Author Crush Friday: Kimberly McCreight
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 Kimberly McCreight, NY Times Bestselling author of The Outliers (May 3, 2016; HarperCollins). Actress, Reese Witherspoon, chose it as a book club pick. In her Instagram post, Witherspoon writes: “I could not put down this thriller by @kimberlymccreight about a teenage girl who sets off on a mission to save her best friend, uncovering secrets and betrayal as she slowly realizes something more sinister is at work.”
Thank you for talking to us today, Kimberly! We’re honored!
GLITTER: In The Outliers, what was your favorite chapter/scene to write and why?
KIMBERLY: There’s a scene near the beginning of The Outliers where Wylie overcomes her recent tumble into even more crippling anxiety and gets herself out of the house to go after Cassie. It’s a really triumphant scene for Wylie, but it’s also a very personal one for me. Having suffered with a lot of anxiety in my own life, I can really empathize with Wylie’s struggle. Plus, there’s a moment when Wylie grabs all this camping equipment because it reminds her of her of her mom whom she just lost in an accident and it really breaks my heart.
GLITTER: Would you consider The Outliers more dystopian or sci-fi?
KIMBERLY: I consider it speculative. To be honest, I don’t even know if that’s an official genre or whatever, but it feels like the best fit. It’s also how I’ve always described The Outliers. It’s not dystopian I don’t think because it is set in the current, present day. And I don’t consider it sci-fi either because that would seem to presuppose a much more elaborate alternate reality. The Outliers speculates about what would happen if we just shifted one thing about the world just a tiny little bit. Only, in the end, to discover that the consequences could be huge.
GLITTER: Can you describe The Outliers in 160 characters or less?
KIMBERLY: A mystery about a troubled girl who overcomes her fears to save her missing best friend and learns that her biggest weakness might be her greatest strength.
(WOW. That was super hard)
GLITTER: Will this be a book we will see on the big screen soon?
KIMBERLY: The Outliers has been optioned by Lionsgate with Reese Witherspoon’s Pacific Standard and Mandeville Films set to produce. Obviously, that is all an insane dream come true. In fact, I am extremely bruised from pinching myself.
GLITTER: Where’s your favorite place to write?
KIMBERLY: I write these days at The Brooklyn Writers space, but that’s only in the past year. The Outliers was written entirely at my local Starbucks. Where, yes, they let me sit for nine hours every day for over a year without calling the authorities. They are extremely nice people.
GLITTER: What character do you relate most to?
KIMBERLY: Wylie, hands down.
GLITTER: What is easier to write: The first line or the last line?
KIMBERLY: They are both pretty close to impossible. But I’ll go with first line being easier because setting expectations (the beginning of a novel) is always easier than meeting them (the end of a novel).
GLITTER: What one YA novel do you wish you had when you were a teen?
KIMBERLY: All the Bright Places, Jennifer Niven
GLITTER: What are you working on now?
KIMBERLY: I am moving into edits of the second book in The Outliers trilogy, and I am so excited for everyone to see what happens next.
Photo Credit: © Beowulf Sheehan
Kimberly McCreight is the New York Times bestselling author of Reconstructing Amelia, which was nominated for an Edgar Award for Best First Novel as well as an Alex Award. Called Entertainment Weekly‘s Favorite Book of the Year,Reconstructing Amelia was one of CNN’s Reader Favorites for 2013, a finalist for Goodreads Best Mystery of the Year and a Book Club pick for Target, Books-a-Million and Indigo. Reconstructing Amelia has also been optioned for film by HBO and Nicole Kidman’s Blossom Films. McCreight’s second novel, Where They Found Her, was published by Harper in April 2015. A USA Today bestseller, it is due out in paperback in April of 2016. McCreight’s teen trilogy The Outliers, to be published by Harper Teen in 2016, has been optioned for film by Lionsgate, Mandeville, and Reese Witherspoon’s Pacific Standard. She lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters.
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