A Wednesday Wonderfully Spent with Brooke Taylor

It's Wednesday!

Whether you're baking cookies as a bona fide home-schooler, stuck in class like the rest of us or even stuck behind the desk, the middle of the week can sometimes have an I'm-stuck feeling. However, it's Innovative to the rescue. Today we're chilling with Brooke Taylor, the author of the superfantasticamazing Undone that I reviewed Monday.

INN: Where did you find the idea for Undone?
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BT: The very first hint of a story came after I saw a license plate that read “CCCCCF8” which took me a minute to translate to Seize Fate. F8 had a gaming feel to it and soon my main character Serena came to life, followed very quickly by her more outspoken best friend, Kori. The two of them hijacked the story and slowly but surely told me everything.
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INN: Were you crazy and wild as a teenager, or more of a straight-roader?
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BT: I was a little of both. I did some crazy things, but there were many more things I just would never do. It’s funny, you leave your little bubble called high school and you meet people whether at college or just in life and you start to realize that maybe you weren’t so wild or maybe you weren’t so straight-laced. The spectrum is pretty wide; there will always be someone who is crazier or more reserved, which is why it is important to just be true to yourself.
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INN: Secrets and complicated identities are a large part of Undone. Did you know most of the hidden stories when you started writing the book, or did many just pop up as you wrote?
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BT: I didn’t know anything. It took several revisions before I learned everything, and I’m sure both Serena and Kori still have some secrets even I don’t know. Sometimes when I’d finish a chapter, I knew something was missing. When I’d finally figure those things out, I would also understand why I didn’t know them upfront. Creating characters is just like meeting new people—sometimes you have TMI moments and other times you have to be patient and earn their trust.
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INN: If Undone had a theme song, what would it be and why?
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BT: Burning Bright by Shinedown was kind of an unofficial theme song. The lyrics really capture the girls and their struggles with who they are. The song is very powerful. Towards the end of writing Undone, I wasn’t even able to listen to it because it would bring tears to my eyes.
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INN: What's up next in your writing career?
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BT: I’m working on two new YA projects. Both have the same qualities that Undone has—they are realistic, emotional, character driven stories. I hope to be able to share more about them very soon!
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INN: Any advice for teen writers?
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BT: My best advice is to write what you would want to read and don’t let anyone change your voice.
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Thank you so much, Brooke!
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Find out more about Brooke at www.brooketaylorbooks.com. And get off your hineys and read this book! Have a wonderful Wednesday.

An Undone Review

Have you seen the little Best Books of 2008 (So Far) thingy on the bottom right corner of the blog? There are four books on there. I've read at least a hundred, if not two hundred, books this year. So that's between 2%-4% of what I've read this year. One of those four books is by E. Lockhart; the competition is stiff. (Thirteen Reasons Why would have made it, but it was published in 2007. More on that later.)
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Undone went straight on that list.
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Quick summary: Serena and Kori are best friends with a punk-style BFF. When Kori is taken from Serena, Serena's left with pieces to fill and questions to ask, not only about their own relationship but Serena's relationship to the world.
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This blew my mind.
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1. The complexity of friendship. Brooke describes such a believable friendship, because it's not cardboard. The way that Kori and Serena relate, their behavior: it's so realistic, and yet you want to read more and more.
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2. You love both of them. I hate stories about normal-girl-transformed-by-glam-BFF. Why? I want to hear it from the BFF perspective, not the normal person. But Serena is the best possible narrator for this book. She's not mousy or ordinary, although Kori does transform her life.
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3. A sensational story without sensationalism. If this book had been done as a scandalous druggie tale, or a carpe-diem warning, it would have stunk. But Undone is a story that strikes a chord in you without overdoing it, in any way. It's also a quiet story, which could be really boring, but it's not.
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4. You love the characters. The guy who drives the fateful car, Anthony (o Anthony, Anthony!), Serena, Kori, Serena's mom, Kori's mysterious friend (I don't want to get his name wrong)... you love them. They're imperfect, they all have their own stories, they're so dang well written. And funny, and heartbreaking, and absolutely insane.
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I'm super, super psyched to host Brooke here on Wednesday to hear about how Undone started and what's she up to next. Read this book. You'll read it fast.