Author Crush Friday: Amy Engel
Glitter girls, you have pressing questions for your favorite authors and we have their answers. Welcome to our new weekly segment, Author Crush Fridays.
We love asking questions and we love the answers from some of our favorite authors. First up is Amy Engel, author of the highly anticipated debut, The Book of Ivy. If you love The Hunger Games and Divergent, this is your new must read. Really, we mean it!
GLITTER: Tell us five random facts about yourself.
AMY: 1) I don’t like hot drinks of any kind. No hot coffee, hot chocolate, etc.
2) I could eat Mexican food every day and never get tired of it.
3) My hips are double jointed and I can pop them out whenever I want. It’s a great party trick!
4) I have a serious addiction to lipgloss. I have too many to even keep count.
5) I attended five different elementary schools, which made me the perpetual “new girl.”
GLITTER: Tell us about your journey to becoming a writer.
AMY: I’ve been writing since I was a kid. I’ve always loved making up stories and creating characters in my head. When I finished college, I went on to law school because I was too scared to try writing as a career and thought I should do something practical. A few years ago, the writing bug hit hard and I knew I was ready to try and make it more than just a hobby. I wrote a YA novel that never really went anywhere. I put it aside and began writing The Book of Ivy. I’m so glad that I made the decision to devote more time and energy to my writing. The act of creating my own world and characters is so satisfying.
GLITTER: In The Book of Ivy, what was your favorite chapter/scene to write and why?
AMY: Oh, that’s a hard question to answer! I have so many scenes I loved writing for various reasons. If I had to choose my favorite scene to write in the book, I would have to say the first kiss scene. I’d been working toward that development for what felt like so long, and Ivy and Bishop really earned that scene and that moment.
GLITTER: The Book of Ivy focuses on Ivy and Bishop. Both are from opposite sides of town, but somehow end up together. How did you come up with the idea for this story? Why did you feel you had to tell this story? Both characters are so complex. Did you always want them to be that way?
AMY: The origins of The Book of Ivy began with me just thinking about the influence our families have over our lives. I’ve always been interested in the ways our parents shape how we see the world. We all like to think we are completely autonomous creatures, but the way we are raised has such power over us. From there, the idea grew and was fleshed out as I thought more about it. When I began The Book of Ivy, I knew the prevailing wisdom was that the dystopian genre was no longer hot. But this was a story I really wanted to tell. And I felt that it was just different enough from other dystopians that it might be able to find its place in the publishing world.
I’m glad readers are recognizing the complexity of both Ivy and Bishop. I didn’t consciously plan for them to be complex, but I’m always fascinated by the different facets of personality. It’s important to me that characters not be all bad or all good, all kindness or all evil. Human beings, for the most part, are more complicated than that and I enjoy writing those types of characters.
GLITTER: What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? What has been the best compliment?
AMY: I don’t know if this really counts as a criticism, but when I was sending queries out on my first YA novel, I got quite a few rejections. Even though I knew they were inevitable and part of the writing journey, they still stung. With Ivy, my editors did have some constructive criticism, but I wouldn’t necessarily categorize that as “tough.” I always think my writing and story-telling can improve, so I was actually happy to have helpful feedback that guided me in writing an even better book. The best compliment I’ve received is simply the fact that people are reading The Book of Ivy. I’m well aware of how many amazing books are out there and the fact that people choose to pick up my book and spend their time reading it is the best compliment I could ever receive.
GLITTER: What are you working on now?
AMY: I’ve finished the sequel to Ivy, The Revolution of Ivy, but I’m still doing some tweaking prior to beginning edits. I’m also working on an adult novel: a dark, gothic mystery. And I have an idea for a new YA novel that I’m still kicking around inside my head. Generally, I’m always either writing something or thinking about writing something!
Amy was born in Kansas and after a childhood spent bouncing between countries (Iran, Taiwan) and states (Kansas, California, Missouri, Washington, D.C.), she settled in Kansas City, Missouri where she lives with her husband and two kids. Before devoting myself full time to motherhood and writing, she was a criminal defense attorney, which is not quite as exciting as it looks on TV. When she has a free moment, she can usually be found reading, running, or shoe shopping.
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