Quite a while ago, I was lucky enough to get my hands on Natasha Friend’s new book, For Keeps. While she’s written several other books, none of them had crossed my path. For Keeps was such fun that I immediately contacted Natasha and asked for an interview.
For Keeps –
Josie’s never met her dad, and that’s fine with her. To Josie, Paul Tucci is just a guy who got her mom pregnant and then moved away. It all happened sixteen years ago, when Josie’s mom was still a teenager herself. But now Paul Tucci is back in town, and Josie has to deal with not one but two men in her life—her father and her first boyfriend, who Josie fears will hurt her just like Paul hurt her mother.
- What were your favorite books when you were a teen? Anything and everything by Judy Blume, Norma Klein, Paula Danziger. THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, THE MAKING OF A WOMAN SURGEON (I thought I wanted to be a doctor), GO ASK ALICE. . . . I could go on and on.
- What’s on your iPod or CD player? Okay, this is slightly embarrassing, but besides “Eye of the Tiger” (the Rocky theme song) to fire me up . . . “Mind Food”—this meditation/relaxation recording that helps me de-stress. My dad’s ex-girlfriend gave it to me when I was in college studying for exams, and I’ve been using it ever since. It works!
- What’s your favourite website? I love looking at other Y.A. authors’ websites. Sarah Dessen. E. Lockhart. Laurie Halse Anderson. (Amazing authors, all). I have Y.A. author website envy.
- What do you read in the bathroom? I don’t read in the bathroom; I sing. Show tunes.
- What’s the best piece of advice anyone ever gave you (or you learned from a book)? To be “the master of my fate” and “the captain of my soul” (William Ernest Henley, INVICTUS).
- What are you reading now? NANNY RETURNS, the sequel to THE NANNY DIARIES. Next up: GOING BOVINE by Libba Bray (Printz Award winner, who I just saw give a reading; she’s incredible!)
- Do you know how to cook? What’s your specialty? Yes! Chicken Cacciatashi, of course. (My kids call me “Tashi”).
- Are you a sports fan? Who’s your team? Yes! Boston Red Sox! And, as a former gymnast, I love watching gymnastics on TV.
- Do you speak any foreign languages? Yopes. OpI spopeak Opopoppy. Dopoes opanopyopone opelse?
- What’s the coolest writing-thing that’s happened to you since you sold your first book? Discovering that I still have many, many more stories to tell, and that people still seem to want to read them. And pay me for them!
- Go on, give us some writing advice. You know you want to! Read. Read, read, read, read, read, read, read. The single-most important bit of writing advice I could give anyone. Turn off the TV and read.
Thanks so much, Natasha!
Great interview. I have Natasha’s book in my TBR pile. It looks great!