Author Interview-Stephanie Kate Strohm

I am pleased to present my very first author interview with the very lovely and kind Stephanie Kate Strohm. Since I posted a review yesterday on her debut novel find it here, http://girlinthetinyhat.blogspot.com/2012/05/pilgirms-dont-wear-pink-stephanie-kate.html, I am not going to re-review it today. But read on to see a glimpse behind the scenes of Pilgrims Don't Wear Pink, and learn a bit about the woman that created the story and characters you are sure to love. I want to personally thank Stephanie for her time and patience in sitting down to answer the questions I sent her. So thank you Stephanie, I look forward to many more books and many more interviews.

1, What inspired you to write Pilgrims Don't Wear Pink?

One summer when I was in college, I interned at a living history museum in CT.  While I was there, there was a rumor that one of the ships was haunted.  Nothing really happened with that, but I always was intrigued by the ghost – probably because I was obsessed with Nancy Drew and Scooby Doo as a kid.   Pilgrims was a product of my love of history and my inner Nancy Drew. 

2, Are you Libby Kelting, your heroine?

Libby and I have a lot of shared interests – short, blonde, too many shoes, prolific bakers, lovers of history and Jane Austen – but we’re different people underneath.  I’m a lot more like Dev. 

3, I heard a story that when you wrote "Pilgrims..." you bought a gallon of ice cream and locked yourself in and just wrote. Is this how it was done?

Pretty much.  It took twelve days, and the flavor was Strawberry Cheesecake.  I woke up one day with the idea for Pilgrims and it just poured out of me in this unstoppable mess.  Needless to say, it required some rewrites. 

4, Being that the setting is a living history museum (and everything seems pretty historically accurate) how much research did you put into the book?

 Most of the research came from working at a living history museum, some of it came from the week I lived in a foc’s’le on a 19^th century schooner in high school, and the remainder was random factoids acquired from a lifetime of history nerd-dom and my American History major at Middlebury College.  The most research I did specifically for the book was about colonial fashion – thank you, Colonial Williamsburg website!

5. What made you want to become a writer?

Jo March from Little Women – that was where it all began.  In 4^th grade I was obsessed with Jo and thought she was just the coolest, so I’d write these 7 page novels on yellow lined paper.  By the time I headed off to college to pursue a joint major in theater and history, I never thought writing would be a career.  (I guess a joint major in theater and history prepares you for a career in…renaissance faires?)  I started writing again when I was on a children’s theater tour of the Midwest and ran out of books, so I thought I’d entertain myself by writing my own.  I was surprised by how much I fell in love with writing. 

6. What does "Young Adult" fiction mean to you? What turns it from YA to just plain adult fiction? To put it another way what do you think the lines are that an author can't cross?

   I think the big distinction is that the protagonists are young adults – sounds simple, but that’s the real difference between YA and adult fiction.  If the MC is in high school, it’s YA.   Aside from that, I’m not totally sure there are any real taboos.   A lot of dark, very “adult” stuff happens in YA novels. 

7. Do you have a favorite YA author? 

 

 I love L. A. Meyer and the Bloody Jack series.  Pirate Queen Jacky Faber swashbuckles her away through many of my favorite historical eras – this series is a history nerd’s dream!  Plenty of romance, too. 

8. What authors have been your inspiration?

Lauren Willig – I love the way she blends history and humor in the Pink Carnation series.  Meg Cabot is my contemporary YA style inspiration.  And although I don’t read a lot of paranormal YA, Stephenie Meyer inspired me to just go for it and send my manuscript out there, even though I didn’t have a lot of formal creative writing training. 

9. Is there another Libby Kelting adventure in the works?

 

There is!  Confederates Don’t Wear Couture comes out April 2013.   Libby and her BFF Dev head down South to sell ball gowns at Civil War reenactments.  Hoopskirts, hard tack, and handsome boys in uniform! 

10. With your next books, will they all be YA?

 Never say never, but that’s the plan for right now.  It’s a genre I really enjoy writing.  At some point I might move to adult chick-lit, but I’m really happy writing YA right now. 

11. What was it like when you found out that you were going to be a published author?

It was the most overwhelming, surreal, exciting feeling imaginable.  I was so shocked, and so overjoyed.  There may have been some squealing.  Ok, a lot of squealing. 

12. And finally, being a history buff if you could live in any period of time when would you live? Why? Would you still want to write?

The Wild West – the American frontier in the late 19^th century.  I love the lawlessness (anything could happen!  That Calamity Jane was crazy), the mythology of the golden west (the freedom!  The lone cowboy hero!), and, of course, the corsets and bustles.  Of course it was a rather gritty time, but that’s part of what makes it interesting.  And would I still want to write…well, there was this movie I was obsessed with where Alyssa Milano moved to Alaska during the Gold Rush and worked for the newspaper, and I remember as a kid being frustrated that she refused to work at the saloon.  I wanted to shake her and scream “there’s better outfits at the saloon!”    Not very enlightened of me, I know.  So that incident makes me doubt how seriously I would pursue a writing career.