Last month we had the pleasure of chatting with author Jennifer Banash and we found her to be one of the coolest authors we have ever had a chance of talking to! We love her books and now we have fallen in love with her and we know you will too!
By The Book:What inspired you to become a writer, and was it always your dream?
Jennifer: I started writing really early–around 10 or 12–but I was primarily a poet for many years. I didn’t start writing fiction until I was almost 25. Writing was basically all I ever really wanted to do in life, from as far back as I can remember, and I was a voracious reader as a child–sometimes finishing 2 or 3 books a day.
BTB: Were there any particular authors who influenced you?
Jennifer: I read everything and anything I could get my hands on while growing up–from the Sweet Valley High series, to novels by Virginia Woolf and Betty Smith–A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was a huge favorite. In YA lit, Sarah Dessen, Meg Cabot, Jay Asher, and Barry Lyga are some of my biggest influences to date.
BTB: If you had not chosen to make a career out of writing, what other career could you see yourself in?
Jennifer:Film director. I love movies, and I try to watch at least two a week.
BTB:What is a typical day like in your life?
Jennifer: Depends what time of year it is! From September–June, I teach 9th and 12th grade English at a private school here in California, so I don’t actively write all day long at those times. I write at night, when I get off work, and on the weekends. But since I have all summer to myself, I tend to write like a maniac during those 3 months, sometimes working for 5 hours a day or more.
BTB: Your novel Simply Irresistible was recently featured on Seventeen.com as a great summer beach read. What books would you read, or did read at the beach this summer?
Jennifer: Audrey Wait! by Robin Benway, The Luxe series by Anna Godberson–it’s a total guilty pleasure–think Gossip Girl, circa 1900–Lovestruck Summer by Melissa Walker, and The Lost Sister by Megan Kelley Hall–her first book, Sisters of Misery–blew me away.
BTB: You attended high school on the Upper East Side, and the characters fromSimply Irresistible and the rest of the Elite series are from that area as well. Did anything from your high school experience help inspire this novel? If so, what?
Jennifer: Everything! I really did, for a time anyway, live the life portrayed in the pages of my books. My friends were all incredibly wealthy and privileged, and I, much like Casey, was really trying to fit into that world as the new girl at school. It was a wonderful, exciting, frustrating, and heartbreaking experience.
BTB:Out of all the characters in the Elite series, which would you say that you can relate to the most?
Jennifer:Probably Drew, because we’re both just so neurotic, and also Madison because it’s fun to play diva for a day!
BTB:The characters in Simply Irresistible are set to star in their own reality show, If you were to star in your own reality TV show, what would be the name of it and what would it be about?
Jennifer:Boring Writer. It would be about this girl who sits at her kitchen table all day, writing books while her dog stares at her mournfully, begging her to finish a chapter so he can please go outside. I’m sure it would be a overnight sensation . . .
BTB: What parts did you enjoy the most while writing Simply Irresistible and the other Elite series novels?
Jennifer: I love the moment when a story really starts to develop a life of its own, and the characters become real. That’s the time I love the most. In general, I love writing any scene between Drew and Madison, because they cannot seem to communicate, no matter what they do, and as a result, their scenes together are often very dramatic.
BTB:What plans, if any, do you have already for your next book?
Jennifer: I’m currently writing a novel set in NY in the late 1980’s called White Lines. It’s loosely based on my own experiences as an NYC club kid.
*Interview Questions by Suzanne Flood and Meagan Anderson
Tags: author, California, Casey, Drew, elite, Elite Novels, high school, In Too Deep, interview, Jennifer Banash, kids, Los Angelos, love, Madison, New York, reality show, series, SImply Irresistable, snob, teacher, tv, upper class, White Lines
