Author Crush Friday: Vivi Barnes
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. Today we’re talking to Vivi Barnes, author of Paper or Plastic (February 3, 2015; Entangled Teen). Thank you for talking to us today, Vivi! We’re honored!
GLITTER: How did you come up with the plot for Paper or Plastic?
VIVI: I’m not gonna lie – walking into a big box store like WalMart is very intimidating to me. It’s overwhelming, the sheer amount of stuff those stores contain—most of it excessive and unnecessary. Not only that, the online sites that highlight the stranger side of people who shop there both fascinated and saddened me. I wondered what it would be like if a girl who only saw the world from her privileged bubble was made to work at a big box store and deal with the craziness, but found herself learning and growing from the experience instead.
As far as the secondary plot in the book that centers around pageants, I have a fascination with the show Toddlers & Tiaras, for some reason. It was more how the mothers acted more than anything, so I definitely got my inspiration for the interaction between Lex’s sister and mother from that show.
GLITTER: If you could describe Paper or Plastic in only 160 characters, how would you describe it?
VIVI: Privileged Lex assumes the summer is a bust because she’s forced to work at awful SmartMart, but learns there’s more to her quirky coworkers, weird customers and hot geeky boss than meets the eye.
GLITTER: What kind of research went into writing this book?
VIVI: Well, you know, I shopped a lot. I have the credit card bill to prove it (is it too much of a stretch to write it all off as research?). My brother is a manager at big box retail so he was able to clue me in on the way things work (not to mention many of my friends who work in merchandise and loss prevention).
Outside of my own interest in the sport, I talked to a few people to get the details of girls’ softball, including a friend who coaches. I also talked to a doctor of geriatrics to validate the content surrounding Lex’s grandmother and her Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s is a devastating disease to both the patient and the family, and as someone who was particularly close to my own grandma, I wanted to ensure that Lex’s compassion and love for her grandma was central to her life.
How different was this writing process from writing your first book, Olivia Twisted?
As Olivia Twisted was my debut novel, I learned so much from the entire process—from knowing when to show and when to tell to fleshing out my secondary characters. Being able to automatically incorporate those learnings into Paper or Plastic made it easier to come out with a cleaner first draft (certainly cleaner than early drafts of Olivia Twisted). The one thing that threw me for a loop was how much less time I’d spend writing and more I’d spend on the Internet once my book was out. I am committing to lessening that time and focusing on writing more this year.
So far, it’s working out as well as the commitment I had to exercise more, but here’s hoping! 🙂
GLITTER: If you could collaborate on a new book with anyone, who would you collaborate with and why?
VIVI: Once upon a time I actually collaborated on a middle grade novel with a close, talented friend of mine. It took us 11 years to write, but if she hadn’t started collaborating with me, I probably never would have finished it. She helped me learn how to organize my thoughts into a semblance of plot, and thanks to her, we actually completed it! Collaboration is tough because two authors have two different voices—to me it was clear what she wrote and what I wrote, so that’s always a challenge. We had a great time, though, and I hope one of these days that book will see the light of day!
GLITTER: What are you working on now?
VIVI: I’m currently working on another young adult contemporary romance as well as a contemporary middle grade, both of which I’m enjoying! I hope to share details with everyone on this in the near future.
Vivi Barnes is the author of Olivia Twisted. She was raised on a farm in East Texas where her theater-loving mom and cowboy dad gave her a unique perspective on life. Now living in the magic and sunshine of Orlando, Florida, she divides her time writing, working, goofing off with her husband and three kids, and avoiding dirty dishes. www.vivibarnes.com
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