Interview with Debut Author Jennifer Hubbard

Today I am fortunate enough to host the wonderful Jennifer Hubbard! Her debut novel the Secret Year was released in January of this year. While it's only 192 pages, this book packs a wallop and I really enjoyed reading about love and loss from a guy's perspective. You can read my review here and find out more about Jennifer here.

1. Did you choose to write YA or did it just sort of come out that way?

It chose me. It’s what I liked to read, so eventually I decided to write it.

2. Did you find it difficult to write from a teenage boy’s point of view?

No, I have many characters’ voices in my head: some female, some male.

3. As The Secret Year is your debut novel, what were you least and most favorite moments of this experience?

The worst part was the waiting. You wait a lot in this business, and the economy has only made things more uncertain than ever. One of my favorite moments was the first time I saw my cover. I was really looking forward to that, and it was even better because Sam Kim of Penguin came up with such a perfect image and design for the book.

4. If The Secret Year had a soundtrack, which songs would you expect to hear?

The songs I listened to while I wrote are not necessarily the songs anyone else would connect with the book. But Tom Waits’s “Temptation” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Big Love” (the 1997 version) were two songs I listened to over and over while writing The Secret Year.

Incidentally, creating your own playlist is one of the activities I suggest in the book’s Reader Guide (http://www.classof2k10.com/secret_year_reader_guide.pdf).

5. Who/what would you say are some of your biggest influences (in life and/or writing)?

This reminds me of an interview Nora Ephron did with Mike Nichols. She asked him a question in this vein, and he said, “Nothing trains you for life.” Which is the perfect answer, I think. Everything influences me, and at the same time there is a core of something within me, to which I try to stay true.

6. Tell us a bit more about your Library-Loving Blog Challenge.

This is a challenge in which people pledge money to their local libraries based on the number of comments received on their blog, Facebook, etc. Last year we had more than 20 blogs and raised over $1600; this year the challenge runs from March 23 to March 27. I’m still looking for bloggers and Facebookers to participate. (http://writerjenn.livejournal.com/158131.html)

7. The age old question: Chocolate: dark, milk, or other?

Dark. But I’ll eat milk in a pinch. And in fact, someone gave me some wonderful organic milk chocolate at my launch party—with toffee and with nuts.

8. Anything else you’d like us to know?

Thanks for hosting me!

It was my pleasure to host this wonderful interview. Thanks Jennifer!

Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday recognizes that we as bookies pine for books. This post is about what I am impatiently waiting for right now. It was started by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

This week's selection is The Secret Year by Jennifer Hubbard will be released January 7, 2010.

Seventeen-year-old Colt has been sneaking out at night to meet Julia, a girl from an upper-class neighborhood unlike his own. They’ve never told anyone else about their relationship: not their family or friends, and especially not Julia’s boyfriend.When Julia dies suddenly, Colt tries to cope with her death while pretending that he never even knew her. He discovers a journal she left behind. But he is not prepared for the truths he discovers about their intense relationship, nor to pay the price for the secrets he’s kept.
From Goodreads

I know you all are thinking, "But Laura, you already read this!" That doesn't mean I'm not still waiting on it. I am hoping that someone will get it for me as a belated gift. *Hint, hint.:)* Either way, I really liked the book and would enjoy reading it again. Check out my thoughts here.

The Secret Year by Jennifer Hubbard

What do you do when someone you love dies, but no one ever knew you were together? That's where Colt finds himself when Black Mountain debutante Julia winds up dead after a Labor Day party.

Words don't begin to describe how he feels, until Julia's brother gives Colt her journal. It is filled with entries written as letters to Colt throughout their secret affair because for the last year that's what they had. Even though they had lived in the same small town all their lives, Julia belonged to the elite Black Mountain group who never really had to worry about much. Colt lives in the Flats where blue collar workers struggle to make it by while living next to the river. They met by chance one night and started visiting with one another every Friday night that they could get away: from family, from friends, from obligations.

Those night meant everything to Colt as he waited all week to spend Friday nights with Julia. Now that she is gone, and he is left with her journal, Colt tries to reconcile his past with his future. Moving on is hard, especially when your center-of-the-universe brother keeps causing family disturbances, your best female friend suddenly wants to be more, and you just got a job busing tables at the same diner as your mother.

A truly honest story about what happens in the wake of tragedy, The Secret Year really analyzes what happens to those of us left behind when a loved one dies. It is especially hard to imagine someone so young dying so tragically and yet it happens all the time. Colt is a very typical guy that I can actually imagine being someone I know. He doesn't talk a lot, but he thinks deeply, he's full to the brim with testosterone (so much so that his and Julia's relationship is primarily physical), and he just kind of glides by in school like a ghost. I found Julia's letters/journal entries a unique tool to get her side of the story, without her being present. While the ending was underwhelming, I think it was fitting for the overall story arch. Look for it in January 2010!