Jess Rothenbe
rg grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, graduated from Vassar College, and spent most of her twenties editing books for teens and middle grade readers. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, where she writes full-time, dances interpretively, and dreams of one day owning a sheepdog named Leo.
The Catastrophic History of You and Me is her first novel. Visit
http://www.jessrothenberg.com/ to find out more!
1. Dying of a broken heart - what a way for Brie to go! Why did you go with as the cause of death for your main character?Brie’s death by heartbreak came about for a few reasons. The main one was that I was nursing a broken heart of my own when I first started experimenting with her voice. I didn’t know who she was, or even that she was speaking to me from the great beyond, but I did know she was hurting, just like me.
Then I happened upon an article in the
Wall Street Journal all about a rare but potentially fatal condition called “Broken Heart Syndrome,” where it really is possible to die from the cardiac stress brought on by an intense emotional loss. And because first love tends to be all the more emotional and intense, I thought to myself, “What if that happened to a teenage girl?” And the story unfolded pretty quickly from there.
2. I seriously love the chapter titles. I was finishing the chapter "Take Another Piece of My Heart (Now Baby), when I realized what the chapter titles actually meant. I went through the whole book and read all of them first! What made you decide to give Brie the quirk of loving 80's music? I had them playing in my head as I read the book. Did you have the songs playing when you wrote the book?Aw, thank you! I’m really glad you love them! : ) Yup, those are the songs I had playing on repeat for months and months as I wrote the book. Personally, I always prefer to write with music playing in the background because it helps me get into the true headspace of the characters and atmosphere of a story. The songs on the
Catastrophic playlist (which you can stream here:
http://jessrothenberg.com/playlist.html) are some of my all-time favorites from growing up and were such a big inspiration to me as I was writing the book—both in helping me get through my own heartache, and helping Brie figure out her own. She and I really did go through all five of those stages together, and the music was such a huge part of that journey.
3. Not to give too much of the novel away, but if like Brie, you were offered the chance to relive one day, would you do it? If so, what day would you choose and why? If not, why?That’s a tough one. I think I’d have to relive two, because I’d want to spend one day with my Grandma Marjorie at her country house in the Berkshires in early October. She’d make her famous French onion soup and we would just talk and hold hands and laugh and tell stories, and the air would be cool and crisp and smell like autumn leaves. And I’d spend the other day with my grandparents (Mama and Papa) in Charleston, South Carolina—a warm summer afternoon where the three of us would head out in their cute little boat for a day of fishing along the Intracoastal Waterway. My grandpa would teach me how to ‘go shrimpin’ from right off the bow of the boat, and my grandmother would crisp quietly in the sun and— inevitably—catch the biggest fish of the day without any effort at all. (That really used to irk me and my grandpa,
haha.)
I miss my grandmothers every single day (they both passed away in 2006) and I dedicated
Catastrophic History to them, along with my mom. And the poem at the end of the novel was written for me by my grandfather, Papa, when I was fifteen. So that’s what I would want. I would choose to relive a day with them.
4. Random shout outs for Hamloaf and the way you took Brie through the stages of grief. Hamloaf was one of my favorite little things you put in this book. He just added the right touch at just the right moment. Also, the irony of a dead girl go through the stages of grief usually associated the living dealing with the loss of a loved one was brilliant. Where did these two plot points come from?Aww, Hamloaf. Such a good, sweet dog. I’ve always been a major animal lover, so it didn’t seem right that Brie and her family shouldn’t be too! The way I see it, EVERY family should have a dog—or at least a cat who
thinks he’s a dog, like mine. ; ) *Fun fact: The real Hamloaf was actually not a dog, but a goldfish! He belonged to my friend and former editorial colleague Anne Heltzel (also a YA writer), and she was kind enough to let me use his name for the story. Hamloaf was hands down the most incredible goldfish I’ve ever met—he would literally wag his whole body like a golden retriever puppy every morning when we all got to work, and swim-dance aroundhis bowl for fish treats. Sadly, Hamloaf swam off to the Great Beyond a few years ago, but I like to think he’s found his eternal soul mate. Or should I say…Filet of Sole mate? Haha. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)
As for the stages of grief—that’s an element of the book I was excited about right off the bat. The thing is, sometimes a bad breakup can
feel like a death, and the grieving process for both can actually be quite similar. You might go through denial (it’s not over), anger (what a jerk!), bargaining (can’t we try again?), sadness (bawl-fest), and finally, acceptance (thank
goodness I got rid of him!). Getting your heart trampled upon can be such an intense and, in Brie’s case,
catastrophic emotional rollercoaster, and I couldn’t help thinking that the stages of grief perfectly applied to what she was going through—love-wise
and death-wise. So even though she’s narrating from the other side, it made sense to me that she’d still be feeling all of those emotions, just like the people she left behind.
5. What is your favorite thing about The Catastrophic History of You and Me?This book is very special to me for a lot of reasons. The most obvious is that it’s my first novel to be published, so that will always mean a great deal to me. But it’s also a very
personal story, because Brie and I really did go through all the stages together as the story unfolded. When I first started writing the story two years ago, I had no idea how much it would change my life. I never dreamed it would lure me away from my job as a children’s book editor to test the waters of writing full-time, or that it would teach me just how much I still had to learn about love, loss, and letting go. I had to learn that sometimes the thing you want most is the thing you
need the least. And, just like Brie, I had to learn that sometimes a broken heart isn’t the end of the road... it’s just the beginning!
My other favorite thing about
Catastrophic? It brought me together with my fiancé, who also happens to be my literary agent. (I know, talk about a fun plot twist.) I guess you could say Brie and I both got our happy endings? : )
6. What is a typical "writing mode" day like for you when you are starting a new book? Is it different from when you know you are almost finished with it?In the year since I quit my job to write full-time, I’ve learned that for me, there’s really no such thing as a typical writing day. 2011 was justa crazy year of changes (both personally and professionally) and I was literally all over the map through most of it. In general, I try to stick to writing a certain amount of words each day no matter where I am in a story, but with everything I had going on this year, I’ll admit that was much easier said than done. Writing tends to come faster for me at the beginning and end of the book—when narrative energy is super high and you can’t seem to get the words down fast enough. It’s almost like the characters are screaming at you to
write, write, write! and you’re just trying to keep up with them. For me, it’s the mysterious middle section of a story that poses the biggest set of challenges… when you’ve got the great set up and you’ve got the great ending in mind, but now you need to figure out how all the pieces fit together.
7. How excited are you about you debut YA book? How did you find out your book was going to be published by Penguin? What are you doing to celebrate your book's birthday?Oh my goodness, I am
INCREDIBLY excited!! If you don’t believe me, just see for yourself. ; )
http://bit.ly/wXbbQJThe day my book deal happened was, without a doubt, the most exciting day of my life, EVER. My book had only been on submission about 24 hours when I got the call letting me know that Penguin had made an offer. I was an editor at another imprint called Razorbill at the time, but the book was with a lot of people all over town and I had no idea if anyone would even like it, much less want to buy it. Then the deal happened and I was just so honored and over the moon to have
Catastrophic History land at Penguin, because the house already felt like home to me on so many levels. It was (and still is) a complete and total dream come true.
To celebrate the release on 2/21, I’ll be throwing a fun party at a bookstore in NYC! Details still to come, but everyone’s invited! I’ll be posting more info on my website/blog in the coming weeks (
http://www.jessrothenberg.com/), so check back soon for more, or follow me on twitter (@JessRothenberg) or on facebook (
www.facebook.com/jessrothenberg).
8. Are you woking on any new novels?I am! At the moment, I’m hard at work on a new YA novel which is set to be out in 2013. I can’t say anything about it just yet, except that it’s really funny. Or at least, I think it’s funny. I’m turning in a draft in a couple of weeks, so let’s hope my editor agrees. *Crosses fingers*
Big thanks to Jess for this 2012 Debut Author Spotlight Interview!*Don't forget to enter to win an ARC of the awesome
The Catastrophic History of You and Me. Just fill out this
form. Giveaway ends 1/28/12.
US only & the usual contest rules apply!
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