Author Interview: Lisa Schroeder

It's that time again. Are you guys ready for another great author interview? This time it is with one of my all time favorite authors! 

Lisa Schroeder!

Lisa is the author of two middle grade books: Its Raining Cupcakes, and Sprinkles and Secrets. She has also written four YA novels: I Heart You, You Haunt Me, Far From You, Chasing Brooklyn (click here for my review), and The Day Before, which are all written in-verse.  I have read all of  Lisa's YA books and would highly recommend each and every one of them! Her writing is beautiful, heartfelt, and emotional. 


Born Bookish: You've written for both young adult and middle grade audiences. Do your prefer writing one to the other?


Honestly, I love writing for both. The nice thing is that I can switch back from one to another, so I never get tired of writing one genre.

Born Bookish: Novels in verse are beautiful works of art in the world of literature, but not a genre that is very well known. What made you want to write in verse?


When I wrote my first verse novel, I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME, the verse chose me more than me choosing it. The story just wanted to come out that way, so I went for it. Not all novels are going to work in that format. If you need a lot of dialogue in the story, for example, it's probably not going to work. After that first book, I continued to write in it because I HEART YOU was so well received. Not everyone likes novels in verse, of course. But for those who do, I decided to write more books in that format.


Born Bookish: If you could be one of your characters, who would you be?

Hmmm, that's a hard question! Probably Sophie from my middle grade novels, IT'S RAINING CUPCAKES and SPRINKLES AND SECRETS. She's a fun girl who wants to be an actress and has an amazingly supportive family. I just like her. I like hanging out with her, so I'll go with her.

Born Bookish: In two of your novels, I Heart You, You Haunt Me & Chasing Brooklyn there is a common element of ghosts who, unwilling to move one, stay behind and haunt people from their pasts. What is it about ghosts that intrigue you?

I think we all have some fascination with the idea of what happens after we die? I actually hate scary things, so it's kind of odd I decided to write these ghost stories, but when I was writing I HEART YOU, I knew from the get-go I didn't want it to be scary. I wanted it to be almost comforting to Ava to still have her boyfriend with her. At least at first, I like the idea of being comforted by the idea that your loved one is there with you, not scared.

Born Bookish: Which character was it easiest for you to write? Why?

Ava's story poured out of me. I don't know why. I just really connected to her and to the sadness and guilt she felt over Jackson's death.

Born Bookish: Do you find it hard to throw obstacles in your characters way or make life difficult for them?

Oh yeah, absolutely. The more we spend time with the characters, the more we like them! So it IS hard to throw obstacles in their way. But that's what makes a story interesting. That's what makes us want to keep turning the pages, so we can find out if the characters turn out okay. But yeah, when I'm writing, sometimes I have to tell myself- you need to spice things up here, or your readers are going to fall asleep.

Born Bookish: If you could have any superpower what would it be? Why?

The power to be a speed reader. :) So many books I want to read, and I just never have enough time.

Born Bookish: A lot of authors use music to help them get into the mindset of their characters. Is this something that helps you? If so what was the main song that inspired each of your books?

Sometimes I work with music and sometimes I don't. It just depends. I've listed the songs that helped me write some of my books below.

• I Heart You, You Haunt ME: My Immortal, Evanescence
• Far From You: From Where You Are, Lifehouse
• Chasing Brooklyn: You and Me, Lifehouse
• The Day Before: Glitter in the Air, P!nk

Born Bookish: Do you have any new books in the works that you can tell us a little bit about?

I have sold two books this year, one middle grade fantasy and my first YA not in verse. Neither has a title yet, and they won't be coming out until 2013, so I'm not saying a lot about them yet, but I'm very excited about both of them!

Born Bookish: Here at Born Bookish I have a segment called Breathtaking Book Covers where I post the cover image of a book that I think is stunning. Is there a book cover that has ever taken your breath away? If so, what book?

The one that comes to mind is Brodi Ashton's EVERNEATH. I love that cover SO much. I am pretty sure she is going to sell a million copies of that book for the cover alone, although I have heard the story is breathaking as well. Can't wait to read it!


Thanks for having me on your blog!


It was my pleasure! Thank you so much for being here and for answering all of my questions! =)