Girlfriend Cyber Circuit Presents: E. Lockhart!

We interrupt our regularly scheduled program to bring you E. Lockhart on her Girlfriend Cyber Circuit Tour!!! So we’ll return to tales of the Beacon tomorrow. I’m really psyched because this is the first time I get to participate on this tour and because E.’s book THE DISREPUTABLE HISTORY OF FRANKIE LANDAU-BANKS sounds absolutely amazing and it went on sale today so you can go buy it immediately!

Here’s the lowdown on the book straight from the jacket copy:
Frankie Landau-Banks at age 14:
Debate Club.
Her father's "bunny rabbit."
A mildly geeky girl attending a highly competitive boarding school.

Frankie Landau-Banks at age 15:
A knockout figure.
A sharp tongue.
A chip on her shoulder.
And a gorgeous new senior boyfriend: the supremely goofy, word-obsessed Matthew Livingston.

Frankie Laundau-Banks.
No longer the kind of girl to take "no" for an answer.
Especially when "no" means she's excluded from her boyfriend's all-male secret society.
Not when her ex boyfriend shows up in the strangest of places.
Not when she knows she's smarter than any of them.
When she knows Matthew's lying to her.
And when there are so many, many pranks to be done.

Frankie Landau-Banks, at age 16:
Possibly a criminal mastermind.

This is the story of how she got that way.

You can read an excerpt of the book here

E. Lockhart is the author of The Boyfriend List and its sequel, The Boy Book; Fly on the Wall; Dramarama; and the upcoming How to Be Bad, co-written with Lauren Myracle and Sarah Mlynowski. In stores March 25th is The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. Visit her on the web at www.theboyfriendlist.com -- and soon (once the new web design is finished) at www.e-lockhart.com. You can also check out her blog at http://www.theboyfriendlist.com/e_lockhart_blog/

But today she was kind enough to answer some questions, right here on my blog. Here they are:

Please list some songs that would be on the soundtrack to your book and explain how they relate to your story or characters.
E.: For How To Be Bad, which comes out May 6 (co-written with Lauren Myracle and Sarah Mlynowski), we made a whole playlist, including songs by Feist, Fergie, KT Tunstall, even Nancy Sinatra. I did the same for my book, Dramarama -- playlist for that including songs from Rent, Wicked, Guys & Dolls, Little Shop of Horrors and Cabaret.
But The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks -- much of it takes place in the middle of the night, deep in the steam tunnels of a sleeping boarding school. I think of many scenes in it as taking place in eerie silence.

Name some of your main character's favorite musicians or bands.
E.: Frankie probably likes Janis Joplin and The Who. Partly because she's an angry young person, and partly because in my experience elite prep school kids are often into classic rock rather than whatever's new.

Who are some of your favorite musicians or bands?
E.: I am an old person with old person tastes! Well, at least compared to the audience for my books.
I like musical theater. I like Frank Sinatra and Doris Day. I like folk music and gospel. I like dance music that was popular when I was in high school and college. My iTunes "most often played list" includes "Come on Eileen" by Dexys Midnight Runners, "All About Ruprecht" from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and "Don't Tell Mama" sung by Ute Lemper.

Even though music plays in so heavily into my storytelling, I rarely can actually listen to it while I'm writing. Can you? How does music fit into your writing process?
E.: I prefer total silence. But for Dramarama, which is all set in musical theater camp, I did make myself an iTunes folder full of show tunes, and I'd play them before sitting down to work to get myself in the right mindset. (Dramarama is in stores now and comes out this May in paperback).

While music is my muse, I know other writers find their muse in theater, sports, art, the great outdoors, etc. What is your main muse?
E.: Books. I find reading replenishes my imagination, keys me into alternative modes of storytelling, gives me ideas.

Last but not least, E. says, “In May, I'll be touring actual cities, including places in Georgia, Florida, Illinois, southern and Northern California, and Connecticut, for my book How to Be Bad, which comes out May 6 and which I co-wrote with Sarah Mlynowski and Lauren Myracle. I'll be signing Disreputable History and my backlist books as well. Here are the tour dates and locations!”

Ok, her answer about the book taking place in eerie silence because it takes place deep in the steam tunnels of a sleeping boarding school, totally sold me on the book. I don’t know about you. And that was my first author interview so I hope you enjoyed it :)