of sci-fi fairy tales! (The ironic part of that story is that only two stories were submitted for the contest—and mine didn’t win!)

A couple months after that I was drifting off to sleep when the lightning bolt struck: Cinderella… as a cyborg! I crawled out of bed and spent about an hour brainstorming and jotting notes. Thus, The Lunar Chronicles was born.

2. Wow, that's an awesome story! I'd love to read a sci-fi version of Puss in Boots. What are your top three favorite novels?

Only 3?! Let's see...

1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
3. Fire by Kristin Cashore

3. You have good taste. ;) What is your favorite thing about writing?

Getting to work in my pajamas! Oh, and seeing fanart of my characters - I LOVE that!!

4. Yes! Working in your pajamas has to be one of the best things about writing. What is the hardest thing you've had to do in your writing?

Every now and then you have to kill off a character that you really, really love. I don't know that it ever gets 'easy' to do it. One book that I'm working on that will follow the Lunar Chronicles has an incredibly heart-wrenching death scene in it. I cried like a wee child when I wrote it.

5. Killing your characters is a little bit like killing yourself. It's always so hard! What is the best piece of advice you could give to teen writers who want to get published?

Have fun with it!! There will be time to worry about agents and editors and book deals later, but when you're first getting started, the only thing you should be thinking about is writing the story that appeals to you and enjoying the process of imagining and creating. Writing is work, but it can also be a lot of fun.

Thank you so much, Marissa! :D