[Missouri-l] tonight's special Books And Beyond

[Nancy Lynn]

How do teenagers deal with major family issues? How do the adults around
them behave in the face of such circumstances?
On tonight's special Books And Beyond, we have Sara Zarr, an author of 3
books for and about teenagers: Story of a Girl, Sweethearts, and, most
recently, Once Was Lost.
How much of these 3 stories come from her own life as a teenager? Were only
the names changed to protect the innocent? We'll ask her these and many
other questions.
To ask your own questions, call 218-844-3388 a little before 8pm US eastern
standard time tonight. When asked for an access code, enter 26657 pound. The
show will last for a little over an hour, and we strongly request that you
mute your phone during the first part when Bonnie is asking the questions.
You will also be given a turn during the second part.
Now see below for some biographical information about Sara Zarr.
Bio
Origin of the Species

I grew up in San Francisco in the seventies and early eighties, in a family
of creative people. My parents met in music school, and my maternal
grandfather made a living as a journalist. There are a bunch of writers
among his progeny. Growing up, I was surrounded by stories—many of them in
the form of music, ranging from Handel to the Beatles to Christian folk
music and Broadway soundtracks. I would sit on the living room floor
listening to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and poring over the
lyrics, trying to figure out what was really going on in songs like “She’s
Leaving Home” and “A Day in the Life,” making up my own stories about the
characters.

Not being rich in money, we didn’t have many toys but imagination and a
library card are free. So was TV, back then, and on the weekends there were
the Dial for Dollars movies and Abbott & Costello and late night horror and
also, on PBS, the classics. My mother read to my sister and me almost every
night: novels, memoirs, the Bible.

Life was all about stories. Stories in church, stories in music, stories on
TV, stories in movies, stories in books, stories the Russian immigrants that
my mom tutored would tell us around the table, and the stories I made up
with my best friend, Christine, and my sister: Tornado, Orphanage,
Schoolhouse, Covered Wagon, Discotheque, Fishing, Princess, Kidnapping, Bar,
Store. Plus, reenactments ofGrease, A Chorus Line, and Little House on the
Prairie.

Becoming a Writer, Staying a Writer

If you’ve read much about writers, you know that many of us grew up with an
alcoholic parent or in some otherwise dysfunctional home. Me, too. Kids who
are raised in households where feelings of safety and predictability are up
for grabs might be more likely to turn into storytellers. We spend a lot of
emotional energy trying to guess what might happen next, and mentally
drawing up different contingency plans. It puts us in the “what if” habit
early.

I was often described as “imaginative,” or, less flatteringly, “dramatic.” I
always enjoyed creative writing assignments in school and of course loved
books and reading, but there wasn’t any single moment that I knew I wanted
to be, or decided to be, a writer. Eventually the “what if” habit led to
increasingly serious attempts at writing a whole story. For years, I was
totally in the closet with it. Saying I wanted to be a writer was like
saying I wanted to be an astronaut, or the President. I knew people were
those things, but not regular people, not poor unglamorous chubby people.
(The irony is I now know that poor, unglamorous, and chubby pretty much
describes most writers…) I was a Speech major in college, with a side of
Theater Arts, and knew some people who were in the Creative Writing program
and I’d think, wow, they are brave. You can just…sign up for that? And no
one says, “No, you can’t”? I wasn’t that brave.

When I was twenty-five, the Internet was just becoming a household item, and
in an old IRC chat room I met some writers—real writers with books and
contracts and agents. They were just regular people, like me. If them, why
not me? I decided I would start and finish a YA novel. (I don’t feel like I
ever chose YA. It chose me.) My goal was to be published before I turned
thirty. Three other novels, two agents, and ten years later (about six years
behind schedule), I sold Story of a Girl. During those ten years, I wrote a
lot, made friends with writers, learned everything I could about the
business and the craft and my voice, and worked on patience and thick skin
and self-editing. About six months after selling Story of a Girl, I quit my
day job. A year after that I ran out of money and went back to work for a
couple of months, and that was not the end of the world, at all. Right now I’m
able to make my living writing, but there’s no guarantee that will always be
the case, so I’m grateful.

Sometimes I think I could have just as easily not been a writer. For
example, by not writing, because of fear or self-doubt or not feeling
entitled to give it a try. Or by watching more TV instead. Or giving up when
I couldn’t figure out what happened next in a story, or after the first five
years of rejection, or after I lost my first agent, or after the second five
years of rejection. Et cetera. I’m still aware, every day, that this career
is mine to keep or lose. There lots of things from the business side of
things I can’t control, but if I don’t keep writing I definitely will not be
a writer.

As Of Now

I live in Salt Lake City, UT, with my husband, and a parakeet named Peanut.
We came here from San Francisco in 2000, thinking we’d give it a couple of
years and predicting we’d be high-tailing it back to CA soon after. The
place kind of grew on us, and it’s home. For now.

My life is pretty unexciting, in a good way, full of normal things like
cooking and cleaning and movie-going and reading and procrastination and
lunch dates and good days and bad days and stupid days and boring days. I
say this because before I was published I had this idea of what a published
author’s life was like, and it’s not. At least, mine isn’t. But, I’ve got
great friends and amazing colleagues and a close family. I’m blessed with a
good, full life, and am pretty happy with my job.