Today we’re introducing you to Christina Meredith, debut author of KISS CRUSH COLLIDE and one of our Winter 2012 New Voices. Yesterday we shared an excerpt of the book (READ IT HERE!), and a few words from Christina’s editor, Virginia Duncan, on why and how this story spoke to her. Appropriately, this story is really about one girl’s summer of getting to know herself– so today, let’s Open the Book and get to know Christina…
Which was your favorite book from childhood, and what are you reading right now?
I am going to go with my favorite book, ever, for this — The Cheer Leader by Jill McCorkle. If you are anything like me and pick up the mood of what you are reading, be careful with this one… It is so good it makes me crazy. Right now I am finishing up my next novel and am so very, very close to the end that I am not reading much of anything. Which kills me. I am staying alive through a steady drip of magazine articles and Yahoo headlines. I scan the headlines and then make up the rest. My current favorite? Dog shoots man with own gun. There are so many places you can go with that.
What is your secret talent?
I do a killer Irish accent.
Fill in the blank: _______ always makes me laugh.
A well-dressed monkey always makes me laugh.
My current obsessions are…
Fast zombies, Fincher movies, and fair-isle sweaters. And the letter F, apparently.
Any gem of advice for aspiring writers?
Make sure the loudest voice inside your head is your own.
Finish this sentence: I hope a person who reads my book…
…is lit up. Awake and alive and ready for more.
Tell us more about how KISS CRUSH COLLIDE was born.
We all know it’s there. We’ve felt it: the spark, the heat, the magic. It rushed past me one day — a teenage girl on the back of a motorcycle. She was hanging on tight to the dude in front of her, leaning in and looking past him toward the road that was rolling out before them. Her parents must love that, I thought, immediately followed by, look how far and fast we will go sometimes to find ourselves. I started writing. I chased that idea down. I imagined a girl who had it all, but hadn’t made any choices for herself. I remembered summers where nothing seemed to happen, but everything changed. Then Porter came along, with his muscle cars and his sturdy silence, and the days became long and sunny. He brought the poetry. I kept coming back to the alchemy of attraction and how ignoring it seems to lead to a life of robotic decay. How the first guy a girl really, really falls for takes her away from her family and how they have defined her. How sweet and scary it is to find your own way. But, most of all, I loved the idea that someone can just show up and suddenly your life starts to sparkle. I still do.
Thanks Christina!