Chatting with Aimee Friedman

Welcome Aimee! It's awesome to have you here. Let's CHAT!

What made you choose to write? And why YA specifically?

I’ve written my whole life—since I could write. Writing was my blissful escape, my favorite hobby, better even than daydreaming because I could use words to spin stories out of my head. I wrote all through school, and through college, and when I graduated college, I had it in my mind that I wanted to write very serious literary fiction. But at the same time I had started working as an editor in children’s publishing, and I fell in love with YA fiction. There was so much fantastic commercial YA just starting to explode at that time: Louise Rennison, Meg Cabot, Cecily von Ziegasar, and so many other fantastic writers who were doing great things in the genre. It was inspiring, and I realized that YA was, in a sense, what I’d been writing all along: the stories I scribbled when I was growing up were always about teenagers fighting and falling in love and making discoveries. So I went back to my roots in some ways, and it was very freeing, and so much fun. It still is.

Awesome! I think YA Lit is wicked fun!

Where do you write best?

There’s a perfect little coffee shop right by my apartment. It has squishy leather seats, sublime iced vanilla lattes, free WiFi (slightly dangerous), cupcakes (very dangerous), and most importantly, lots of other people, all click-clacking away on their laptops. Being surrounded by other working, thinking people is very motivating, and the great coffee doesn’t hurt.

Is there a topic you’ve always wanted to write about?

I’ve always wanted to write about my family— my maternal grandmother in particular, and I still plan to. She had an amazing, difficult, complicated life in Europe, and then started a new life here in the States. It’s a project that’s very close to my heart, though, so I don’t want to plunge in until I feel ready.

What was the last book you’ve read that you’ve been recommending to everyone?

Emily Giffin’s Something Borrowed is a terrific summer read. I have some issues with the term “chick lit,” but, putting that aside, this book is truly transcendent chick-lit. Giffin’s writing is warm, lively, funny, and wise, all while being utterly accessible. It’s a juicy story that compels you with each scene — no small feat for a writer.

Sounds like I need to put this book in my TBR pile!

How do you get your ideas? Do you use real events in your novels and if so, can you describe one?

Probably every novel I’ve written has at least a moment or a scene that comes from my own life. Often the seed of an idea will sprout from an experience I’ve had, and from there I’ll ask a “what if?” and invent a full-grown story. One example of this is my book The Year My Sister Got Lucky. The book grew out of the experiences I’d had taking ballet with my older sister. Like the sisters in the book, we were both born-and-bred New York City girls. Then I wondered, “What if we had been uprooted and moved to a rural small town?” That what if? became the crux of the book.

How do you come up with your titles?

I’m bad at coming with titles! I’ll often have to brainstorm a lot with my editor, bounce ideas back and forth. Sea Change was an easier-than-usual title to come up with, because I took it from a line in the Shakespeare play, The Tempest (which is mentioned in the book!)

Are there any authors you’d love to meet?

Like many book people, I suspect, authors are celebrities to me. I remember I once saw Paul Auster in Brooklyn and had a small freak-out. My friend was like, "What? Did you see Johnny Depp or something?" and I said, "No, BETTER!" (That experience actually inspired my book A NOVEL IDEA!). Because of the tight-knit and fantastic teen author community, I've been fortunate to meet so many amazing writers, such as David Levithan, Lisa Ann Sandell, Maureen Johnson, Meg Cabot, Libba Bray, and countless others. One author I'd love to meet is Sophie Kinsella, author of the SHOPAHOLIC books--I bet she'd be really sweet and hilarious. Another author I think I'd have interesting conversations with would be Philip Roth. Clearly, my tastes in books and writers are very broad-ranging!

Yes, authors are celebrities to me too! I've had a chance to meet so many fabulous authors! (Check the picture at the top of the page). I'd love to meet her too!

I know that you work in the publishing world, is it hard to switching back when you write?

It is definitely a challenge to switch between my editor and author hats. It can be exhausting, and forces me to make a lot of sacrifices, whether it’s time with my friends, time at the gym, sleep, sanity etc. J I do think being a writer has made me a more sensitive editor; many of my authors tell me how grateful they are that I know what it’s like to be “on the other side.” But being an editor can sometimes throw up road blocks in my own writing, because I tend to self-edit myself too much as I go. Overall, though, the juggling act is so rewarding, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

You wrote an awesome graphic novel – Breaking Up. Can you describe the differences in the process between novels and graphic novels?

I’m so glad you liked Breaking Up! Writing it was a wonderful experience. I was a little bit daunted at first, so I threw myself into reading graphic novels. I had LOVED comics growing up, especially Archies (I have a mountainous stack of them at my parents’ house), so it made sense that I fell in love with graphic novels, too. There are so many sublime graphic novels out there, from Maus to Blankets to Ghost World. I also read a great book called Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud, which really helped me get a sense of the structure of comics. I wrote Breaking Up panel by panel, really envisioning each scene and describing what I wanted to have happen in it (for instance, I’d say “Cafeteria, daytime,” etc.). Then I’d write the dialogue for each panel, and go from there. It was a very exciting, different, visual process, very different from novel-writing, and, I’d imagine, a bit more similar to writing a screenplay.

Would you write another graphic novel?

In a heartbeat. I have a sequel to Breaking Up in mind, and Christine Norrie and I have even talked about it.

I hope you write it, I'd love to see what happens next.

Can you tell us a little bit about Sea Change?

Sea Change is the story of Miranda Merchant, a sixteen-year-old girl who is very level-headed, very rational. She loves science, and believes there’s a logical explanation for everything. But all that changes when she spends her summer on a small, mysterious island off the coast of Georgia, and meets Leo, a handsome local boy who challenges everything Miranda thought she knew about reality. In the meantime, Miranda unlocks a family secret and struggles with the class tensions on the island. Sea Change is a love story about transformation, in every sense of the word.

My thoughts:

Miranda thinks she's going to be spending two weeks with her mother alone on an island - talk about a boring summer vacation. She was supposed to be starting an internship at the Museum of Natural History, but then her grandmother died. Now she's helping her mother fix up and pack up the house to get it ready to sell. Things change on the ferry ride when she hears about a local legend of mermaids and mermen. She begins to understand there are two types of island people: summer people, heirs and heiress, and islanders. Her mother introduces her to her friend's daughters. Immediately, Miranda feels out of place. Her new friends make it their mission to find her a suitable boyfriend for the summer. But she has her eye on another boy, an islander. While kissing the suitable boy, a book of island legends falls to the floor. The islander, Leo, makes her feels alive. But in between reading the book of legends and seeing Leo in his natural habitat, Miranda's beginning to question all she knows. Could the legend be true? Could she be falling in love with a merman?

Sea Change takes an ordinary summer and transforms it into something magical. The dreaminess of the cover conveys the feel of the whole story - romantic.

Check out Melissa Walker's cover story.

It ends with loose ends and I’ve heard people talking about a sequel, will there be one or are we readers left to imagine what happens next?

Originally, I hadn’t intended to leave Sea Change open-ended, but as I was writing the characters and their story, it naturally came to me as the right ending for the book. I do want to leave a lot open to readers’ interpretations and imaginations… BUT, at the same time, I do have a sequel in mind!

Oh, fun! I can't wait! I do like how it ends...but I'd never say "No" to a sequel

Is there another project in the works? Can you tell us more about it?

Right now, I’m working on a spooky book for slightly younger readers. It’s great fun! After that, I have an idea for a YA book about travel and romance.

Listing if your favorites:

Candy: Starbursts. I’m addicted. Not. Healthy. At. All.

Pizza topping: I actually love my pizza plain and unadorned so I can enjoy its pure perfection. If coerced, though, I like black olives.

Genre of books: Absolutely anything and everything—fiction, memoir, supernatural, urban fantasy, you name it— with the (possible) exception of sci-fi.

Singer and/or Song: Aimee Mann is my favorite singer, and not just because we have the same first name. Her lyrics are super-smart and her melodies lovely.

Restaurant: Café de Flore in Paris. I love to sit outside, sip a cup of coffee, and watch the world go by.

TV show /Movie: Right now, I’m loving the show Mad Men on AMC, and Curb Your Enthusiasm always makes me laugh. It’s practically impossible for me to pick a favorite movie, but for now, I’ll have to say Adventures in Baby-Sitting. If it’s on TV, I have to watch it.

Color: Ocean-blue (of course!)

Shoe: My Jeffrey Campbell black patent leather flats; they’re insanely comfortable and go with nearly everything, so of course I’ve already worn them to death.

Video Game: I haven’t played video games since I was maybe 11 years old. I really want a Wii!

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