Pretty Amy Blog Tour

Guys, I have the sincere pleasure of being a part of the Pretty Amy blog tour (my very first blog tour ever--YAY!) And if you haven't read my review, READ IT NOW. Are you reading? Good. Not yet convinced? Well I have an interview with Lisa Burstein, the author, who was kind enough to answer some questions: 

Cassie: Describe your main character (Amy) in three words. 

Lisa: Real, Raunchy, Misunderstood

Cassie: What inspired you to write Pretty Amy?

Lisa: I was arrested during my senior year of high school, not for the same reason Amy was, but that was where the kernel came from. I also knew I wanted to write a "shocking" book from a teenage girl's point of view. I feel like you can get away with your character being a murderer, or a jerk, or just a smart ass more easily if your book isn't contemporary and I wanted to try to break that mold with PRETTY AMY. I also wanted to write a contemporary YA book that was about what real teens go through. I feel like teenage girl's lives are complex and I hoped to show that in PRETTY AMY.

Cassie: Which character did you relate to the most, and why? 

Lisa: Amy. She is a hyperbolic version of me from high school. I am definitely using her and this book, to work out some of the issues I had back then.I was a lot like Amy. Just like her I had such a desire to belong, to fit in, to have people who understood me. I wanted that so badly and I guess I never felt like adults understood that. It was most of the reason I wrote PRETTY AMY. If I'd had it when I was in high school I feel like I would have been able to understand my feelings better. I wouldn't have felt so alone. That feeling was something I never admitted to anyone, not even my friends and I want to let teens know it's okay to feel lonely even surrounded by friends and family.

Cassie: Which character was the most difficult to write, and why?
Lisa: Amy, again because I wanted her to be complex and it hard to pull that off. Hard to make people like and believe in your character.


Cassie: What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Lisa: Do not give up. Seriously. I could have given up so many times after any number of the rejections I received agent and editor both and if I had I would never be here today.

Cassie's final words: Wow! I had no idea that this was heavily based on you and your experiences as a teenager. I think that makes this story UBER special. Thank you so much, Lisa, for taking the time to answer my questions. (And for the record, Amy is most definitely REAL, raunchy, and misunderstood). 

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Lisa Burstein is a tea seller by day and a writer by night. She received her MFA in Fiction from the Inland Northwest Center for Writers at Eastern Washington University and is glad to finally have it be worth more than the paper it was printed on. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her very patient husband, a neurotic dog and two cats. Pretty Amy is her first novel. She never went to her senior prom.