“Weird Girl and What’s His Name” by Meagan Brothers: interview with author!

 Hello everybody! I know it’s been a year since i posted the last interview but don’t worry,the waiting is over.Today I am very excited to welcome on my blog a special guest: Meagan Brothers, the author of three YA novels: Debbie Harry Sings in French,Supergirl Mixtapes,Weird Girl and What’s His Name. (I’ve read the last one and it’s a total winner.)  In this interview you’ll find out about her inspiration,her undying love for The X-Files and the time she saw Madonna in Central Park. Enjoy!

Book Summary:

In the tiny podunk town of Hawthorne, North Carolina, seventeen-year-old geeks Lula and
Rory share everything—sci-fi and fantasy fandom, Friday night binge-watching of old X-Files episodes, and that feeling that they don’t quite fit in. Lula knows she and Rory have no secrets from each other; after all, he came out to her years ago, and she’s shared with him her “sacred texts”—the acting books her mother left behind after she walked out of Lula’s life. But then Lula discovers that Rory—her Rory, who maybe she’s secretly had feelings for—has not only tried out for the Hawthorne football team without telling her, but has also been having an affair with his middle-aged divorcee boss. With their friendship disrupted, Lula begins to question her identity and her own sexual orientation, and she runs away in the middle of the night on a journey to find her mother, who she hopes will have all the answers. Meagan Brother’s piercing prose in this fresh LGBT YA novel speaks to anyone who has ever felt unwanted and alone, and who struggles to find their place in an isolating world. 

Author bio:

Meagan Brothers is the author of the young adult novels Supergirl Mixtapes, which was a 2012 YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults nomination, and Debbie Harry Sings in French, which was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, won a GLBT Round Table ALA Award, and was named a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age. A native Carolinian, Meagan currently lives in New York. Twitter.

1.) Welcome, Meagan! Tell us something about yourself.

Hi, thanks for having me!  I’m happy to be here!  Something about myself…well, I’m pretty boring in real life. I grew up mostly in the Carolinas, except for five years in Atlanta, but now I live in New York. I’m a vegetarian and I work in a doctor’s office.  One time I saw Madonna in Central Park.She was shorter than I expected.

2.) What inspired you to write „Weird Girl and What’s His Name”?

    I wanted to write a story about friendship. The catalyst was back in 2008 – I went to go see the second X-Files movie in the theater, and when I came home, I couldn’t stop thinking about how much I loved the show and how my friends and family and I used to watch it back in the day. I started writing Rory’s half as a short story, but it ended up being really long – too long to be a short story, too short to be a book. The next year, I decided to take a look at it again, and I ended up writing the second half, which is Lula’s side of the story. It was all mostly fueled by getting back into sci-fi and watching X-Files, and also by listening to a very short-lived radio station that was playing a bunch of indie rock I used to listen to in the 90s. So, to answer your question, nerd stuff from my youth. That was the inspiration.     

3.) Which is the best advice for young writers?                                                          Keep writing, keep reading.Carry a little notebook and pen around and don’t be afraid of looking like a dork with a notebook all the time.Pay attention.Take care of your body and your mind.  Above all, keep writing and reading!

4.) Your book contains some interesting facts about The X-Files. Can you explain in a few words why is this the best show ever?                                                                    Just a few words? Ha! Okay, let’s see…well, The X-Files is a very cinematic, very beautifully shot TV show. The first five seasons that were filmed in Vancouver are particularly atmospheric and lovely. Plot-wise, it’s alternately suspenseful and scary, with a mythology that intertwines government conspiracy theories with alien abduction lore, paranormal phenomenon, and American urban myths. And at the heart of it are two great characters, Mulder and Scully, a pair of FBI agents investigating these paranormal, unexplainable cases.These lost-cause cases are Mulder’s passion because his sister was abducted, possibly by aliens, when they were kids.Scully’s been paired with Mulder in order to discredit him as an investigator – she’s an MD, and she’s supposed to prove that his wild theories are inaccurate and impossible.  Instead, she becomes his greatest ally.  It’s a show about curiosity, about questioning your beliefs, about faith, the question of how „rational” it is to believe what you can’t prove empirically.  And it’s about friendship and devotion.Love and trust.Good stuff. Are you ready to start binge-watching yet?

5.) Now tell us something that the rest of your readers don`t know about the book  The working title was Teenage FBI, which is the title of a Guided by Voices song.

6.) How do you imagine „Weird Girl and What’s His Name” as a movie? Have you imagined a perfect cast?                                                                                          Actually, despite the fact that I was a screenwriting major in college, I can’t really imagine this book as a movie!  I mean, it’s very vivid in my own mind, but I feel like as a movie it would just be two hours of a couple of kids watching TV.  Would anybody go see that?  As for the perfect cast – I’m kind of out of the loop with young actors these days, – I don’t know who I’d cast!  I’ll let the readers choose, and if we ever sell the movie rights, I’ll open it up to a vote.  

7.) Can you tell us some of your favorite books?

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury, Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion, The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones by Stanley Booth, ‘Toons For Our Times by Berkeley Breathed, Midnight Hour Encores by Bruce Brooks, Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block, and Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.

8.) Beside writing,what do you enjoy doing?                                                                      Going to record shops, going to see live music, road trips, long walks in the park.

9.) Do you have a writing routine ?                                                                                      I wish I did! I’m really undisciplined. But I try to write something every day, even if it’s just a journal entry.

10.)  Do you have a message for my blog`s followers?                                                     You all have excellent taste in blogs. Thanks for reading!