I would like to give a very warm
welcome to Hannah Harrington, debut author of the totally amazing Saving June. Hannah has very kindly taken the time to stop by and answer some questions here at The Tales Compendium.
A couple of weeks ago, I read Saving June and completely feel in love with it, raving about it to anyone who would listen. Not only is it one of my favourite reads so far this year, but it will have a permanent position on my All Time Favourites list too.
Saving June was released in Australia in May and will be available in the US and UK come November 22nd.
Read my fan-girl review here.
First off, congratulations on the release and rave reviews of Saving June. How does it all feel?
It's exciting! The publishing process is so drawn out that for people to finally be able to read the book and to hear what they think of it is a fantastic, gratifying feeling, and still a little surreal. The US release isn't until the end of November, so I'm sure it'll feel exciting and surreal all over again when that rolls around.
How did you come to write Saving June? Did it come to you in an instant or were little parts of it simmering away in your head for a while?
There was definitely some simmering. I kicked the idea around for the story for awhile before I buckled down to write. I wrote the first snippets of it when I was eighteen and still in high school-- I'm pretty sure the first I wrote of it was the dance scene between Harper and Jake, which made it into the final draft, only slightly changed. But the majority of the story was written within a three month span a few years later, when I pounded out a first draft.
Are the personas of Harper, June, Jake and Laney based on or inspired by people you know or are they entirely works of fiction?
None of the characters are based on anyone specifically. Some of the dynamics I had in relationships as a teen-- familial, friendship, and otherwise-- sort of informed the characters in a broader way. When I was a teenager I was friends with a group of anarchists, for example, so there was some drawing upon of my own experiences for scenes like that.
Do you have any fun road trip memories?
I've been on a lot of road trips-- one memory that sticks out to me is when a few years ago, my best friend and I drove to Chicago together, and she had one of those iPod jacks to hook to her cassette player. I spent most of the drive there scrolling through her iPod and picking the most embarrassing music she had to play, like songs from The Little Mermaid soundtrack and Ashlee Simpson, and both of us laughed a lot over it (and sang along, of course). Everyone has those "guilty pleasure" songs they're a little embarrassed to love but do anyway. I'm much more shameless these days about liking what I like, though.
**Haha awesome, I know I certainly have some guilty pleasure songs!
Jake has a pretty awesome taste in music. Is it inspired by your own?
I'm less of a music snob than Jake is, but I do love a lot of the same bands as him. I grew up on a lot of classic rock, like The Doors and Hendrix and Janis Joplin and Queen, so I've always had an appreciation for that genre. It was fun to use him (and at times Harper and Laney) as mouthpieces to express my opinions on music.
**I love classic rock, which is probably one of the reasons I fell in love with Jake!
Which band/artist would you love to see live but haven’t had the chance to yet?
Ooh, this is a hard one. I would really love to see Paul McCartney live some day. I've seen Ringo in concert, but not Paul, and I think he'd be incredible.
What are some of your favourite YA reads?
Some of my favorites are "The Year of Secret Assignments" by Jaclyn Moriarty, "Gingerbread" by Rachel Cohn, "What I Saw and How I Lied" by Judy Blundell, "Looking for Alaska" by John Green, "Love is the Higher Law" by David Levithan, and "The Possibility of Fireflies" by Dominque Paul.
**Yay for the Aussie love in there! I loved Looking For Alaska and I am a big fan of Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. I must check out the others :)
I believe many people have added Jake to their ‘literary crush’ lists. Do you have any literary crushes?
Marcus Flutie from Megan McCafferty's "Sloppy Firsts" immediately springs to mind! I read that book when I was fifteen, and remember thinking he was very crush-worthy.
Are you working on anything at the moment?
Right now I'm preparing for my second book, SPEECHLESS, which is due out in September 2012. I'm also working on my third book, but I'm not sure what'll be happening with it yet, so I don't want to go too much into detail!
welcome to Hannah Harrington, debut author of the totally amazing Saving June. Hannah has very kindly taken the time to stop by and answer some questions here at The Tales Compendium.A couple of weeks ago, I read Saving June and completely feel in love with it, raving about it to anyone who would listen. Not only is it one of my favourite reads so far this year, but it will have a permanent position on my All Time Favourites list too.
Saving June was released in Australia in May and will be available in the US and UK come November 22nd.
Read my fan-girl review here.
First off, congratulations on the release and rave reviews of Saving June. How does it all feel?
It's exciting! The publishing process is so drawn out that for people to finally be able to read the book and to hear what they think of it is a fantastic, gratifying feeling, and still a little surreal. The US release isn't until the end of November, so I'm sure it'll feel exciting and surreal all over again when that rolls around.
How did you come to write Saving June? Did it come to you in an instant or were little parts of it simmering away in your head for a while?
There was definitely some simmering. I kicked the idea around for the story for awhile before I buckled down to write. I wrote the first snippets of it when I was eighteen and still in high school-- I'm pretty sure the first I wrote of it was the dance scene between Harper and Jake, which made it into the final draft, only slightly changed. But the majority of the story was written within a three month span a few years later, when I pounded out a first draft.
Are the personas of Harper, June, Jake and Laney based on or inspired by people you know or are they entirely works of fiction?None of the characters are based on anyone specifically. Some of the dynamics I had in relationships as a teen-- familial, friendship, and otherwise-- sort of informed the characters in a broader way. When I was a teenager I was friends with a group of anarchists, for example, so there was some drawing upon of my own experiences for scenes like that.
Do you have any fun road trip memories?
I've been on a lot of road trips-- one memory that sticks out to me is when a few years ago, my best friend and I drove to Chicago together, and she had one of those iPod jacks to hook to her cassette player. I spent most of the drive there scrolling through her iPod and picking the most embarrassing music she had to play, like songs from The Little Mermaid soundtrack and Ashlee Simpson, and both of us laughed a lot over it (and sang along, of course). Everyone has those "guilty pleasure" songs they're a little embarrassed to love but do anyway. I'm much more shameless these days about liking what I like, though.
**Haha awesome, I know I certainly have some guilty pleasure songs!
Jake has a pretty awesome taste in music. Is it inspired by your own?
I'm less of a music snob than Jake is, but I do love a lot of the same bands as him. I grew up on a lot of classic rock, like The Doors and Hendrix and Janis Joplin and Queen, so I've always had an appreciation for that genre. It was fun to use him (and at times Harper and Laney) as mouthpieces to express my opinions on music.
**I love classic rock, which is probably one of the reasons I fell in love with Jake!
Which band/artist would you love to see live but haven’t had the chance to yet?
Ooh, this is a hard one. I would really love to see Paul McCartney live some day. I've seen Ringo in concert, but not Paul, and I think he'd be incredible.
What are some of your favourite YA reads?
Some of my favorites are "The Year of Secret Assignments" by Jaclyn Moriarty, "Gingerbread" by Rachel Cohn, "What I Saw and How I Lied" by Judy Blundell, "Looking for Alaska" by John Green, "Love is the Higher Law" by David Levithan, and "The Possibility of Fireflies" by Dominque Paul.
**Yay for the Aussie love in there! I loved Looking For Alaska and I am a big fan of Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. I must check out the others :)
I believe many people have added Jake to their ‘literary crush’ lists. Do you have any literary crushes?
Marcus Flutie from Megan McCafferty's "Sloppy Firsts" immediately springs to mind! I read that book when I was fifteen, and remember thinking he was very crush-worthy.
Are you working on anything at the moment?
Right now I'm preparing for my second book, SPEECHLESS, which is due out in September 2012. I'm also working on my third book, but I'm not sure what'll be happening with it yet, so I don't want to go too much into detail!
********
