A2A Summer Chat with Suzanne Young

Tip of the Day: get ready, because all week on Author2Author we are featuring some amazing authors with books coming out this summer.

I'm very excited to kick off our Week of Awesome Authors today with a special visit from the lovely and talented Suzanne Young.

Suzanne is the author of The Naughty List series. Her latest book in the series So Many Boys (don't you love that title?) just came out from Razorbill. She also has several books coming out next year, including the much anticipated A Need So Beautiful.

Without further ado...please welcome Suzanne!

A2A- Your current series, the Naughty List, is about a group of cheerleaders who investigate cheating boyfriends, now be honest with us are these books autobiographical? Because if they are, I’d think you were the coolest person ever, and if they aren’t and you just came up with the idea, you’re still very hip by-association. So which one is it: cool or hip?

Suzanne- I’d have to go with hip. Although I was a cheerleader for a short time in middle school, I never spied on my boyfriends, or went through their wallets looking for phone numbers, or followed them to the mall to see who they were meeting there, or sat in the back row of a movie theater watching as they cheated on me with another girl. Nope. Never did that. Or at least, not that you can prove.

A2A- Now that we’ve established we love your series concept, what can readers look forward to in your new book: So Many Boys? (Fingers crossed a plethora of boys is definitely involved!)

Suzanne- SO MANY BOYS is different from THE NAUGHTY LIST because it gets a little more serious. Tessa has matured and some of the characters from the first book turn out to be a lot different than previously thought. But no worries if a favorite is cast in negative light. The third book sets everything right. (And yes, Lots of boys!!!)

A2A- Did you originally set out to write a series? Or did your publishing company suggest it? Regardless of how you got there, now that you are an experienced series writer is there any advice you can give our readers on how approaching writing a series might be different than writing an individual book?

Suzanne- It was a standalone originally. I ended up pitching the second book, just as conversation, and they thought it was a great idea. If I could do it over again, I think I would have used the first book better as a set up. Because when it came to book 2, I had to work around what I already had in book 1. Writing the 3rd book was a bit easier because SO MANY BOYS was already a series book. My advice when writing the first book is to think of it as a standalone—to make sure it’s a satisfying read—but leave a little room for a sequel. You never know what a publisher will do, so you don’t want to leave too many holes.

A2A- Besides your own book, which book are you most looking forward to reading this summer?

Suzanne- I have TELL ME A SECRET by Holly Cupala that I’m dying to finish. And I’m also waiting for MOCKINGJAY (along with the rest of the world).

A2A- And last but certainly not least, if you could spy on one literary character (cheating or not) who would it be, and why?

Suzanne- Oh, I just finished CITY OF BONES by Cassandra Clare and I would definitely set up camp staring—I mean observing Jace. Holy heck. What a hot character!

Thanks again for stopping by Suzanne. Your answers are awesome and so helpful. You've given us lots of new books to check out and characters to keep our eye on!

Check out Suzanne on her blog. You can learn all about her exciting new books coming out next year and her current ones. You can also catch her humerous blog entries that always entertain!

--Emily, Miss Querylicious