Euterpe YA Event: Interview with Author Liz DeJesus

Hey guys! Here's another of the fantastic Euterpe authors here with us to talk about her book (which I am vying to read)! Check it out, I'm sure you'll see why I want to read it so much!
 

Mera: Hello Liz and welcome to Mera’s YA Book List! You have penned three novels. Has the process of writing a book changed for you since writing Nina in 2007?

Liz: Absolutely. When I wrote Nina, I still had a full time job and would write in a tiny notebook during my breaks and rush home to type my notes into the computer. With The Jackets it was a slower process because it’s a collection of short stories that I had written over the years. The thing that changed while I wrote First Frost was the fact that I was a new mommy while writing it. I couldn’t sit around and wait for inspiration to hit me because I rarely had any free time to myself (anyone that is a mom and a writer will be able to understand how precious those free moments to yourself are). So I learned how to write on demand…meaning even when I didn’t really feel like writing I still picked up a pen and a piece of paper and wrote until it made sense.

Now I have two kids! So it’s even crazier but I’ve learned how to continue to write and embrace the chaos in my house. I write while the kids are napping or when they’re playing peacefully in the living room. Mera: I understand you are a poet as well as a novelist. Which comes more natural to you?

Liz: Writing novels is definitely what comes naturally to me. I love poetry though. It’s always going to be something that will be near and dear to my heart.

Mera: Your latest book, First Frost, incorporates the magical aspects in the Grimm fairy tales. I, like many others, love these fairy tales and their renditions. What about the topic lured you to write about it?

Liz:Anyone that has met me knows that I love fairy tales. Borderline obsessed with fairy tales. So it was natural for me to choose this topic for my first Young Adult book.

Mera: Which of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales are your favorites?

Liz: Snow White (obviously), Snow White and Rose Red, and Little Red Riding Hood.

Mera: Have any of your characters been based on people you know, or even yourself?

Liz: All of my characters have a little bit of me in them. Some more than others. And every once in a while I’ll use little snippets of conversations that I think are interesting or funny in my stories (so be very careful what you say around me…no one is safe). But mostly my friends and other people inspire me to create characters that have some similarities.

Mera: The endings of many of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales were in fact very grim. Do you prefer the original versions or the kid friendly versions most?

Liz: I always prefer the original versions. ALWAYS. But the kid friendly versions are fun and those are the ones I let my children watch (because obviously I don’t want them to be traumatized at a young age).

Mera: Bianca Frost starts off believing magic is not real. How do you feel about magic? For you, does magic exist?

Liz: Yes, I believe in magic, but not the way I describe in the book. I believe that life, love, friendship is a form of magic. Dreams, kisses, the sun, the wind…I can go on and on, but yeah, to me those things can qualify as magic. Life would be pretty boring if you didn’t add a touch of whimsy in my day every once in a while. ;-) 

Mera: When you were younger, what did you dream of being? A writer? A photographer? A teacher?

Liz: Being a writer was always something I dreamt of becoming. But unless you’re Anne Rice or Stephen King you don’t exactly make a living as a writer. My backup plan was to be a teacher, I’ve always enjoyed learning and being around kids. But life happened and I couldn’t afford to go to the university. On the bright side, I did work as an ESL tutor for a few years at an elementary school and that was a lot of fun. 

Mera: You are currently working on a new novel. Can you tell us a bit about it?

Liz: Right now I’m working on a novel titled Glass Frost and it’s the sequel to First Frost. This book picks up right where the first one ends and Bianca will be knee deep in trouble once more. Glass Frost introduces two new villains, Rebekah the Frog Queen and Elda the Snake Witch. Some of the fairy tales that I will incorporate into this book are Cinderella, the Frog Prince, and Toads and Diamonds. The reader will also find out what happened to the Seven Dwarves after Snow White married the prince. It’s definitely going to be interesting and I’m having so much fun writing this book.

Mera: It sounds awesome! If you could acquire any of the items in the Frost family’s glass display, which would you want most? Would it be Cinderella’s glass slipper? Perhaps, the evil queen’s mirror?

Liz: Oooohhh. Excellent question! Wow…probably Cinderella’s glass slippers (especially when you guys find out what they actually do in the next book). :)

Mera: Thanks so much for joining us Liz! Before you go, is there anything you’d like my Listers to know?

Liz: Thank you so much for having me. These were all fantastic questions! Here are a few links I’d like to share with everyone:

http://lizdejesus.webs.com/

https://twitter.com/liz_dejesus23

http://www.facebook.com/lizdejesus

http://www.facebook.com/FirstFrost1

That was awesome and I'm even more stoked to read her book now! Here's more about it! Thanks for visiting during Euterpe YA Event week! I hope you're all having as much fun as I am!

Fairytales aren’t real…yeah…that’s exactly what Bianca thought. She was wrong.

For generations, the Frost family has run the Museum of Magical and Rare Artifacts, handing down guardianship from mother to daughter, always keeping their secrets to “family only.”

Gathered within museum’s walls is a collection dedicated to the Grimm fairy tales and to the rare items the family has acquired: Cinderella’s glass slipper, Snow White’s poisoned apple, the evil queen’s magic mirror, Sleeping Beauty’s enchanted spinning wheel…

Seventeen-year-old Bianca Frost wants none of it, dreaming instead of a career in art or photography or…well, anything except working in the family’s museum. She knows the items in the glass display cases are fakes because, of course, magic doesn’t really exist.

She’s about to find out how wrong she is.

 

 Liz DeJesus was born on the tiny island of Puerto Rico. She is a novelist and a poet. She has been writing for as long as she was capable of holding a pen. She is the author of the novel Nina (Blu Phi'er Publishing, October 2007), The Jackets (Arte Publico Press, March 31st 2011) and First Frost (Musa Publishing, June 2012). Liz is currently working on a new novel.