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"You see, I don't believe that libraries should be drab places where people sit in silence, and that's been the main reason for our policy of employing wild animals as librarians."--Monty Python


Thursday, September 15, 2011

INTERVIEW WITH MARY E. PEARSON, YA AUTHOR

We have a special guest with us today at DPL BookTalk, Young Adult author Mary E. Pearson.    Mary’s newest book is The Fox Inheritance, which was released at the end of August.

Mary E. Pearson is the author of bestselling, award-winning novels for teens. The Miles Between was named a Kirkus Best Book of the Year, and The Adoration of Jenna Fox was listed as a Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year, an IRA Young Adult Choice, NYPL Stuff for the Teen Age, and a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year. She is also the author of A Room on Lorelei Street, David v. God, and Scribbler of DreamsPearson studied art at Long Beach State University, and worked as an artist before earning her teaching credential at San Diego State University. She writes full-time from her home in California, where she lives with her husband and two dogs.  http://www.marypearson.com/index.html

From The Fox Inheritance:

Once there were three. Three friends who loved each other—Jenna, Locke, and Kara. And after a terrible accident destroyed their bodies, their three minds were kept alive, spinning in a digital netherworld. Even in that disembodied nightmare, they were still together. At least at first. When Jenna disappeared, Locke and Kara had to go on without her. Decades passed, and then centuries.
Two-hundred-and-sixty years later, they have been released at last. Given new, perfect bodies, Locke and Kara awaken to a world they know nothing about, where everyone they once knew and loved is long dead.
Everyone except Jenna Fox.

DPL:  Mary, it’s great to have you here at DPL BookTalk!  I loved reading The Fox Inheritance because it has so many wonderful characters.  Who is your favorite?
MEP:  The main characters in my books are always my favorite—at least the one I am most wrapped up in because I have spent so much time in their head! I worry, fear, and fret for Locke and think about him a lot.  But I have to admit the secondary character who stole my heart was Dot.  She was a surprise, and even for me, I loved watching her personality unfold as I wrote the story.
DPL:  Do you base any of your characters on real people?
MEP: No, not fully, but of course they all are based on pieces of a lot of people I’ve known or met through the years.
DPL:  What subject did you like the best in high school?  Why?
MEP:  English!  Because I got to read and discuss a lot of books and I also had the opportunity to study language and play with words.  I suppose for a writer, this is not a surprise answer.  But other subjects I loved were art and science.
DPL:  What was your favorite book when you were a teen?
MEP:  That’s a tough one.  There were so many, but I would have to say The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton was a favorite that had a definite impact on my future.  It was the first book that I read that felt like it was written for me.  I devoured it over and over again and it made me want to write similar relevant books for teens.
DPL:  Did you always want to be an author?
MEP: Yes.  Well, when I didn’t want to be a ballerina, or a secret agent, or—you get the idea.  I had a wild imagination and lots of different interests, but writing always felt like it was at my core. A day never went by when I wasn’t writing some sort of story in my head.
DPL:  What has had the biggest influence on your work?
MEP:  I think a lot of the poetry I loved and studied in my early years has had a direct effect on my writing process.  I love playing with language and finding just the right word and flow.
DPL:  What do you enjoy doing when you’re not writing?
MEP:  Being with my family, cooking, working out in the yard, cleaning up the clutter that accumulates so quickly when I’m writing.  Oddly, I don’t like disorganization, but when I’m writing it seems almost necessary—my desk and office become a clutter zone of piles of paper and notes that I rarely look at, but they’re there if I need them.  I call it Comfort Clutter.
DPL:  There so many great details about our futuristic world in The Fox Inheritance!  How did you do research for a story that is 260 years in the future?
MEP:  I went to the library of course!  The library had all kinds of science and technology magazines and journals where I could learn what some of the newest discoveries were, and what scientists were seeing on the horizon.
DPL:  Is there one message that you hope readers take away from The Fox Inheritance?
MEP:  No specific message.  I just always hope my books make readers think and contemplate their own viewpoints and perspectives.
DPL:  Are you working on a third Jenna Fox book?
MEP:  Yes!  This will be the final book in "The Jenna Fox Chronicles."
DPL:  What is the funniest question that you’ve been asked by a fan?
MEP:  Are you rich?
DPL:  What book(s) are you currently reading?
MEP:  My Life Undecided by Jessica Brody.  Loving it.
DPL:  Favorite food?
MEP:  Anything Mexican.
DPL:  Favorite movie?
MEP:  So many.  Liar, Liar always makes me laugh no matter how many times I’ve seen it.  Thanks for having me as a guest at your library, Patti!

DPL:  Thank you, Mary!!

--Patti

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