Interview With Stephanie Kate Strohm!

Today on on the blog I'm happy to present an interview with YA author Stephanie Kate Strohm! Ms. Strohm is the author of multiple YA books, which include It's Not Me, It's You and The Taming of the Drew! I have read and loved It's Not Me, It's You (Here's my review!), and I think it is a perfect read for Valentine's Day! :)

Here's the interview!

The bold font is the questions I asked, the regular font are her answers, and the bold italic font is my comments about her answers.

It's Not Me, It's You was written in such a unique style for a YA book, and it worked perfectly for the story! Where did the idea come from to write it that way?

It actually wasn’t my idea! My genius editor at Scholastic, Matt Ringler, came up with the concept to write a YA love story as an oral history. I didn’t even know what an oral history was when I first heard about it, but thanks to some trusty Googling, I learned all about it, and now I couldn’t imagine Avery’s story being told any other way. This was such a fun format to write in – I really enjoyed getting to write in so many different voices, and I especially love Avery’s voice because she always butts in and has to have the last word! 

It was a really fun format to read, too!

Which character from the book do you feel you're most like?

My friends now would probably say I’m most like Avery, but back when I was in high school, I wanted to be someone like Avery but I acted a lot more like Cressida. One thing I did share with Avery was a total obsession with the prom – although my prom was definitely not as romantic as hers ended up being! My senior prom was in an aquarium, though, which was REALLY awesome. And that sort of inspired me to take Avery’s prom in the direction it ended up going in – even if there aren’t any fish at the prom in It’s Not Me, It’s You!

Random question! What's your favorite chick flick?

This is a hard one! But if I had to pick just one favorite…Legally Blonde. I love Elle and her journey and the way she comes to take pride in and embrace her intelligence even after everyone underestimated her. I’m also a huge fan of Clueless, as you can probably tell from the book. Cher was a major inspiration for Avery in It’s Not Me, It’s You.

If you can talk about it, what are you working on now?

Well, the sequel to It’s Not Me, It’s You comes out in September! It’s called The Date to Save and it tells the story of the most insane Homecoming weekend in the history of high school. It also takes place at San Anselmo Prep, so you’ll see some familiar faces and get to meet lots of fun new characters! I’m working on something else brand new right now that I can’t really talk about yet, but I’m very excited about it.

Yay! I'm so looking forward to The Date to Save!

What are some YA books you've enjoyed recently?

I loved A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallero, so I’m really looking forward to reading The Last of August – it’ll be out Valentine’s Day! The New Guy (and other senior year distractions) by Amy Spalding and My Unscripted Life by Lauren Morrill have also been recent faves. Oh! I was also lucky enough to get my hands on an ARC of The Best Kind of Magic by Crystal Cestari – definitely a debut to look out for!!!

The Best Kind of Magic sounds good! *adds to TBR list*

Thank you so much to Ms. Strohm for letting me interview you! :)

Author bio: Stephanie Kate Strohm is the author of Pilgrims Don’t Wear Pink, Confederates Don’t Wear Couture, The Taming of the Drew and It's Not Me, It's You. She graduated from Middlebury College with a dual degree in theater and history and has acted her way around the United States, performing in more than twenty-five states. Although she was born in New York, she currently lives in Chicago, and doesn't discriminate against any type of pizza. When she's not writing, she loves baking, walking her dog Lorelei, taking dance cardio classes too seriously, and playing board games with her husband.

Here are a few links:

Her Website

Her Twitter

Her Facebook

Her Goodreads