Saturday, March 08, 2008
Sara Zarr, "Sweethearts" author: Mr. Media Interview, Part 3
(Return to Part 2)
(Return to Part 1)
BOB ANDELMAN/Mr. MEDIA: So, Sara, you deleted the stuff that might get you on Howard Stern, and you kept the stuff that would get you on Oprah.
SARA ZARR: Exactly, exactly Bob. Or on Mr. Media.
ANDELMAN: Or on Mr. Media, exactly!
ZARR: But it’s been great. I know a lot of writers read my blog and a lot of librarians, too. If anyone out there writes a blog, you can start to think that the only people who read your blog are the ones who comment, and that might be like 12 people. And so you think, “I’ve got 12 readers. I can be pretty loose.” But I can’t tell you, when I’ve gone to national conferences like American Library Association and things like that, the number of people that come up and say, “I read your blog everyday,” and they’ve never commented. And then you have to multiply that by whatever factor. So you do want to kind of make sure you’re not coming across as a jerk.
ANDELMAN: Or worse. I maintain a couple of blogs, Mr. Media, of course, and then some other things, and I have cut back in what kind of information I’ll put up there about myself or things because, yes, you do realize that it’s going out to a lot of people you really have no control over, and there’s certain things you don’t want to share. It’s kind of an iffy thing. There are a lot of pros, but there are also a few cons that are creeping into it as well.
ZARR: I think another thing that writers need to think about is people involved in their career and who could have influence over their career reading their blog, and if you kind of get a reputation as someone who’s bitter or envious or kind of always talking bad about other writers or other books, it’s not really good for you. You need to find a trusted circle of friends to complain to but not to the whole entire world.
ANDELMAN: How have you celebrated the high marks in your career, whether finding out about the NBA award, the nomination, being a finalist there or getting that new contract for the next two books? Have you done anything special for yourself, your husband?
ZARR: Celebrating is not my strong point. I’m one of those people who always thinks when good things happen they’re going to get taken away any second. I think that’s just sort of a habit of childhood and the home I grew up in. I would like to learn how to celebrate these things because I tend to have a lot of stress and think I don’t deserve this or people are going to find out one day that I’m a complete fraud. That always taints my good experiences so I’m trying to learn to celebrate things. I’m very grateful for everything that happens. It’s more sort of a psychological thing. I sort of have a moment with myself and remind myself of all the years that I worked for it and wasn’t achieving it, and there is a deep sense of satisfaction that comes, but I don’t think I celebrate. I don’t know. Every day is a celebration, Bob. This is my problem with Valentine’s Day. I want to express to my husband that I love him everyday, and I’m sort of everyday really glad to have a writing career. I haven’t gone on any extravagant vacations or anything like that. Maybe someday when I make my first million, I’ll do something like that, but I think I’ve spent enough money on clothes getting ready for the National Book Awards to count as my celebration for a couple years.
ANDELMAN: You’re still in Salt Lake City, maybe not some people’s idea of where the author of Story of a Girl and Sweethearts might be living. Is that going to be a long-term point of residence for you, or are you going to migrate to the big city?
ZARR: I’m from the big city. I’m from San Francisco. I’ve been there and done that, and again, maybe when I make my first million, I could afford to go back. But I really love Salt Lake, and we’re here for my husband’s job, and as long as he’s happy with his job, then we’ll be happy here. I don’t know. It’s really all about his career in terms of where we live, and I’m happy to go anywhere, although with all the snow, I really wouldn’t want to go to the Midwest or the Northeast. But I’m flexible in terms of where I live just based on wherever his job takes him. And there are a lot of writers who live in Salt Lake, and it’s a pretty fun community. I set Sweethearts in Salt Lake because I love it so much, although my editor, when I first turned in a draft, kind of said, “I don’t know about Salt Lake as a national title, if that’s going to be a place people can relate to.” But we’re all just normal people here with the same life experiences and emotions that people outside of Utah have. So in the end, it did end up staying set in Salt Lake, which I’m very happy about.
ANDELMAN: So you think you’ll do more for the Chamber of Commerce in Salt Lake than perhaps you did for Pacifica?
ZARR: Maybe, maybe.
ANDELMAN: I kind of sense that you’re to Pacifica what David Simon is to Baltimore.
ZARR: I think, actually, people who live in Pacifica totally get it.
ANDELMAN: Right.
ZARR: And again, as I mentioned in our previous interview, it’s a great little place to live. I can see it, as an adult, that it’s a very appealing community, not so much for a teenager without a car, and I think people get it. They know I’m not hating on Pacifica or anything.
ANDELMAN: So what’s next? You’ve got a book that’s due in December 2008, and then you’ve got another one, I guess, what, a year after that?
ZARR: Yes, although I think maybe it’s 18 months after that because, as I mentioned, I wasn’t sure I could keep up the pace. So we kind of built some more time into my contract. And just living life. My husband’s in grad school so getting him through grad school and then, hopefully, Story of a Girl, the movie version, will happen. Since we talked, there’s officially a writer/director attached, and now that the writers’ strike is over, hopefully, that will move forward, and that would be really exciting to see as well.
ANDELMAN: Can you mention who the writer/director is?
ZARR: Yes, it’s Laurie Collyer, who wrote and directed SherryBaby, which was a really wonderful movie that had a few Golden Globe nominations the year it was out. I think she’s just kind of the right person for this movie so I was very happy to hear that she was involved.
ANDELMAN: That’s great. I was actually moving toward asking you about that, and, of course, because the movie was optioned, you are one…What did we decide? Are you one degree from Kevin Bacon?
ZARR: I think I might be two or possibly three.
ANDELMAN: Really?
ZARR: I’m not sure if the person who actually knows him is zero degrees or one degree. So I don’t know. I’ve met Kyra Sedgwick now so maybe that’s two degrees. I’m not sure.
ANDELMAN: What was that like? Where did you meet her, and what can you tell us about that?
ZARR: Oh, it was great. She just couldn’t be nicer and more normal, and it was really fun to talk about the book and imagine possibilities for the movie. And I’ve got nothing but excitement for that. It was very nerve-wracking. Before the actual meeting happened, I was probably more nervous than I’d been about anything else in this whole process. I just felt ill, but it was fine once it started.
ANDELMAN: When and where did you meet?
ZARR: We just met for coffee when I was in New York. I can’t give you details, Bob. I have to protect Kyra’s privacy.
ANDELMAN: Oh, of course you can. Who am I gonna tell? Who am I gonna tell? And what about Sweethearts? Is there any movie action on that?
ZARR: Not yet, although the woman who is Kyra Sedgwick’s production partner on Story of a Girl read and really enjoyed Sweethearts, and she also works as a scout for another production company and passing that on to them with her recommendations. So we’ll see.
ANDELMAN: Let me come back to Story of a Girl because I want to see if I can ask something in a roundabout way and get a different answer.
ZARR: I was not the school slut.
ANDELMAN: No, no, no, no. That wasn’t the question. But if you’re going to continue and insist that, I guess we’ll just have to accept it for now. The last time we spoke I had mentioned that I got to the end of Story of a Girl and felt like I really wanted to know what happened to Deanna Lambert. And so my question is: with Kyra Sedgwick’s production company, did they buy the rights to the book or the character?
ZARR: The book.
ANDELMAN: Okay.
ZARR: The work. That contract was probably twice as complicated as my publishing contract so I can’t tell you for sure all the different things that were included. There might be action figure rights involved. I don’t know, but the thing that’s optioned is the work.
ANDELMAN: Well, the reason I ask is that Tim Dorsey, who has done a series of Florida-based crazy action novels, funny, silly, Carl Hiaasen-type books, had said that his first book, he’s written eleven of them now, his first book was optioned, and that gave them the rights to all the characters to do, like if they wanted to do like a series of movies with a character, and so I’m looking for some way to find out what happens to Deanna Lambert. What can I say?
ZARR: Why don’t you write some fan fiction? You know about fan fiction, don’t you?
ANDELMAN: Yeah, but okay, but does Captain Kirk have to sleep with Deanna Lambert? That’s all I know about it.
ZARR: Yeah, and Spock is in there somehow I’m sure. Yes, you can write your own ending to that story.
ANDELMAN: Alright. So I guess the answer is that there’s no movement on a sequel to Story of a Girl.
ZARR: No.
ANDELMAN: Okay.
ZARR: And yes, that is the answer.
ANDELMAN: Alright. Well, there was one other thing that came up. Sweethearts, and we haven’t really talked about it that much, but it’s the story of these two kids who meet. I think they’re about nine years old.
ZARR: Yes, they meet in grade school so they know each other from probably age six or seven through nine.
ANDELMAN: Since we spoke the first time, of course, I’ve had the opportunity to read Sweethearts, I was thinking about it this morning, though. Have you seen any of the episodes of “Pushing Daisies”?
ZARR: No.
ANDELMAN: It’s interesting. It reminded me of it a bit. “Pushing Daisies” starts off with the story of this boy and girl, they’re about five or six years old, and they just know somehow that they’re meant for each other. Then something terrible happens, and they’re separated.
ZARR: Uh-oh.
ANDELMAN: And they find each other years and years later. I guess, technically, they’re like in their 20s, which is a little older than your two, and I just thought, “Wow.” There’s no connection between the two? I’m not saying one had anything to do with the other. It couldn’t possibly, but it reminded me of Sweethearts a lot.
ZARR: Are you accusing me of something here, Bob?
ANDELMAN: No, no, no, no, no. I wouldn’t do that at all. I wouldn’t do that at all, but I was curious whether you had seen the show, that’s all.
ZARR: No, I haven’t. And the funny thing is the inspiration for Sweethearts came from a real-life experience that I had with a childhood friend who then found me years later, and now we’re very good friends. And I think it’s interesting when that happens. My wanting to write Sweethearts was part of sort of an effort to understand how people who hadn’t seen each other since they were nine-years-old could meet again at 37 and still experience a strong bond and feel just easy together and like they’d known each other their whole lives.
© 2008 by Bob Andelman. All rights reserved.
(Return to Part 1)
BOB ANDELMAN/Mr. MEDIA: So, Sara, you deleted the stuff that might get you on Howard Stern, and you kept the stuff that would get you on Oprah.
SARA ZARR: Exactly, exactly Bob. Or on Mr. Media.
ANDELMAN: Or on Mr. Media, exactly!
ZARR: But it’s been great. I know a lot of writers read my blog and a lot of librarians, too. If anyone out there writes a blog, you can start to think that the only people who read your blog are the ones who comment, and that might be like 12 people. And so you think, “I’ve got 12 readers. I can be pretty loose.” But I can’t tell you, when I’ve gone to national conferences like American Library Association and things like that, the number of people that come up and say, “I read your blog everyday,” and they’ve never commented. And then you have to multiply that by whatever factor. So you do want to kind of make sure you’re not coming across as a jerk.
ANDELMAN: Or worse. I maintain a couple of blogs, Mr. Media, of course, and then some other things, and I have cut back in what kind of information I’ll put up there about myself or things because, yes, you do realize that it’s going out to a lot of people you really have no control over, and there’s certain things you don’t want to share. It’s kind of an iffy thing. There are a lot of pros, but there are also a few cons that are creeping into it as well.
ZARR: I think another thing that writers need to think about is people involved in their career and who could have influence over their career reading their blog, and if you kind of get a reputation as someone who’s bitter or envious or kind of always talking bad about other writers or other books, it’s not really good for you. You need to find a trusted circle of friends to complain to but not to the whole entire world.
ANDELMAN: How have you celebrated the high marks in your career, whether finding out about the NBA award, the nomination, being a finalist there or getting that new contract for the next two books? Have you done anything special for yourself, your husband?
ZARR: Celebrating is not my strong point. I’m one of those people who always thinks when good things happen they’re going to get taken away any second. I think that’s just sort of a habit of childhood and the home I grew up in. I would like to learn how to celebrate these things because I tend to have a lot of stress and think I don’t deserve this or people are going to find out one day that I’m a complete fraud. That always taints my good experiences so I’m trying to learn to celebrate things. I’m very grateful for everything that happens. It’s more sort of a psychological thing. I sort of have a moment with myself and remind myself of all the years that I worked for it and wasn’t achieving it, and there is a deep sense of satisfaction that comes, but I don’t think I celebrate. I don’t know. Every day is a celebration, Bob. This is my problem with Valentine’s Day. I want to express to my husband that I love him everyday, and I’m sort of everyday really glad to have a writing career. I haven’t gone on any extravagant vacations or anything like that. Maybe someday when I make my first million, I’ll do something like that, but I think I’ve spent enough money on clothes getting ready for the National Book Awards to count as my celebration for a couple years.
ANDELMAN: You’re still in Salt Lake City, maybe not some people’s idea of where the author of Story of a Girl and Sweethearts might be living. Is that going to be a long-term point of residence for you, or are you going to migrate to the big city?
ZARR: I’m from the big city. I’m from San Francisco. I’ve been there and done that, and again, maybe when I make my first million, I could afford to go back. But I really love Salt Lake, and we’re here for my husband’s job, and as long as he’s happy with his job, then we’ll be happy here. I don’t know. It’s really all about his career in terms of where we live, and I’m happy to go anywhere, although with all the snow, I really wouldn’t want to go to the Midwest or the Northeast. But I’m flexible in terms of where I live just based on wherever his job takes him. And there are a lot of writers who live in Salt Lake, and it’s a pretty fun community. I set Sweethearts in Salt Lake because I love it so much, although my editor, when I first turned in a draft, kind of said, “I don’t know about Salt Lake as a national title, if that’s going to be a place people can relate to.” But we’re all just normal people here with the same life experiences and emotions that people outside of Utah have. So in the end, it did end up staying set in Salt Lake, which I’m very happy about.
ANDELMAN: So you think you’ll do more for the Chamber of Commerce in Salt Lake than perhaps you did for Pacifica?
ZARR: Maybe, maybe.
ANDELMAN: I kind of sense that you’re to Pacifica what David Simon is to Baltimore.
ZARR: I think, actually, people who live in Pacifica totally get it.
ANDELMAN: Right.
ZARR: And again, as I mentioned in our previous interview, it’s a great little place to live. I can see it, as an adult, that it’s a very appealing community, not so much for a teenager without a car, and I think people get it. They know I’m not hating on Pacifica or anything.
ANDELMAN: So what’s next? You’ve got a book that’s due in December 2008, and then you’ve got another one, I guess, what, a year after that?
ZARR: Yes, although I think maybe it’s 18 months after that because, as I mentioned, I wasn’t sure I could keep up the pace. So we kind of built some more time into my contract. And just living life. My husband’s in grad school so getting him through grad school and then, hopefully, Story of a Girl, the movie version, will happen. Since we talked, there’s officially a writer/director attached, and now that the writers’ strike is over, hopefully, that will move forward, and that would be really exciting to see as well.
ANDELMAN: Can you mention who the writer/director is?
ZARR: Yes, it’s Laurie Collyer, who wrote and directed SherryBaby, which was a really wonderful movie that had a few Golden Globe nominations the year it was out. I think she’s just kind of the right person for this movie so I was very happy to hear that she was involved.
ANDELMAN: That’s great. I was actually moving toward asking you about that, and, of course, because the movie was optioned, you are one…What did we decide? Are you one degree from Kevin Bacon?
ZARR: I think I might be two or possibly three.
ANDELMAN: Really?
ZARR: I’m not sure if the person who actually knows him is zero degrees or one degree. So I don’t know. I’ve met Kyra Sedgwick now so maybe that’s two degrees. I’m not sure.
ANDELMAN: What was that like? Where did you meet her, and what can you tell us about that?
ZARR: Oh, it was great. She just couldn’t be nicer and more normal, and it was really fun to talk about the book and imagine possibilities for the movie. And I’ve got nothing but excitement for that. It was very nerve-wracking. Before the actual meeting happened, I was probably more nervous than I’d been about anything else in this whole process. I just felt ill, but it was fine once it started.
ANDELMAN: When and where did you meet?
ZARR: We just met for coffee when I was in New York. I can’t give you details, Bob. I have to protect Kyra’s privacy.
ANDELMAN: Oh, of course you can. Who am I gonna tell? Who am I gonna tell? And what about Sweethearts? Is there any movie action on that?
ZARR: Not yet, although the woman who is Kyra Sedgwick’s production partner on Story of a Girl read and really enjoyed Sweethearts, and she also works as a scout for another production company and passing that on to them with her recommendations. So we’ll see.
ANDELMAN: Let me come back to Story of a Girl because I want to see if I can ask something in a roundabout way and get a different answer.
ZARR: I was not the school slut.
ANDELMAN: No, no, no, no. That wasn’t the question. But if you’re going to continue and insist that, I guess we’ll just have to accept it for now. The last time we spoke I had mentioned that I got to the end of Story of a Girl and felt like I really wanted to know what happened to Deanna Lambert. And so my question is: with Kyra Sedgwick’s production company, did they buy the rights to the book or the character?
ZARR: The book.
ANDELMAN: Okay.
ZARR: The work. That contract was probably twice as complicated as my publishing contract so I can’t tell you for sure all the different things that were included. There might be action figure rights involved. I don’t know, but the thing that’s optioned is the work.
ANDELMAN: Well, the reason I ask is that Tim Dorsey, who has done a series of Florida-based crazy action novels, funny, silly, Carl Hiaasen-type books, had said that his first book, he’s written eleven of them now, his first book was optioned, and that gave them the rights to all the characters to do, like if they wanted to do like a series of movies with a character, and so I’m looking for some way to find out what happens to Deanna Lambert. What can I say?
ZARR: Why don’t you write some fan fiction? You know about fan fiction, don’t you?
ANDELMAN: Yeah, but okay, but does Captain Kirk have to sleep with Deanna Lambert? That’s all I know about it.
ZARR: Yeah, and Spock is in there somehow I’m sure. Yes, you can write your own ending to that story.
ANDELMAN: Alright. So I guess the answer is that there’s no movement on a sequel to Story of a Girl.
ZARR: No.
ANDELMAN: Okay.
ZARR: And yes, that is the answer.
ANDELMAN: Alright. Well, there was one other thing that came up. Sweethearts, and we haven’t really talked about it that much, but it’s the story of these two kids who meet. I think they’re about nine years old.
ZARR: Yes, they meet in grade school so they know each other from probably age six or seven through nine.
ANDELMAN: Since we spoke the first time, of course, I’ve had the opportunity to read Sweethearts, I was thinking about it this morning, though. Have you seen any of the episodes of “Pushing Daisies”?
ZARR: No.
ANDELMAN: It’s interesting. It reminded me of it a bit. “Pushing Daisies” starts off with the story of this boy and girl, they’re about five or six years old, and they just know somehow that they’re meant for each other. Then something terrible happens, and they’re separated.
ZARR: Uh-oh.
ANDELMAN: And they find each other years and years later. I guess, technically, they’re like in their 20s, which is a little older than your two, and I just thought, “Wow.” There’s no connection between the two? I’m not saying one had anything to do with the other. It couldn’t possibly, but it reminded me of Sweethearts a lot.
ZARR: Are you accusing me of something here, Bob?
ANDELMAN: No, no, no, no, no. I wouldn’t do that at all. I wouldn’t do that at all, but I was curious whether you had seen the show, that’s all.
ZARR: No, I haven’t. And the funny thing is the inspiration for Sweethearts came from a real-life experience that I had with a childhood friend who then found me years later, and now we’re very good friends. And I think it’s interesting when that happens. My wanting to write Sweethearts was part of sort of an effort to understand how people who hadn’t seen each other since they were nine-years-old could meet again at 37 and still experience a strong bond and feel just easy together and like they’d known each other their whole lives.
© 2008 by Bob Andelman. All rights reserved.
Technorati Tags:
Dystel & Goderich Literary Management, Michael Bourret, National Book Award finalist, novelist, Sara Zarr, Story of a Girl, Sweethearts, Pacifica, Kyra Sedgwick, Kevin Bacon, Laurie Collyer, Salt Lake City
Labels: Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, Story of a Girl, Sweethearts
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