When I talk to teenagers who’ve read my books, one of the first things they usually ask is, “Did the stuff in your books really happen to you?” Since my other books are about subjects like school bombings, murder, and—in my most recent book, Beastly—a character being placed under a witch’s curse, I’m usually happy to say no. My books are fiction, and part of the fun of writing fiction is making stuff up.
But when I was in high school, I attended a magnet program called Performing and Visual Arts Center (PAVAC), where I took classes in acting, singing, dance, music theory (ick!), and piano. It was a great experience, and I wanted to write about a girl who is in a program like that. So while the larger plot of this book is still fiction, many smaller events in it were inspired by things I experienced in high school.
So, what’s for real and what isn’t?
For Real: When I was in eighth grade, I went to a theater camp audition that involved singing. I didn’t know in advance that I’d have to sing, and I’d never sung alone in public. Still, I decided to go for it. It seemed like a good idea, initially, but when I actually had to go up there, I was petrified. So, like Caitlin, I closed my eyes. I sang a song called “Little Lamb” from the musical, Gypsy. Halfway through, I felt the audience’s energy and opened my eyes. Everyone clapped at the end, and I got one of the leads in the show, Once Upon a Mattress. From then on, I knew I had talent, and I was always singing.
Not Real: While my mom is very beautiful and young-looking for her age, she’s nothing like Valerie. In particular, she never dated someone else’s husband and certainly wouldn’t go to the opera showing butt cleavage! She was also very encouraging about my singing. The character of Valerie appeared in Breathing Underwater, and was actually inspired by a woman I’d seen picking up her daughter at the high school. She was dressed like a teen in butt shorts and had a crazy hairstyle, and as she pulled away, one of her daughter’s friends exclaimed, “Who does she think she is—one of the Spice Girls?”
For Real: I had a close male friend in high school. His name was Kevin, and he was incredibly talented. Like Sean, he did come to auditions wearing a purple unitard and Burger King crown, and we once sang the “Brindisi” from La Traviata in class, and like Sean, he was just a fabulous, mature-beyond-his-years person. I had a huge, unrequited crush on him. Like Sean, he wasn’t interested in me, or any girl. We stayed good friends through college, and I still see him sometimes. I dedicated this book to him.
Not Real: I never had a boyfriend like Nick—or any boyfriend in high school.
For Real: Like Caitlin, I was a train wreck at dance. I am just biologically incapable of learning dance steps unless I practice a hundred times more than normal people (and, even then, I’m not what you’d call good. I always tried to smile real big, so people wouldn’t notice how bad I was). My high school dance teacher was less than sensitive about this. In our first show, she had some people sing by the side of the stage. Like Caitlin, I didn’t want to, so I worked very hard to learn the steps.
Not Real: I was much better at acting than Caitlin. In fact, I wanted to act long before I discovered I could sing. In high school, I played the lead role of Emily in a community college production of Our Town, and I beat out the theater majors at my school for the one female role in a one-act play we performed at a theater conference in Washington, D.C. Even now, I believe acting inspires my writing because I get to play all the characters in my books, only on paper.
For Real: The people I met in performing arts school were some of the most fun, interesting people I ever met. Unlike me, who as a writer agonizes over every word, they could make up songs and improvisations on the spot. I’m not sure most of them “got” me, but it was fun to watch them in action. And yes, we definitely sang and danced in public places. When I take the train downtown sometimes, I still see performing arts high school kids doing this, and I remember how much fun it was.