1. Hi! Thanks for doing the interview. Could you start by introducing yourself?
Thanks for having me!
I’m a Writer Of Many Things.

2. Your debut novel ‘Skin Deep’ came out last month. Could you tell us a little about the book and your inspiration for it?
Skin Deep is a novel about finding passion, and learning to look beneath the surface of life for its meaning. It was chosen by Random House as the winner of the Delacorte Award for First Young Adult Fiction.
Skin Deep’s main character is a teenaged girl, and she has some amazing friends who take her on a flash-fast journey of the soul that includes school bathroom stalls, art, driver’s license tests, bad swimsuits and dog drool.
Skin Deep was inspired by my philosophy on the subject of beauty, which I figured out while sitting on a rotten log in the middle of the woods.

3. If ‘Skin Deep’ were to be adapted into a film in the next year or so, who would you like to see play the lead characters?
Definitely ordinary people from ordinary places who took time out from their regular lives to show up to a casting call just because they felt like it.

4. Would you ever consider a sequel for the novel?
Probably not. I’m content with where the story ends. I know readers can take it from there. I’m all about participation, and I know readers’ imaginations can take it a step further and do the story and characters justice.

5. Are you working on any other novels at the moment?
I’m working on Novel Number Three. Two is complete, but there’s no release date yet.

6. When did you decide you wanted to be an author? Has it been a lifelong dream?
Just like so many people trying to figure out who they want to be when they grow up, there were definitely childhood clues. But so it goes for many people on that journey: I did a million other things, too. I painted graveyard fences. I waitressed. I went to Grateful Dead shows and worked as a news reporter and played the bongos and had a baby and got married. I wandered around the nooks and crannies of obscure places. I think a lot of writers are like that – wandering people who apply their imaginations to their lives. A lot of artists are like that. So being a writer, to me, is not a straight path. It’s a parallel path with regular life. Maybe an undercurrent.

7. You made making Pottery sound like so much fun in the book. Are you a potter in real life?
I’m a potter’s assistant, which basically means my husband tells me what to do in the art studio. He’s the potter. Just like Andrea (the main character in Skin Deep) I have performed the fiery rituals of raku. It’s like standing too close to a bonfire on steroids (the bonfire, not you). So there you are, pulling glazed pots out of the flames and trying not to set your eyebrows on fire.
Here’s a short clip of raku firing. Obviously it’s meant to be done outdoors at night because… well, you’ll see:

8. I fell in love with Zena in the story as well as Ashley’s Newfoundlands. I hear Zena was based on a real dog?
Zena was based on my Saint Bernard, KK. I’m one of those people who thinks climbing through thorn bushes in the woods is a blast, and I used to take her out bushwacking nearly every day. That’s where the story of Skin Deep started in my brain: watching KK run loose in the woods. Dogs have an amazing, beautiful ability to Live in The Moment. All the time. I’ve never known any humans who have that trait.
KK died suddenly of bone cancer when she was only six years old. That was just a few months before Skin Deep was released. She gets to be a legend now, through the pages of a book. I think a lot of us have known dogs that deserved that kind of legacy.
Now I have a new pup….a Newfoundland named Buoy. He’s a woods runner, too.

9. What were some of your favorite novels when you were a teenager and what are some of your favorites today?
Stephen King novels from the eighties. I thought Carson McCullers and Joyce Carol Oates were brilliant, and I still do. Some of today’s favorites include Chris Crutcher’s entire body of work, and Marcus Zusak.

10. Since starting your career as an author, what would you say are some of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
As far as writing lessons: When you think you’re done with revisions, you actually have ten more rounds to go.
As far as life: Observe and absorb.

11. What advice would you like to offer to aspiring authors?
Ready? Get a red pen, a Red Bull, and your manuscript.
Go in a room. Shut the door. Read the entire darn manuscript out loud, even if it takes you six hours. Or eight. That’s why the Red Bull is there. Don’t quit.
Read it as if you were reading it to a stadium full of people. Put an X in the margin next to sections that make you feel awkward. Be truthful with yourself. Imagine the stadium rustling around and heading for the concession stand when you hit the boring parts. Imagine holding them at the edge of their seats at the good parts. Make sure your imaginary audience gets the satisfaction they deserve; if they don’t get it, make an X in the margin.
Then go back and revise everything you marked.
The key thing is don’t forget your audience. Imagine them participating in your story. See beyond the edges of your pieces of paper.

2. Thanks for doing the interview. Anything you’d like to say in closing?
Thanks for having me! Keep in touch; I really like what you’re doing with Portrait Magazine.
And thank you, readers and writers. You are the present and future of literature. I know you’ll make it great.

Check out Portrait Magazine's review of Skin Deep here!