The GCC Presents Paula Chase Hyman, author of Don't Get It Twisted
Paul gets the coolest covers. I would be drawn to this like zombies to brains. Her latest novel is a sequel. Here’s the low down, dog.
In Don’t Get It Twisted, the sequel to her debut, So Not The Drama, Chase gives readers a peek into the Del Rio Bay clique’s foray into dating, while also dipping her toe into the issue of student athletics and cheating. Using humor and earnest insight, Chase continues the story of Mina Mooney and her mixed bag of friends.
Don’t Get It Twisted [Kensington Books/Dafina for Young Readers] finds Mina scheming to go on a date with her crush, Craig, to The Frenzy, a coveted party thrown by the school’s football team. As she draws her friends into the plans, a newcomer throws an unexpected monkey wrench into her blossoming relationship with Craig.
The same newcomer has JZ sweating his spot on the Varsity basketball team and soon, both Mina and JZ are on the ‘by any means necessary’ road to trouble.
Don’t Get It Twisted is about the consequences and repercussions of the choices we make when we set out to get the things we really want.
Q and A
Q. Where do you see yourself as a writer in five years?
A. I’d like to be writing full-time in five years. When I sold my book in '06 I set a goal of four years to be writing full-time. I set it at four years for many reasons, among them to make me aggressive about my writing goals. However, that time will be up in 2010 - which is really close in publishing time since things get sold so far out. I know how challenging it can be to make a sustainable living from writing, so if it ends up taking closer to five more years from now (2013) that's just going to have to be okay.
Q. What’s the funniest experience you’d had at a book-signing?
A. This was funny ironic, not funny ha-ha. But I was doing a signing and this woman made eye contact with me, so I inquired about the young readers in her life. She mentioned a grand daughter and I began talking about some potential series for her, excluding mine. I mentioned that mine possibly was a bit advanced for her. She looked at my books and mentioned that while her grand daughter is an avid reader, she probably wouldn’t like “that” kind of book – talking about mine. We discussed what that meant and she said she was looking for something more “stimulating” for her grand daughter. With that she proceeded to head to a bunch of books that, based on the covers and title, were obviously street literature/erotica in nature.
I thought it was funny that she was insistent on finding her grand daughter something educational but was totally fine with getting books that were purely for pleasure, for herself. Based on the books she browsed, none of them would be "stimulating" in the sense she meant for her grand daughter.
It’s always funny to me when people act as if the only time a kid should read is if it’s for school. I've never liked that message. To put it more eloquently, it sucks.
Q. Have you ever had writers’ block? How do you deal with it?
A. I don’t believe in writer’s block as this huge, black out of ideas. However, I definitely believe there are times when my head is so cluttered with everything else going on around me that I’m unable to hear my characters and unable to feel a story. Another detriment to my writing is extreme emotion. If I’m angry or stressed it’s hard to concentrate on my writing. But when a deadline is looming, you’ve got to get past those things.
I’ve found that the best way to unclutter my head is to block out sound. I purchased a pair of Bose Quiet Comfort earphones, last summer. They’re designed to wear on airplanes to block out the huge hum of the plane’s engine. So they don’t necessarily block out high pitched sounds (like my kids). However, they block out a lot of background white noise and helps me go to a place where I can hear my characters. Some days I can write without them. But other days, when my emotions or other things threaten to kill the voices, I’ll drop them on and just sit for a few minutes before writing until I feel like I’m in the world alone. That tends to help.
Q. Have you ever had an unfavorable review? How did you cope?
A. Not unfavorable in the vein of the entire review being bad. But, one reviewer made a comment that this book wasn’t “as good” as my first. But she never qualified it. The lack of a justification baffled me. I take all reviews with a grain of salt. They’re someone’s opinion, so you have to prepare yourself for some not to love it. However, I firmly believe that it’s a reviewers’ job to be balanced and to clarify statements like “not as good.” It’s not very helpful for a potential reader. The irony was, this review wasn’t unfavorable. The book was given 4 out of 5 stars, despite the statement of it not being “as good” and one other vague statement.
Q. How do you balance your home life with your writing life?
A. Balancing writing with my home life isn’t the challenge, it’s balancing it with my full-time job and coaching cheerleading. Each one of those things has many moving parts, so some days it all comes down on me and I feel like running away. But when I have a deadline to meet, I don’t let anything stop me from writing. Whether I have to stay up late or get up early, it gets done. It simply means that some days I’m more tired than others.
Paul gets the coolest covers. I would be drawn to this like zombies to brains. Her latest novel is a sequel. Here’s the low down, dog.
In Don’t Get It Twisted, the sequel to her debut, So Not The Drama, Chase gives readers a peek into the Del Rio Bay clique’s foray into dating, while also dipping her toe into the issue of student athletics and cheating. Using humor and earnest insight, Chase continues the story of Mina Mooney and her mixed bag of friends.
Don’t Get It Twisted [Kensington Books/Dafina for Young Readers] finds Mina scheming to go on a date with her crush, Craig, to The Frenzy, a coveted party thrown by the school’s football team. As she draws her friends into the plans, a newcomer throws an unexpected monkey wrench into her blossoming relationship with Craig.
The same newcomer has JZ sweating his spot on the Varsity basketball team and soon, both Mina and JZ are on the ‘by any means necessary’ road to trouble.
Don’t Get It Twisted is about the consequences and repercussions of the choices we make when we set out to get the things we really want.
Q and A
Q. Where do you see yourself as a writer in five years?
A. I’d like to be writing full-time in five years. When I sold my book in '06 I set a goal of four years to be writing full-time. I set it at four years for many reasons, among them to make me aggressive about my writing goals. However, that time will be up in 2010 - which is really close in publishing time since things get sold so far out. I know how challenging it can be to make a sustainable living from writing, so if it ends up taking closer to five more years from now (2013) that's just going to have to be okay.
Q. What’s the funniest experience you’d had at a book-signing?
A. This was funny ironic, not funny ha-ha. But I was doing a signing and this woman made eye contact with me, so I inquired about the young readers in her life. She mentioned a grand daughter and I began talking about some potential series for her, excluding mine. I mentioned that mine possibly was a bit advanced for her. She looked at my books and mentioned that while her grand daughter is an avid reader, she probably wouldn’t like “that” kind of book – talking about mine. We discussed what that meant and she said she was looking for something more “stimulating” for her grand daughter. With that she proceeded to head to a bunch of books that, based on the covers and title, were obviously street literature/erotica in nature.
I thought it was funny that she was insistent on finding her grand daughter something educational but was totally fine with getting books that were purely for pleasure, for herself. Based on the books she browsed, none of them would be "stimulating" in the sense she meant for her grand daughter.
It’s always funny to me when people act as if the only time a kid should read is if it’s for school. I've never liked that message. To put it more eloquently, it sucks.
Q. Have you ever had writers’ block? How do you deal with it?
A. I don’t believe in writer’s block as this huge, black out of ideas. However, I definitely believe there are times when my head is so cluttered with everything else going on around me that I’m unable to hear my characters and unable to feel a story. Another detriment to my writing is extreme emotion. If I’m angry or stressed it’s hard to concentrate on my writing. But when a deadline is looming, you’ve got to get past those things.
I’ve found that the best way to unclutter my head is to block out sound. I purchased a pair of Bose Quiet Comfort earphones, last summer. They’re designed to wear on airplanes to block out the huge hum of the plane’s engine. So they don’t necessarily block out high pitched sounds (like my kids). However, they block out a lot of background white noise and helps me go to a place where I can hear my characters. Some days I can write without them. But other days, when my emotions or other things threaten to kill the voices, I’ll drop them on and just sit for a few minutes before writing until I feel like I’m in the world alone. That tends to help.
Q. Have you ever had an unfavorable review? How did you cope?
A. Not unfavorable in the vein of the entire review being bad. But, one reviewer made a comment that this book wasn’t “as good” as my first. But she never qualified it. The lack of a justification baffled me. I take all reviews with a grain of salt. They’re someone’s opinion, so you have to prepare yourself for some not to love it. However, I firmly believe that it’s a reviewers’ job to be balanced and to clarify statements like “not as good.” It’s not very helpful for a potential reader. The irony was, this review wasn’t unfavorable. The book was given 4 out of 5 stars, despite the statement of it not being “as good” and one other vague statement.
Q. How do you balance your home life with your writing life?
A. Balancing writing with my home life isn’t the challenge, it’s balancing it with my full-time job and coaching cheerleading. Each one of those things has many moving parts, so some days it all comes down on me and I feel like running away. But when I have a deadline to meet, I don’t let anything stop me from writing. Whether I have to stay up late or get up early, it gets done. It simply means that some days I’m more tired than others.
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