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Back to Featured Interviews >> MEET MARLENE PEREZ
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| Marlene Perez |
Read.
What books influenced you most when you were growing up?
I read everything from comic books to weighty history books. My favorites include a range from Judy Blume’s FOREVER to J.R.R. Tolkien’s LORD OF THE RINGS to Madeleine L’Engle’s A WRINKLE IN TIME.
Did you write stories when you were growing up? at school? Or at home as a hobby?
As a young child, or as a teenager, or both? I started keeping a journal in second grade as part of a class assignment and have written ever since. I wrote a lot of poetry when I was a teenager. Bad poetry, I might add.
When you were a child did you ever have moments when you decided that you were going to be a writer when you grew up?
I always knew I was a writer, but it took me several years to realize I could/would be a published writer.
Was your first book accepted immediately? or did you experience a number of rejections?
Often a first novel ends up in a drawer somewhere, but I was lucky and the first novel I wrote, Unexpected Development, was published. But I still experience plenty of rejection. I think most authors do experience a fair amount of rejection. It’s what you do with the rejection that makes the difference.
Have any of your fiction stories been about real people or events?
I think there’s a little bit of me in every story I write, but no character has been based on a real person. My novel Unexpected Development explores some of the experiences I had in high school, but my new paranormal trilogy, which starts with DEAD IS THE NEW BLACK, is more of a “what if?” scenario.
What are you working on now? When do you expect to start submitting it to publishers ?
I’m working on a book for Scholastic/Point, which is tentatively called The Comeback. It’s about a girl who falls down the social ladder at school and schemes her way back to the top.
Do you write every day and do you have set hours that you work?
I don’t ALWAYS manage to write every day, but I try. No
When is your next book going to be in book stores?
My next book is called LOVE IN THE CORNER POCKET and it will be available in May. I also have a paranormal teen trilogy coming out this year and the first one, DEAD IS THE NEW BLACK, will be out in August.
Do you like to include humor in your stories? Or adventure? Or mystery?
I like to include humor in all my novels.