Author Crush Friday: Shannon Lee Alexander
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 Shannon Lee Alexander, author of Life After Juliet (July 5, 2016; Entangled Teen). Thank you for talking to us today, Shannon! We’re honored!
GLITTER: How did you come up with the plot for Life After Juliet?
SHANNON: I hadn’t expected to write a companion novel to Love and Other Unknown Variables, but then my editor asked, “What happens to Becca?” Suddenly, I wanted to know the answer to that question, too.
When I began thinking about the story for Life after Juliet, I quickly realized that Becca was going to be a difficult main character to work with. As an awkward bookworm, she likes spending time alone and reading, which doesn’t make for compelling plot twists! I knew I was going to have to coax Becca out of her room, but I also wanted a safe place for her to grow and try new experiences.
In high school, I spent a good deal of my time hiding away in the theater. The theater is a great place to try on other peoples’ lives and learn a little about your self in the process. My experiences in drama club helped shape my life. I knew the drammies and techies would be great people for Becca to lean on as she worked through her grief and explored her new future.
With the familiar backdrop of a high school theater production in place, I started writing (I’m a pantser) and before I knew it, Becca was on an adventure!
GLITTER: If you could describe Life After Juliet in only 160 characters, how would you describe it?
SHANNON: Hoping to overcome crushing grief after her best friend’s death, a bookworm steps from the pages of her beloved books into the spotlight of Romeo & Juliet.
GLITTER: We loved Love and Other Unknown Variables and encourage our readers to read it if they haven’t yet! Can Life After Juliet be read alone or do you need the backstory to fully understand Life After Juliet?
SHANNON: I wrote Life after Juliet to stand alone, although, of course, I want everyone to read both books!
The editor I worked with on Life after Juliet hadn’t read Love and Other Unknown Variables before editing this story, so she was able to help me see places where I’d need to clarify things for new readers. We wanted to be sure that this book was a companion to the first, but they don’t rely on each other to complete any plot or character arcs. Each is self-contained.
GLITTER: Your writing rivals that of John Green. If you could collaborate with him on any story, what would it be and why?
SHANNON: First, thank you for that enormous compliment. John Green is one of my writing heroes. Once I was finished forgetting how to speak and blabbering nonsense words in my excitement over working with The! John! Green!, I would collaborate with him on absolutely anything. If he wanted me to write Zombiecorn 3 with him (and actually include unicorns this time), then that is what I would write. I do love unicorns.
I’ve learned so much about storytelling from reading John Green’s stories. I can’t imagine how much I’d stand to learn from working with him. Writing (and life) is all about growing and improving, so I’d jump at the chance to learn from a YA master like Green.
GLITTER: How much research went into the book?
SHANNON: Life after Juliet didn’t require a lot of research, unlike Love and Other Unknown Variables. I spent a lot of my time in high school avoiding math and science classes by hiding in the theater. Since much of Life after Juliet is set in a high school theater, the setting came naturally to me. The bulk of my theater research was spent looking at modern theater lighting and tech systems (since dinosaurs may have been roaming the Earth’s surface the last time I took the stage).
Metal sculpting plays a small role in Life after Juliet, and thankfully my brother-in-law is a welder. He graciously answered my questions about blow torches and arc welders. I studied local sculptures and watched videos on techniques and tips for working with metals. I also spent a lot of time learning about art and culture in Venezuela to be sure one character’s sculptures were reflective of his history.
Most of what I learned from all my research ended up in files on my computer and pages of notes in my notebook instead of in the story itself. When I think about research for fiction stories, I always remember a quote from Ernest Hemingway. “If a writer knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one ninth of it being above water.”
So one sentence in a fiction story may sum up pages and pages of research notes. And that’s just fine. People aren’t picking up Life after Juliet to learn how to weld. They aren’t going to read it to become well versed in Venezuelan folklore or get tips for putting on theater productions. Readers will enjoy Life after Juliet for the characters, characters I couldn’t have properly brought to life without doing my research.
And as an added bonus, I didn’t have to study any math formulas this time!
GLITTER: Tell us one writing ritual you have.
SHANNON: I’m not big on writing rituals actually. I try to squeeze in writing whenever and wherever I can. However, if I’m writing at home for long periods of time, I’ll light a soy candle with a wooden wick. Wooden wicks crackle and pop like wood in a fireplace, which is one of my favorite sounds. My current candle is actually bonfire scented.
Also, when in doubt, eat Swedish Fish and refill the coffee!
GLITTER: What are you working on now?
SHANNON: I’m currently working on a brand new story in a brand new setting. It’s a story about keeping secrets and learning when to let them go. It’s set in a fictional town in the mountains of North Carolina (my favorite mountains). While the story is contemporary YA fiction, it is steeped in mountain legends full of ghosts, devils, and a fearsome guardian angel.
Shannon Lee Alexander is a wife and mother (of two kids and one yellow terrier named Harriet Potter). She is passionate about coffee, books, and cancer research. Math makes her break out in a sweat. Love and Other Unknown Variables was her debut novel. She currently lives in Indianapolis with her family.
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