Interview With E. Lockhart

Interview with E. Lockhart

By Debbi michko florence

E. Lockhart is the author of The Boyfriend List and its sequel, The Boy Book; Fly on the Wall; Dramarama; The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks; and coming in May, How to Be Bad, co-written with Sarah Mlynowski and Lauren Myracle. Visit her on the web at www.theboyfriendlist.com. Or maybe it's www.e-lockhart.com. She is having her site redesigned and is kind of confused right now.

I am a huge fan of your novels! According to your web site, you wrote two novels in third grade. Obviously, you started young! Can you please share the story of how you came to sell your first novel?

Thank you, Debbi.

I did start young - but not that young with actual publishing. I was 30, I think, when my first book came out. It was a middle-grade fantasy that I co-wrote with my father. I had written a book proposal for an adult non-fiction book and managed to find an agent for that idea by using a contact given to me by a friend who was a successful writer. That agent agreed to sell my children's novel as well - and she did, although it took 6 months.

She never did sell the proposal!

Your newest novel, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, is being very well received. Congratulations! In it, Frankie Landau-Banks is a sophomore at a prestigious co-ed boarding school. When she discovers that her boyfriend is part of an exclusive, all-male secret society, she wants nothing more than to somehow break into it. How did the idea and the writing of this story transpire?

Most of my books stem from anger or outrage about something. In this case, I was thinking about the old boys network that still operates and determines power in the world, despite our egalitarian values.

My editor at Hyperion, Donna Bray, had suggested I write a book about dares. I started thinking about the campus hijinks I got up to in college, sneaking around and breaking into buildings, and the idea grew from there. The dares went out the window once I thought of the secret society and the pranks Frankie masterminds.

Frankie is headstrong, power-hungry, and smart. And extremely likeable. How do you get to know your characters, particularly Frankie?

I find the voice. I don't know how I do it except by moping around and sulking and thinking I can't possibly begin a book, and then one day I am able to write and the characters begin to exist. But it all starts with feeling like I know the voice in which the book is written. With Disreputable History, it was hard, because the voice is third person. I wasn't as close to my protagonist as I usually am.

As mentioned in the novel, the panopticon was a never-built prison where prisoners would have known they could be watched at any given time, thus resulting in better behavior. This leads to the thinking that society's behavior, in part, is governed by just the possibility that someone might be watching. If you knew nobody was watching, what would you do?

Like I'm going to post it on the internet!

Good question, though.

Darn! I tried! ;) Frankie's actions in the novel stem from her desire to bust through closed doors. She wants be accepted where she's not invited. Have you ever had the experience of railing against closed doors?

Sure, although I'll say that with the caveat that I've lived really quite a privileged life.

I went to grad school at Columbia University, which at that time was very much a bastion of white male power. My professors didn't rate my intellect. One of them patted me on the head, I swear. Like a dog. It wasn't that women couldn't succeed in that environment, but the deck was stacked against us and I felt a daily, low-level rage at the dismissive way in which I was treated.

I had also had the experience of being the girlfriend of a boy who was well-established in a group of other boys – and tagging along after them, always "the girlfriend" and never fully acknowledged as a human being of equal stature. Both those experiences fueled The Disreputable History.

Can you share some tidbits on the disreputable history of E. Lockhart?

Well, I am an experienced grown-up, and most of my readers are NOT, yet. So perhaps I should be circumspect about my past. However, I will say that the golf-course party in The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks was based on a party I attended in college, mysterious invitations and all.

What's the best thing about being a writer?

Making stuff up and being paid for it.

What's the most challenging thing about being a writer?

Making stuff up that's actually good.

How do you like to blow off steam?

I cook. I exercise. I take naps. I think most of my steam goes into my books and then afterwards its more a matter of recuperating.

What inspires you?

Reading. I used many, many sources for Disreputable History – as I do for all my books. Some are only tangentially related, but still have tremendous influence. In this case, I read books on college pranks, novels about boarding school and secret societies, internet sites on urban exploration – stuff like that.

What can fans expect next?

May 6th is the launch of a book I co-wrote with Lauren Myracle and Sarah Mlynowski, both YA novelists. It's called How to Be Bad. We had so much fun writing it!

Details here: http://e-lockhart.com/?page_id=8

Anything else you’d like to share?

I just had my website redesigned (well, it might not actually be all the way finished yet when you post this!) by the wonderful Theo Black (www.theblackarts.com) and Curt Hayden (www.skytemple.com). Visit www.e-lockhart.com and check it out: Curt made animated logos for all my books.

Thanks for interviewing me, Debbi!