Release Date: October 2nd, 2012
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Mia is always looking for signs. A sign that she should get serious with her soccer-captain boyfriend. A sign that she’ll get the grades to make it into an Ivy-league school. One sign she didn’t expect to look for was: “Will I survive cancer?” It’s a question her friends would never understand, prompting Mia to keep her illness a secret. The only one who knows is her lifelong best friend, Gyver, who is poised to be so much more. Mia is determined to survive, but when you have so much going your way, there is so much more to lose. From debut author Tiffany Schmidt comes a heart-wrenching and ultimately uplifting story of one girl’s search for signs of life in the face of death.
For my stop I got the chance to ask Tiffany Schmidt some questions about Send Me a Sign and the writing process.
I have a personal
history with Leukemia, my cousin died of it when he was 22, and I’m always
nervous about reading books that deal with it. I’m always so impressed when a
book that deals with such heavy subject matter can make me laugh right along
with the tears, and Send Me a Sign
did just that. Was there personal motivation for writing this book, or was it
just an idea that came to you?
First, I am so sorry for your loss. I think it’s incredibly
brave that you decided to read Send Me A Sign, even having a personal history
with this awful disease.
As for why Mia’s story? I wanted to write about a character
who was a teenager who happened to have cancer. Not, A Cancer Patient who
happened to be a teen. Cancer is an
awful, awful disease, but it’s not an identity. People who are sick can be
selfish, can be foolish, they can be stubborn and flawed and loyal and brave
and superstitious.
Mia is all of these things. She plays so many roles for so
many different people—best friend, daughter, girlfriend—and she’s determined
not to have a cancer diagnosis change the way people perceive her or the way
they treat her. I’ve known people in this situation who have had this outlook—don’t treat me differently be cause I’m ill—and
it’s something I really respect.
....Not that I think the way Mia goes about hiding her
illness is necessarily the right thing to do, but I did want to explore the
ways we treat people who are sick. And this idea that when everything else in
life feels unsettled or scary, there’s so much comfort in holding onto normal.
Gyver is the king of
making playlists for every feeling and occasion, is there specific music that
helped with inspiration while you were writing Send Me a Sign? Did you make a playlist for the book?
Oh, yes! I had several. I listened to them on repeat while
writing the book, but of course once Send Me A Sign was out on submission to
editors, I moved on to another writing project. When Send Me A Sign sold and my
editorial letter arrived – one of the first things I did was cue up the playlist.
Listening to those songs brought me right back into the mental space I’d been
in when I wrote the book.
I’ve listened to it again a lot recently while working on
promotions and interviews. There are some songs—like Stevie Wonder’s Superstitions, Something Corporate’s Break Myself, and Jack’s Mannequin’s Caves that I’ll never be able to hear
without associating with this book.
Did you always aspire
to be a YA author or did you start off writing in another genre?
Always YA. Before Send Me A Sign sold I was a teacher and
I’ve always been fascinated by YA readers and books. I love the way people change
so much during this time in their lives. It’s such a dynamic age with so many
important decisions and demands. Life is changing so quickly for teenagers and
school creates a crucible of social pressures and societal expectations. While
I’m not sure I’d like to go back and be
a teenager again, I love exploring their lives through the novels I write and
read.
While creating Send Me a Sign, what was your favorite
part about the writing process? Do you have any quirky writing rituals?
First drafting – in those rare moments when the ideas are
tumbling out so fast and my fingers can’t keep up – that’s my favorite part of
the writing process.
As for quirky writing rituals, I’ve tried really hard not to
develop these—I have such a fear of becoming dependent on something in order to
write (i.e. a lucky pen/chair/pajamas/beverage) and then being unable to work
if I don’t have everything just so.
This being said, I DO have one silly writing rule. I only
let myself eat my favorite candy (Crazy Core Skittles a.k.a. Revision Skittles) when I’m revising.
The rule is ONE Skittle per page revised. It’s a great motivator – and probably
the reason that revisions are my second favorite part of the writing process.
Mia decides not to
tell all of her friends when she finds out she has Leukemia. How different do
you think her battle, and this story, would have been if she’d told them all
right away?
If Mia had told her friends she had leukemia, Send Me A Sign
would have been a very different book. Much of her struggle comes from trying
to pretend she’s exactly the same person as she was pre-diagnosis and while the
disease doesn’t change her identity,
it does physically limit her. She doesn’t have the energy she did before, she
can’t perform the same role in the cheerleading squad, she’s got hospital stays
and absences that she needs to explain away with lies. All this deception
becomes another source of fatigue and stress.
Mia has a conversation at one point with someone (who will
remain unnamed so it’s not a spoiler), where she acknowledges that her friends
would have been there and done things like have people “shave their head in
solidarity.” The problem was, Mia wasn’t ready to face the reality of being
sick – and telling her friends would have forced her to do so.
Which character’s
voice stood out the most while you were writing? Is there one that was easier
to write than any of the others?
Gyver! His voice and his reactions to Mia have always been
so clear in my head. From first draft to the final copy sitting on my desk, very
little changed in the scenes in which he appears.
Just for fun, if you
were the captain of a pirate ship, which literary characters would you want as
your crew?
Captain Wentworth from Jane Austen’s Persuasion – because we need someone who knows boatish stuff.
Cammie Morgan from Gallagher
Girls – because all those languages and spy-training would definitely come
in handy.
Adam from If I Stay /
Where She Went – because we’ll need some entertainment and I’ve got a soft
spot for hot musicians.
Katsa from Graceling
– I’m pretty sure if she was on my crew, I wouldn’t need anyone else.
Thank you for writing
such a great story and for taking the time to answer some questions! :0)
Thanks for reading it and sharing about your
cousin! *huge hugs* Also, thank you for having me on The Book Life!
Where to find Tiffany:Blog l Twitter l Facebook l Goodreads
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