ELIZABETH LABAN worked at NBC News, taught at a community college, and has written for several magazines and newspapers. The Tragedy Paper is her first young adult novel. She lives in Philadelphia with her family
Interview
If you could invite any 5 people to dinner who
would you choose?
I would invite my
husband, Craig LaBan, my kids Alice and Arthur, Justin Bieber, and Barack
Obama.
What is one book everyone should read?
Wonder by R.J Palacio.
If you could have any superpower what would you choose?
I would choose the
power to be able to see one day into the future. I say one day because I
wouldn’t want to know too much, that could too greatly affect how I lived each
day. But I do tend to spend a lot of time worrying about how things will go,
and then when they go well I wish I had enjoyed them more. This superpower
would help me do that.
What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Chocolate (with peanut
butter cups mixed in)
What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?
My husband’s
cappuccino, a perfect cheese plate, and a fresh baguette
One food you would never eat?
Rabbit
Pet Peeves?
When people blow their
nose in their napkin, and when a lot is spelled as one word.
Please tell us in one sentence only, why we should read your book.
It is a great story –
full of love, possibility, loss, and tragedy - that will hook you from the
first page, and stay with you long after you finish the last.
Any other books in the works? Goals for future projects?
Yes – I am working on
another young adult book. This one has a female protagonist, and, like The Tragedy Paper, has a school
assignment that factors prominently into the plot. I have also written a few
children’s picture books as well as women’s fiction novels that I hope will be
published one day.
What inspired you to want to become a writer?
When I was in my early
teens I read S.E. Hinton’s That Was
Then, This Is Now. I loved it more than I had ever loved a book before, and
it made me want to be able to create a world the way she did. I had thoughts of
being a writer even before that moment, but it solidified it for me.
What's one piece of advice you would give
aspiring authors?
To keep writing and
never give up.
What is your favorite Quote?
I recently wrote part
of this Anna Quindlen quote on the chalkboard in our kitchen because it seems
so important. I have two kids who are 11 and 13, and I try to keep this in mind
all the time when we’re rushing from one thing to the next. In the quote she’s
talking about raising her kids. “The biggest mistake I made is the one
that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough.
This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in
photographs. There is one picture of the three on them sitting in the grass on
a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4, and 1. And I
wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they
sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been
in a hurry to get on to the next things: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had
treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.”
When you were little, what did you want to be
when you "grew up"?
A writer.
Who are your favorite authors of all time?
S.E, Hinton, John
Irving, Curtis Sittenfeld, Scott Spencer, Jennifer Weiner, David Payne, John
Green, Liane Moriarty…I could go on and on.
What's the best advice anyone has ever given
you?
Before I started
journalism school, I went to an orientation weekend during which a graduate won
a big award. In her acceptance speech she recited the three most important
things she learned in journalism school. I ended up meeting my husband that
year, and he had been to the same event. Those words of advice stuck with both
of us and we talk about them often. They are: show don’t tell, good quotes up
top, and go to the bathroom when you can! Great lessons for newspaper
reporting, and just everyday life when you’re a writer!
Favorite Candy?
Sour Patch Kids
What's your favorite season/weather?
autumn
What is your guilty pleasure?
Coca Cola
Favorite smell
Coffee
Favorite quote from a movie?
I
have two favorites: “Yo, Adrian!” from Rocky
and “Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most
inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying
it." - from The Deathly Hallows Part
2.
What is something people would be surprised to know about you?
I am married to a
restaurant critic.
Pets? - childhood or adult
We had the best cat in
the world for 16 years - she died last year. She was a stray in New Orleans so
we named her A Streetcat Named Desire, and called her Desire. We miss her and
still talk about her all the time.
Something your readers would never guess about you
I am very
claustrophobic.
Are you for or against books being made into
movies?
Definitely for!
Where is your favorite spot to write?
My dining room table.
Night owl, or early
bird?
Night owl
Regular or Diet?
Regular
City or Country?
City
Cats or Dog?
Cats
Tim Macbeth is a 17-year-old albino and a recent transfer to the prestigious Irving School, where the motto is, “Enter here to be and find a friend.” Tim does not expect to find a friend; all he really wants to do is escape his senior year unnoticed. Despite his efforts to blend into the background, he finds himself falling for the quintessential “it” girl, Vanessa Sheller, girlfriend of Irving’s most popular boy. To Tim’s surprise, Vanessa is into him, too, and she can kiss her social status goodbye if anyone finds out. Tim and Vanessa enter into a clandestine relationship, but looming over them is the Tragedy Paper, Irving’s version of a senior year thesis, assigned by the school’s least forgiving teacher.
The story unfolds from two alternating viewpoints: Tim, the tragic, love-struck figure, and Duncan, a current senior, who uncovers the truth behind Tim and Vanessa’s story and will consequently produce the greatest Tragedy Paper in Irving’s history
The Tragedy Paper was released on January 8, 2013.
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Great review, though don't knock rabbit till ya try it. Tastes like chicken for the most part.... Really! Ask Gordon Ramsay!
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