Books
Where it Began
Where it Began marks the YA debut of Ann Redisch Stampler. She is the author of several picture books, including The Rooster Prince of Breslov. Her books have been an Aesop Accolade winner, Sydney Taylor notable books and an honor book, a National Jewish Book Awards finalist and winner, and Bank Street Best Books of the Year. Ann has two adult children and lives in Los Angeles, California with her husband.
Visit Ann Stampler: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
First
off, Thank you for stopping by!
Thanks
for having me! I appreciate the
invitation.
Tell
us 5 random things about yourself
Dog
lover, chocaholic, novel junkie, allergic to strawberries, inveterate
eavesdropper
Where
it Began is your debut novel. How did that moment feel when you found out it
was going to be published?
Absolute
joy, dizzy with it. I had been bouncing
between fantasies of the book being published (to huge fanfare involving me
being driven around Central Park in a horse-drawn carriage made of a magic
pumpkin, surrounded by chirping birds and sparkly butterflies) and even more
vivid fantasies of the manuscript being rejected by house after house following
an excruciating wait, involving a great deal of crying and bad language. So when the book was acquired quickly by the
perfect editor, I thought I had already rehearsed what my emotions would be –
but I had no idea. I was knocked
out.
Have
you always wanted to write in the Young Adult genre?
You
know, I didn’t think of myself as a YA writer until I actually started to write
Where It Began. But when I look back at
the short stories I wrote for many years, starting way before I began to publish
picture books, my characters were almost always in that late teen, early
twenties age range. So I would say that
I’ve always wanted to write, and YA is what showed up on the page.
Were
any of the characters a challenge to write?
Billy
Nash. Absolutely Billy Nash. For reasons I can’t explain without it being
a giant spoiler.
What
is 'A day in the life of Ann Stampler' like?
I’ve
been struggling with this question, and I think that the only true answer is
that my days don’t have a predictable shape.
There
are things that I do virtually every day, the list of which makes me sound like
perhaps the most boring person in the world -- write, read, eat dinner with my
husband, play with my dog, check my email, do some sort of chores so that my
house isn’t overwhelmed by dust and dirty dishes.
But
beyond that, when I go to the farmer’s market, or cut out and have lunch at my
favorite Japanese restaurant, visit a bookstore, see friends, go to the movies
or a play or a concert, hang out with my kids, spend days with my house
converted to a set for student films, do a school or library visit
story-telling with little kids, walk the dog in the hills, leave town, write at
the beach, go downtown and binge on shopping for necklaces and earrings and
long, long gauzy scarves -- it’s completely irregular.
If
you could have dinner with any book character in history, who would it be?
I
love and adore Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice, but really, there’s
only so many times I can have dinner with her, so I’m going to change it
up. I’m going to say Holden Caulfield
from Catcher in the Rye.
But
I want to have dinner with Holden maybe twenty years after the end of the book.
(Which would put this dinner back in 1971; I wonder what Holden makes of
hippies, and the Beatles, and the war in Viet Nam. I’m thinking longish hair
but no bell-bottom jeans.) Because, as in so much YA, the end of his story
suggests beginnings and I want to know what happened next, and next, and next.
Finish
this sentence: "I can't live without..."
my
family.”
Do
you have any writing must haves? (music, snacks, etc)
Black
pilot pens; spiral notebooks; colored paper clips; especially if I’m tired, a
quiet room; preferably -- but not necessarily if I’m writing away from home -- my
dog; chocolate; a window.
What
books are waiting to be read on your 'To Read' pile?
This
is a very, very large pile. But the YA’s
start with Beauty Queens, Virtuosity, Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares (I might
put off this one because the book I’m working on has something akin to dares as
part of the story.), How to Save a Life, and The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer.
Crazy
Quiz
Name
one guilty pleasure you have?
Watching
movies I like over and over and over.
Especially YAish movies like Adventureland or Charlie Barlett or Ten
Things I Hate About You. And old John
Hughs movies like Breakfast Club.
Favourite
food?
Anything
chocolate, as long as there aren’t bananas or peanuts in it.
Favourite
film?
Casablanca
Twilight
or Harry Potter?
Harry
Potter
You
favourite book as a child?
This
varied depending on my age, but my first favorite book that I could read by
myself was “The Cat in the Hat.”
Thanks
Ann, it is a pleasure having you!
Again,
thank you for inviting me and for these great questions.
Gabby Gardiner wakes up in a hospital bed looking like a cautionary ad for drunk driving and lacking a single memory of the accident that landed her there. What she can remember, in frank and sardonic detail, is the year leading up to the accident.
As she takes us through her transformation from invisible girl to on-trend Girl Who Dates Billy Nash (aka Most Desirable Boy Ever), she is left wondering: Why is Billy suddenly distancing himself from her? What do her classmates know that Gabby herself does not? Who exactly was in the car that night? And why is Gabby left alone to take the fall?
Putting the pieces together will take every ounce of Gabby's strength. As she peels back the layers of her life, she begins to realize that her climb up the status ladder has been as intoxicating as it has been morally complex...and that nothing about her life is what she has imagined it to be.
Hitting Shelves on March 6th!
.JPG)
| 
