Author Crush Friday with Cindy R. Wilson
Glitter girls, you have pressing questions for your favorite authors and we have their answers. Welcome to our weekly segment, Author Crush Fridays.
We love asking questions and we love the answers from some of our favorite authors. Today we’re talking to Cindy R. Wilson, author of the new YA contemporary, Paper Girl (December 4, 2018; Entangled Teen). Thank you for talking to us today, Cindy! We’re honored! If you haven’t picked up Paper Girl yet, run, don’t walk to grab this one at your local bookstore!
GLITTER: For those who haven’t read your work yet, how would you describe your writing style?
CINDY: Fun. Quirky. Inspirational. I’ve recently had my work compared to John Green (which is an amazing compliment). In my contemporary stories, I like to take real-world issues and dig deep into the lives of the characters dealing with them (the good, bad, and all that’s in between).
GLITTER: Tell us five things that people might not know about you.
CINDY: I am part Japanese (a trait I share with the heroine in PAPER GIRL). My grandma was born in Japan and moved to the US when she married my grandpa.
I can play the violin, the guitar, and sing—although not very well.
I’ve been chased by a bear in the wild.
I’ve traveled to eight different countries on four different continents.
I used to secretly write fan fiction with my daughter on Tumblr.
GLITTER: What one question sparked Paper Girl?
CINDY: How can a quirky, socially awkward girl become the hero of her own story?
GLITTER: How do you find the emotional truths in your writing?
CINDY: I dig deep with my own emotional experiences. We, as humans, are more similar than we realize and so many of us deal with the same hardships. If I can channel my feelings and emotions, it’s likely there are others out there who feel the same way.
GLITTER: What one message would you like readers to walk away with when they’re done reading Paper Girl?
CINDY: Not to be afraid to live your life.
GLITTER: What book of yours do you hope to see on either TV or as a movie and why?
CINDY: That’s easy! Sting. It’s a dystopian retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo. Revenge, treasure, and robots! Every page of that book played out in my head like a movie. I even have a soundtrack to go with it!
GLITTER: What was the first book that you ever wrote, even if it wasn’t published?
CINDY: The first book I ever wrote was a YA story I started when I was twelve. It was about teens with powers who went to a special school. So basically X-Men before I ever read an X-Men comic or saw the movies 😊. It was the first of a series and since then I’ve written book two just for fun. It wasn’t ever published and might not ever be, but those stories taught me that I truly wanted to (and could be) a writer.
GLITTER: Do you have anything that you love to collect?
CINDY: I like to collect items that go with the stories I’ve finished. I have a scorpion pendant (for Sting) and a pocket watch for a book I wrote about teleporters and alternative universes. I have other things, too!
GLITTER: Did any of the authors you read in high school affect how you write now?
CINDY: Oh, sure. L.J. Smith inspired basically every speculative story I wrote (including a vampire story). I read a lot of Jane Austen and she made me want romance in everything. I read Dean Koontz as well and he made me look for the oddities in things and want to write books that made people think, What if?
GLITTER: Who inspires you?
CINDY: Strong people who face the world head on. My kids.
GLITTER: What one piece of advice could you give any teen going through difficult times now?
CINDY: Don’t let the world try to tell you who to be. You are YOU and no one else. Find your passion. Find your people. And then live it up!
GLITTER: What are you currently working on?
CINDY: I am currently working on a contemporary YA that’s reminiscent of The Breakfast Club, with a heroine who’s a history buff and the love of her life (who she can’t tell because her twin sister fell in love with him first). It’s happy and sad and fun and there are a lot of puns.
Cindy lives at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, and loves using Colorado towns and cities as inspiration for settings in her stories. She’s the mother of three girls, who provide plenty of fodder for her YA novels. Cindy writes speculative fiction and YA fiction, filled with a healthy dose of romance. You’ll often find her hiking or listening to any number of playlists while she comes up with her next story idea.
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