About this item
Drews a bit of a loner. She has a pet rat, her dead dads Book of Lists, an encyclopedic knowledge of cheese from working at her moms cheese shop, and a crush on Nick, the surf bum who works behind the counter. Its the summer before eighth grade and Drews days seem like business as usual, until one night after closing time, when she meets a strange boy in the alley named Emmett Crane. Who he is, why hes there, where the cut on his cheek came from, and his bottomless knowledge of rats are all mysteries Drew will untangle as they are drawn closer together, and Drew enters into the first true friendship, and adventure, of her life.,
About the Author
Why don't you have a bio section? Because I hate writing about myself.But wouldn't that be easier than answering a whole bunch of FAQs? Maybe. Probably. Go on... So where are you from? I'm from Los Angeles, but now I live in San Francisco. Except for the summers where I go back to Los Angeles in search of the sun. What are you doing when you aren't writing? Laundry, usually. Sometimes dishes. And I really like to walk near the Golden Gate Bridge. Why don't you run instead of walk? Running is hard. And I'm sort of lazy. Have you ever had a real job? Yes. Of course I have. I've waited tables, worked with adolescents in foster care, read the slush pile at a publishing house, and fact checked for a movie magazine. I also worked for FRONTLINE on PBS and Peter Jennings at ABC. I went to law school, which I know doesn't count as a job, but hey, that was a lot of work. What's your writing day like? Do you stick to a routine? I like to write in the mornings. Sometimes that means I have to get up really early. I try to write 700 words a day -- about three pages. I know there are lots of writers out there who can write way more than that. I know this because writers like to tell you about how many words they've written on FACEBOOK. So I try not to look at FACEBOOK when I'm writing. And anyway, I've learned that 700 words are about all I'm good for on any given day, and if I write more than that I usually end up getting rid of most of it later. What, are you lazy or something? I already told you I'm lazy. But seriously, 700 words are a lot of words. 700 of them, to be precise. Are your books autobiographical? Not really. I've been on vacation in Mexico, but everything went just fine and I had a lovely time. I'm not adopted, I've never told a lie that sent someone to jail, I've never built a house or had a brother go to war. But there are always things in my books that come from my life or from the lives of the people around me. It would be impossible to make up everything. You used to write young adult fiction and now you've written an adult book. What gives? I started out writing young adult fiction because I was a young adult when I fell in love with reading and I can remember how books made me feel back then. How they provided both comfort and escape. That might make me sound like a shut-in, but I wasn't. I was just open to the experience books offered, probably more open than I am now as an adult. And I like writing for that sort of audience.But young adult books have to, by definition, be about young adults. And after writing eight of them, I started to feel like there were adult issues and characters I was interested in exploring. How come there aren't any vampires or wizards in your books? Hmmmm... good question. Maybe I should write about vampires and wizards. No, you shouldn't. You wouldn't be very good at that.Thanks for the vote of confidence. Did you wear
