A Sit-Down with Ann Brashares by Barbara Eastwood

      Recently, I had the distinct pleasure of sitting down and talking with Ann Brashares, author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.  She was promoting her new book, The Here and Now.  She read a passage from it and she even discussed the process by which she wrote it.
     In the particular passage, that Ann read from, the protaganist of her book, Prena, mentions a repulsion to Jelly Beans.  Brashares explained it as being due to how adults sometimes attempt to use candy to manipulate children.  She even shared a personal story about how as a girl her father had seperated from her mother.  The new woman, her father began seeing, used to always put out a bowl of candy, trying to win her and her siblings over.  These insights are just a few of the ways that Brashares writes to relate to her younger audience.
     Like Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Ann's newest book is a young adult novel.  She shared that her novels are especially suited to young people the age of her older children.  She has children ranging from ages 3-18.  Though her older children enjoyed her telling them stories when they were younger, Ann did say that they are not as inclined to read books written by their mother.  She explained that as an author, you show many facets of yourself in your writing.  Children aren't always comfortable seeing so many sides of their parents.  Not surprising, considering that love shows up as a theme repeatdly in Ann's works.
      Her newest book is no exception.  Originally titled The 12th Rule, before the publishers changed it, her new book does have many science fiction elements.  However, her development of the story began with Ann's love of another book about relationships called Summer of My German Soldier.  She said before she had ever decided to add elements of time travel to her novel, she knew she wanted to have a story about a young person developing a relationship with an immigrant from some war torn place.  Deciding that place was the future, was a decision that wouldn't come until later.  Ann said she often lets her characters in motion help her decide where the story is going.  She has a general plan outlined before hand, but compares the process to a GPS, saying that sometimes it needs to reroute.

     If you're interested in reading her latest book, pick it up at your local bookstore.  If you don't want to read, you can wait.  According to Deadline Hollywood, an agreement has already been made with Alcon and Alloy to make The Here and Now into a movie.