SOME GIRLS ARE
by Courtney Summers
Commercial YA
St. Martin's Press
www.CourtneySummers.ca
5 Signed Copies will be given away on Friday, April 2, 2010!
About the Book:
Climbing to the top of the social ladder is hard--falling from it is even harder. Regina Afton used to be a member of the Fearsome Fivesome, an all-girl clique both feared and revered by the students at Hallowell High... until vicious rumors about her and her best friend's boyfriend start going around. Now Regina's been "frozen out" and her ex-best friends are out for revenge. If Regina was guilty, it would be one thing, but the rumors are far from the terrifying truth and the bullying is getting more intense by the day. She takes solace in the company of Michael Hayden, a misfit with a tragic past who she herself used to bully. Friendship doesn't come easily for these onetime enemies, and as Regina works hard to make amends for her past, she realizes Michael could be more than just a friend... if threats from the Fearsome Foursome don't break them both first.
Tensions grow and the abuse worsens as the final days of senior year march toward an explosive conclusion in this dark new tale from the author of Cracked Up To Be.
Read our Exclusive Interview with the Author!
1) How did you get the idea for the novel?
I've always been fascinated by girl-bullying/mean girls. I've had my share of mean girl experiences and they left a huge impact on me. Also, I think it's hard to meet any woman that doesn't have a mean girl story which is really sad--but also very interesting. I had a lot of questions about my experiences and those questions eventually turned into Some Girls Are.
2) Considering a book from the first word you write to the moment you see it on a bookstore shelf, what’s your favorite part of the process? What’s your least favorite?
I love the editing process! I have a great editor who challenges me and has really helped me grow as a writer. I LOVE getting the cover! That's the part I anticipate and look forward to most, to be honest. It's fun trying to guess how St. Martin's sees the face of my books. I don't have a least favorite part of the process, but I will say copy-editing makes me extremely nervous. Copy-editors are brilliant, but I'm always TERRIFIED of messing something up when I start marking the changes on a copy-edited manuscript.
3) Who’s your favorite character in the book and why? Who was the most fun to write?
I think Regina has to be my favorite character because the book is told from her perspective, and if she wasn't my favorite character, I wouldn't be able to tell her story. But sometimes writing her was really hard because she's going through such a miserable time. Kara was a lot of fun to write in a weird way. She's so extremely evil and unreasonable and awful that meant she got to cross a lot of lines and really push it--which is always exciting.
4) How do you come up with your character names?
I generally go to baby name websites and browse through them until I feel a "click" if that makes any kind of sense. It's like a gut-feeling. As soon as I feel that, the character HAS to have that name.
5) What's up next for you?
I've got two books to write for St. Martin's Press! The next one, my third book, is about a girl struggling to make sense of her father's untimely death, and that's all can say about that for now. :)
About the Author:
Courtney Summers lives and writes in Canada, where she divides most of her time between a camera, a piano and a word processing program. Visit the author online at: www.CourtneySummers.ca.
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