Deb Caletti Interview

The fabulous writer of Young Adult Fiction has given me one hilarious interview.My FIRST, actually With her great suggestion, this interview will not be about her books, it will solely be about Deb Caletti, with maybe one question about her latest book.

So without further ado; Deb Caletti!!!!

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What's your comfort food?

"Sourdough toast and butter, with the butter all nice and melty. Brownies and milk. Cookie dough, licked from a finger."

What do you do to stop procrastinating?

"The only way I can cure myself of it is to procrastinate all I want, to the point where I'm disgusted with myself for all that messing around. Once the point of self disgust is reached, I'm on my way. Probably this is another thing I should be in therapy for."

What's your worst bad habit?

"Ha - procrastination (see above). My favorite way to waste time is endless web surfing and information gathering. I'm an information junkie. And although books are always my favorite method of acquiring it, you can't quite call them a bad habit. The web, though - love it. I'm addicted. And, as I wrote about on my web site (http://www.debcaletti.com/), I'm still a faithful watcher of the San Diego Zoo's Panda Cam."

Have you ever had your hair cut or/and colored a drastic way?

"Oh God. Once I tried to highlight my own hair. It looks like such a happy, easy thing to do on the box, right? It turned a devastating shade of mango orange and I had to make an emergency-immediate-RIGHT NOW-and-very-expensive-to-fix trip to a hair salon. I'm going to give you a piece of beauty advice, okay? Never highlight your own hair. NEVER."

What's your most embarrassing moment?

"Probably when my muffler dropped from my car while I was picking up my son from school, although maybe this was equally embarrassing for him. It fell nearly at the feet of a gaggle of PTA ladies, who certainly disapproved of single mothers who lost car parts in school crosswalks. By the way, when a muffler falls from a car, it makes a HORENDOUSLY LOUD screeching, scraping clatter of metal on metal. I wrote about this in my new book, "The Fortunes of Indigo Skye," except that it is Indigo's boyfriend Trevor who loses his muffler right in front of a bunch of very wealthy people. I, like Trevor, had to summon some sort of dignity as I got out of my car while the PTA ladies watched. I tried for a casual demeanor as I picked up the muffler, as if it was something I did every day, no big deal. The only problem was, the muffler was VERY heavy, and it was so hot that I was doing that eech, ouch, eech, ouch thing we do when our flesh is burning."

What's the best birthday you ever had?

"When I turned forty, my kids (my daughter Sam and my son, Nick) bought me an inflatable rubber raft and blew it up in our living room as a surprise. They knew that my sister and I had loved ours when we were younger, and that on April Fool's Day, I would inflate it in her room and put all of her dolls in it to freak her out. So, Sam and Nick also jammed it full with every stuffed animal in our house. We all got in, too, and ate apple crisp in there - my favorite dessert that they'd made. I named the boat the S.S. Monarch, and we had some good times in it later (on water, not just in the living room!! :). I loved that they remembered these stories about my growing up - it was not only a fun thing from my past, but a fun thing for us to do together afterward. Great kids. Happy mom."

How many animals have you ever had? What type of animals were they? Their names?

"I had a cat when I was growing up. His name was Luigi. He was a mafia-type, a big tough guy who went around kicking the crap out of all the neighborhood cats. There were assorted fish along the way, too, naturally. But now we have our beagle, Jupiter. Jupiter makes an appearance in "The Nature of Jade," but she is a he - Milo. Don't tell her, as she'd likely be highly offended."

What's a moment in High School you'll never forget?

"When I was made into guacamole in front of the whole school at an assembly. I was the president of a club and it was a rival-club fundraiser thing. Guess who lost. It was awful, really. All kinds of horrible stuff squashed on my head. And I'm sorry, but no one ever put eggs in guacamole. Can I say for the millionth time that I am so glad high school is over???!!!"

What did you want to be when you were little? (Besides being a writer)

"I wanted to be Nancy Drew. And then for a while I wanted to be an FBI agent."

What's your favorite movie of all time?

"Hmm... Beauty and the Beast? It's because of that romantic scene where the beast gives Belle his library."

What television show can you not watch every week?

"I'm not much of a television watcher because of all those books that are stacking up beside my bed, but my daughter and I used to watch The Gilmore Girls together. Her friends always said it reminded them of us, and maybe we thought so a little, too. I have lately developed a fondness, though, for the Food Network. I like Iron Chef America, especially when they make really disgusting stuff and you can point at the television and go, EEEEYUW! Love that."

What's your next book about?

"I'm really, really excited about the next book. It's called, "The Secret Life of Prince Charming," and it's about a girl and her sister who join forces with the half-sister they never knew to return some objects that their father has stolen - one each from every woman he's ever been involved with. In it, I finally get to put to good use all of my bad romantic history. It's everything I know about love, all in one place. I hope you'll look for it!"

Thanks so much, Deb! I really appreciate you doing this!!!!

Read On!

Kelsey