Exclusive Q&A with CYNTHIA LEITICH SMITH!

The only thing more exciting than serendipitously stumbling upon a new and fantabulous book is being able to chat with the very person who made that story come to life. For the love of books and the good folks who write 'em, illustrate 'em, and publish 'em, this blog is pleased to bring you a series of exclusive Q&A's with the movers and shakers of the teen lit scene.

Cynthia Leitich Smith wears many hats (blogger, teacher, author), and she wears all of them well. Her latest novel for teen readers is Tantalize, a gothic fantasy that will please fans of Tithe and Blue Bloods. Eternal, a devilishly witty romance involving vampires and angels, is due in February 2009. Ms. Smith resides in Austin, Texas with four felines and a fabulously talented husband. Check out the conversation-in-email below to learn more about her life and work.

Click here to read the interview!

Palatine Public Library District (PPLD): What are you currently working on?
Cynthia Leitich Smith (CLT): Blessed, a YA prose novel, which will round off my "loose trilogy" of books in a conversation with Bram Stoker, and Tantalize: Kieren's Story, which is a graphic novel adaptation of the first prose book. I'm also getting ready for the February 2009 launch of Eternal, which is partly set in Austin, partly in Dallas, and mostly in Chicago.

Well, that's the writer front anyway. On the author front, I'm just back from a writer's conference in College Station and packing for a teacher's conference in San Antonio.

PPLD: What are you currently reading and/or planning to read?
CLT: I'm reading the ARC for Dead Girl Dancing by Linda Joy Singleton. The books/ARCs on my nightstand are Much Ado About Anne by Heather Vogel Frederick, Revealers by Amanda Marrone, Shifty by Lynn E. Hazen, Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell, and This Is What I Want to Tell You by Heather Duffy Stone.

PPLD: What are your favorite genres? Your favorite authors?
CLT: Gothic fantasy, contemporary realistic fiction, the short story, humor...how long have you got? It might be easier to say what I'm less excited about--easy readers, anything unrelentingly grim or too precious or self-congratulatory in its earnestness.

An inclusive author list would be enormous, but just for fun, I'll highlight E. Lockhart, Laurie Halse Anderson, Mary E. Pearson... I just "discovered" Thomas Pendleton AKA Dallas Reed, who writes very edgy but thoughtful YA horror.

Liz Gallagher, Varian Johnson, and Maggie Stiefvater are among one of the best debut classes ever.

Oh, and I just finished an ARC of Carol Lynch Williams' upcoming novel, The Chosen One, which is one of those rare books that will haunt me forever. Ditto Libba Bray's next up, Going Bovine.

PPLD: What do you do when you are not reading/writing?
CLT: Austin has an amazing, fun, upbeat youth writing community, and I play with my friends whenever possible. I'm fond of "Bones," "Heroes," and "Monk," all of which I watch on DVD. I also love to go to natural history museums and tour old houses and sleep (a rarity in my life).

PPLD: One book that you will never be too old to love is...
CLT: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare.

PPLD: What were you like as a teenager? If you could redo your teen years, what would you do differently?
CLT: I was busy--editor of the paper, cheerleader, student council. If I could redo those years, I would quit cheerleading and shift to the drama crowd. In a heartbeat.

PPLD: What was your first job?
CLT: I popped corn for a movie theater back during the 1980s blockbusters. Lines would wrap around the theater. One night someone broke in with a gun and stole our copy of "Indiana Jones in the Temple of Doom." That job was my inspiration for my short story, "Haunted Love" in Immortal Love Stories with Bite, edited by P. C. Cast.

PPLD: The last movie you saw was...
CLT: Batman: The Dark Knight, and while I agree that Ledger's performance was phenomenal, I would love to see a blockbuster film in which women are not cannon fodder or in some major way defined by men. The X-Men may have been the most recent, and Storm still had an oddly minor role.

PPLD: The last thing you ate was...
CLT: Migas con queso with black beans and fajita chicken!

PPLD: Do you have any pets?
CLT: Four cats--Mercury (a gray tabby), Bashi (a gray tabby), Leo (a spotted tawny tabby), and Blizzard (a snow beast). Bashi was found in a bush; the rest were shelter cats.

PPLD: You desperately wish you knew how to...
CLT: Illustrate my own books.

PPLD: How do you make a bad day better?
CLT: Dance to the "Xanadu" album--it also works for writer's block.