Author Crush Friday: Danielle Younge-Ullman
Glitter girls, you have pressing questions for your favorite authors and we have their answers. Welcome to our 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 Danielle Younge-Ullman, author of Lola Caryle’s 12-Step Romance (May 5, 2015; Entangled Teen). Thank you for talking to us today, Danielle! We’re honored! Did you know that Danielle used to dub English voices for Japanese TV? We didn’t, but think that’s awesome!
GLITTER: Tell us five random facts about yourself.
DANIELLE: I am open to bribery-by-chocolate.
I am super-low maintenance with my hair and am always on the hunt for the cheap-but-good haircut.
I love going to parties, but hate hosting them (turn into a cleaning freak).
I madly love The Voice and become overly attached to the contestants.
I was born in Montreal, but only speak a little bit of French.
GLITTER: What was it like writing Lola Caryle’s 12-Step Romance?
DANIELLE: Well, I had a lot of research to do about rehab centers, treatment practices, addiction in general, and more specifically about teen addiction, so that part was very interesting. Regarding the writing itself, I wanted to keep the tone almost fiercely shallow to start out, and funny, without making the Lola totally unlikable, and while still hinting that the story would end up going much deeper. I had to think of her as very…myopic, yet very determined, and I had to be in that headspace–be her–to write her. Then, as the story progressed and got deeper, the challenge was maintaining the funny, sharp tone from the beginning alongside the more serious issues.
GLITTER: In Lola Caryle’s 12-Step Romance, what was your favorite chapter/scene to write and why?
DANIELLE: Hard to choose! Lola does a lot of sneaking around while in rehab, and doesn’t always get away with it. There’s a scene where she ditches her therapy session and sneaks into the pool, climbing over a wall to do so. I don’t want to put any spoilers here, but I loved writing that scene because Lola is so unapologetic, so determined when she wants (or doesn’t want) something, and yet under it all she really is quite vulnerable. It’s a great writing challenge, conveying all of those layers, combining the funny with the dark.
GLITTER: If you could describe Lola Caryle’s 12-Step Romance in only 160 characters, essentially a tweet, how would you describe it?
DANIELLE: A teenage girls fakes her way into a luxurious rehab to “rescue” a boy she thinks she loves.
GLITTER: Do you think a degree in writing is something a writer needs to write a successful novel?
DANIELLE: A degree in Creative Writing is fabulous to have. But do you need it? No. I do think it helps to be educated about literature, to read a ton, to grapple with language, themes, character, and to have a very solid working knowledge of both story structure and grammar. A writer is a storyteller, words are the medium for telling the story, and there are many ways to become an expert at using them.
GLITTER: Is it true that one of your past jobs has been dubbing English voices for Japanese TV?
DANIELLE: Yes! What a job that was–challenging, fun, and at times kind of ridiculous. The company I was working for had a contract to do all the shows from this huge Japanese network and the range was massive–there were dramas, comedies, game shows, animation, documentaries, and near the end we dubbed the voices for their female wrestling federation show–equivalent to the WWF. Sometimes you’d be dubbing two characters who were in a scene together, which was crazy, and took a lot of skill. It was also really fun because everyone working there was an actor and/or comedian, which made for a very entertaining atmosphere.
GLITTER: What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? What has been the best compliment?
DANIELLE: I had some(admittedly older and more conservative) people criticize me for the sex in my previous novel, Falling Under, which was adult contemporary, and that bugged me because I didn’t consider it graphic or gratuitous–it was a deep part of what the character was going through and totally justified, imo. But the toughest thing is when someone feels “meh” about my work. I would much rather they hate it, actually, because that means they were engaged. If they feel “meh” it means I didn’t manage to grab them.
The best compliment so far came in a review from The National Post. It said, “Younge-Ullman writes her guts out, hurtling forward, pedal to the floor…” When I’m having trouble getting going, I remind myself that that’s what I’m supposed to be doing–writing my guts out, hurtling forward.
GLITTER: What are you working on next?
DANIELLE: I have a wild, half-written YA that I’d like to finish that’s nothing like anything else I’ve written, and I also have an idea for a really fun and intense book about one of Lola’s rehab roommates, Talia.
Danielle Younge-Ullman is a novelist, playwright and freelance writer who has always had a passion for books, language, and storytelling. Danielle got a BA in English/Drama from McGill University in Montreal, then returned to her hometown of Toronto to work as professional actor for ten years. This was character-building time during which she held a wild variety of acting and non-acting jobs–everything from working on the stage with Soulpepper Theatre (a high point) to dubbing English voices for Japanese TV (an interesting point), to temping, to teaching Pilates.
LOLA CARLYLE’S 12 STEP ROMANCE (Entangled/Macmillan May 2015) is Danielle’s YA debut. Danielle also wrote the critically acclaimed adult novel, FALLING UNDER, (Penguin, 2008), published a short story called “Reconciliation” in MODERN MORSELS, a McGraw-Hill Anthology for young adults, in 2012, and her one-act play, 7 Acts of Intercourse, debuted at Toronto’s SummerWorks Festival in 2005. Danielle lives in and old house in Toronto that’s constantly being renovated, with her husband and two daughters.
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