Now in Theatres!

My good friend Diana Peterfreund is joining us today to talk about her experience writing the novelization of the new movie "Morning Glory," which hits theatres TODAY and stars Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, Diana Keaton, and Patrick Wilson.

Here's a blurb for both the movie and the book:

BREAKING NEWS: Ambitious young TV producer Becky Fuller is fired from a local morning show in New Jersey, and her career begins to look as bleak as her hapless love life.

Desperately in need of a job, yet still full of boundless optimism, Becky vows to land on her feet and stumbles into an opportunity at Daybreak, a floundering network morning news program in New York City. Abysmal ratings are only the tip of the iceberg: Executive producers seldom survive beyond the next commercial break, and the outdated cameras belong in the Smithsonian.

Promising the head of the network that she can reverse the downward spiral, Becky makes legendary newscaster Mike Pomeroy an offer he can’t contractually refuse. She successfully adds Pomeroy to the team, but he refuses to participate in any Daybreak fluff pieces and morning show staples like celebrity gossip, weather, fashion, and crafts. What’s more, he takes an instant dislike to his equally difficult co-anchor, Colleen Peck, a former beauty queen.The only bright spot in Becky’s career is Adam Bennett, a gorgeous fellow producer, but Daybreak’s dysfunction spells trouble for their blossoming relationship. As Mike and Colleen’s on-air chemistry proves more explosive every day, Becky must scramble to save her love life, her reputation, her job, and, ultimately, Daybreak itself.

Please welcome, Diana Peterfreund!



DP: Hi, Amanda! Thanks so much for having me!

AB: Glad you could be here! Let's talk writing. What was it like to write a book based on a screenplay?

DP: In a word: invigorating. I'd just come off writing ASCENDANT (a killer unicorn fantasy), which is my darkest novel to date. It was the depths of winter and I was in desperate need of writing something light and funny. When the script for Morning Glory came in, I sat on the couch and laughed my head off the whole way through. My husband, sitting in the next room, kept calling over to me and saying, "So it's good, huh?"

The process was pretty simple: they sent me a working script (there are differences between the script I had and the final film) and I tried to keep as true to the dialogue and storyline as possible. The challenges were how to translate the occasional montage into a cohesive narrative and of course, to fill in all of the action and the main character's interior thoughts. The needs of a screenplay and feature film are very different from those of a novel. In a movie, they can do a lot of visual short cuts. I can afford to be more expansive, to add in explanatory scenes and to flesh out parts that take more development on the page than on the screen. Whereas a film can get a lot of mileage from two attractive co-stars (in this case, Rachel McAdams and Patrick Wilson) making goo-goo eyes at each other, it doesn't come across as well in text, so I enjoyed adding to their romance.

After turning in the draft and doing revisions with my editor, we had to go through another round of approval with the studio and the the producers. We made some changes because they had updated the script. I had no descriptions to go by and only the stills I could find online, so sometimes I made changes to certain scenes so they'd be more in keeping with the actual sets/costumes/hair in the film. After the producers signed off on it, Random House put it into production.

AB: I usually write my books by "casting" them in my mind. Did you know who the stars of the movie would be before you agreed to write the novel?

DP: I did. In fact, that was one of the reasons I was so keen to do it. I've been a fan of Rachel McAdams since her Slings & Arrows days (an awesome Canadian show about a Shakespearean theater troupe), and I've loved Harrison Ford since my early childhood. To get the chance to write a character for Han Solo -- um, Ford? Awesome! Additionally, Patrick Wilson is from my hometown. He's a few years older than me, and I remember all the drama kids in high school would talk about him as one of the guys who "made it."

AB: How did you get involved with the project?

DP: My editor at Random House is the same one I had for all my Secret Society Girl novels. She called me up and asked me if I'd be interested in the project. I'd been hearing a lot about novelizations from some fellow writers in NINC (Novelists, Inc.) and I was keen to do the project. She thought we'd be a good fit because of the voice of my other novels. She pitched me to Paramount and they said yes.

AB: Are you working on anything new at the moment?

DP: My main project at the moment is caring for my newborn daughter. She's a month old now, and so I'm still on my one-woman shop's version of "maternity leave." But since my husband's paternity leave runs out soon, I'm going to have to figure out the details of how to be a mom and a writer all at once.

Just this week I signed on to do two new short stories for anthologies (yay!) I had so much fun with the short I had out this year: "Errant" in Kiss Me Deadly and "The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn" in Zombies Vs. Unicorns, and they seem to have found a readership, so I'm excited to do more. I have three in the hopper for 2011 and 2012. Additionally, I'm working on a YA post-apocalyptic retelling of Persuasion which should be out in 2012.

AB: OK, you hooked me with "YA post-apocalyptic retelling of Persuasion." Awesome! I can't wait! And congrats on your little girl!


OK, Fictionistas readers...I'm going to give away a copy of "Morning Glory: A Novel" to one lucky reader. All you have to do is comment!

We'll post the winner on Friday's blog.

YA Workshop in DC next week

Hey there DC area 'Nista readers...come check out the Washington Romance Writers March meeting next Saturday (March 13) at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Service Center.

In the morning is a special panel discussion on the YA market, moderated by yours truly. The panelists are Elizabeth Scott, Diana Peterfreund, Pam Bachorz, and our very own Rhonda Stapleton.

In the afternoon, Rhonda takes over, presenting two special workshops. First up is "Writing the YA Romantic Comedy." Then is "The Fiction Wrier's Self-Editing Workshop."

So come join us!

Great Couples

In keeping with our Valentine's Day theme, today's topic is about your favorite fictional couples. Think back on all the books you've read, which blossoming romances were your favorites? And why?

Maybe they were reluctant, and at first claimed to hate one another. Maybe they were funny. Or sweet. Or they beat all the odds. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that they had amazing chemistry and you rooted for them throughout the entire book. You laughed during their highs and cried during their lows. And maybe even fell a litle in love yourself.

Here are just some of my favorite couples from books:

Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

Well, if that single man is the Mr. Darcy , you can bet that the readers will root for that wife to be the most worthy heroine of all.

Like many girls, I totally want to be Lizzy Bennet. She's so witty and smart and rather unconventional for her era. And Mr. Darcy? *swoon* Put off by her mother's vulgarity and the ditzy behavior of her youngest sisters, at first he's unable to see Lizzy's worth. But in time, he falls in love and his struggle to suppress those feelings, eventually ending in not one, but two, proposals is the stuff of magic.

Maddie Springer and Jack Ramirez


Adorably ditzy Maddie is a shoe designer with a penchant for stumbling across dead bodies. Ramirez is the sexy, tough detective assigned to investigate the crimes. Gemma Halliday writes fantastic sexual tension and you find yourself just as frustrated as Maddie when Ramirez keeps getting to the crime scene in the second book just as they're about to get romantic in this series. And add in a potential love triangle when tabloid reported Felix keeps snooping around and you've got the makings of a deliciously fun romantic comedy.

Lady Julia Grey and Nicholas Brisbane
The most conventional of her very eccentric family, wealthy young widow Lady Julia Grey is extremely unconventional for her time. She's smart and sassy, and holds opinions that would shock most of her set. So it's not surprising that when she discovers that her husband did not die of natural causes, she decides to find the murderer. Enter the sexy and enigmatic Nicholas Brisbane, a private enquiry agent who her late husband had engaged to find who was threatening him. Is he the right man to make her consider a second chance at love? But this is the Victorian era, after all, so their relationship progresses at a maddeningly slow pace...but the tension is smoldering hot.

Amy "Bugaboo" Haskell and Jamie "Poe" Orcutt
In the first two "Secret Society Girl" books, Amy Haskell's nemesis in Rose & Grave was a senior (and later, recent graduate) codenamed Poe. He was sullen, moody, and incredibly disagreeable. Not even worth Amy's acknowledgement, particularly when there are so many other hot guys around, like the delectable George. But author Diana Peterfreund was a literature major at Yale, and an avowed Jane Austen fan, so "the sudden, startling transformation of a mysterious Rose & Grave patriarch from sheerly evil to utterly...appealing" is not exactly terribly shocking. But it's still really fun to read!

Amanda Brice and Mr. Brice

Oh, wait...they're not fictional. ;)

So those are a few of mine. Who are yours?

Interview With Diana Peterfreund!

I scheduled today's interview with author Diana Peterfreund a few weeks ago, to coincide with the release of the third book in her popular Secret Society Girl series. But then we decided to declare this week "I wish I'd known then" Week.

So I decided to combine the two...today the Fictionistas bring you an interview with a fabulous author, and also let her share some thoughts on what she wish she'd known back in high school.

So please welcome Diana Peterfreund!

Diana, thanks for visiting The Fictionistas! So, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I was born in a blizzard, in a valley carved from ice and rock and ancient waters. As you can imagine, I got out of there as soon as possible and moved to sunny Florida, where I spent my youth either playing "pretend" outside or keeping my nose buried in a book.

I went to Yale for college, where I double-majored in Geology and Literature so I could, claimed my father, "write books about rocks." According to me, I majored in Geology, then took another degree in Lit becuase I kept winding up in those classes anyway. After school, I worked for a newspaper, writing mostly food reviews and a few other articles.

Sometime in the middle of all that, I took off to Australia and New Zealand with my now-husband, and spent six months living in a tent, hitch-hiking, scuba diving, mountain climbing, and spelunking. Now we've settled down somewhat, and live in Washington, D.C., where we spend entirely too much time playing video games like Rock Band, Portal, and World of Warcraft, and spelunking not at all. I write full time, and I have three novels out with Bantam Dell: SECRET SOCIETY GIRL, UNDER THE ROSE, and RITES OF SPRING (BREAK), with two more (From Bantam Dell and Harper Teen) due out in 2009. In addition, I write critical essays on other people's fiction for BenBella Books.

Your most recent book, RITES OF SPRING (BREAK) was released two days ago. What is it about?

In the first book, Amy was initiated into the secret society. In the second, she was a full-fledged member called upon to protect it. In this one, she needs a vacation! She and her fellow knights of Rose & Grave are spending Spring Break at their private Florida island, Cavador Key. It's supposed to be a week of sun and fun, but there are a lot of unfinished issues to deal with, like an ongoing feud with a rival society, old enemies also staying on the island, and some lingering romantic possibilities that could turn into scorching spring flings. The stakes are higher in this book than they've ever been before!

Well, I absolutely adored the first two books, so I can't wait to read this one! Speaking of this series, it's published by an adult Random House imprint, yet the New York Public Library included it on their list of
"Books for the Teen Age". Why did Random House decide to market it to
adults rather than teens?

The NYPL list recommends many adult books to teens. My book appeared in that section of the list, alongside Marisha Pessl's SPECIAL TOPICS IN CALAMITY PHYSICS and Diane Setterfield's THE THIRTEENTH TALE. I doubt there are any teens who restrict their reading to solely YA novels, so the NYPL list reflects that.

Random House didn't really "decide" anything, actually. I sold my book to Bantam Dell, which is an adult publisher that is part of Random House. Therefore, the books are adult books. It's really that simple. It's funny -- this is only ever a question I get from other writers, who are interested in the way publishers classify novels. Readers and booksellers just take the books where they find it. And it makes sense because, unlike YA novels, the Secret Society Girl books are not about teens -- all my characters are in their twenties. But, like I said above, most teens I know read a lot of adult books, and I think these books, with their insights into college life, are fun for teens, too!

I definitely agree with you there. So, what "group" did you hang with in school? Do you think hanging with that group influenced your writing?

At Yale, like the houses at Hogwarts, every student is assigned one of twelve residential colleges, where they live for four years. I was very close to the people in my college, Morse. Senior year, one of my roommates and I even threw what we called "The Morse Tower Happy Hour" every Friday evening, all year long, where we served a signature drink each week. I also spent time with people who participated in the same activities, which varied from semester to semester, but might include friends from my geology labs, or a play I was stage managing or costume designing, fellow a capella singers, or writers for the campus tabloid newspaper.

If this influenced my writing, it's because it taught me of the vast diversity on campus, and how so many different kinds of people could be friends with one another and part of the same social circle. In my group of friends in Morse, we had musicians, scientists, actors, Christian evangelicals, social activists, debaters, artists, jocks, people who'd started pornography appreciation clubs (yes, really, and they made a movie about it) -- pretty much anything you can imagine. The characters in my book reflect this diversity -- socialites and academics, computer nerds and politicians, writers and scientists and movie stars -- a little something for everyone. Because Rose & Grave picks students from among the best and brightest of their class at Eli, you're going to see a wide range of interests and personality types trying to work together for the good of the society.

What advice do you have for young writers?

Read a lot and write a lot. I don't believe you can be a good writer unless you soak it up through reading, and I also believe writing is a muscle. The more you write, the better you get at it. The only other advice I would have is not to be in such a hurry to get published. I know there are several teenaged writers out there that are always in the news, and it convinces other teen aspiring writers that if they haven't published by the time they're 20, they are failures, but this isn't true. When I look back at the stuff I wrote in my teens and even in my early twenties -- stuff I absolutely thought was good enough to get published, I feel very grateful that I didn't send them out, and that no one will ever see them but me. I wonder sometimes if people who got published very young look at their early work and wish it was no longer on the shelves. If you're a teenager and you want to be a writer, I recommend writing (if you really want to be a writer, it would be impossible to stop you, anyway!) but also going out and living -- and certainly learning another trade, because the writing business has no guarantees!

Ain't that the truth? What do you know now that you wish the teenage Diana had known back then?

That the people you go to high school with magically disappear the second you graduate. True story. Okay, maybe not entirely true. After all, I do occasionally get emails from at least three people I went to high school with. But all the dramas and romances and life-altering events that cause you pain and angst and heartache -- it's not your life. Wait, even that's not true! My best friend married her high school sweetheart. Hmmmm... No, I think I'm going to stick with my original answer, with the caveat of "unless you don't want them to." That mean girl who made your life a living H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks? Gone. Poof. You never, ever have to see her again. That boy who snubbed you at the dance then made fun of you to all his friends? Poof. That teacher you couldn't seem to please, no matter how hard you worked in her class? Gone, gone, gonesky. So when things are at their worst and you think you're never going to be able to get past it -- remember that's not true. Also, the whole "high school is the best time of your life" thing is a lie. And if it's not, that's probably a bad thing. Because there's a lot of life to come. Like college. I adored college (that's where I met my husband). But even if college life doesn't do it for you, my late twenties have been pretty great too.

Excellent advice. I'm sure your fans will want to know whether you're working on any projects right now. When can we expect another book?

I'm working on the fourth book in the Secret Society Girl series right now, and it's going to be out this time next year. I'll actually have two new novels out in the summer of 2009. The other one is my young adult debut, RAMPANT (Harper Collins), which is an action-packed contemporary fantasy about killer unicorns and the virgin descendents of Alexander the Great who hunt them. It's a real departure from the light comedy in the Secret Society Girl books, and I can't wait for people to read it.

I can't wait to read it, either!

Diana, thanks so much for coming to chat with us today, and I'll see you in a couple of weeks at your signing!

So readers, be sure to buy Diana's new book, RITES OF SPRING (BREAK)!