April 13, 2008
I’m so excited because today I’m interviewing Megan Crane and touring her book ‘Names My Sisters Call Me’. And isn’t the cover the most awesome ever. I’m totally in love with it.
Here’s what the book’s about:
Courtney, Norah, and Raine Cassel are about as different as three sisters can get. Norah, the oldest, is a typical Type A obsessive who believes there is a right way and a wrong way to do everything. Six years later she has not forgiven Raine, the middle sister, for ruining her wedding day. Raine is Norah’s opposite – a wild, follow-your-bliss hippie chick who flees to California after the wedding fiasco. The only thing the two sisters have in common is their ability to drive Courtney, their youngest sister, crazy.
When Courtney’s longtime boyfriend proposes, she decides it’s finally time to call a family truce and bring the three sisters together. After all, they’re all grown-ups now, right? But it turns out that family ghosts aren’t easily vanquished, and neither are first loves. Reconnecting the sisters also means reexamining every choice Courtney has made in the past six years, right down to the man she’s about to marry.
Whether you have suffered the angst of sibling rivalry or been one of the lucky (or unlucky, depending on how you look at it) few who just watched from afar, Names My Sisters Call Me is a book that anyone with a sister, a sibling, or even a friend can appreciate.
Megan thanks for agreeing to be interviewed. First of all can you tell me what inspired the plot for your book?
I knew I wanted to write about first love versus true love, and somehow that evolved into sisters and secrets and trips to California. And my main character was suddenly and irrevocably a cellist. And here we are.
Why did you decide to write for teens?
Well, I don’t write specifically for teens. Though I think a large number of teens read my books, which is great. I think the target audience for my books is probably women in their twenties and thirties, but I have much older and much younger readers. I think books find us when they’re supposed to.
What is your writing process like?
I tend to spend periods mulling and daydreaming and stressing about how I will never write another word, and then periods of great productivity, when I set daily word or page quotas and write madly day and night. I am trying to come to terms with both.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on a book that’s a bit of a departure for me, and I have about 150 pages of another 5 Spot sort of book, which needs to marinate for a while before I look at it again.
What do you do when you’re not writing?
I read a lot. I go through phases where I watch a lot of television (Life, Reaper, Chuck, Journeyman– I watched a lot last fall), and phases where I read obsessively instead, and both phases are very rewarding in different ways. I spend a shocking amount of time online, to my shame. I think my life would be more fulfilling if I did something craftier, like scrapbooking. (Or like cleaning my house.)
Who do you like to read?
I’m not kidding when I say I read a lot, and I’ll read just about anything, though my favorite books are usually romance novels. I’m currently reading “The Sweet Far Thing” by Libba Bray, and I’m loving it, but I don’t want it to end!
Megan Crane is a New Jersey native who graduated from Vassar and got her MA and PhD in literature from the University of York in England. She is the author of Everyone Else’s Girl, English as a Second Language and Frenemies. She lives in Los Angeles.
Check out Megan’s website where you can read an excerpt from her book, and her blog.
Posted by Sara Hantz in Uncategorized @ 11:06 am
Keri Mikulski Says:
Great interview, Megan and Sara! Thanks for sharing.
Barrie Summy Says:
Wonderful interview!