5 Minutes With Sarah Ockler

Sister Deb and eagle-eyed, Sarah Ockler has one of the most consistently exciting blogs online- and now her debut novel, TWENTY BOY SUMMER, is available in bookstores everywhere. It’s been a crazy month for her, so I’m thrilled she could spare five minutes for us!

You’re a born listmaker- one of my favorites is 30 Days of Search Terms (snowsuit pee, really?) So just to put you on the spot, what are your top three favorite YA tropes?

1. Making lists, of course. Along with footnotes.

2. The wicked stepmother-figure who actually turns out to be pretty cool and misunderstood, and in the end, she totally bonds with the MC.

3. Emerald green eyes. I don’t actually know anyone with emerald green eyes and so it always sounds really cool, even if it’s like totally rare in nature.

You’ve said that everyone you meet influences your writing. Do you just change a name and hairstyle and go to town, or are you talking about more subtle influences?

Usually more subtle influences, like a physical trait here, a quote there, a funny quirk over there. But sometimes I meet someone who’s so wacky he’s like a caricature of himself. That guy always goes into the story, head first.

After five years in Colorado, you moved back to New York. What effect does your own personal setting have on your writing?

While I loved writing out in the wilds of Colorado, especially in the mountains or woods, I can just as easily write in a crowded coffee shop. The only places I really can’t write in are rooms where one person is watching television or trying to talk to me. I can drown out hustle and bustle, but the constant doom-and-gloom of CNN or some reality show laugh track really irks me, and I get all twitchy and cranky. I need some kind of space of my own, even if it’s the base of a tree or a little coffee shop table.

This question is more for Chancho, than you. What are you inspiring/enabling/encouraging Sarah to write right now?

*Oink* It’s complicated. Acting as Sarah’s muse difficult at best, but I’m pushing her hard to work on her third YA novel while launching her first and completing revisions on her second, Fixing Delilah Hannaford, which comes out next summer. Fixing Delilah Hannaford is the story of a sixteen-year-old girl coming to terms with three generations of family secrets and how those secrets have impacted the women in her family. There’s lots of mother-daughter drama and a cute boy in the mix, too! *Snort*

Back to questions for Sarah! Now that you’re a published author, and thus legally allowed to be eccentric, how tempting is it to make appearances in your fave high school slackerwear, PJs and socks?

It’s so tempting that I do it daily. Fortunately for everyone involved, I work from home. On the rare occasion where I have to make a public appearance, I leave the PJs at home and opt for more socially acceptable garb. Though it’s pretty funny when people find out I work from home and make a joke about working in my PJs. If they only knew! ;)