Lara Zielin

OMG. I seriously had many moments where I wondered if this day would EVER get here. Ever. But here it is! My book, DONUT DAYS, is finally out on bookshelves. Yaaaay!

To kick off the release, I have the great honor of having author Melissa Schorr on the blog. Her book, GOY CRAZY, was a huge inspiration to me. Never before had I read such a funny, poignant book that managed to address some pretty serious issues (religion among them) but never took itself too seriously. There were still lots of laughs, not to mention cute boys and kissing. And yet the book’s messages stayed with me for a long, long time.

Melissa’s book helped pave the way for DONUT DAYS, so it makes enormous sense to me that she be part of this day on the blog. Melissa’s going to share her thoughts on how she found herself in the interesting role of being a YA novelist. If you leave a comment, you’ll be eligible for today’s prize, which is a signed copy of DONUT DAYS! Woo hoo!

And with that, I turn the reins over to my literary role model! Take it away Melissa!

——————-

The Lord works in mysterious ways. Or so they say. And one the greatest mysteries in my own life is exactly how I ended up as a young adult novelist.

True, I read like mad as a child, loving everything from Nancy Drew to Sweet Valley High. But somehow, writing kid lit myself never occurred to me.

No, I was gunning to be a big-time journalist, preferably the next Anna Quindlen. So I served as an editor at my high school paper and set off for college to collect my (aptly named) B.S. in journalism.

Somehow, in between fetching coffee as an editorial assistant at a glossy women’s mag and accosting celebrities as a stringer for People magazine, I landed a gig as a fact checker for Gentlemen’s Quarterly (GQ).

In between verifying factoids about Jackie Chan and silk ties, I somehow convinced my editors to let me pen an essay, to be called “The Joys of Goys,” about my perpetual inability to bring home a “Nice Jewish Boy” to meet my increasingly fretful Jewish parents.

Like anything that pokes fun at religion (as Lara will doubtless soon find out), the piece struck a nerve. Upon publication, I was besieged with letters – from irate rabbis, lovesick prison inmates — but most notably, a literary agent, who believed my piece had the makings of a New York Times bestseller — a sort of Jewish girl’s “Sex and the City.”

I eagerly banged out a proposal of all the hot Goy Toys I planned to date. It all seemed too good to be true. Then, along came the man of my dreams, which promptly killed my book deal. My future husband–to-be was cute, crazy for me and –irony of ironies — had actually been bar-mitzvahed.

Sadly, I closed that chapter in my life. Or, so I thought.

But again, see above re: Ways, mysterious.

Flash forward seven years. I’d checked big city columnist off my life’s little to-do list and had moved on to a shiny new literary dream: screenwriter. After penning a rom-com and enrolling in the famed Robert McKee Story seminar, I phoned my old book agent, hoping for a few La-La land contacts.

Instead, he tossed out a random idea. Ever thought of writing a young adult novel, he asked offhandedly. You might even revisit your old proposal. Fictionalized, of course.

The idea struck a nerve. Like a woman possessed, I dredged up my high school diaries, wrote all summer long, and finished a chunk of the book.

The proposal sold in a week.

I must confess: my peculiar path to publication at first made me feel like a fraud. After all, I’d skipped the MFA. The writer’s workshops. The critique group. Everything the powers-that-be say you must to do, if you aspire to be a Novelist.

Until I noticed one conversation I was having over and over. Adults would marvel, “How do you remember what it feels like to be a teenager?” And I’d stare back at them, my response always the same: “How do you not?”

So I guess you could say it was fate, or the Lord, or destiny, or what have you, that I ended up back to my first love, creating books for teens.

In retrospect, the greater mystery probably isn’t how I ended up where I did. It’s why I never thought to take this path from the start.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 3:10 pm and is filed under other writers, writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.