Intervju med Sonya Sones

För ett tag sedan skickade jag iväg några frågor till Sonya Sones, författare till Vad mina vänner inte vet, Vad min flickvän inte vet och En sån där vidrig bok där mamma dör och fem andra böcker som ännu inte översatts till svenska. Här får ni hela intervjun:
Why do you write?
Words have always been a powerful force in my life, bringing me both joy and sadness. I write to harness the power of words. I write to move people, to share a rollercoaster of emotions with them, to give them pleasure, to connect with them. I write to figure out my life. (And also because I have to pay for my children to go to college!)

I wrote One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies because I was interested in exploring the theme of culture shock. I grew up near Boston, but moved to L.A. in my twenties to work for a famous film director. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. Hollywood seemed so glamorous and exciting. But it was like living on a different planet. So when I was writing Ruby’s story, I could draw on memories of my own culture shock. Seeing palm trees everywhere, movie stars standing in line at the drugstore. I even got a ticket for crossing the street—just like Ruby.

Where do you get the inspiration from?
My first inspiration was my children. I loved reading to them so much that it inspired me to want to write for children. Now, I get inspiration from the lovely fan emails that pop into my email box daily – from really sweet readers who say very lovely, encouraging, funny, inspiring things to me. Thank you, dear readers!

Which of your books do you like best, and why?
That would be like asking me to choose which of my children I like best. I like all my books equally. :)

What do you think about the cover image that your books have in Sweden?
They are beautiful! I especially love the original covers of read What My Mother Doesn´t Know and What My Girlfriend Doesn´t Know - the way they were designed to fit together into one photo, and how the on the spine of the book, there is half a heart on each book, and when you put them together it makes a whole heart. Though Robin looks much more handsome than I pictured him when I wrote the book. When my son Jeremy saw the cover, he said “Well, maybe that’s ugly for Swedish.”

What do you want to say to grownups who like to write? Do you have any writing tips?
Write from the heart. Write about what you know (your own experiences and feelings). Don’t avoid writing about the pain in your life. Do avoid using clichés and overusing adjectives. Try to find ways to describe things in fresh new ways. Similes work well for that. Try to show instead of tell. Like instead of saying “I felt happy” (telling), say “I felt like a jar all filled up with a thousand fireflies” (showing). Or instead of saying “I felt scared” (telling), say “my heart fluttered in my throat like a trapped bird” (showing). And read, read, read—whoever, and whatever, inspires you.

Also, stop worrying about how good what you write is going to be. I always assume that what I write will really stink. And my own first drafts always do. But I have to write that awful version first, so that I have something that I can work on and eventually make better. You’ve got to remember that even if what you write is terrible, you can revise it and keep on revising it, until what you’ve written is good. And maybe even great!

xx, Sonya