{"id":446,"date":"2013-12-21T11:58:17","date_gmt":"2013-12-21T16:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevenparlato.com\/?p=446"},"modified":"2021-07-17T18:08:59","modified_gmt":"2021-07-17T22:08:59","slug":"uncommon-ya-writer-wednesday-guest-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stevenparlato.com\/?p=446","title":{"rendered":"Uncommon YA Writer Wednesday Guest Blog"},"content":{"rendered":"

YA Writer Wednesday <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Beth<\/a>I had the pleasure of doing an interview with Uncommon YA founder, author Beth Fehlbaum<\/a>, on her YA Writer Wednesday<\/a><\/strong> feature. Check it out!<\/p>\n

What’s your book about?<\/em>
\nThe Namesake is about a lot of things: faith, friendship, betrayal, forgiveness. The story centers on Evan Galloway, a fifteen-year-old grappling in the aftermath of his father\u2019s suicide. It\u2019s part mystery, part coming-of-age story. As Evan digs into his dad\u2019s past, uncovering details of sexual abuse and death, the story gets pretty dark, but there\u2019s plenty of humor as well. Evan\u2019s Catholic high school, Saint Sebastian\u2019s, his extended family, and a job at Alberti\u2019s, an Italian restaurant, figure prominently, so there are lots of colorful characters.<\/p>\n

What inspired you to write it?<\/em>
\nI started writing it in my first graduate class, and I was inspired by my cousin\u2019s suicide\u2013 and the idea of what it would be like for a kid to deal with that reality at the age of fifteen, a time of upheaval in every life. As the story unfolded, the darker elements of abuse just sort of surfaced. It\u2019s a very personal topic for me, and the writing\u2013while at times pretty difficult\u2013was a way to process some of my own emotional baggage. For anyone who\u2019s lived through similar circumstances, Evan\u2019s journey should ring true. And for those who haven\u2019t been touched by abuse or suicide (if there are such people), reading The Namesake will hopefully inspire compassion for those struggling with life\u2019s challenges.<\/p>\n

Do you write from an outline or are you a “pantser”?<\/em>
\nI\u2019m definitely not an outline person. I tend to write in a fairly organic way, letting my characters lead. With The Namesake, there were definitely scenes I knew I wanted to include, and I sometimes wrote those scenes way out of sequence or context. For example, if a scene that takes place toward the end of the novel felt really vivid, I\u2019d write it, and then figure out how to get to that point.
\nI also tend to be a bit of a perfectionist; I have a hard time writing a sloppy first draft and then editing. This sometimes leads to a plodding process, but it seems to be my best mode of working.<\/p>\n

Are you a full-time writer or do you have a “day job”? What do you do in your “day job”?<\/em>
\nAh, to be a full-time writer! Nope. I have a super-demanding \u201cday job\u201d; I teach writing and literature at a community college. This means my own writing takes back-burner status during the semester, while I focus on the writing of approximately 125 students. I love teaching. Though it is totally exhausting, frustrating and sometimes even maddening, it is also beyond rewarding.
\nMy teaching also informs my writing, and the fact that I\u2019m a published writer seems to be meaningful to my students. In a way, I guess I\u2019m modeling for them the fact that writing and literature can be central to someone\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

Why YA as opposed to some other genre?<\/em>
\nGood question! I don\u2019t know that I really have a definitive answer, because I don\u2019t quite know whether my writing, especially The Namesake, is definitively YA. While my main characters are squarely in the YA age bracket, I\u2019m dealing with some pretty adult content. I think two things that really appeal to me about writing YA are how important everything is during adolescence, and the honesty factor.
\nFeelings run so deep for teenagers, and there\u2019s so much growth, experimentation and struggle during that period, that adolescence lends itself naturally to dramatic narrative. Young adults in general also have no problem telling\u2014or making adults acknowledge\u2014difficult truths (trust me, I have a sixteen-year-old), so again, it\u2019s sort of empowering to write in their distinct voices.
\nAnd of course, there\u2019s the perk of having the word \u201cyoung\u201d in the job title. As I rocket toward the half-century mark, that\u2019s sort of comforting.<\/p>\n

Who’s your agent? Take this opportunity to brag on him\/her if you’d like!<\/em>
\nMy agent is the phenomenal Victoria Marini of Gelfman Schneider Literary Agency. She has been an absolute champion of my work, and has a wonderful editorial eye. Victoria is brave, persistent, incredibly smart and really, really funny. Her input definitely made The Namesake a better book, and she helped me to understand some of my characters in ways that hadn\u2019t fully occurred to me. I can\u2019t sing her praises loudly enough!<\/p>\n

Thanks, Beth & Uncommon YA, for hosting me for YAWW; it\u2019s always a pleasure to be here!<\/p>\n

SP<\/p>\n

First appeared on Uncommon YA on December 16, 2013<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

YA Writer Wednesday I had the pleasure of doing an interview with Uncommon YA founder, author Beth Fehlbaum, on her YA Writer Wednesday feature. Check it out! What’s your book about? The Namesake is about a lot of things: faith, friendship, betrayal, forgiveness. The story centers on Evan Galloway, a fifteen-year-old grappling in the aftermath […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,4,37],"tags":[38,46,43,45,44],"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stevenparlato.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stevenparlato.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stevenparlato.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stevenparlato.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stevenparlato.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=446"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/stevenparlato.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":750,"href":"http:\/\/stevenparlato.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446\/revisions\/750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stevenparlato.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stevenparlato.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stevenparlato.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stevenparlato.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}