11/04/10
Author Interview: Erin McCahan
Posted In: Author Interview
Erin McCahan
Books:
- I Now Pronounce You Someone Else
Seventeen-year-old Bronwen Oliver doesn’t just want a family. She has one of those, and there’s nothing terribly wrong with them apart from bickering grandparents, an image-obsessed mother and a brother she describes simply as Jesus. But there’s no natural sense of connection between Bronwen and her family, leaving her with the belief — and the hope — that she was switched at birth, that she was never supposed to be Bronwen Oliver but someone else entirely.
When she begins dating college senior Jared Sondervan, she finds herself thoroughly embraced by the loving family she has always wanted and does not hesitate to say yes when Jared proposes on her 18th birhday. Plans for the Perfect Beach Wedding before her junior year of college become plans for the Perfect Beach Wedding before her freshman year of college. And a wedding so soon isn’t exactly what Bronwen wants. But Jared is. And his family is. Or so she thinks.
Before Bronwen can determine what she truly wants, she must first determine who she truly is, and the answer, she discovers, is only partially what she thought it was. She wasn’t switched at birth, but she’s also not Bronwen Oliver and hasn’t been for a very long time.
What was your road to publication like?
Long and bumpy with loads of detours and a couple of monumental wrong turns.
There aren’t many YA novels that focus on the aspects of family. Why did you feel that was something important to write about?
One of my writing professors taught us, his students, to “write what you write,” which sounds evasive, I know, but it’s actually pretty clear and direct. It’s akin to saying write what you feel compelled to write, write the story that’s in you. So I didn’t lament the lack of family-centered YA novels and set out to change that. Truth – I never gave it a thought. I wrote the story I wanted to write at that time. It just happened to be family-centered.
Bronwen was a very unique character. What were you like as a teen? Did it have any influence of the characters in I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU SOMEONE ELSE?
I can never make my teenage self the protagonist of any novel because I almost never spoke in high school, and when I did, very few people could hear me. So – yeah, what a fun novel to read. Three hundred pages of people saying, “What was that?” to the heroine who spends the whole book trying to get herself off the page.
What’s something people would be surprised to discover about you.
I can faint – and have fainted – just from listening to gruesome details of medical stories.
What are you working on now, can you tell us anything about it?
I’m working on an as yet untitled YA novel I can summarize this way: Brainy, 16-year-old Josie Sheridan falls in love with a guy who falls in love with Josie’s older sister who is engaged to a man Josie hates. Now armed with what she needs to stop the wedding, Josie must determine how pure her motives are while struggling to understand the real meaning of love and why it may be the most complicated experience in the world.
If you could travel back in time for one year, where would you go, and what three things would you take with you?
Boston, 1775, and I’d take:
-tampons;
-toothpaste; and
-extra batteries for the time machine that got me there so I wouldn’t get
stuck in the past without essential toiletries.
Thanks so much Erin for stopping by!
Related posts:
- Author Interview: Sara Kadefors (& Contest)
- Author Interview: Carolyn MacCullough
- Author Interview: E. Lockhart & CONTEST!
- Author Interview: S.A. Bodeen
- Author Interview Malinda Lo
14 Comments
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Fun author interview! I definitely would like to read this book… I love different YA and the premise is intriguing.
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Omg! I want this book. Great Interview Kristi!
God bless you=p -
Awesome interview! I so want to read this book!
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Fun author interview! I definitely would like to read this book… I love different YA and the premise is intriguing.
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Omg! I want this book. Great Interview Kristi!
God bless you=p -
Awesome interview! I so want to read this book!
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This book is at the top of my waiting/wishing/wanting list!
I am in love with the synopsis for her sophmore book!
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This book is at the top of my waiting/wishing/wanting list!
I am in love with the synopsis for her sophmore book!
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Great interview! I really want to read this book. Sounds very interesting.
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Great interview! I really want to read this book. Sounds very interesting.
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What fun!!! Do you know I see your name everywhere across the blog but I don't know if I've ever visited or stopped by!
Today while on goodreads I saw your blog link and decided to click, and what a gorgeous blog you have!
Then I see you have 3000 followers! Wow clearly you are mega addicting!
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What fun!!! Do you know I see your name everywhere across the blog but I don't know if I've ever visited or stopped by!
Today while on goodreads I saw your blog link and decided to click, and what a gorgeous blog you have!
Then I see you have 3000 followers! Wow clearly you are mega addicting!
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I love the cover . sounds like a good book to read…
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I love the cover . sounds like a good book to read…
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