Interview with Elizabeth Scott

by debbi michiko florence

Elizabeth Scott grew up in a town so small it didn't even have a post office, though it did boast an impressive cattle population. She's sold hardware and panty hose and had a memorable three-day stint in the dot-com industry, where she learned that she really didn't want a career burning CDs. She lives just outside Washington, DC, with her husband; firmly believes you can never own too many books; and would love it if you visited her website, http://www.elizabethwrites.com.

I am a huge fan of your novels. You won me over with your first novel, BLOOM. Can you describe your journey to published author? And definitely tell us about your first sale and how that felt!

First, thanks for being so nice!

Second--becoming an author...well, it was a strange journey!

I didn't start writing fiction until I was 27, and wrote for five years before my friends nagged convinced me to think about sending things out. (For which I am so grateful to them!)

Anyway, I sent a few short stories out--and they got published! So I wrote up a query letter for BLOOM...and then let it sit on my hard drive. I promised people I'd send it out, but I didn't plan to. I figured I'd had my run of luck, you know?

I probably would have let it sit there forever except that one morning in April 2005, when I was reading blogs, I read an agent's blog about email queries. And I thought, hey, I've got email! I've got a query! I'll just send it and get rejected and voila! I can say queried an agent!

The agent wrote back in about an hour and asked for the first three chapters.

About an hour after that, the agent wrote and asked for the rest of BLOOM.

I became a client the next day.

However! BLOOM was not the first book that sold.

About two months after I signed with this agent, I went to a local SCBWI conference. I'd signed up to have the first ten pages of my second novel, STEALING HEAVEN, critiqued. I figured it would be a great way to get an actual editor's opinion.

I was assigned to an editor at HarperCollins, Tara Weikum, and on the day of the conference, I was pretty nervous.

And then I met Tara and she was so lovely and so professional and I was so excited to be sitting with a REAL EDITOR that I almost didn't listen to what she had to say.

But I did! And I'm very glad I did because it turned out Tara liked the first ten pages of STEALING HEAVEN, and wanted to see the rest of the manuscript.

So my agent sent her that, and I ended up selling STEALING HEAVEN and LOVE YOU HATE YOU MISS YOU to HarperCollins in July 2005.

BLOOM ended up selling to Simon Pulse in October 2005--so my first novel was actually not my first sale. Weird, right?

Maybe not so weird, but definitely wonderful! :)

Including BLOOM, you’ve had three other novels published – PERFECT YOU, STEALING HEAVEN, and LIVING DEAD GIRL. Wow! Are you a fast writer? Do ideas bombard you? Do you work on more than one project at a time?

I don't think I'm a fast writer--it's more that I've been lucky enough to have time on my side! After I sold my first three novels in 2005, the first one, BLOOM, didn't come out until 2007, STEALING HEAVEN came out in 2008, and LOVE YOU HATE YOU MISS YOU will be out this May. So thanks to that time, I had time to write!

As far as ideas go--I get plenty, but very few make it past the "Oh! Interesting!" stage. When I write, I have to know how the story starts and how it ends. And for 99.9% of my ideas, I never get that far.

I don't like working on more than one project at a time--at least not when it comes to writing. I can and have done edits while writing something else, and the same goes for page proofs, etc. But writing two stories at the same time--I can't do that. My brain can't compartmentalize like that. I admire writers who can do it!

LIVING DEAD GIRL is a departure from your first three novels – in that it deals with a much more serious (and frightening) topic of a child being abducted. To be honest, it’s the only one of your books I haven’t been able to read yet (but I do own). What made you decide to write this story? And how was writing it, compared to your other novels?

I had a dream about the main character of LIVING DEAD GIRL, Alice. And then I had the dream again. And again. The same dream, and after several nights of it, I knew I had to tell her story. So I did, and it would have stayed on my hard drive forever except that once one of my friends, Shana, read it, she said, "Send this to your agent NOW!"

As far as writing it--my friends all think the "How was writing LIVING DEAD GIRL?" question--which I get a lot-- is hysterical because before BLOOM, I wrote some pretty dark stories. The light stuff, the romance, was actually more of a departure for me--at least when I first started, but I learned I liked writing love stories just as much as I do stories that deal with darker subjects.

Your newest novel, coming out this month (March) is SOMETHING, MAYBE (Simon Pulse). With this book, you return to the themes of friendship and family. What draws you to this theme?

I've always been drawn to writing about friendship and family because they make up so much of who you are, and yet they can get so tangled that it's easy to get caught up in being who/what other people want you to be and not who you are. And I also like looking at how friendships and families work--what happens when they don't, what are things like when they do but something happens, etc.

In SOMETHING, MAYBE, seventeen-year-old Hannah deals with her rather embarrassing life by trying to remain unnoticeable. With having a playboy Hugh-Hefner type father she hasn’t seen in years and a mother who makes a living by sitting in lingerie and chatting online with strangers, Hannah would rather her high school classmates forget she exists. How did this story idea come to you?

From the original title, which was LIVE! NUDE! MOM. I was doing something--probably cleaning--when I thought of it. I liked how it played with the more familiar LIVE! NUDE! GIRLS! from strip clubs, etc. and I thought to myself, "Man, there has got to be a story in that title somewhere!" And that's when Hannah showed up and things started falling into place.

You had both your parents as teachers in high school. What was that like? Did you have to deal with embarrassment in high school? Did you ever wish to be invisible?

It wasn't a big deal at all. I sort of wish it had been now, because it would make for a much better story, but the truth is, in a town as small as the one I grew up in, I knew from a very young age that if I took certain classes, I'd get my parents as teachers. And so when you know something's going to happen, it's just there and you stop thinking about it.

I think everyone has to deal with embarrassment in high school to some extent, but I had a pretty good time. However, I was very eager to go to college and live somewhere where not everyone knew who I was --I wanted to be Elizabeth and not Elizabeth, defined by friends, boyfriends, and parents.

I fell in love with Finn, the boy who drives Hannah crazy, even as she tries to get the handsome Josh to notice her. How do you get to know your characters? Do you outline your stories before you write them?

I confess, I think Finn is pretty cute myself! I really learn about who I'm writing about as I'm writing. And as far as outlining, I do like to have an idea of what's going to happen, but really, between the beginning and the end, I expect surprises. The way I look at it, writing isn't about you at all. It's about the story.

What’s the best career advice you were given?

Write what you believe in, because if you don't care about your story, you can bet no one else will.

Actually, I guess that's writing advice.

Career-wise, the one piece of advice I wish I'd been given is this: Don't query one agent at a time, and especially not on a whim! And don't sign with the first agent who offers to represent unless you are 150% sure that they are right for you. And even then, take at least three days to think about it, and talk to the agent's other clients.

What’s the best thing about being a writer?

Telling stories! And hearing from readers. Hands down, those are the best things.

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

Rewriting. I know loads of authors love it, but if I could get a story right on the first try, I would LOVE that. I hate reading my own stuff, but you have to in order to rewrite and I do a lot of rewriting. (I have yet to read any of my books.)

What does your workspace look like? What are your ideal working/writing conditions?

I write pretty much all over the house. I've got an Alphasmart (for drafts), a laptop (for revisions) and a Mac (for formatting, site work, answering email, etc.) If I have research stuff, that's all over the house too.

My ideal writing conditions: a place to sit and something to write on!

What can fans expect next?

At the end of May/beginning of June, my next book, LOVE YOU HATE YOU MISS YOU will be in stores. It's about loss, grief, anger, fear, forgiveness, and love.

And in 2010, it looks like I'll have three books out...

Wow! That's great! I look forward to reading all of them!

What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

I love to read, and spend time with my husband and dog. I also watch a lot of TV and movies and am addicted to reading celebrity gossip blogs.

Anything else you’d like to share?

Thank you for interviewing me!

You're very welcome, Elizabeth!

what's new?

For more about Elizabeth and her books, see her website:

Elizabeth Writes