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Author Interview: Jennifer Hubbard

Yesterday, I posted a review for The Secret Year, which I loved! You can see it here. And today I am thrilled to have the author, Jennifer Hubbard! Don’t forget that The Secret Year hits shelves today! This one book in 2010 you will want to check out!

Do you have any “must haves” with you while you’re writing?

I prefer to write in my office, on my home computer, with music on. But I’ll write under other circumstances if I have to. I once wrote a short story in longhand, in a spiral notebook, on a cross-country flight.

(wow…. longhand! that is awesome)

Describe your writing in three words.

The three words I use for The Secret Year are secrecy, loss, and obsession. For my writing in general, I strive for meaning, clarity, and power.

(totally agree with those three words for the description of The Secret Year… I should have used those for my three words in my review!)

Do you have a specific time or place that you write?

I usually write in my office (a spare bedroom in our house) at night.

What’s the most interesting comment you have received about The Secret Year?

I find the comparisons to The Outsiders and Romeo and Juliet interesting. TSY is not a retelling of either book, but in some ways it has a conversation with those works. My characters know those storylines and they use them for their own purposes, sometimes exaggerating them and sometimes defying them.

What was the most challenging aspect of writing The Secret Year? Easiest?

Colt’s voice came very easily to me. When I started revising for my editor, I briefly worried about getting back into that voice because it had been months since I’d touched the manuscript, and I’d been working on something else with a different voice. But I found that Colt was right there waiting; it was like tuning in to a certain channel.

The ending was the hardest part to write. The beginning changed very little throughout the life of the manuscript, but the ending changed in big ways. I’m happy with it now, because while there are several confrontations at the end, the most important is the one between Colt and himself. (I don’t think that’s a spoiler!)

If you could travel back in time for one year, what time and place would you choose?

I don’t know that there’s any entire year I would like to live over again. For shorter periods of time, there are some nice vacations I’d love to relive. If I could go back farther, I’d like to see what the world looked like before industrialization. I’d like to witness historical events and see what really happened.

What’s something surprising about yourself that most people wouldn’t think true?

It’s difficult to know what would surprise people. For example, my husband was surprised to discover that I have a weakness for the TV show Top Chef. When I lived in Atlanta, people were surprised to learn that I didn’t own a car and didn’t want to. Friends who know that I love to hike are surprised to hear I’m a night owl; for some reason, they assume that a love of nature coincides with an inclination to get up early. (Though I confess to getting up early for certain special hikes—but I have to set an alarm clock and I don’t leap joyfully out of bed!)

What’s next for you?


I hope to have more contemporary young-adult work published.

A little bit more about Jennifer Hubbard:

I have a reader guide for The Secret Year; it’s on my website (http://www.jenniferhubbard.com/, downloadable from The Secret Year page). I would love to know what people think about those questions.

I’m also a member of two debut-author groups: The Class of 2k10 (http://www.classof2k10.com/) and The Tenners (http://community.livejournal.com/10_ers/), where people are welcome to browse for more debut novels!

Thanks so much Jennifer for stopping by!
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January 7th, 2010 | Tags: | Category: Jennifer Hubbard

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