Interview with Jillian Cantor

And now, an interview with the lovely Jillian Cantor, author of The September Sisters...

1. The September Sisters is your first published book. How are you feeling about having it FINALLY coming out?

I’m feeling a range of emotions – excited, of course, that the book is finally out in the world and that people will finally get to read Abby’s story. But I’m also nervous about all these things, too!

2. Did you always intend to write for teens, or did you just get lucky that it turned out that way? ;D

I got lucky that it turned out that way! The September Sisters was originally written as an adult book – it was the same story, but at the end Abby was 30 instead of 15. When I wrote the book I had no idea that it might be a young adult book. I just knew I had a story I wanted to tell about a 13-year-old girl. It was my agent who suggested to me that the book might really be a YA book, and things went from there.

3. Writers often describe their road to getting published as lucky because it was so easy, or horrifically difficult and long. What was your road to publication like?

The second one – difficult and long! Although, I still feel that I got very lucky. Even though it took me a long time (about 5 years from the time I wrote the book until the time it sold) and a lot of rejection to get to where I am now, I still feel incredibly lucky, and I feel things ended up exactly the way they were supposed to.

4. Your book has a gorgeous cover. What was your first reaction when you saw it?

I loved it – but actually this was about the fourth version of the cover I saw. The version before this one, I wasn’t a big fan of – it still had the blue heart, but the background and the font were a lot different. For a little while, I thought that version was going to be the “final” cover, so when I saw this one, I was really, really excited.

5. What is the best writing advice you've ever received?

A writer writes. Sounds kind of lame, but I thought that a lot to myself when I was getting a lot of rejection. I kept thinking if I kept writing, I could still think of myself as a writer, even if I wasn’t published yet. But if I gave up, if I stopped writing, then I would never be a real writer.

6. What is some writing advice you wished you had received before?

That’s a good question. I guess just more specific advice about publishing as a business. When I was in graduate school, there was a lot of focus on the craft of writing, which is great. But once I left and tried to start selling my work, I had no idea what I was doing.

7. What do you hope readers take away from The September Sisters?

I hope they enjoy it and get involved in the story. There’s nothing I like better than finding myself absorbed in the book! But I also hope that they feel Abby’s strength and her ability to see people for who they really are, underneath the surface.

8. You're 1/6 of The Novel Girls blog. What has being a part of that been like?

Awesome! It’s been so amazing to connect with other great women writers who are going through the exact same experience as I am. Being a writer, on the brink of being published, is fun and scary and exciting and nerve-wracking, and not something my non-writer friends can completely understand. It’s been so fun to blog with them and just chat with them online, and of course, I’m totally looking forward to all of their books!

Random question time!

9. Recently, my mom found a book that I vaguely remember writing as a child. It was a novelization of the Rugrats in Paris movie, and it was one of my first books. What's the first book you ever remember writing?

I’m not sure I ever wrote a book before I actually wrote a book as an adult. I wrote one before The September Sisters, (that’s now in the back of my closet) about a family 10 years after the drowning of a little girl. But I used to write lots of short stories when I was younger. The first ones I remember writing were about a hot air balloon who could talk and about twin sisters keeping a secret from each other. I wrote these in fourth grade.

10. If you could have any cake made for you (it can breathe fire, dance, blow bubbles, whatever), what would the cake be of/how would it be decorated? And what flavor cake would it be?

Well, chocolate chip cake with buttercream icing is my favorite – so that’s what flavor it would be. I’m not too picky when it comes to cake – I LOVE cake, and I hardly ever get to eat it – so I’d be happy with anything on it. But it might be cool to see a cake that looked like The September Sisters cover. Hmmm, I don’t know, then I might feel bad eating it!

11. If you could visit any author in any time period, who would you visit and what would you talk to them about?

Virginia Woolf. I read A Room of One’s Own in college, and it’s all about women and writing and what it means to be a woman and a writer. It really struck a chord with me. I’d love to hear her thoughts on women writers and feminism today – I wonder if she’d be impressed or disappointed by how things have changed.

12. One of the weirdest items I own is a barista action figure with interchangeable heads. What's the weirdest item you own? (Or have ever owned?)

I used to collect pigs when I was younger. I had shelves full of them in my room – ceramic pigs and stuffed pigs and piggy banks. There were some weird ones in there -- I even had a tiny white ceramic one with a Swedish flag on it, that my parents brought me back from a trip to Sweden once.

13. And the timeless question: zombies or unicorns?

Unicorns, of course! I actually used to be obsessed with unicorns when I was younger.

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Thanks Jillian! But unicorns? Really?