GCC presents Carrie Jones

Today I'm touring Carrie Jones, who is not only very kind (remember when I did my own GCC tour, Carrie supplied nearly naked David Boreanaz photos to accompany my interview), but she also has the best book titles ever. Her debut book was called TIPS ON HAVING A GAY (EX) BOYFRIEND and her new release is LOVE (AND OTHER USES FOR DUCT TAPE). See, funny!



Anyway, Love (and other uses for duct tape) tells the story of 18-year-old Belle Philbrick, who watches love blossom in the lives of all around her while she and her boyfriend seem to be treading water. As she barrels toward the end of her senior year, Belle watches as everything around her changes…and not all for the best. And in the midst of dealing with the changes comes the revelation that her best friend might be pregnant. Through Belle, Jones examines issues of labeling, making choices, and the anxiety of “what next?” as Belle looks ahead to life beyond high school.



Hooked? Well, you can race right over and read an excerpt here. But before you go, here's my interview with Carrie. Unfortunately, blogger never lets me post photographs mid text so I can't return the naked David Boreanaz favor (though, let's be honest, I think we all know that I'm not a sharer!). Anyway, over to Carrie:


Tell me a bit about your book.

It's about Belle and her best friend, Emily. They are both having very different issues with love and relationships. It's the sequel to TIPS ON HAVING A GAY (ex) BOYFRIEND, my debut novel.

Belle Philbrick’s got a lot to deal with. Her non-dating mom has started dating again. Her best friend needs her to buy condoms (Yes! Condoms!) at Wal-Mart. Belles’s juggling teaching gymnastics, going to her boyfriend’s baseball games, school work, parental issues with all the weirdness that comes with the end of senior year. Then her busy but almost perfect life implodes. Her boyfriend, Tom, acts really strange. Her arch nemesis Mimi spreads evil rumors. All this and pretty soon senior year will be over. Belle’s life is going to change. A lot. Not necessarily for the better. Why? Because someone might be preggers.

What was the inspiration for writing it?

Sometimes strange things happen. Like you’re flipping through the channels on your tv’s remote and you see this image of a girl throwing up in a toilet and her mom is sitting on the floor. The mom looks so sad but like she still loves her daughter. The daughter looks gross because she’s just thrown up. You can tell she’s pretty and tragic though. So, you stare at this image.

And you stare.



And you stare.



And then you realize you’re watching a country music video with the sound off. The big clues were the guys hanging out in the middle of a field playing bass, drums and guitar. They all wore cowboy boots.

Then you check over your shoulder to see if anyone has noticed that you’re watching a country music video with the sound off. No one has. Whew. Well, that one ORIGINAL image was the inspiration for LOVE (AND OTHER USES FOR DUCT TAPE). I started with that one image and began writing scenes.

I'm a sucker for a sale story, so I'd love to hear how you sold your first book.

It begins as all good things do with an email announcing the creation of Flux, an imprint of Llewellyn. Flux was accepting YA novels. Hhm? I thought to myself. I just wrote a YA novel. Sure, I hadn’t shown it to my advisor at Vermont College’s MFA in Writing Program. Sure, I hadn’t let ANYONE read it. Sure, I only just wrote it in the last month and it was rough, rough, rough. But I sent it in. I chugged out a cover letter. I found some stamps. I mailed it.
Here is what followed, taken from my livejournal entries.



Sweet Editor Man called me within a week of me mailing the manuscript. Seriously. It was wild.



The 30th, 2006
Okay. Here’s the big question of the day: Why am I so stupid?
I will work on the self esteem exercises tomorrow… but today! Today! Today I am allowed to realize the full extent of my idiotness.
Here’s why.
I sent out some manuscript queries on Thursday.
I get a phone call this morning, from a real live editor who says, “Um, is this C.C. Jones?”
“Yes,” I say while pouring out cat food.
He then proceeds to tell me he got my query, wants to see more of my manuscript, but his email requesting it bounced back.
“Really?” I say. “That’s weird.”
“Let me tell you the address,” he says. “cjonese at…”
“Oh,” I say. “Oh. Oh. Oh.”
“What?” he says.
“There’s no e on the end of Jones.”
“I didn’t think so,” he says.
I then apologize and berate myself for not even being able to spell my own last name! What an idiot. He gives me an email address. I send him the rest of the manuscript.
Yeah, that baby’s going somewhere. Not.
Although, he was kind and he did say, “It’s the manuscript I care about, not your inability to spell your own name.”
What a nice man. Even when he rejects the manuscript. He’s still a darn nice guy. Hahaha - sorry, I don't normally butt in on an interview but that just made me laugh!!!!




Since you've been a published writer, what's been the coolest thing that's happened to you? (though be warned if it somehow involves meeting David Boreanaz, there will be jealousy issues to deal with).

Isn't he amazing enough that we can share him? C'mon... Please.... sorry - see above note about my lack of sharing! I'll go you halves on Nathan Fillion though and you can't get fairer than that!

When I wrote TIPS it was really a lot about how love can continue even if it isn't the hot-to-get-in-your-pants kind of love that Belle originally had for her boyfriend, Dylan. It was a lot about Belle's coming to terms with Dylan's sexuality. I think the coolest thing that's happened is having men write and say that the book gave them the courage to be themselves, and when women write that it helped them through that time in their lives.

Or it might be that two super best friends named their Betta fish Belle and Emily after the characters in the book. Okay. I guess that's the second coolest thing... but it's so neat!

What authors inspire you and why?

In the YA world, I get inspired by authors who take risks in language or topic or structure or voice. So, right now I'm really involved with Sherman Alexie who takes so many risks with language and digressions, Marcus Zusack, M.T. Anderson, Varian Johnson, G. Neri, Tanya Lee Stone, Jo Knowles.


Finally, what's the best movie you've seen in the last six months?


Movie? What's a movie? We only have one movie theater here and it only shows two movies at a time, so my choices are super limited. I think I've only seen two movies in the last six months and those were Juno and Atonement. I think I'm going to go with Juno, although Atonement made me want to move to an estate in England, on the countryside, with cute boys everywhere, and butlers. Okay, so seriously here - the Juno score is now 5 out of 6 authors that I've recently interviewed.