GCC Tours Carrie Jones: Why I need NEED!

I need to read this book NEED by Carrie Jones. Seriously. Luckily, I have some returns to do at the mall and I can sneak over to Barnes and Noble and get my hands on this book, which I highly recommend that everyone else do as well. Treat yourself on this last day of 2008 to a great new book that will carry you into the New Year.

Carrie Jones took time out of her busy holiday schedule to chat about her latest book, NEED, and answer a few questions, as well as offer up some really interesting information about herself, her likes and dislikes, theories on cowboy hats, coffee, Sarah Silverman, mismatched socks and her cat’s weight problem (which may or may not have something to do with its love of potatoes).

Here's a Sneak Peak at NEED

Zara collects phobias the way other high school girls collect lipsticks. Little wonder, since life’s been pretty rough so far. Her father left, her stepfather just died, and her mother’s pretty much checked out. Now Zara’s living with her grandmother in sleepy, cold Maine so that she stays “safe.” Zara doesn’t think she’s in danger; she thinks her mother can’t deal.

Wrong. Turns out that guy she sees everywhere, the one leaving trails of gold glitter, isn’t a figment of her imagination. He’s a pixie—and not the cute, lovable kind with wings. He’s the kind who has dreadful, uncontrollable needs. And he’s trailing Zara.

The audio rights to NEED have been purchased. NEED will be released in Germany in 2010.

It is an IndieBound Next Pick for 2009.

About Carrie Jones

Carrie Jones likes Skinny Cow fudgsicles and potatoes. She does not know how to spell fudgsicles. This has not prevented her from writing books. She lives with her cute family in Maine, but she grew up in Bedford, NH where she once had a séance with cool uber-comedian Sarah Silverman.

The Meyers brothers are from Bedford, too, so you’d think it would make Carrie funnier, coming from Bedford N.H. Obviously, something didn’t work.

Carrie has a large, skinny white dog and a fat cat. Both like fudgicles. Only the cat likes potatoes. This may be a reason for the kitty’s weight problem (Shh… don’t tell). Carrie has always liked cowboy hats but has never owned one. This is a very wrong thing. She graduated from Vermont College’s MFA program for writing. She has edited newspapers and poetry journals and has recently won awards from the Maine Press Association and also been awarded the Martin Dibner Fellowship as well as a Maine Literary Award and the Independent Book Publishers Association First Place Award for her debut novel, Tips on Having a Gay (ex) Boyfriend.

Here’s the *real* lowdown about Carrie…

1. Carrie can not drink coffee. It makes her insane. Do not give her caffeine.
2. Carrie is very responsive to loving strokes on the hair, kind of like a puppy. However, do not do this without asking first unless you are a ridiculously handsome man or an editor who is about to offer her a trillion dollars for the first draft of her novel.
3. Carrie is secretly really, really shy even though she’s pathetically outgoing in person. She has a very hard time calling people. So, if you want to talk to her, make the first move. And, if you’re her in-Maine female best friend, Jennifer, do NOT get mad at her because she is so bad at returning emails.
4. Carrie sometimes wears mismatched socks, if you do not think this is cool, do not tell her. You will hurt her feelings.
5. Carrie really, really wants you to like her books. Please like her books. PLEEEAASSSEEEE. She’ll be your best friend forever. That is, if you want a friend who is shy about calling and emailing and who wears mismatched socks and can’t drink caffeine and likes being pet on the head. Hhmmm….
6. Carrie is not above begging.
7. Carrie, like Belle in TIPS ON HAVING A GAY (ex) BOYFRIEND drinks Postum. It’s for the same reason, too.
8. Carrie loves Great Pyrenees dogs. They are huge and white, and furry and it looks like they have white eyeliner and mascara on, which is way too cute. Do you have one? Send a picture!
9. Carrie lives in Maine. She has a hard time with this in the winter. It is bleak in Maine in the winter. Imagine everything shades of gray and brown and no green anywhere except for in people’s noses. This is Maine in Winter. Maine in summer is the best place in the world, so it’s a trade-off. Feel free to invite Carrie to your house in the winter, but not if it’s in Greenland, Canada, or anywhere north of Florida.
10. Forget that. She’d still probably come

Carrie Answers Some Questions for Me:

Do you (or did you ever) have a writing group? Who are the first people to
read your book once it’s completed?

- I don’t have a writing group.

- My agent or the Emster (my super kid) read my book first.

What writers do you consider your “sisters”? Are there any published writers that you hang out or tour with a lot? Call? Email? IM?

Hm… Sisters? Man. I love Jo Knowles and Sarah Aronson and Tiffany Trent a lot. I love Robin MacCready and Laura Hamor and Tami Wight. Oh darn, I love a lot of people. People are going to start thinking things…

Who do you find yourself being compared to or are often put together with in reading lists or book clubs?

With NEED I’m getting compared to Stephanie Meyer a lot. That is very VERY intimidating.

What writers do you wish would be in your “clique”? (It doesn’t have to be in your genre….doesn’t even have to be living! For example, I’d pick Alice Hoffman, Jodi Picoult, Sarah Dessen, Oscar Wilde, Stephenie Meyer, Meg Cabot, Stephen King and Joan Didion).

Oh… Yay!

I’d pick Sherman Alexie and Stephen Wedel and M.T. Anderson and Meg Cabot and Tim Wynne-Jones and Sharon Darrow and Rita Williams Garcia and Kathi Appelt and Cynthia Leitich Smith. I’d pick those cool NY writers like Maureen Johnson and John Green (although he’s not in NY anymore) and E. Lockhart.

For dead people? I’d pick Arthur Miller and Sappho and Winston Churchill and Oscar Wilde and Hemingway and Anne Sexton.

If someone was going to join your book club, what would be a “must read” in order to join?

Oh, I couldn’t do that to people. I’m not good with mandates, which is probably why I’m not in a book club.

What was your “initiation” to writing?

I wrote poems and newspapers.

When did you first feel that you’d officially joined the “published writers’
club”?

I still don’t feel like I’m in it. I’m sort of in the “Oh my gosh. Did they really give me money for these books?” club.

What was your best/worst memory of high school?

Um………

Possibly the time my best friend was going out with someone for three weeks and DID NOT TELL ME because she knew I didn’t like him. And I yelled at her. And she yelled at me. And then we didn’t talk for a month.

That was a horrible month.

In SISTERS OF MISERY, the last place new members want to go to is Misery Island. But if you had the choice, what island would you go to and what would you take with you?

I would go to the Isle of Margarita and I refuse to write down who I would take with me. I would get in too much trouble.

Finally, what can you tell me about your book? Give me a quick run-down
about why I’d want to pick it for my own book club.

NEED is a contemporary novel with gothic, fantasy, romance and suspense elements. The heroine is really cool and she is no typical damsel in distress.

Praise for Carrie Jones

Jones easily wins readers to Zara’s side, portraying her as a funny, globally conscious teen who also “collect[s} fears like other people collect stamps” (obscure phobias serve as chapter titles). Genre fans will enjoy the sizzle between Nick and Zara as well as the paranormal cast.” – Publishers’ Weekly

“It was a fun read, and I can’t wait for more from Carrie Jones…I’m definitely adding Need to my shelves due to the romance, suspense, and monster element. This goes on the list for those who loved Twilight and “Need” more. I have decided that Carrie Jones NEEDS to continue to write about these characters and add more since I already miss them after finishing Need.” – Diane Chen, School Library Journal

“I finished Need by Carrie Jones and definitely recommend it! It takes place in Maine (my homestate!) and has pixies and weres. The jacket recommends it for folks who like Stephenie Meyer and Melissa Marr, but I like Jones’ style better than both.” – E. Kirsten Anderson, book seller.

"Here is a bright new writer who was going to set the world of young adult letters aflame.” - Kathi Appelt, National Book Award finalist

“Carrie Jones is the real thing: a talented author. Her detailing is exquisite, her powers of observation, superb.” - Tim Wynne-Jones

For more info on Carrie Jones, check her website:

http://www.carriejonesbooks.com

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