Author Interview: Authors of Beautiful Creatures, Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, were kind enough to let me interview them for their upcoming release of their first book, which is amazing by the way.
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If you weren't an author, what career do you think you would be pursuing?
Margie: I would probably go back to making videogames, college counseling, or teaching English. I would not go back to selling clothes at French Connection, scooping tuna fish or washing dishes.
Kami: I would continue teaching. I’m a Reading Specialist, and I love teaching children to read and to LOVE reading. I would not go back to waiting tables, in a sports bar in Georgetown, or singing “Happy Birthday” to customers at an unspeakable chain restaurant.
How do you two write together? Did Kami write one chapter and Margie the next?
Margie: We outline like crazy, in three colors, then pass everything back and forth, writing over and under each other so many times that we sometimes don’t even know who wrote what.
Kami: We should also mention that we change the outline a hundred times, and don’t follow it all most of the time. The only thing we stick to is overall plot.
What inspired the both of you to set Beautiful Creatures in the South?
Margie: Kami’s family is from a small town in the South, and mine is from a small town in the west. We really wanted to write our way into a small town, and we felt like the South in the US is a place where magic can still happen.
Kami: The South is so magical and unique. And we knew we wanted to write a real Southern Gothic – epic and spooky and supernatural.
In my opinion, all of the characters in Beautiful Creatures have pretty interesting names. How did you name your characters? Was it an easy process?
Margie: Most of the names are either names from Kami’s massive, extended Southern family, or are common names in the South. We also used French Creole names when we needed them, as well as some names from my own family trees.
Kami: Aside from the French Creole names, we did a lot of borrowing from our own family trees. My cousin, Haywood Early, is my family’s genealogist and he sent me family trees. Margie knows her own like the back of her hand.
Do you have any favorite young adult authors/books of your own?
Margie: There are so many good YA books out there right now! I love all the different sub genres within our corner of the library. FIRE and GRACELING are breathtaking; I’m a huge fan of Kristin Cashore, Cassandra Clare, and Robin McKinley. Also love Ann Dee Ellis’ realistic fiction, EVERYTHING IS FINE.
Kami: I’m pretty blown away by the authors in our genre, and Margie’s list. I’m also a huge Melissa Marr, Holly Black, and Kelley Armstrong fangirl. I loved THE DEMON’S LEXICON by Sarah Rees Brennan – talk about unexpected endings! I am dying to read Carrie Ryan’s sequel to THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH, THE DEAD-TOSSED WAVES (hint) and I just finished LIPS TOUCH by Laini Taylor, which was inane!
Is there any time or place that you prefer to write? If so, why?
Margie: Not counting my bed: the airplane, the Santa Monica Library, the Park City library, and at the BAU Institute Arts Residence in Otranto, Puglia, Italy. I like to write when I travel; I feel most inspired when I am a fish out of water!
Kami: The comfy chair, in our office, and my bed are top of the list. But I actually wrote most of my share of BC sitting on the floor of my son’s bedroom at night. He had just switched over to his “big boy” bed, and he was constantly climbing out to wander around. SO I sat on the floor and typed in the dark. Why? You write when you can, where you can.
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Visit Little, Brown’s Beautiful Creatures website at www.SomeLovesAreCursed.com.
