An Interview With Natalie Richards by Sydney Salter
Natalie Richards, author of Six Months Later and Gone Too Far, answers questions about her teenage self!
If someone were to
write a YA novel about teenage you, what would it be called?
Doc Martens, Red Lipstick, and Whitman’s Leaves of
Grass ;-)
What Song Brings You
Right Back To Your Teenage Years?
Any song off of Nine Inch Nails Pretty Hate Machine, but
especially The Only Time, Head Like a Hole, or Sin
What Was Your
Favorite Class in High School?
By far, my favorite was a literature class where I was first
introduced to Hemingway and Walt Whitman and others for the first time.
Would Your Friends
and Family Have Predicted You’d Become a Writer?
Definitely. I heard
“You know you should really be a writer” a lot during that time.
What fashion trend
did you embrace that you regret now?
Eh, screw regrets.
;) I basically looked like
a thrift store version of a Hot Topic ad for a few years, but I’m cool with
that. The mall hair of my tween
years, however, may have passed the boundaries of good taste. I had my hair dryer and my Aquanet and
oh, the waterfall of bangs was something to behold.
Which social media
app would your teenage self have loved—or hated?
I would have LOATHED Instagram and Facebook tagging. I felt so self-conscious about pictures
then. The idea of random snapshots
floating all over the universe when I was seventeen makes me shudder. I feel awful for teens that have to
deal with that constant barrage of bad hair day pictures and the like. It’s fun for some, but I suspect there
are a few out there cringing behind every smile.
What are you most
proud about your teenage self?
I like that I didn’t play games. My friends were my friends. I liked who I liked.
I didn’t really care for the frenemy business.
Is there anything you
wish you’d done differently in high school?
No. There are
things I did that were stupid.
Wrong. Even dangerous. There are lots of things I would very
strongly advise against, but I like where my life is today, so I wouldn’t want
to go messing with the past.
Paradox, yo! Read some sci
fi!! ;-)
Have you ever
secretly snuck real people from your past into your fiction?
Weirdly, no.
Bits and pieces find their way in, but I’ve never really created a
character inspired by people from my teen years.
Would your teenage
self have been friends with any of your fictional characters?
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgekzoAkSkbARgjpOqi6OTq_gpZgv_b7LuzaglD2IqX5s-kPvCy-LVzvXcke6_jvUitSUQbhVJOY3mRDaVDv1-4tIH0bF86LnfedEtHFNgOH5af30c8T1dbqm5NRo4oO-Lhn6-2IuezvqY/s1600/gone.jpeg)
If you could give
your teenage self advice, what would it be?
Read More. Write More.
Submit work sooner. ;-)
What do you wish you
could tell all of your teenage readers?
I don’t care what the media or the doom-and-gloom types say
about America’s youth. I’ve met
lots of teens from lots of different walks of life and I think you’re vibrant
and smart and warm. I’m so excited
about the future you’re all going to create. You’re kind of awesome, you know that? No, really. <3
Thanks so much for interviewing me! I loved your questions and can't wait to send some doozies your way!! <3
ReplyDeleteThis is such a fun and upbeat interview!
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of you with the big poofy bangs. I wish I could say that our teen selves would've been friends, but I suspect that your teen self was waaaay cooler than my teen self : )
ReplyDeletePoofy bangs! I'm so ready to do big hair again. Seriously. I mean it.
ReplyDelete